'Go to America with Your Child, You Won't Get Turned Away'

Word has apparently spread in Central and South America that U.S. Border Patrol agents are releasing thousands of illegal immigrants, as federal resources and facilities are strained from a spike in crossers. News reports and word-of-mouth has allegedly prompted more hopeful immigrants to make the journey into the U.S. illegally.

A significant increase in illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border has left many U.S. processing facilities overwhelmed. As a result, thousands of illegal immigrants are being released by federal agents. A large number of the released aliens even have criminal backgrounds–as Breitbart Texas previously reported, 36,000 previously convicted criminal illegal immigrants were set free onto U.S. soil in 2013 alone. 

Sylvia Longmire, a Breitbart Texas contributing editor and border security expert, said, “Many Americans don’t understand the power of word-of-mouth in Latin America; it’s like gossip in a small American town times ten. Word about anything, especially friends or family members going though the northbound migration or southbound deportation process, spreads very quickly.”

Nora Griselda Bercian Diaz, a mother from Guatemala who crossed into the U.S. illegally with her 6-year-old daughter, told local media outlet KRGV that the message being spread in her home country is, “Go to America with your child, you won’t be turned away.”

Bercian Diaz said she thought the U.S. border was open to all families. She added that news reports are circulating in her country which state that mothers and children are obtaining bus tickets. 

“As immigrant detention policies are slowly changing in places like south Texas in order to accommodate spiking numbers of border crossings and subsequent illegal immigrant apprehensions, word is spreading about these changes,” Longmire said. “Now that DHS doesn’t want to split up families and is releasing so many non-criminal illegal immigrants with only orders to return in 15 days for a court hearing, those bring released are calling home.”

Thousands of illegal immigrants being released in the U.S. each week has lead to “communities in Central America are taking this to mean that if a family or just children can make it to the US border, that border will be held open for them,” Longmire said.

Bercian Diaz ‘s journey to the U.S. with her daughter was not easy or safe. “We were hiding with people in small houses on our way,” Bercian Diaz said. “They were trying to hide from the federal police. I was afraid for my little girl. They can do whatever to me, but not to my little girl.”

Longmire said that spreading conceptions about U.S. border security and perceived amnesty could be putting families at risk. 

“US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working hard to counter this message–not only to deter illegal immigration, but also to potentially save lives,” she said. “The agency wants potential border crossers to understand they will face detention and likely deportation if they get caught trying to cross illegally, but also wants them to know the journey north is extremely dangerous–and potentially deadly.”

Longmire also pointed out that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has made repeated attempts to deter potential illegal immigrants from making the dangerous journey across the border. On several occasions, CBP has reached out to “various media outlets in major immigrant source countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras” in order to spread their message. 

Ultimately, the sharp increase in illegal immigration, which has been called a “humanitarian crisis,” will likely only get worse as word of detention practices spreads throughout Central and South America. 

Washington’s solution to the problem, so far, has been to throw money at it. 

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski told a panel, “This is a humanitarian crisis, and we have to go to the edge of our chairs to at least get the estimate for fiscal ’15…our failure to appropriate could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.”

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen reportedly added, “Rather than worrying about the silos where the money comes from, we need to think about what we can do that’s right for the kids.”

It is easy to surmise that Mikulski, Shaheen, and their colleagues are using emotional appeals to divert attention away from the root of the problem, which is security along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

One could additionally surmise that the crisis was brought about by the Obama Administration’s narrative that has seemingly sought to victimize immigrant while demonizing Border Patrol agents. 

“The U.S. is partly responsible for foreign nationals taking extreme measures that risk the lives of their children,” Zack Taylor, Chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, told Breitbart Texas. “Our government is encouraging foreign nationals to come into our country illegally and stay.”

Follow Kristin Tate on Twitter @KristinBTate.