What percentage of illegal immigrants trying to make it across the Unites States’ southern border are stopped by the Border Patrol? According to Fox News, the Department of Homeland Security is sitting on a report which indicates the answer is just 51 percent. That figure is much lower than the official interdiction rate of 81 percent. Fox News has background on the report:

The report was requested by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees as part of the Fiscal 2016 Omnibus Bill, but has been shrouded in secrecy. Viewed by a select few in key administration figures, critics say it is being withheld because of its explosive findings, which could potentially benefit GOP nominee Donald Trump. FoxNews.com requested a copy from both DHS and the White House, but was told the report is not yet finished, an assertion disputed by sources familiar with the process…

The study was written by analysts from DHS and the outside firm Institute for Defense Analyses, and is the most extensive survey of illegal activity and U.S. enforcement at the southwest border to date. Researchers went to the southwest border three times over 9 months and conducted independent surveys of Mexican migrants caught by the Border Patrol. They also reviewed Border Patrol intelligence, internal DHS records, apprehensions at ports of entry and detention records. The report was peer reviewed by a number of experts.

The document examines, in part, the Interdiction Effectiveness Rate (IER), or the number of adults caught at the border by law enforcement.

According to Fox reporter William Lajeunesse (video below), the final report was completed in May but, at that time, “the White House domestic policy council stepped in and stopped it.” Furthermore, an unnamed source tells Lajeunesse the report is being held for, “political reasons” because it could “help elect Donald Trump.”

Jessica Vaughan from the Center for Immigration Studies tells Fox News, “It appears to me that this research could have been suppressed because it contradicts the Obama administration’s narrative that the border is secure, and it contradicts the administration’s wish for people to believe that illegal immigration is a thing of the past.”

DHS denies it is sitting on the report and promises it will be released in the future, but it did not indicate when that might happen. The taxpayer funded report is not classified and could, in theory, be released at any time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S05WJCYJbhI