More than 30K 'Credible Fear' Claims Occurred at Southern Border in Last Months of 2017

More than 30,000 claims of “credible fear” by foreign nationals have occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border in the last three months of 2017 under Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s watch.

According to DHS data, there were about 30,186 total cases of foreign nationals claiming credible fear and thus requesting asylum in the U.S. between October and December 2017 – at the same time that an amnesty for illegal aliens was being considered by Congress and President Trump’s administration.

Current U.S. immigration and asylum laws allow foreign nationals passing through Mexico to arrive at the southern border and claim credible fear. These asylum-seekers are often allowed to evade deportation and can even obtain work permits once in the U.S., as Breitbart Texas has reported.

More than 10,000 of those 30,000 total cases of credible fear occurred when foreign nationals arrived at the ports of entry at the southern border, while more than 20,000 of the cases occurred when foreign nationals sought asylum by crossing the border illegally. About 67 percent of credible fear claims are made by foreign nationals crossing illegally into the U.S.

The data reveals the extent to which the nation’s asylum laws have been used by foreign nationals to enter the U.S., just as DHS Secretary Nielsen begged asylum-seekers to use the ports of entry to come to the country, as Breitbart News reported.

“So if you have a claim, you have children, you’re concerned for your life, go to a port of entry. You’ll be processed. We have asylum laws,” Nielsen said during a congressional hearing. “But when you break the law, that’s where it gets very difficult because we have to prosecute those who break the law.”

In recent months, the southern border has been inundated with illegal immigration and Central American asylum-seekers who traveled with a caravan, taunting President Trump’s DHS along the way.

Border-crossings have continued to soar under Nielsen’s direction at DHS. For example, as Breitbart Texas reported, border-crossings in March approached Obama-era levels of illegal immigration at the border. Last month, border-crossings continued to increase, with nearly 40,000 illegal aliens crossing the border.

As Breitbart News reported, border-crossers entering the U.S. illegally have an 88 percent chance of evading immediate deportation by claiming credible fear in their native country. Only half of the foreign nationals who evade immediate deportation by claiming credible fear, however, end up filing for asylum status after they are released into the U.S.