Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday the rising surge of unaccompanied children and families crossing the border is the result of "legal loopholes" in current immigration laws.
In a prepared statement for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on border security, Graham, chairman of the panel, lamented "it is no coincidence that these two groups . . . are crossing the border at an alarming rate," the New York Post reported.
"Our immigration laws require that both unaccompanied children and family units be released into the interior of the United States after apprehension," Graham said. "This is due to two legal loopholes in our immigration system."
Graham explained the loopholes are the Flores Settlement Agreement and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
"Flores requires children (or those with children, so family units) to be released after 20 days in custody," he said. "The TVPRA requires unaccompanied alien children from non-contiguous countries . . . to be released to Health and Human Services care facilities instead of being sent back to their countries of origin."
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said "63 percent" of illegal border crossings would be addressed just by changing those laws, the Post reported.
Some 76,000 asylum seekers were nabbed at the southern border in February, more than double the 36,751 held the same month a year earlier. The majority were Central American parents with children in tow fleeing violence, poverty and political chaos in their homelands.
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