Family Unit Border Crossings Up 625 Percent from April 2017 Low

The number of families apprehended by Border Patrol agents grew by 625 percent from a low point in April 2017. The figure fell sharply during the first four months of the Trump Administration but has risen steadily thereafter.

In April 2017, Border Patrol agents apprehended 1,119 Family Unit Aliens (FMUA), Breitbart Texas reported. The number of FMUA apprehensions rose nearly every month since the his low point to 8,121 in December, according to the Southwest Border Migration report released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Tuesday. This number represents an increase from April of more than 7,000 FMUAs (625 percent). CBP defines FMUA as the “number of individuals (either a child under 18 years old, parent or legal guardian) apprehended with a family member by the U.S. Border Patrol.”

CBP officials released the shocking numbers on the same day President Donald Trump met with Congressional leaders to discuss amnesty for illegal alien minors brought to the U.S. by their families under the same circumstances as the FMUAs currently entering the country. The meeting addressed Congressional plans to replace President Barrack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Shortly after the meeting, a judge in the Ninth Circuit ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to largely reinstate DACA.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the DACA program in September, Breitbart News reported. He said there would be an “orderly and lawful wind-down.” His announcement followed a threat from Texas and nine other states to add the DACA program to an already successful lawsuit that effectively ended President Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program.

“For these same reasons that DAPA and Expanded DACA’s unilateral Executive Branch conferral of eligibility for lawful presence and work authorization was unlawful, the original June 15, 2012 DACA memorandum is also unlawful,” the letter from the states explained. “

Following the DACA rescission by Sessions, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the states would drop their threatened lawsuit, Breitbart Texas reported.

DACA is seen by many as a magnet that draws FMUAs and Unaccompanied Alien Children to risk their lives to come to the U.S. illegally. These groups pay large sums of money to cartel-connected human smugglers to bring them to the U.S. in hopes they will be included in a DACA replacement amnesty program.

FMUAs and UACs represented nearly 40 percent of all illegal aliens apprehended by Border Patrol agents during Fiscal Year 2017. Agents apprehended a total of 117,057 FMUAs and UACs during the FY2017 which ended in September. Between the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1 and December 30, agents apprehended 31,209 additional families and unaccompanied minors.

The UACs are reported to be coming from Guatemala (5,697), Mexico (2,433), Honduras (1,740), and El Salvador (993). Guatemala also leads the list of countries sending FMUAs to the U.S. with 10,650 during the first three months of FY2018. This is followed by Honduras (5,545), El Salvador (3,136), and Mexico (481).