Texas Dept. of Public Safety Lt.: Family Units on Border Voluntarily Surrendering Because Message Is They’ll Probably Be Released

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Texas Dept. of Public Safety Lt. Christopher Olivarez stated that family units at the border “voluntarily surrender to law enforcement because the communication is, if you surrender to law enforcement, chances are, you will be released into the country.” And “the federal government has pushed out that message that right now is time to come to the U.S.” because you’ll be released.

Olivarez said, “Now, of course, what we saw yesterday, these are the individuals that are coming across, either with children or what we call family units, and these are the ones that voluntarily surrender to law enforcement because the communication is, if you surrender to law enforcement, chances are, you will be released into the country.”

He added, “[T]he issue is that the federal government has pushed out that message that right now is time to come to the U.S. because you will be released into the country, and that’s why we continue to see this surge of illegal immigrants coming across. We saw that two weeks ago with the Haitians in Del Rio. That’s a perfect example of the messaging that’s being relayed to these individuals in Mexico and in other parts of the [world].”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett