According to the latest DHS report, released on Monday, the number of illegal aliens caught at the southern border increased around 23% from FY15. 408,870 illegal aliens were apprehended trying to cross the border in FY16 compared to the 331,333 illegal aliens apprehended in FY15.
“The 408,870 does not include those illegal aliens who evaded detection and successfully entered the United States,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sen. Sessions also raised concerns that around 80% of those apprehended are allowed to stay in the country according to Senate testimony given by the President of the National Border Patrol Council, Brandon Judd. Judd said that “approximately 80% of the aliens that the Border Patrol actually apprehends are released and not immediately deported.”
The DHS report shows that the increase can be contributed to the surge of unaccompanied children (UAC) and family units crossing the border. 77,674 family units and 59,692 UACs crossed the border in FY16, up from 39,838 family units and 39,970 UACs in FY15.
“Unaccompanied children and families have presented new challenges in our immigration system.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement about the numbers.
Many families and children are crossing the border illegally to take advantage of the Obama administration’s lax enforcement policies such as the reinstated catch-and-release policy and declining deportations. A federal judge also ruled last year that illegal alien children must be quickly processed and released, due to the Flores-agreement signed in 1997.
A deputy assistant attorney, Leon Fresco, told a federal judge in June that this encourages families and children to cross the border saying, “When people now know that when I come as a family unit, I won’t be apprehended and detained.”
Elyse Golob, executive director of the National Center for Border Security and Immigration at the University of Arizona, said, “When people hear about unaccompanied children and family units being placed in detention courts and about the overload in the immigration courts that results in people staying here, often for years, that filters back to the Central American countries, and may lead to a perception, rightful or not, that the chances of remaining in the country now are better than ever.”
Read more on this story at The Daily Caller.
