Quote It is time to reform these outdated immigration rules, and finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century.

FIXING OUR BROKEN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM: Congress needs to close the loopholes that are preventing common sense immigration enforcement.

Due to legal loopholes, many aliens who reach our borders are released into our country after being apprehended, encouraging more illegal immigration. Smugglers and human traffickers understand and have exploited these loopholes.

The Flores Settlement Agreement and court decisions interpreting it have hampered the Government’s ability to detain and promptly remove many Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) and family units.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 limits the Government’s ability to promptly return many UACs who have been apprehended at the border.

UAC LOOPHOLES BY THE NUMBERS: Legal loopholes have hamstrung immigration enforcement and contributed to the crisis at our border as UAC arrivals have surged.

More than 110,000 UACs have been released into the interior of the United States since the beginning of FY 2016, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The number of UACs at ports of entry increased by 636 percent from April 2017 to April 2018.

Border Patrol apprehensions of UACs were 331 percent higher for April 2018 than April 2017.

Only 3.4 percent of UACs encountered at the border in FY 2014 from countries other than Mexico had been removed or returned as of FY 2017.

UAC cases pending in immigration courts now total 78,000, up from less than 3,500 in FY 2009.

Approximately 90 percent of removal orders obtained against UACs each year result from one’s failure to appear at a hearing. Removal orders issued against UACs based on a failure to appear at an immigration hearing have risen over 1000 percent since FY 2009.

Gangs, such as MS-13, have used the influx of UACs for recruiting opportunities. More than one-third of the 274 MS-13 members and affiliates arrested in the Federal, State, and local led “Operation Matador” entered the country as UACs.



ASYLUM LOOPHOLES BY THE NUMBERS: Loopholes in our asylum laws are subject to exploitation, contributing to significant spikes in asylum claims in recent years.