‘Caravan Migrants’ Stalled at Border Crossing Checkpoint

Dozens of “caravan migrants” camped out near the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Sunday night after being turned back by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). U.S. officials told the migrants their processing facilities were full and they would let them know when they could cross at a later date.

“At this time, we have reached capacity at the San Ysidro port of entry for CBP officers to be able to bring additional persons traveling without appropriate entry documentation into the port of entry for processing, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a written statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Depending upon port circumstances at the time of arrival, those individuals may need to wait in Mexico as CBP officers work to process those already within our facilities.”

“As sufficient space and resources become available, CBP officers will be able to take additional individuals into the port for processing,” the commissioner stated. “CBP will communicate with Mexican authorities for operational awareness on this issue of capacity within CBP facilities as appropriate.”

Dozens of “caravan migrants” could be seen sleeping on the ground in Tijuana, Mexico, in an attempt to stay close to the port, ABC News reported Monday morning.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras organizer Alex Mensing told ABC News that CBP officials told the migrants that 20 people “can wait next to the door, but they would not be processed, and they would not say how long we will have to wait.”

“We’ve got blankets, we’ve got people bringing clothing and food from the community,” Mensing told the news outlet. “The police have set up kind of a ring of fencing around it. Everyone is out here, organizing a security commission, and everything they need to be able to spend the night.”

The decision by CBP officials to limit the number of people crossing through the southern California port of entry will help immigration officers and the Department of Justice’s immigration judges process the asylum requests within the 20-day limit set in the 1997 Flores decision, Breitbart News’ Neil Munro reported on Sunday. The court decision states that migrants and children may not be held in detention for more than 20 days. Immigration officers and judges must document a migrant’s claim for asylum during that period or release them with a notice to appear.

Munro wrote that if the judges can make a ruling that rejects the migrant’s claim within that period, they can be immediately flown back to their country of origin without being allowed to file asylum paperwork.

In 2011, President Barack Obama signaled support for migrants. Following that time, the Obama Administration’s catch and release policies created a magnet for Central American migrants who came to the U.S. in record numbers.

“The single biggest factor driving our illegal immigration right now is our catch and release program,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd explained in written testimony prepared for a hearing conducted by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest.

“If you are an unaccompanied minor we will not only release you, but will escort you to your final destination. If you are a family unit, we will release you,” Judd explained. “If you claim credible fear, we will release you. If you are a single male and we do not physically see you cross the border and you claim that you have been in this country since 2014, we will release you,” he explained, adding that the illegal immigrants are not required to offer proof.

The policies resulted in a wave of Unaccompanied Alien Children and Family Unit Aliens that overwhelmed the federal government’s capacity to house and process them. In June 2014, Breitbart Texas Editor-in-Chief Brandon Darby shocked the world with images of children packed shoulder-to-shoulder in detention rooms in the Rio Grande Valley.

A March CBP report revealed a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossing apprehensions over the same month in the previous year.

The number of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) apprehended between ports of entry along the southwest border with Mexico jumped from 3,134 in February to 4,171 in March, an increase of 33 percent. The number of Family Unit Aliens (FMUA) arrested along the southwest border jumped from 5,475 to 8,882, an increase of 62 percent. In March 2013, agents apprehended 4,120 UACs and 1,310 FMUAs. Those numbers increased in 2014 to 7,176 UACs and 5,752 FMUAs being apprehended.

“The crisis at our Southwest border is real,” Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said in a written staement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “The number of illegal border crossings during the month of March shows an urgent need to address the ongoing situation at the border. We saw a 203 percent increase from March 2017 compared to March 2018 and a 37 percent increase from last month to this month – the largest increase from month to month since 2011.”

President Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard along the nation’s southwest border with Mexico in response to the massive increase in illegal border crossings, Munro reported.

“We’re looking from 2,000 to 4,000” troops on the border, the President told reporters on Air Force One. “We’ll probably keep them, or a large portion of them, until such time as we get the wall.”

Following the news of the “migrant caravan,” made up of about 1,500 Central Americans, President Trump ordered the end of Obama’s catch and release program, Breitbart News’ John Binder reported.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen then sent out a stern warning to migrants and organizers about making false asylum claims, Breitbart Texas reported.

“If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution,” Nielsen stated on Wednesday. “If you make a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach an individual in making a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution.”

On Sunday, immigration lawyers met with “caravan migrants” in Tijuana, Mexico. Lawyers told the migrants to prepare for possible separation for their families for several months, a CBS News report stated.

“We are the bearers of horrible news,” Los Angeles lawyer Nora Phillips said after briefing migrants in three workshops. “That’s what good attorneys are for.”

Some of the migrants apparently decided to forego the asylum route and illegally jumped a section of border fence in disrepair, Breitbart California’s Joel Pollak reported Sunday.

“In several of these incidents, children as young as 4-years-old, and in one case a pregnant female, were detected entering the United States illegally through a dark, treacherous canyon that is notorious for human and drug smuggling,” San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said in a written statement.

In another apparent attempt to circumvent U.S. immigration laws, migrants could be seen taking part in mass weddings Sunday morning as they prepared to cross the, Breitbart News Katherine Rodriguez reported.

As of 9 p.m. PDT, “No one has been processed at all, Alex Mensing told ABC News. “Nobody has set foot in the United States.