Despite the Chinese Virus pandemic that has infected more than 2.6 million people and killed more than 180,000 worldwide, illegal aliens kept pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border last month.
Border agents collared almost 30,000 illegals in March, the vast majority of whom were single adults, as has been the case since the beginning of Fiscal 2020 in October.
The number of illegals stopped at ports of entry, however, dropped significantly. The nearly 4,000 for March is almost 40-percent lower than February’s.
It appears that the even threat of a highly contagious virus won’t stop the illegal-alien flow that has, thankfully, ebbed since last year’s tidal wave that peaked in May, but is still causing chaos at the border.
Border agents stopped almost 34,000 illegals in both categories last month, which brings the total to more than 230,000 in the first six months of fiscal year. Both numbers are significantly lower than last year’s
Good news is, those caught are immediately deported, pursuant to President Trump’s deportation order last month.
Border Jumpers
Border agents bagged 29,953 illegals between ports of entry, Customs and Border Protection reported, meaning they jumped the border and hoped to disappear and take a job from an American or join the welfare rolls.
The figure is a mere 0.4 percent decline from the 30,074 apprehended in February. Single adults were 78.9 percent of the total.
The numbers for March and the year were:
• Unaccompanied Children — 2,949 / 18,077
• Family Units — 3,367 / 40,462
• Single Adults — 23,637 / 132,470
While the first category decreased slightly from February and, the last, single adults, jumped 5.6 percent, the number of families dropped 26 percent.
Last year, most of those crossing were in families or at least pretending to be.
The total for March 2020 is 67.7 less than last year’s 92,833.
The total apprehended sneaking into the country thus far this year has dropped 47 percent to 191,009 — 69 percent of them single adults — from last year’s six-month total of 361,308.
Inadmissibles
March’s number of inadmissibles, 3,984, dipped 38.1 percent from February.
Like apprehensions between ports of entry, most, 63.9 percent, were single adults:
• Unaccompanied Alien Children — 246 / 2,197
• Family Units — 1,151 / 17,426
• Single Adults — 2,546 / 23,219
• Accompanied Minor Child — 41 / 330
Single adults composed 53.8 percent of the 43,172 inadmissibles who attempted entry in the first six months of fiscal 2020. That figure declined 29.6 percent from last year’s six-month total, 61,329.
Added Together
Both categories — apprehensions between and at ports of entry — totaled 33,937 for the month, a 67 percent decline from last year, when 103,731 illegals tramped across the border.
The monthly total climbed even higher last year, reaching the stratospheric height of 144,116 in May.
Thus far this year, both categories totaled 234,181. By this time last fiscal year, the number was 422,637.
Though this year’s numbers are much lower than last year’s, border agents still face an almost unfathomable task.
They have apprehended some 1,280 illegals every day of the 183 days in fiscal 2020. That’s 53 an hour, or about one every minute.
10,000 Gone
Good news is, though border agents have their hands full, they aren’t releasing the illegals into the country in the hope they will return for an immigration hearing.
Instead, thanks to the president’s order on March 17, agents are deporting them immediately. At last count, the agents had sent 10,000 back over the border to Mexico.
On April 10, President Trump announced visa sanctions for countries that refuse to accept deported illegal aliens, and on Monday announced he would suspend immigration entirely.
Trump said yesterday that the order will apply only to green-card applicants and not affect so-called guest workers — the foreigners who take jobs from Americans.
Trump will sign the order today, he announced this morning on Twitter.
“I will be signing my Executive Order prohibiting immigration into our Country today,” he tweeted. “In the meantime, even without this order, our Southern Border, aided substantially by the 170 miles of new Border Wall & 27,000 Mexican soldiers, is very tight — including for human trafficking!”
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
