Why are attempted border crossings spiking again?

While the unemployment rate news may have been good, there are some other figures out there which aren’t looking quite so rosy. After hitting dramatically lower levels last spring, attempted efforts at border jumping by illegal aliens have surged significantly over the past couple of months. Customs officials are reporting that border apprehensions are as much as three times higher than they were during the same period last year. There’s clearly a mystery lurking in this story which we’ll need to figure out. (Free Beacon)

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Apprehensions and attempted entry by inadmissible persons at America’s southwestern border rose slightly in April of 2018, but was more than three times higher than the same month in 2017, new data from the Customs and Border Protection Agency show.

More than 50,000 individuals tried to cross the southwestern border in April, the second month in a row that that many people have attempted the crossing. Some 12,000 individuals attempted to cross but were found inadmissible, bringing the FY 2018 total to 63,000. And 38,000 were apprehended attempting to cross between ports of entry, bringing the FY 2018 total to more than 200,000.

Among the group apprehended, there were some 4,000 unaccompanied minors, and just under 10,000 family units. Both unaccompanied minors and family units are, as a matter of policy, only detained briefly before being released into the interior pending further deportation proceedings.

That’s a massive increase in a single year. We might be tempted to think this is a seasonal phenomenon at first glance because spring kicks off the agricultural work season and people could be sneaking in looking for jobs. But if that’s the case, why were there three times fewer illegals coming over the border in April of last year? It’s not as if the President has gotten any less aggressive in terms of border security since then (the reason widely credited for the decrease). If anything it’s been quite the opposite.

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Perhaps the word has gotten out on the street in Mexico and points beyond to the south that the increased ICE raids and talk of a wall still haven’t fundamentally changed the playing field. One big part of that, as has been pointed out by the White House lately, is the catch and release mentality which still defines our illegal immigration handling process. When you’re apprehending illegal aliens and then turning them loose in America’s interior in the hopes that they’ll show up at a later date for a deportation hearing, the results are rather predictable. The President signed a memo ordering an end to the practice a month ago and the Vice President was talking about it again in the past few weeks. There’s even a full page on the subject at the White House website. But that hasn’t really translated to any significant changes.

In addition to the catch and release problems, the other significant factor is that we’re still not doing enough to remove the main magnet drawing illegal aliens over the border: jobs. As long as there are still plenty of employers willing to break the law and hire illegal aliens, there will still be a massive incentive to attempt jumping the border. The President has directed ICE to be more aggressive in this area and they’ve started arresting a few employers such as that meat packing plant they busted last month. But it’s going to take a lot more than that.

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The frustrating aspect of this report is that we’re talking about a problem which could absolutely be corrected, particularly while there’s a GOP majority in Congress and Trump is in the White House. Get to work on the wall and expand it as far as the money will allow. Put more judges on the immigration beat and eliminate the backlog of deportation cases. Expand detention facilities near the border. Make the use of E-Verify mandatory and begin putting some repeat offending employers in jail. Do all of that and those border jumping numbers would shrink back down rapidly.

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