Another summer, another surge of illegal immigrant families from Central America. The Obama administration keeps insisting things are improving, but recent figures released by the Department of Homeland Security say otherwise.
With the fiscal year set to end September 30, border crossings by illegal alien families have already topped the 2015 number.
Some 6,788 people traveling as families were caught on the southwest border in May — a leap of more than 20 percent over April, and putting the total for the first eight months of the fiscal year at nearly 45,000.
That’s already well above the 2015 yearlong total of fewer than 40,000, though it’s short of the record pace set in 2014, when a massive surge exposed massive holes in the U.S. immigration system.
Federal and local authorities have struggled to explain the latest surge in families, but a government lawyer gave one explanation to a federal judge earlier this month, saying that the Obama administration’s own lax enforcement policies, set in part by the courts, have enticed ever more people to make the harrowing journey.
The Justice Department’s immigration-law expert even told the judge that Illegal immigrants are abducting children on their trip north, hoping to pose as families to take advantage of the lax policies.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited Central America, which is responsible for most of the spike in children and families, to try to urge would-be migrants to stay home.
In a statement Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection placed the blame for the surge on “push factors” in Central America, but did not mention U.S. policies that are enticing migration.
“We continue to work aggressively to address the underlying causes of illegal migration, to deter future increases, to further secure our border, and to support broader regional efforts to provide avenues for protection of vulnerable populations in Central America,” CBP said in the statement.
CBP said it’s already deported some 50,000 people back to Central America so far in fiscal year 2016 — though the agency’s own figures show that means they’re falling behind, with nearly 60,000 unaccompanied children and families already having been caught so far this year. That figure doesn’t include the regular adults, who would show an even larger backlog building.
Word is getting back to Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador that the chances are very good that if you can cross the border, Obama’s catch-and-release policies will prevail and you will be able to stay. It’s not lax enforcement. It’s no enforcement, and communities across America are paying the price as the illegals are settled and our local governments are left to fend for themselves.
The administration continues to lie about the situation on our southern border. But it hardly matters. Even if they told the truth, few would care enough to be outraged and many would cheer them on.
A sorry situation.
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