Central American Border Surges Continue for Fifth Straight Year

By Joe Guzzardi
August 19, 2015

Although the wave of Central American children and adults crossing the United States’ southern border with Mexico is smaller this year than last, they’re still coming. Despite President Obama’s warning to Central Americans not to journey north, the illegal aliens persevere, motivated by the high probability that once they arrive in the U.S. they will be allowed to stay.
 
Compared to last year, the news from the border is good. But looked at historically, the surge of illegal immigrants is troubling and spells problems for financially strapped American communities as they struggle to absorb huge numbers of new arrivals.
 
So far in FY 2015, the Border Patrol is on pace to catch about 39,000 unaccompanied alien children and about 53,000 families on the southern border.
 
Assuming those projections are accurate, it would represent 43 percent fewer children, and a 23 percent decrease in families from 2014. Since 2011, the arrivals have increased steadily, and this year’s surge will be higher than any year prior to 2014 when the number of apprehended unaccompanied children nearly doubled to 68,541, and the number of detained families more than tripled to 68,445.
 
As usual with immigration, reality trumps bluster. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently launched a campaign in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala called “Know the Facts” which advises residents that there are no “permits” for people trying to cross the border without valid documents. “Know the Facts” is CBP’s follow-up to its 2014 “Awareness Campaign” that Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske called an effort to alert families about the dangers encountered by unaccompanied minors traveling to the U.S., and to counter misconceptions that smugglers may be purposely disseminating about perceived immigration benefits that supposedly await the aliens once they arrive. In a nutshell, CBP labeled its message to minors as “Protect Yourself.”
 
Regardless of the federal government’s efforts to appear tough on Central Americans determined to enter illegally, the facts on the ground belie the hype. Central Americans who may hear CBP’s message know from their U.S. relatives that few of last year’s illegal aliens were deported, and that therefore the threat to immediately send home those apprehended is meaningless. According to data published in the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review and released in June 2015, 96 percent of aliens detained at the border remain in the U.S.
 
Pro-immigration analysts and much of the mainstream media insist that poverty, violence and an overall sense of frustration motivate most Central Americans. But Honduran first lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez doesn’t agree, and points her finger at the Obama administration. Speaking to a group of reporters, Garcia de Hernandez said that violence and poverty have existed in Central America for decades. What has created the migration problem, she said, can be directly tied to “the lack of clarity in U.S. immigration policy.”
 
Since early in his administration, Obama has done little to end the Central American surges, something existing immigration law allows him to do. Instead, through his blatant refusal to enforce those laws, Obama has encouraged more chaos at the border.
 
Letting tens of thousands of illegal immigrants simply walk into the U.S. year after year is unsustainable, and will soon lead to the end of sovereign America, an eventuality that doesn’t seem to trouble Obama in the least.

By Joe Guzzardi
August 19, 2015
Although the wave of Central American children and adults crossing the United States’ southern border with Mexico is smaller this year than last, they’re still coming. Despite President Obama’s warning to Central Americans not to journey north, the illegal aliens persevere, motivated by the high probability that once they arrive in the U.S. they will be allowed to stay.
 
Compared to last year, the news from the border is good. But looked at historically, the surge of illegal immigrants is troubling and spells problems for financially strapped American communities as they struggle to absorb huge numbers of new arrivals.
 
So far in FY 2015, the Border Patrol is on pace to catch about 39,000 unaccompanied alien children and about 53,000 families on the southern border.
 
Assuming those projections are accurate, it would represent 43 percent fewer children, and a 23 percent decrease in families from 2014. Since 2011, the arrivals have increased steadily, and this year’s surge will be higher than any year prior to 2014 when the number of apprehended unaccompanied children nearly doubled to 68,541, and the number of detained families more than tripled to 68,445.
 
As usual with immigration, reality trumps bluster. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently launched a campaign in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala called “Know the Facts” which advises residents that there are no “permits” for people trying to cross the border without valid documents. “Know the Facts” is CBP’s follow-up to its 2014 “Awareness Campaign” that Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske called an effort to alert families about the dangers encountered by unaccompanied minors traveling to the U.S., and to counter misconceptions that smugglers may be purposely disseminating about perceived immigration benefits that supposedly await the aliens once they arrive. In a nutshell, CBP labeled its message to minors as “Protect Yourself.”
 
Regardless of the federal government’s efforts to appear tough on Central Americans determined to enter illegally, the facts on the ground belie the hype. Central Americans who may hear CBP’s message know from their U.S. relatives that few of last year’s illegal aliens were deported, and that therefore the threat to immediately send home those apprehended is meaningless. According to data published in the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review and released in June 2015, 96 percent of aliens detained at the border remain in the U.S.
 
Pro-immigration analysts and much of the mainstream media insist that poverty, violence and an overall sense of frustration motivate most Central Americans. But Honduran first lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez doesn’t agree, and points her finger at the Obama administration. Speaking to a group of reporters, Garcia de Hernandez said that violence and poverty have existed in Central America for decades. What has created the migration problem, she said, can be directly tied to “the lack of clarity in U.S. immigration policy.”
 
Since early in his administration, Obama has done little to end the Central American surges, something existing immigration law allows him to do. Instead, through his blatant refusal to enforce those laws, Obama has encouraged more chaos at the border.
 
Letting tens of thousands of illegal immigrants simply walk into the U.S. year after year is unsustainable, and will soon lead to the end of sovereign America, an eventuality that doesn’t seem to trouble Obama in the least.