Well, we still have a national security problem. And no, it’s not this silly Russian collusion myth that’s being peddled by Democrats. The surge in illegal alien arrests at the border is now at a boiling point. One could argue that it’s been that way for the past few months, but April’s detention numbers were staggering. Over 100,000 people were arrested in April, the highest in 12 years (via WaPo):
The number of border-crossers taken into U.S. custody topped 100,000 for the second consecutive month in April, U.S. border officials said Wednesday, deepening the crisis that has derailed President Trump’s immigration agenda and has defied his myriad attempts to fix it.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained 109,144 migrants along the boundary with Mexico last month, a 6 percent increase from March, as monthly arrests reached their highest point since 2007. Unauthorized border crossings have more than doubled in the past year, and they are on pace to exceed 1 million on an annual basis, as Guatemalan and Honduran families continue streaming north in record numbers with the expectation they will be quickly processed and released from custody.
“Our apprehension numbers are off the charts,” Carla Provost, chief of the Border Patrol, said in testimony to senators in Washington on Wednesday afternoon. “We cannot address this crisis by shifting more resources. It’s like holding a bucket under a faucet. It doesn’t matter how many buckets we have if we can’t turn off the flow.”
[…]
…the evidence of the U.S. immigration system being overwhelmed continues to build.
DHS officials for the first time this week said the agency is running out of space to jail single adult migrants, who arrived in April at the highest level in five years. One DHS official warned of a complete border breakdown if single adults who cross illegally can no longer be detained and deported.
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The Department of Homeland Security does not have the resources to deal with this endless surge of illegals. Money from other parts of their budget has been diverted to dealing with housing these migrants, especially when it comes to health care. Yet, acting DHS secretary Kevin McAleenan was quite clear that his department needs more money in dealing with this border crisis. At last, The New York Times editorial board has acknowledged that a border crisis exists. The Washington Post also said Trump was right, though Democrats, emboldened by their 2018 midterm wins, are not playing ball. Not one dime for the wall or for ICE, which has become a favorite punching bag for the far left that wants an unfettered flow of illegal aliens into the country.
Luckily, some policy changes are in the works. For starters, the Ninth Circuit, in a surprise ruling, said that applicants for asylum could be sent back to Mexico while their case remains under review by immigration courts. Also, DHS is trying to give Border Patrol on-the-spot authority to accept or deny asylum claims at the border, a move that will certainly meet a legal challenge by left-wingers.
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