Border Patrol agents are reportedly seeing a surge in unaccompanied children and families illegally crossing into the country along the southwest border, with numbers last month nearly double the level of September 2014.
The Washington Times,
citing statistics released by the Border Patrol, reports 4,476 children traveling without parents, and 5,273 parents and children traveling as families.
"We’re talking about the rule of law in other countries; we’re not enforcing the rule of law in this country," Chris Cabrera, an official with the National Border Patrol Council, the labor union for line agents, testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Times reports.
Central American families and children caught at the border are given papers setting court dates, but are then released into the United States; the Times reports illegal immigrants refer to the papers as "permisos," or passes, because they grant tentative permission to be in the country while awaiting their court hearing.
"In Border Patrol circles, that paperwork is now known as the 'notice to disappear' — 80 percent, 90 percent of those folks will not show up for that hearing," Cabrera testified, the Times reports.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, said in a statement to the Times it's aware smugglers use the promise of "permisos" to entice people to immigrate.
"We are closely monitoring current trends and coordinating across the whole of government to ensure an effective response to any changes in migration flows," the agency says in its statement, the Times reports. "We continue to aggressively work to secure our borders, address underlying causes and deter future increases in unauthorized migration, while ensuring that those with legitimate humanitarian claims are afforded the opportunity to seek protection."
In fiscal year 2015, border agents caught nearly 40,000 children, down from 68,541 the previous year. Another 40,000 parents and children, down from 68,445 in 2014, were caught traveling together.
The White House acknowledged a late-summer surge in the unaccompanied minors and families entering the United States, calling the hike "concerning,"
but not providing exact figures.
The Times notes the surge is striking because Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has reported 331,000 illegal immigrants were caught at the border from Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2015 — down from approximately 479,000 caught a year earlier.
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