Border Crisis: Illegal
Crossings May Be Far Higher Than Official Numbers
Head of border patrol union says government has been
‘lying to the American people’, by Kristie McDonald, 10/11/16
A new
Department of Homeland Security study revises and lowers the estimated success
rate in stopping illegal immigrants crossing the southern border, but even that
figure paints a misleading picture, according to the president of the union
representing border patrol officers.
The
Associated Press said last week that the report, which has not yet been made
public, estimates that 54 percent of the roughly 315,000 people trying to cross
the border in fiscal year 2015 succeeded.
That is
significantly worse than the 81 percent success rate in stopping illegal border
crossings that the government officially claims.
“Being an agent, myself, I know those numbers
just aren’t true … It’s just disappointing that they’ve been lying to the
American people for so long.”
The
discrepancy is the result of differing methodology. The study’s authors did not
count people who turned themselves in and then immediately applied for asylum.
That number was 140,000 last year, up from 20,000 a decade ago.
Counting them
as illegal immigration stops makes the border appear more secure than it is. In
addition, the report does not include so-called “touch-backs,” people who cross
over the boundary but then run back when they see border patrol officers.
The
discrepancy is the result of differing methodology. The study’s authors did not
count people who turned themselves in and then immediately applied for asylum.
That number was 140,000 last year, up from 20,000 a decade ago.
Counting them
as illegal immigration stops makes the border appear more secure than it is. In
addition, the report does not include so-called “touch-backs,” people who cross
over the boundary but then run back when they see border patrol officers.
But Brandon
Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said even the new report
counts as successful stops thousands of people who are briefly detained but
then released because of Obama administration policies.
“We’ve
refuted those numbers forever,” he said. “Being an agent myself, I know those
numbers just aren’t true … It’s just disappointing that they’ve been lying to
the American people for so long.”
For instance,
a directive from the Department of Homeland Security requires border patrol
officers to accept the word of anyone caught near the border who says he or she
has been in the United States since before Jan. 1, 2014. Judd said the total
number of people who fit that category, about 7,000, is small but growing
rapidly as the word gets out. He said it tripled in the first six months of the
policy.
Much more
numerous, Judd said, are illegal immigrants who are apprehended and released
with notices to appear for a hearing before an immigration judge — only to
disappear into the interior of the country. He said as many as 80 percent fail
to show for court hearings to adjudicate their legal residency status.
Read Full Story At LifeZette
http://eheadlines.com/border-crisis-illegal-crossings-may-be-far-higher-than-official-numbers/
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