Stats show surge in illegal immigrant border traffic despite Napolitano claims

Wake_Up · Apr 5, 2013

Just more crap coming from the WH. Can we believe ANYTHING this corrupt, moronic administration says?

Newly released arrest numbers show a significant increase in illegal immigrants crossing along the southwest border, despite claims as recently as Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that the border is more secure.

"I can tell you having worked that border for 20 years, it is more secure now than it has ever been. Illegal apprehensions are at 40-year lows," Napolitano told reporters this week in Houston.

But figures released Thursday by Customs and Border Protection to Fox News tell a different story.

Arrests are actually up 13 percent compared with the same time last year. The number was 170,223 in 2012, and is 192,298 this year.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, reacting to those numbers, questioned Napolitano's insistence that the border is becoming more secure.

"There is no statistic, metric or evidence that the border is more secure than ever. I went out there for a couple days and found multiple spots where you can see trails of people coming in. They were still apprehending massive amounts of drugs out there, this is a very porous border," Chaffetz said.

The numbers back up anecdotal claims that Texas is seeing a marked surge in traffic. The increase comes as Congress prepares to debate immigration legislation, which in its draft form is expected to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already here. Some have expressed concern this provision could entice illegal immigrants to cross over.

The stats show that in Texas, arrests in the last six months are up 53 percent in the Rio Grande Valley; up 22 percent in Laredo; and up 24 percent in El Paso.

While arrest figures can be interpreted in different ways, the administration generally has seen lower numbers as a sign of better security.

For the last five years, the administration claimed the border was more secure because arrest numbers declined as the economy tanked. Would-be illegal immigrants from Mexico either stayed home or went home.

Now, however, arrests are actually up by 25,000. That means more traffic, and more immigrants actually getting through.

According to the Government Accountability Office, up to 40 percent of those who make it over the southwest border never get caught.

But a new radar drone, called "VADER," showed during a three-month test in Arizona that agents are catching fewer than 50 percent of those who successfully cross the border and then disappear into the mountains, valleys and deserts. Administration sources say, however, the system is still in a testing phase, the 50 percent figure is inaccurate and VADER alone offers an incomplete picture.

Customs and Border Protection says they are using all the resources they can to crack down on the problem areas.

"Under this administration, DHS has dedicated historic levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border. CBP has more than doubled the size of the U.S. Border Patrol since 2004. In FY (Fiscal Year) 2012, CBP employed over 21,300 Border Patrol agents, keeping staffing levels along the border at an all-time high. Additionally, CBP continues to deploy proven, effective surveillance technology tailored to the operational requirements along the highest trafficked areas of the Southwest Border," said Bill Brooks, the Southwest Border Branch Chief with CBP Public Affairs, in a statement to Fox News.

The fight over what defines "border security" is heating up and may help explain why the Department of Homeland Security initially refused to provide the latest numbers to Fox News. Repeated requests for the data went unanswered for weeks by the agency that runs the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection -- though that data was routinely provided to reporters over the last 30 years.

"This is the most politicized, least accountable, and least transparent Border Patrol that I have seen in more than 25 years of writing about border issues," said Jerry Kammer, former Washington Bureau chief of the Copley News Service and recipient of the George Polk Award for investigative reporting and 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. "When it comes to border security, the Obama administration has gone from 'yes we can' to 'let's not talk about it.' This latest move to block the public's right to know extends a pattern of dishonesty that has been developing for two years."

Kammer began writing about immigration as a Mexico correspondent for the Arizona Republic.

Critics say Napolitano is trying to move the goal posts, by changing the long-time definition of border security away from one that centers on the number of arrests.

Napolitano now says that is too narrow a definition -- that the border is more secure because there are more agents and infrastructure, and crime rates are down.

"By all the different measures one looks at on the border, they're all trending in the right direction and strongly so," Napolitano said Thursday. "When you actually look at the numbers it's a record of manpower and technology and by the way, total air coverage that we've never had before. So in terms of the resources that have been deployed here, its' more than ever."

Many in Congress aren't buying it.

"Texans -- and all Americans -- would appreciate a healthy dose of reality from Secretary Napolitano. She should admit the border is far from secure and commit to implementing a clear metric to measure security, something her department has not done since 2010 and continues to resist," said Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

"For years, Secretary Napolitano has been trying to lead us to believe the border is more secure than ever. There is no evidence that that is true. Statistics go up, they go down, and she seems to have it both ways," said Chaffetz, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a member of the "Gang of Eight" -- which is drafting immigration legislation -- admits defining what border security means is complicated.

"We've tended to hear from the Department of Homeland Security that basically it's 'mission accomplished' at the border and that's just not the case," Flake told Fox News. "I think all of us concede that we have a better situation on the border than we've had in past. And in certain sectors, we really still have a troublesome situation. A lot more people getting through than we thought."

waltky · Jun 9, 2014

Allie, allie in free!...

Arrests of Illegals Crossing U.S.-Mexico Border Down 75% Since 2000
June 9, 2014 -- The number of unauthorized migrants apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol along the U.S. Southwest border has decreased by 74.7% since 2000, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, there were 1,643,679 illegal alien apprehensions, defined as the arrest of a removable alien, along the Southwest border in fiscal year 2000. The southwest border includes Big Bend, Del Rio, El Centro, El Paso, Laredo, Rio Grande Valley, San Diego, Tucson, and Yuma. Since 2000, the number of apprehensions along this border decreased by 74.7%, totaling 420,789 apprehensions in fiscal year 2013. In the May 2, 2014 CRS report, Apprehensions of Unauthorized Migrants along the Southwest Border: Fact Sheet, it states, Southwest border apprehensions began to decline mid-decade, dropping by 8% between FY2005 and FY2006. They fell more rapidly between FY2006 and FY2011, by an average of 14% each year. Since FY2011, apprehensions increased by 26%.

When looking at apprehension data for only Mexican nationals from the Southwest border, the decrease of arrests is even larger. Overall apprehensions of Mexican nationals declined by 84% from FY2000 to FY2013, according to the CRS. This is largely because Mexican nationals comprise a large proportion of the total apprehensions for the time period examined. The largest decrease in Mexican national apprehensions between FY2000 and FY2013 occurred at the Yuma sector, which declined by 95% during this time period. Other sectors that experienced a decline in apprehensions during the time period examined included El Centro (94%), El Paso (92%), and Del Rio (91%), according to the CRS.

Incidentally, Yuma and El Centro are the two cities in the United States with the highest unemployment rates. As of April 2014, which is the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate in Yuma, AZ is 23.8% and in El Centro, Calif. the unemployment rate is 21.6%. Both of these unemployment rates are more than three times higher than the national unemployment rate in April 2013 of 6.3%. The reason for the falling number of apprehensions is likely due to lower illegal inflows, said the CRS. Falling apprehensions likely reflect lower illegal inflows since 2006, though the degree to which reduced inflows are a result of effective enforcement by the USBP versus other factors, like the recent U.S. economic downturn, remains subject to debate, according to the report.

In March of 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) evaluated the Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) progress and challenges in securing the U.S. borders. Since fiscal year 2011, DHS has used the number of apprehensions on the southwest border between ports of entry as an interim performance goal and measure for border security as reported in its annual performance report. Prior to this, DHS used operational control as its goal and outcome measure for border security and to assess resource needs to accomplish this goal. Operational control also referred to as effective control was defined as the number of border miles where Border Patrol had the capability to detect, respond to, and interdict cross-border illegal activity, says GAO. DHS last reported its progress and status in achieving operational control of the borders in fiscal year 2010, said the GAO. At that time, DHS reported achieving operational control for 1,107 (13 percent) of 8,607 miles across U.S. northern, southwest, and coastal borders. Along the southwest border, DHS reported achieving operational control for 873 (44 percent) of the about 2,000 border miles.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article...legals-crossing-us-mexico-border-down-75-2000
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northwinds · Jun 9, 2014

What's wrong with that........we can absorb all of Mexico and Central America....right?.......it would be the 'progressive' think to do......I see no problem with taking in millions upon millions of illegal aliens with communicable diseases who will get free health care, free education, tax credits, welfare, food stamps, etc........its the right thing to do......don't you think? Anybody against this idea is a racist.

waltky · Sep 21, 2015

Family, kid arrests at border up 52 percent...

Border Patrol: Family, kid arrests at border soar 52 percent
21 Sept.`15 WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. Border Patrol arrested nearly 10,000 unaccompanied immigrant children and families caught illegally crossing the border with Mexico in August, a 52 percent jump from August 2014, according to statistics published by the agency Monday afternoon.

Since the start of the fiscal year in October, border agents have arrested more than 35,000 children traveling alone and more than 34,500 people traveling as families, mostly mothers and children. The total number of arrests for the year is down nearly 50 percent compared with a year ago, but border agents have reported a jump in arrests since July. The Border Patrol reported arresting 6,424 unaccompanied immigrant children and families in August 2014, compared to 9,790 this year. The August increase comes a year after a surge of more than 68,000 unaccompanied children at the U.S.-Mexico border. Many were trying to escape violence in Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala.

For much of the year, the number of illegal border crossings by families and children has been far lower than last year, before increasing in July and August. It's unclear exactly what has led to the overall decrease in border arrests of families and children, but Mexico has stepped up enforcement along its southern border. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the August numbers were a "surprising uptick" and a "concern" for the administration. Earnest did not provide a reason for the increase, but noted that it's at odds with the typical decline in border crossings in August.

Adam Isacson, a border expert and senior analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the 4,632 unaccompanied children caught at the border last month is the highest number his agency has recorded for August since 2009. Isacson said historically, crossings start to slow after springtime highs. But July saw an uptick, and now the number of unaccompanied children crossing in August has begun to rival numbers from the beginning and the end of last year's surge. Isacson said that this could indicate the beginning of another surge, noting that the number of people caught traveling as families also ticked upward last month. "It could be a flash in the pan," he said, "But we are going up the trend line."

The administration was caught off guard by the sudden surge of children and families in 2014 and made several efforts to curb the flow of people crossing the border illegally, including media campaigns to discourage people from making the dangerous trip across Mexico. The administration also opened family detention centers that could house thousands of people while they awaited deportation hearings. The detention centers were established in part because about 70 percent of families released at the border and ordered to report back to immigration authorities failed to return to face deportation hearings.

A federal judge in California ruled last month that the Homeland Security Department's detention of families violated a longstanding legal agreement requiring that immigrant children not be held in secure facilities that aren't licensed to care for children. The government filed an appeal in that case on Friday and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the detention centers were being converted into processing centers for interviews and screenings. Earnest said the U.S. will continue to warn people considering crossing the border or helping their children do so about the dangers associated with the trip.

http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-surprising-uptick-us-border-crossings-182733511--politics.html
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mikejones · Sep 21, 2015

If obama said water was wet at this point, I would not believe him or any other turd in his administration, starting with john kerry and anyone anywhere near homeland security/ICE.

Nat Turner · Sep 21, 2015

Wow. An unattributed, plagiaristic quote from an unnamed right wing source without a link from over two and a half years ago!Well, this is the slam dunk proof we need to proceed with impeachment.

waltky · Dec 11, 2015

Unaccompanied illegal alien children straining facilities to hold them...

Shelters for immigrant children to open in Texas, California
10 Dec.`15 — A new spike in unaccompanied Central American minors crossing illegally into the United States is pushing federal officials to open shelters in Texas and California.

A total of 10,588 unaccompanied children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in October and November, more than double the 5,129 who crossed during the same two months last year, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. The number of family members crossing together has nearly tripled, to 12,505. Increasing gang violence is pushing people out of Central America, said Maureen Meyer, a senior associate for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America. "We need to look at this as much more a refugee situation," she said. Migrating through Mexico and across the U.S. border is very dangerous, but "the level of desperation" in their home countries is making families decide it's worth the risk, she said.

Central American women hold photographs of their disappeared family members as they march in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. The caravan of women is traveling through Mexico to search for their missing relatives who left for a better life in the U.S. but disappeared.

More migrants are crossing the border even as new checkpoints between Central America and the United States are turning thousands of people back, said Emilio Gonzalez Gonzalez, a political scientist and independent researcher in Mexico City. "We are not talking traditional migration trends. This is a new refugee influx and it should be managed that way," he said. "They could be candidates for international protection." Incoming family groups are usually sent first to detention centers, and adult migrants are often jailed when they are apprehended, but children traveling alone need special treatment under federal law, so officials plan to open at least three shelters — two in Texas and one in California — to accommodate them.

A woman lays pictures of missing Central American migrants during a march by mothers who are searching for their children, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. The caravan of women, mostly from Central America, are traveling through Mexico to search for their relatives who left for a better life in the U.S. but disappeared.

The additional beds will enable the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to shelter up to 9,800 unaccompanied minors at a time. "What we don't want to have happen is have a backup of people" at the border, agency spokesman Mark Weber said. "We are making sure we have the capacity in place to take care of the children." By law, the Border Patrol has 72 hours to turn unaccompanied minors from Central America over to Health and Human Services, which is then responsible for their care until they are placed with a sponsor or have an immigration hearing.

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waltky · Feb 1, 2016

HHS can't account for 90k unaccompanied illegal alien minors...

HHS Gives Illegal Alien Children to Human Traffickers, Can’t Provide Details About the Location of Some 90,000 Released to ‘Sponsors’
January 28, 2016 – Following the 2015 federal indictment of four men for human trafficking and a Senate investigation into how unaccompanied alien children (UACs) wound up in the hands of criminals, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Oversight Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said it was the doing of the federal government.

“It is intolerable that human trafficking — really modern-day slavery — could occur in our own backyard, but it does,” Portman said at a subcommittee hearing on Thursday. “But what makes the Marion case even more alarming is that a U.S. government agency was actually responsible for delivering some of the victims into the hands of the abusers,” Portman said. The indictment followed the discovery of victims, including at least six minors from Guatemala, at an egg farm in Marion, Ohio, where the children were living in squalid conditions and working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for about $2 a day.

The subcommittee’s 51-page report states that Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement -- the entity responsible for relocating the children after they are released from government detention centers and while they wait for immigration proceedings -- “failed to run background checks on the adults in the sponsors’ households as well as secondary caregivers, failed to visit any of the sponsors’ homes; and failed to realize that a group of sponsors has accumulated multiple unrelated children.” The two witnesses at the hearing -- Mark Greenberg, acting assistant secretary for HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, and Robert Carey, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) – did not answer many of the questions posed by lawmakers on the committee and gave answers to some questions that disturbed many on both sides of the aisle.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked the witnesses how many of the 90,000 children that have been distributed to parents, other relatives or “family friends” could they locate today. “Of the 90,000-plus children that are out there – that have been put into care since 2008, if I were to ask you how many of those could you find right now?” Lankford asked. “That we know where they are; how many of those do you think you could find? “Give me a percentage guess of the 90,000-plus that are out there,” Lankford said. “They were placed in a sponsor’s home either saying this is a parent, or a relative or a non-relative sponsor out there. Of the 90,000-plus, how many of them do you think you would know where they are – if I asked you to give me a phone number, an address you could tell me.”

“Senator, I couldn’t guess on that,” Greenberg said. “I can tell you that we have the information at the time of release,” Greenberg said. “If the child is receiving post-release services we’ll have continued information …” “But you have no idea how many of them you could still contact today?” Lankford asked again. “We do not, and again this is based upon our clear understanding of the law and what we are authorized to do under the law,” Greenberg said. “Our conclusion is that the Department of Health and Human Services’ process for placing unaccompanied children suffers from serious, systemic defects,” Portman said in his prepared remarks. “The horrible trafficking crime that occurred in Marion, Ohio could likely have been prevented if HHS had adopted commonsense measures for screening sponsors and checking in on the well-being of at-risk children — protections that are standard in foster-care systems run by the states, including Ohio.”

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Migrant crisis: More than 10,000 children 'missing'
31 January 2016 - More than 10,000 migrant children may have disappeared after arriving in Europe over the past two years, the EU's police intelligence unit says.

Europol said thousands of vulnerable minors had vanished after registering with state authorities. It warned of children and young people being forced into sexual exploitation and slavery by criminal gangs. Save the Children says some 26,000 child migrants arrived in Europe last year without any family. It is the first time Europol has given a Europe-wide estimate of how many might be missing.

About 26,000 child migrants arrived in Europe last year unaccompanied

Targeting refugees

"It's not unreasonable to say that we're looking at 10,000-plus children," Europol's chief of staff told the Observer newspaper. "Not all of them will be criminally exploited; some might have been passed on to family members. We just don't know where they are, what they're doing or whom they are with." Officials in Italy warned in May 2015 that almost 5,000 children had disappeared from asylum reception centres since the previous summer.

Some migrant boys say they have no choice but to sell sex in order to survive

In October, the authorities in Trelleborg in southern Sweden said about 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children and young adults who arrived in the town in the previous month had since gone missing. Confirming the overall estimate of missing minors, a Europol spokesman said a large proportion may have also disappeared after landing in Greece. The country is the first entry point for most of the 1 million migrants who arrived in Europe by boat in 2015, and authorities have been criticised for failing to register and check the arrivals.

Many Nigerian girls are told they must pay traffickers thousands of euros or their families will be harmed

Criminal gangs known to be involved in human trafficking in Europe are now targeting refugees, Europol said. There are fears unaccompanied children and young people may be dragged into sex work, slavery and other illegal activity. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Leonard Doyle told the BBC the figure of 10,000 missing children was "shocking but not surprising". He said it was "to be expected" that many of these would be caught up in exploitation. "Let's hope now the EU puts the resources into finding these children, helping them and reuniting these children with their families."

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Stats show surge in illegal immigrant border traffic despite Napolitano claims

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Stats show surge in illegal immigrant border traffic despite Napolitano claims

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