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Friday, March 29, 2024

DHS Releases Border Numbers as Illegal Crossings Triple Since Last April

DHS has released a statement on the latest border figures for April 2018, which reveal that the number of illegal border crossings have almost tripled compared to April 2017.

The figures show that there have been over 50,000 illegal border crossings for two consecutive months, compared to just 15,716 in April 2017, which DHS described as underscoring the continuing security crisis along the Southwest border.

DHS also said they have significantly increased referral rates to the Department of Justice for illegal border crossers. DHS Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said that DHS and DoJ were working to surge necessary resources such as immigration judges, ICE attorneys and prosecutors so they could promptly adjudicate cases.

“If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution,” said the DHS statement. “DHS has zero tolerance for those who break the law and will no longer exempt classes or groups of individuals from prosecution. Whether you are a single adult or an adult member of a family unit, if you are apprehended you will be prosecuted and put in removal proceedings. To those seeking to abuse our generous laws – we are watching. We will not sit back and watch our laws exploited. If you make a false immigration claim, you will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach individuals in making false immigration claims, you will be referred for prosecution.”

The statement comes in the wake of news that asylum processing has started on the migrant caravan that has worked its way from Central America to Mexico, organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

Speaking about the caravan, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, “When respect for the rule of law diminishes, so too does our ability to protect our great nation, its borders, and its citizens. The United States will not stand by as our immigration laws are ignored and our nation’s safety is jeopardized.”

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen requested $47.5 billion for the DHS FY2019 budget to confront “unacceptable” trends, including the rise in illegal border crossings.

“If you have an alarm in your home and you catch a burglar and you call the police, the police come — and in fact it is an illegal entry into your home — but the police then tell you that they have absolutely no ability to detain or remove those criminals and the criminals stay in your house, you would not tell me that is home security,” Nielsen told the House Homeland Security Committee. “That is what we face at the border. We stop people, we interdict them, but we do not have the authorities given the loopholes in many cases to detain and remove them. We are forced to release them back into the communities after they have committed crimes.”

DHS Releases Border Numbers as Illegal Crossings Triple Since Last April Homeland Security Today
Laura Bacon
Laura Bacon has been managing editor of the GTSC Weekly Insider since June 2017. She is an experienced copywriter and journalist who has been working in the media industry for over fifteen years and has written for a vast range of clients including Redbox, Coinstar and University College London.
Laura Bacon
Laura Bacon
Laura Bacon has been managing editor of the GTSC Weekly Insider since June 2017. She is an experienced copywriter and journalist who has been working in the media industry for over fifteen years and has written for a vast range of clients including Redbox, Coinstar and University College London.

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