95 Percent of Apprehended Migrants Face Removal or 'Legal Consequence,' Says CBP Commissioner

U.S. Customs and Border Protection acting Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters on Monday that 95 percent of migrants arrested by Border Patrol agents after illegally crossing the border during this new fiscal year face removal or a “legal consequence.”

Commissioner Morgan said his agency is applying “effective consequences and ending Catch-and-Release.”

“In FY20 to date, those apprehended by Border Patrol so far in Fiscal Year 20, more than 95 percent of the illegal aliens apprehended trying to illegally enter this country were subject to a legal consequence or a removal pathway,” the commissioner stated. “So it’s clear. Migrants who illegally enter cross the southwest border will be removed or returned and illegal border crossing caseloads are being resolved more expeditiously than ever before.”

During the press conference, Commissioner Morgan said the new policies put in place by President Donald Trump and his administration led to six straight months of declines in illegal border crossings, Breitbart Texas reported on Monday.

“This decrease is more than 70 percent from the height of the crisis in May,” Morgan told reporters. “Remember that was 144,000 [enforcement actions]. Six months later, we have reduced the monthly apprehensions by more than 100,000. That’s staggering in a very positive way.”

“Why are the numbers dropping so drastically?” the commissioner asked. “Because we have all but ended Catch-and-Release. If you are a family from the northern triangle countries, you are no longer released into the interior of the United States simply because you have a child.”

The commissioner said cartel-connected human smugglers continue to lie to migrants all across the globe and attempt to exploit loopholes in the U.S. asylum and immigration systems.

“Coming to our borders, illegally entering, filing false claims with a child is no longer your automatic passport into the United States,” Morgan said emphatically. “You will no longer be allowed into this country often never to be heard from again.”

Morgan said the message is clear: “they should not give away their life savings to the smugglers and risk their lives and their families’ based on lies told to them by the smugglers,” he explained. “They will no longer be allowed to exploit our laws and be allowed into our country based on fraudulent claims or because they arrived here with a child.”

“Those loopholes have been closed,” the commissioner stated flatly. “[The smugglers] are lying to you. The era of Catch-and-Release is done. Coming to this country with a child is no longer going to be a passport into the United States — that is done.”