PHILADELPHIA — Not only have more individual illegal aliens crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, but this year has seen a massive surge in "family units" unlawfully entering the country, a number on a pace to double last year's 39,838, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol figures.

The agency reported that 51,152 family units have crossed into the U.S., and there are still three months left in the fiscal year.

The numbers back of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's claim during his acceptance speech in Cleveland last week, despite mocking from open-border Democrats here and in the media that they his claims were exaggerated.



They came to light this week when Jessica M. Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, fact-checked several media fact-checkers who tore into Trump's speech and found his immigration claims a ripe target.

In his speech, Trump said: "The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources."

Vaughan, who has testified before Congress several times, said "This statement is 100 percent true." For good measure, she provided new Border Patrol figures from their website.

An expert with CIS on immigration and border issues, she also validated Trump's claim that the families are dumped into the U.S., where many simply vanish and never appear for court-ordered deportation hearings.

She noted that the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times fact-checkers tried to find issues with the Trump facts. "Cherry-picked" is how the Post described them. But she showed government figures backing Trump's claims.

Vaughan also took issue with the fact-checkers who were dismissive of Trump's claims that illegals have criminal records and are still allowed to stay in the U.S.

See her full memo here.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com