Massive Surge of Migrants in Months Leading Up to Presidential Election

A report issued by the Center for Immigration Studies revealed a massive surge in the numbers of illegal border crossings and apprehensions in the months leading up to the November 8 Presidential Election.

In the month of October alone, 46,195 illegal aliens were apprehended along the entire southwestern U.S. border with Mexico, Joseph Kolb reported for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). This was the largest single month since the massive flood of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) apprehended after crossing the border in June 2014 when 57,862 immigrants were apprehended.

Kolb blamed the surge on President Obama’s announcement expanding America’s refugee programs. Other factors included improved job opportunities in the U.S. over the summer and the continuing violence in Mexico and Central America.

The National Border Patrol Council’s Christopher Harris, who serves as director of legislative and political affairs for the Border Patrol union, told CIS that abuses of the refugee programs are a key factor. He cited the lack of uniformity and inconsistent enforcement. He also said the possibility of Donald Trump being elected was a pull factor.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) told the New York Times, “Once again, the Obama administration has decided to blow wide open any small discretion it has in order to reward individuals who have no lawful presence in the United States with the ability to bring their family members here. Rather than take the steps necessary to end the ongoing crisis at the border, the Obama administration perpetuates it by abusing a legal tool meant to be used sparingly to bring people to the United States and instead applying it to the masses in Central America.”

Border Patrol officials responded to the surge by pulling 150 front-line agents off the border in sectors with their own surge problems and moved them to Texas sectors to assist in processing the growing numbers of illegal immigrants, Breitbart Texas reported earlier this month.

The 150 agents will be temporarily be transferred from the Tucson, San Diego, and Del Rio Sectors to the McAllen and Weslaco Centralized Processing Centers. The sectors are being robbed of agents are having their own surge of illegal immigrants as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials try to make it look like they are doing something in response to the renewed humanitarian crisis along the southern border.

The San Diego Sector reported an increase in Family Unit Aliens (FMUA) apprehensions of 303 percent when comparing FY 2016 and FY 2107 numbers. UAC apprehensions also increased, by 71 percent over the same time period last year. Breitbart Texas reported on October 22 that the San Diego Sector was also dealing with a 600 percent increase of Haitian refugees comparing FY 2016 to the previous year.

The Tucson Sector, from where agents are being moved to Texas, also saw an increase in FMUA apprehensions of 17 percent comparing October 2016 to October 2017. Fortunately, UAC apprehensions were down for the month.

Earlier this month, Breitbart Texas reported that cartel smugglers were using the U.S. elections as a “marketing tool” to bring more illegal immigrants to the U.S. border. That marketing ploy was apparently successful.

During the month of October, the apprehensions of FMUAs increased by nearly 37 percent over September, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials by Breitbart Texas. Those numbers have been increasing nearly every month leading up to the election since January. October also saw an increase in the apprehensions of UACs by nearly 19 percent. Those numbers also were increasing nearly every month during 2016. Total apprehensions of all illegal aliens crossing the border in October rose by nearly 17 percent.

“The smugglers learned in 2014 that they could tie up Border Patrol agents as babysitters and keep us from our primary mission of stopping illegal border crossings and drug smuggling,” U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Cabrera told Breitbart Texas in his capacity as president of National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in an interview on October 26. “When are we going to get back on the border?”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.