Give the Border Patrol a Break

COMMENTARY Immigration

Give the Border Patrol a Break

Mar 13, 2019 1 min read
COMMENTARY BY
Edwin J. Feulner, PhD

Founder and Former President

Heritage Trustee since 1973 | Heritage President from 1977 to 2013
A Border Patrol officer sits inside his car as he guards the US/Mexico border fence, in Nogales, Arizona, on February 9, 2019. ARIANA DREHSLER / Contributor / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

“The entire system right now is at full capacity,” agent Manuel Padilla said. “Actually, it’s overwhelmed.”

“Many alien children are reunited with their families, who are often in the country illegally as well, and never heard from again,” Mr. Inserra writes.

“Most then simply disappear into the U.S.,” writes Mr. Inserra. “Some become victims of human trafficking or gangs. Few are ever removed from the country.”

A new report from the U.S. Border Patrol proves that only the willfully ignorant can doubt that we’re dealing with an immigration crisis.

“The entire system right now is at full capacity,” agent Manuel Padilla said. “Actually, it’s overwhelmed.”

Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 66,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border in February. That’s the highest total for a single month in almost a decade.

The makeup of the migrant population has changed as well. It used to consist primarily of single men from Mexico. Now it’s more likely to be families and children, arriving by the busload from Guatemala.

In February 2017, families and unaccompanied children made up 27 percent of those arrested or deemed inadmissible at the southern border. Two years later, it’s 62 percent.

Why the change? According to immigration expert David Inserra, loopholes in U.S. immigration law are the culprit. Combined with a weak asylum process, they “are creating incentives for adults to use children as pawns to get into the U.S.,” he writes in The Wall Street Journal.

A new report from the U.S. Border Patrol proves that only the willfully ignorant can doubt that we’re dealing with an immigration crisis.

“The entire system right now is at full capacity,” agent Manuel Padilla said. “Actually, it’s overwhelmed.”

Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 66,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border in February. That’s the highest total for a single month in almost a decade.

The makeup of the migrant population has changed as well. It used to consist primarily of single men from Mexico. Now it’s more likely to be families and children, arriving by the busload from Guatemala.

In February 2017, families and unaccompanied children made up 27 percent of those arrested or deemed inadmissible at the southern border. Two years later, it’s 62 percent.

Why the change? According to immigration expert David Inserra, loopholes in U.S. immigration law are the culprit. Combined with a weak asylum process, they “are creating incentives for adults to use children as pawns to get into the U.S.,” he writes in The Wall Street Journal.

This piece originally appeared in The Washington Times