Driving the news: In the week ending March 1, the Border Patrol referred to HHS custody an average of 321 children per day, according to documents obtained by Axios. That’s up from a weekly average of 203 in late January and early February — and just 47 per day during the first week of January.

The same documents, dated Tuesday, say the shelter system is at 94% occupancy and expected to reach its maximum this month…

Behind the scenes: HHS has already moved to open overflow shelters and to increase the speed with which it releases children to caretakers already in the U.S.

In the week ending March 1, an average of 174 children were released from HHS custody each day. That was up from a weekly average of 90 in late January and early February, according to the documents.