Posted on 05/04/2016 5:07:23 PM PDT by jazusamo
Child migration is surging again.
The number of families and unaccompanied children apprehended on the southern border has skyrocketed this year, according to new figures from the Obama administration.
The numbers, compiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), reveal that child migration is on par with 2014 levels, when a wave of kids –– thousands of them unaccompanied –– arrived at the southern border.
The surge of illegal immigration quickly swamped border authorities, immigration courts and health and humanitarian workers, while sparking a political battle on Capitol Hill over the cause and proper response to the crisis.
The new figures raise the specter of another increase this summer. That would almost certainly inflame another political showdown in a volatile presidential year in which the issues of race, immigration and border security have been pronounced — particularly due to the hard-line enforcement approach adopted by the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Through the first six months of fiscal 2016, which ended on March 31, border officials apprehended 27,754 unaccompanied children, the CBP reported — a 78 percent jump from 15,616 apprehended in 2015, and just shy of the 28,579 apprehended in 2014.
For family units, which consist of at least one child traveling with at least one adult, the increase was even more dramatic. In the first six months of 2016, 32,117 families were apprehended, the CBP reported — an increase of 131 percent from the 2015 figure (13,913) and 62 percent from the 2014 figure (19,830).
Kevin Appleby, director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies, proposed several reasons for the increase. For one, the violence plaguing Central America –– particularly El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala –– still exists, he noted, sending people fleeing north for their lives.
"The forces driving the migration are still strong," he said.
Appleby also suggested the human smugglers accompanying the migrants might have adapted to a crackdown by Mexican authorities in 2015, allowing the smugglers to elude capture and get more people to the U.S. border.
Appleby, along with many other human rights advocates, has been critical of Mexico's policing efforts –– and the Obama administration's support of them. They fear that many people eligible for asylum in the United States never make it that far, but are instead returned by Mexican authorities to dangerous conditions in Central America.
"Our policy of deterrence is clearly not working no matter how much we pay the Mexican government to do our dirty work," Appleby said Wednesday.
It's unclear if the 2016 increases will continue into the summer and rival the surge total of 2014. The Obama administration has scrambled to prevent a similar crisis since then, and Congress last year approved $750 million to help stabilize El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in hopes of slowing the flow of people trying to come to the U.S.
In January, the Homeland Security Department tried another deterrent strategy, launching a series of controversial raids on scores of families that had arrived in the 2014 surge and putting them in line for deportation.
Jens Manuel Krogstad, of the Pew Research Center, noted Wednesday that the strategy might have worked.
"This fiscal year, family and unaccompanied children apprehensions spiked in December 2015, and in January 2016 the Department of Homeland Security launched immigration raids targeting families," Krogstad wrote on Pew's blog . "Since then, monthly border apprehensions have dropped below 2014 levels."
> it [the wall] only exists in the minds of naive Trump supporters and that is the only place it is going to exist.
I respectfully disagree. It is past time for a southern wall. It shall be built.
Human parents have been arrested for letting their kids walk to the park alone; our government puts Hispanics and blacks in a separate category (a type of sub-human, from which nobody can have normal expectations).
The soft bigotry of lowered expectations...
Maybe Obama is going to pardon all 30 million illegals at the end of his term so they’re no longer illegal criminals
Damn right!! Let deal with their own people.
I don't follow this? I truly believe that Trump WILL build "the wall" and as he has said more than once is may be wall in some areas and other means in others. Hopefully not some of the high tech BS that was tried and failed at incredible cost. Better, in my opinion to put a wall up or simply armed troops.
I don't understand what Cruz has to do with this. He lost, he's out. He'd better be gone. This is Trump's, all his. Please clarify what you mean.
The truth kind of sucks huh?
The problem is the wall is just empty rhetoric. This is what frustrates me to no end with Trump supporting Freepers. The same Freepers that are so astute at picking up on lies and Kabuki theater of Rinos completely ignore the same from Trump.
The wall is empty rhetoric? Do you really think that Trump won’t follow through with a wall? I seriously do not see how he does not unless Mexico commits and actively closes the border from their side to stop illegal entry. No, Trump will build a wall. “Wall” will be in many forms, though I personally would love to see a Great Wall along the entire border. Again, you think not, why? How would Trump get out of this key pillar of his campaign?
No he isn’t going to follow through on building the wall. He was smart enough to to know that is what he had to say to get elected. He wants illegal aliens to continue to work at his jobs sites and hotels and we wants to continue to make money off of them.
In fact, here, show me proof that Trump is directly, himself and his company, now employing illegal aliens and I will donate $100 to FR. Trump and HIS company(s), not a subcontractor.
Regarding the wall, same thing. Show me undeniable proof that he will not build the wall and I will donate another $100 to FR.
I've personally had enough of Lyn' Ted that I don't see reason to put up with his supporters doing the same. Not to be rude, but put up or shut up. If you can prove it, there's $200 for FR. Otherwise, be honest enough to admit your lies.
Along with many other diseases and parasites, these illegals are, no doubt, bringing the Zika virus with them. How many babies and their families will suffer horrible consequences from this invasion?
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