The number of adults traveling with minors and “unaccompanied minors” apprehended illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border increased again last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB).
CBP apprehension data — an indicator of attempted entries, the Department of Homeland Security says — reveals that last month 7,574 so-called “family members” and 5,068 “unaccompanied minors” were apprehended in July.
In other words, an average of 244 “family members” and 163 “unaccompanied minors” were apprehended each day last month, or a total of 407 per day.
Both categories of illegal immigrants — “families” and “unaccompanied minors” arrived in greater numbers than the month prior, when CBP apprehended 6,633 “family members”, 4,809 “unaccompanied minors.”
In total so far this fiscal year, 58,720 “families” have been apprehended at the southern border, double the number apprehend during the same timeframe last fiscal year but down compared to the record breaking level of FY 2014. During that same October 2015 to July 2016 time period, 48,311 total “unaccompanied minors” were apprehended, 57 percent higher than last fiscal year, but 51 percent lower than FY 2014.
Meanwhile, the number of overall arrests of illegal border crossers, 33,737, were down slightly compared to the month of June when CBP took 34,463 illegal border crossers into custody. So far this fiscal year alone — which still has two more months — 332,360 illegal immigrants have been apprehended attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, more than all of FY 2015.
The southern border has experienced a surge in “unaccompanied minors” and adults with children, largely from Central America, illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and expecting to be allowed to stay in recent years. Indeed, few of the recent illegal immigrant Central American “families” or “unaccompanied minors” have been deported. Instead most have been allowed to remain in the U.S. indefinitely, ostensibly awaiting immigration hearings.
Instead of quickly removing the illegal immigrant “families” and “minors,” the Obama Administration has launched campaigns to dissuade would-be illegal immigrants from making the dangerous trek northward, investing $750 million in Central America this year, and opening a new controversial path for Central Americans to come to the U.S. as refugees or parolees.