At least 30,000 illegal border crossings are expected to occur as President Trump signs off on a bill to reopen the federal government until February 15 without securing any funding for his proposed United States-Mexico border wall.
On Friday, Trump announced in a Rose Garden speech at the White House that he would sign a temporary funding bill to reopen the federal government until February 15. The funding measure does not include any additional funds for a southern border wall to be constructed, though the president said a conference of Republican and Democrat lawmakers will negotiate a border security package for the time being.
Between January 25 and February 15, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) illegal border crossings indicate that there could be at least 30,000 border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. This accounts for the roughly 1,300 crossings that occur every day at the border.
This is equivalent to about a caravan of Central American and Mexican migrants crossing the border every day for the next 22 days.
This estimate could be upwards of 44,000 illegal border crossings for the next few weeks if there are about 2,000 crossings a day, as there were in November 2018, the last month for which DHS has released total border crossings data. Federal immigration officials have said only about half of illegal aliens who cross the southern border are caught.
Most recently in Arizona’s Yuma Sector, a group of more than 110 illegal aliens scaled a border fence and crossed onto the U.S. side of the border. The group was assisted by a human smuggler.
Border apprehension data from last month reveal that the number of adults traveling to the southern border with children has skyrocketed by 280 percent compared to the same time last year.
“Fiscal Year 2018 was a record year [for family unit crossings] and this year will surpass that if the current trend continues without any legislative fixes,” the DHS release states.
Illegal immigration at the border, for December 2018, has increased 81 percent compared to this same month the year before. Additionally, there were about 22,000 illegal alien minors who crossed the southern border last month.
As Breitbart News’s Bob Price has chronicled, there have already been about 53 large groups of illegal aliens crossing the southern border since October 2018. This amounted to the apprehension of about 9,000 border crossers. More than 96 percent of these illegal aliens traveled with children across the border.
The day after Trump visited the southern border this month, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended a total of 771 border crossers, a daily record.
Trump has not ruled out declaring a national emergency at the southern border, though officials said he would only declare an emergency if a deal is not struck after the deadline of February 15. White House adviser Jared Kushner and some Republican lawmakers have lobbied the president not to declare a national emergency.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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