Fact Check: Yes, There Has Been a ‘Sharp Rise’ in Illegal Immigration

During President Trump’s Oval Office address, the president said there has been a “sharp rise” in illegal immigration at the United States-Mexico border.

“We have requested more agents, immigration judges, and bed space to process the sharp rise in unlawful migration fueled by our very strong economy,” Trump said.

In a fact check by Breitbart News, Trump’s statement proves correct, as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data has shown that illegal immigration has been skyrocketing every month leading up to December 2018, about which the agency has yet to release illegal border crossing figures.

For example, illegal immigration at the southern border soared in November 2018, hitting levels the country has not seen since Fiscal Year 2014, when more than 51,500 illegal aliens tried to cross the border in April 2015. This is the highest level of illegal immigration to the country in Trump’s tenure as president thus far.

That month, there were nearly 52,000 illegal border crossings. The month before, October 2018, illegal border crossings reached nearly 51,000, far beyond the total that researchers had predicted.

Without significant legal reforms and border wall construction, Princeton Researcher Steven Kopits expects illegal immigration in Fiscal Year 2019 to hit the highest level in more than a decade, with 600,000 illegal border crossings expected.

Similarly, DHS officials have said that 22,000 foreign minors illegally crossed the southern border last month. Close to 25 percent of those minors arrived alone.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.