The illegal-alien invasion at the nation’s border with Mexico, composed largely of illegals from the Northern Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, is bad enough.
Internally, Americans face another related crisis, Breitbart News reported today.
Citing data from the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the website reported that nearly two million illegal aliens from south of the border have deportation orders or pending deportation orders yet remain in the country.
Last week, officials from Customs and Border Patrol reiterated what President Trump has said since early in his candidacy for president: The influx of illegals is “unsustainable” and must be stopped.
The data on deportable, but undeported, border-jumpers prove the point.
The Numbers
“Documents obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) reveal that there are roughly 1.74 million illegal aliens from Central America and Mexico that continue living in the U.S. despite orders to be deported,” Breitbart reported.
About 645,000 have final orders to get out, while 1.1 million have pending orders. The breakdown is this:
• 574,170 from Mexico
• 446,551 from El Salvador
• 380,912 from Guatemala
• 339,443 from Honduras
Immigration authorities, the website reported, have ordered 194,000 of those Mexicans out of the country; 381,000 have pending deportation orders.
Dale Wilcox, IRLI’s executive director, said the “illegal immigration problem in America is bursting at the seams.”
Continued Wilcox:
Among the roughly 12 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States, we have a population greater than the City of Philadelphia’s that have been ordered removed or has pending final removal orders — from Central America and Mexico alone. Instead of taking on more aliens from caravans, our country should expedite the removal of those who have already received due process and been given removal orders.
Breitbart put the numbers in perspective, noting that 1.7 million “is more than twice the population of Boston, Massachusetts; more than 25 times the population of Portland, Maine; and about double the population of South Dakota.”
Numbers at the Border Last Month
As The New American reported last week, CBP officials are more alarmed than ever about the border crisis.
Border agents caught 66,450 illegal aliens trying to cross the border between lawful ports of entry, including 36,174 as family units and 6,825 unaccompanied minors. Inadmissible aliens stopped at ports of entry were 9,653, including 4,211 in families and 424 minors.
Total apprehensions in both categories was 76,013, a 107-percent increase from February 2018.
So far in fiscal 2019, border agents have collared 268,044 illegals crossing between ports of entry, including 136,150 as families and 26,937 minors; again, almost double the 136,209 caught last year.
Adding inadmissibles detained at ports of entry brings total apprehensions this year to 318,407, including 158,118 as families and 28,976 children. Last year’s total for both categories through February was 187,097.
This total so far his year portend a total of nearly 800,000 by September 31.
Homeland Security chieftain Kirstjen Nielsen, Breitbart reported, predicts a whopping 900,000.
As Breitbart’s breakdown of undeported illegals shows, about 70 percent of illegals are now from the Northern Triangle, which makes immediate deportation almost impossible.
Illegals know, as well, that jumping the border with kids in tow means they won’t be sent home immediately.
Most asylum claims from so-called migrants are phony. But they provide a ticket to disappear into the country while the claims are adjudicated.
The Practical Problems
CBP officials explained what such numbers mean as a practical matter.
Dealing with the sick and diseased, for instance, requires a massive manpower shift from border duties to medical care.
CBP sends about 55 illegals a day for medical care, CBP operations chief Brian Hastings told reporters. The number reached 63 in December. Since December 22, agents have spent more than 57,000 hours at hospitals or medical facilities at a cost of $2.2 million in CBP salaries. From 2014 to 2018, he said, CBP has spent $98 million on illegal-alien healthcare. All of this comes at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Another new phenomenon is the arrival of large groups of more than 100, Hastings said. CBP has caught 70 of those groups totaling 12,000 apprehensions this fiscal year. Last year, just 13 such groups crossed the border; in 2017, just two. Sometimes those large groups are decoys for drug smugglers.
“It should be very clear,” CBP chief Kevin McAleenan said, that such “alarming trends … present both a border security and a humanitarian crisis.”
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