We all should know by now: the crisis at the border is real & rapidly getting worse
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas After the busiest February at the border since 2007 consider the figures for March: U.S. Immigration Authorities apprehended or turned back more than 103000 people in March up from about 76000 in February which was up from about 58000 in January.
The March Southwest Border Migration statistic released earlier this week by U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) detail numbers not seen since 2014 and confirm what we should all know by now: The crisis at the southern border is real and its getting worse.
In just the first six months of the fiscal year CBP has apprehended and turned back more than 422000 people more than the total for all of 2017 and only 100000 less than the total for 2018.
Of the more than 103000 non-citizens that federal authorities apprehended or turned back in March more than half were families claiming asylum.
Most are not eligible for asylum but it gets them into the U.S.
According to a press release from CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert E. Perez earlier this week we now have a system-wide emergency in our processing and holding facilities" which are beyond capacity because of the ongoing surge of non-citizen families and minors crossing the southern border and claiming asylum.
We are currently experiencing a system-wide emergency in our processing and holding facilities. The humanitarian crisis created by a massive influx of family groups and unaccompanied children in recent months has forced CBP to reallocate resources away from law enforcement trade and travel missions to process and provide care for those in our custody" said CBP Deputy Commissioner Perez.
The impacts to legitimate trade and travel cannot be overstated.
As this crisis continues to worsen it undermines CBPs ability to perform its dual mission of protecting our borders and facilitating legitimate trade and travel" said Perez.
In Fiscal Year 2019 to date the U.S. Border Patrol has seen a 370-plus increase in the number of family units apprehended compared to the same time period in FY2018.
And today 60 of apprehensions along the Southwest Border are family units and unaccompanied children made up predominantly of individuals from Guatemala Honduras and El Salvador.
Additionally through the first six months of FY 19 CBP has encountered 104 large groups composed of 100 or more individuals totaling 17242 apprehensions.
In comparison U.S. Border Patrol encountered 13 large groups in FY 2018 and two FY 2017.
At current rates the total number of migrants apprehended or turned back at ports of entry this year could well exceed 1 million which would represent levels not seen in more than a decade.
While its true that current numbers are a long way away from the peak year of 1.6 million apprehensions in 2000 whats happening now isnt comparable to what happened back then.
To understand why its not comparable we have to dig into the statistics CBP released this week. Heres the chart showing overall numbers of apprehensions and what the agency calls inadmissibles" which are those who show up at a port of entry seeking admission to the United States but whom officials determine are not eligible or admissible. (This is always a much smaller number than apprehensions: in March 10885 inadmissibles compared to 92607 apprehensions).
The dramatic red line swooping up there tells you things are worse this year than they have been since 2014 when a massive surge of unaccompanied minors and families on the border overwhelmed federal immigration agencies. Indeed thats the main reason comparisons to peak illegal immigration years are so unhelpful.
Back in the early 2000s when CBP was apprehending 1 million or more people a year most of them were Mexican adults who were easily deported usually the same day they were picked up.
Thats not whats happening now: U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 53077 families in March more than half the total of all apprehensions and inadmissibles for the month and a dramatic increase from the previous five months.
Nearly all these families are from Central America and unlike single adults from Mexico they are claiming asylum after crossing the border which means they cant be easily deported or detained but are instead released with an order to appear before an immigration judge (a process that can take years because of a massive backlog in our immigration courts).
At the peak in 2000 the vast majority of apprehensions on the southwest border were of Mexican nationals with less than 30000 OTMs or other than Mexico."
But notice something else in the March figures. There were 30555 single adults apprehended a 30 increase from February and a 63 increase from January.
Why the sudden uptick? One explanation is that the influx of families and minors turning themselves in has sapped Border Patrol resources diverting huge numbers of agents from their primary job of patrolling the border and instead tasking them with transporting and processing asylum-seekers. The agency has also taken the extraordinary step of shutting down some inland checkpoints in order to deal with the surge of families and minors.
That has likely had the effect of increasing the number of adults trying to cross the border and evade detection. An increase in apprehensions usually means there are more people trying to cross and now that word has gotten out that Border Agents are being diverted from checkpoints and line patrols adults who want to slip into the U.S. undetected no doubt see a good opportunity.
Often single adults try to evade detection because they have a criminal history and will be deported if theyre caught which is why they generally have to pay smugglers more thousands more to cross the border than families do.
Congress Alone Can Not Fix This Problem
So what do all these numbers mean for the broader immigration debate?
Above all the numbers show that the crisis isnt going away on its own. By now families across Central America know that if they can just get to the border with at least one child they can claim asylum easily pass an initial credible fear" test and be admitted into the United States.
Once released from federal custody and issued a temporary work permit while their asylum case wends its way through immigration court theyre free to work send money home and if they choose to abscond.
Like it or not theres actually very little the Trump Administration acting through executive authority or via Federal Agency action can do to stop this. Between federal asylum laws that make it difficult to adjudicate claims quickly and court rulings that prevent federal authorities from detaining families and minors for more than 20 days catch and release" should now be viewed as the nations de facto border security policy.
The only thing that will end the border crisis is congressional action and until Congressional lawmakers decide to reform the nations asylum system to establish statutory rules about the detention of families and minors and appropriate more funding for detention facilities and immigration judges this will continue.
In fact its probably about to get much worse.
