A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report recently leaked to the public acknowledges that the failure to deport those who have entered the United States illegally is among the “pull factors” prompting more people to follow suit.
The report, identified as “De-Classified” and “Law Enforcement Sensitive,” was leaked to Breitbart Texas by a law enforcement source in DHS who wants to remain unidentified.
The Obama administration reports that since October, 52,000 Unaccompanied Children (UACs) — most from Central America—have been apprehended at the U.S. border, up from 6,000 in 2011. Yet the DHS report, notes Bretibart, states that only 0.1 percent of the Central American UACs were deported in Fiscal Year 2013, down from two percent during the prior year.
The DHS report examines several factors that “pull” illegal immigrants, including children, to the United States:
Migration pull factors include reunification with family members already in the United States and successful migration attempts; that is, most (98 percent) OTM [other than Mexican] UCs [unaccompanied children] are issued a Notice to Appear and not immediately removed from the United States. Last year, only 1,700 UCs were repatriated to their home countries.” The report also clarifies the statement: HSI-Intel assesses with high confidence that reunification with family members already in the United States continues to be a pull factor for UCs from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
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The report also acknowledges that the failure to immediately deport (repatriate) illegal immigrants is a key factor in encouraging further illegal immigration:
No single factor causes OTM UC migration to the United States. Rather, several factors combine to cause this, including poor economies and violence in home countries, potential employment opportunities in the United States, family reunification, and success at not being immediately repatriated drive OTM UC migration to the United States.
While most reports about the influx of illegal immigrants from Central America blame the massive increase on violence and poverty in that region, the DHS report indicates (“with high confidence”) that encouragement from illegal aliens already in the United States is perhaps an even more significant draw.
Among other significant statements included in the DGS report:
• 53,375 OTM unaccompanied minors are predicted for Fiscal Year 2014, and 95,500 for Fiscal Year 2015.
• The same family members or sponsors are appearing several times to claim different children from the custody of U.S. authorities.
• The U.S. dollars sent from foreign nationals living in the U.S. to their home countries has increased significantly over the past few years and is considered a major factor in why Central American governments do not interfere with their nationals expatriating and traveling to enter the U.S. illegally.
Among the biggest critics of the Obama administration’s weak immigration enforcement and deportation polices has been Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). In a statement release last March 14, Sessions said:
Illegal immigrants in the U.S. who don’t meet the Administration’s ‘priorities’ — even if they come into contact with immigration enforcement — are largely exempt from federal immigration law. And approximately two-thirds of removals last year were in fact not deportations at all but were instead of apprehensions of those interdicted crossing the border.
In a follow-up statement released on March 26, Sessions provided as evidence that the Obama administration had largely abandoned deportation as a method of enforcing our immigration laws:
• “98% of all removals [deportations] met one of [ICE’s] ‘enforcement priorities’: individuals who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense; those apprehended in the act of crossing the border; those who have been previously deported; and fugitives from the law.”
• “Less than 0.2% of the approximately 12 million illegal immigrants and visa overstays in the U.S. were placed into removal proceedings who did not have serious criminal convictions on their record.”
• “DHS has declared to foreign visitors, would-be visa overstays, and future illegal immigrants across the world that immigration law will almost surely not apply unless you are a.) physically caught crossing the border (a non-issue for overstays) or b.) caught committing a serious crime while in the U.S.”
With the Obama administration saying (by its actions if not with its words) to those contemplating entering the United States illegally: “Once you sneak past the border, just don’t commit any major crimes and you won’t be deported,” is it any wonder that the flood of illegal immigrants, including unaccompanied children, keeps on growing and growing?
Photo: AP Images
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