76K Migrants
Entered Through Southwest Border in February — Most in 12 Years, Says CBP, by
Bob Price, 3/5/19, Breitbart.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)
reports that 76,103 migrants appeared at ports of entry and illegally crossed between
ports in February. This is the largest number of apprehensions and
inadmissible migrants for a February reporting period in 12 years, CBP
stated Tuesday.
Of the
76,103 migrants who came to the border seeking admission or illegally crossing
between ports of entry, 62 percent were family units and unaccompanied minors.
This presents both a border security and humanitarian crisis at our southwest
border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan
said in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
United
States Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings told reporters that
during February, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 66,000 migrants who
illegally crossed the border from Mexico between ports of entry. This is up
from nearly 48,000 in January — a nearly 40 percent increase. When compared to
the first five months of Fiscal Year 2018, this fiscal year has seen a 97
percent increase, he stated.
“A lot of folks look at that and they say, ‘we have seen numbers
like that in the past,” Hastings explained. He said that many people do not
understand the “significant change in the demographics of what we are seeing
today is what presents us and our partners with a lot of challenges.”
The Border Patrol operations chief said that historically,
agents have apprehended about 70 to 90 percent Mexican nationals. “We could
apply a consequence to that demographic,” he stated. “We could return them
quickly to Mexico.”
“Today, 70 percent of all of those we are arresting are from the
(Central American) northern triangle — Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras,”
Hastings continued. He explained that under current laws and court rulings
there is no consequence to these migrants and they are nearly all released into
the U.S. for an indefinite period of time.
“Without being able to deliver a consequence to these
individuals for crossing our border, the Border Patrol has no reason to expect
that this trend will decrease — in fact, we believe it will increase,” he
surmised. “It’s well known at this time that immigrants with children will not
be detained during the immigration proceedings. The word of mouth and social
media quickly gets back to those in the northern triangle countries that ‘If
you bring a child, you’ll be successful.”
Due to these circumstances, the number of cases of people
falsely claiming to be family units has increased substantially. “From April
2018 through February 2019 we have had almost 2,400 fraudulent claims of
families,” the operations chief explained. “Of those fraudulent claims, some
are people who claim they are under 18 and they’re not. Others have actually
been fraudulent familial claims.”
So far this fiscal year, Border Patrol agents apprehended
136,150 migrants claiming to be family units and 26,937 people claiming to be
unaccompanied minors, according to the February Southwest Border Migration
Report released Tuesday afternoon.
This is a total of 163,087 family unit aliens (FMUA) and
unaccompanied minors so far this year. In all of Fiscal Year 2018, Border
Patrol agents only apprehended 157,248, the 2018 Southwest Border Migration
Report stated.
Hastings and Commissioner McAleenan explained that these
demographics present substantial challenges for the Border Patrol and CBP. In
addition to the demographics, they explained that transnational criminal
organizations (Mexican cartels) are shifting the crossing points to the most
remote areas of the El Paso, Tucson, and Yuma Border Patrol Sectors and are
crossing them in much larger groups in order to tie up Border Patrol resources.
The El Paso Sector witnessed a 1,697 percent increase in the
number of family units apprehended in remote areas like the Antelope Wells
crossing area. The Yuma and Tucson Sectors have both witnessed increases in
excess of 230 percent. Other unsecured areas of the border including the Del
Rio Sector in Texas saw an increase of nearly 400 percent over the previous
February.
Commissioner McAleenan announced the formation of a new migrant
processing center for the El Paso Sector to “provide one location for the
processing of family units and children.”
The commissioner cautioned that the new facilities for
processing migrants “will assist with managing the increased flows … The fact
is that these solutions are temporary and this situation is not sustainable.
Remote locations of the United States border are not safe places to cross and
they are not places to seek medical care.”
Bob
Price serves as associate
editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Border team. He
is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment