Daniel Horowitz, Conservative Review, May 9, 2019

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According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), April set yet another record, with a total of 109,000 apprehensions at the southwest border. {snip}

Here are the key takeaways from the April CBP border report:

In total, 109,144 individuals were apprehended at the border – 98,977 between points of entry and 10,167 at points of entry. This is the highest number in 12 years, it is very likely the highest number of unique individuals of all time, given that many in the past were the same individuals deported multiple times within the same week, while almost all of these are first-timers.

The 58,474 individuals in family units set another record, but an increasing number of people are also coming as single adults, 31,606. The overwhelming number of single adults are from Mexico, while most of the family units and unaccompanied teens are from Central America.

The increases over the previous month seemed to be from the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), El Paso, and Yuma sectors, the three busiest corridors in absolute numbers. Overall, for this fiscal year, every sector has seen a massive increase in family units.

Guatemala still leads the pack for the most migrants coming in all categories, followed by Honduras, with a sharp drop-off for Salvadorans. Overall, 301,900 Guatemalans were apprehended at and between points of entry since the beginning of fiscal year 2018. In other words, in just 19 months, 1.7 percent of Guatemala’s population came to our border, and that is on top of the 815,000 Guatemalan nationals who already lived here, most of them illegally. A recent poll showed that a third of Guatemalans would like to immigrate to the U.S. A total of 224,078 Hondurans have come since FY 2018, 2.4 percent of the population. That is on top of the 623,000 already here. This means that the size of these countries’ populations in America equal roughly 6.6 percent and 9.2 percent of their respective populations in Guatemala and Honduras. “Only” 79,000 have come from El Salvador over the past 19 months, but because they dominated the Central American migration in previous years, we already had 1.4 million Salvadorans in this country as of last year, representing roughly 22 percent of their entire homeland population!

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Unlike in the past, when mainly single adults were coming over and were immediately repatriated, most of these individuals are being released. ICE has released 168,000 just since December 21, and that number doesn’t include the 33,000 released by CBP directly without ever being processed in an ICE holding facility since March 19. If these individuals are never repatriated, the lifetime cost to taxpayers, as estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies, would be roughly $30 billion.

This is the part of the crisis that is never discussed. The philosophical problem with the approach of our government over the past year is that when circumstances such as lack of detention space create a scenario where our laws cannot be implemented properly, they err on the side of the alien and not on the side of the American people.

Our laws require that every alien, including those seeking asylum and even those approved for it, be detained throughout the entire process. Moreover, our laws require that these economic migrants be immediately placed into expedited removal. Any appeal of a credible fear denial must be handled within a day and no later than seven days, according to existing law. Why should the fact that they flood us with invasion levels of migrants strengthen their hands to achieve the very intent of their mission? Why should the fact that they increase the illegal smuggling to levels that can’t be detained result in rewarding the cartels with catch-and-release and making Americans pay for the crime, gangs, drugs, lack of security checkpoints, fiscal costs, cultural problems in the schools, and the health risks?

Part of the problem is that the desires of the aliens are individualized and immediately apparent before the TV cameras. The harm they cause to Americans – both directly through fiscal, security, and health concerns and indirectly by draining off resources and empowering the cartels and gangs – are long-term, less apparent, and often go unreported. {snip}

The entire purpose of our federal government is to care for Americans, not foreign invaders.

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