News reports in early December 2017 highlighted the fact that under President Trump, illegal border crossings had dropped to a 45-year low. This caused some open border advocates to question the need for many of the enforcement tools espoused by the president during his campaign.
Don’t get excited too quickly. New statistics out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demonstrate that while apprehensions have been below the historic average, we’re not quite out of the woods yet. In fact, DHS is apprehending more than 1,100 illegal immigrants per day, with the number peaking at 1,400 in a single day on January 14.
And not all of those apprehensions are illegal aliens seeking amnesty or job opportunities. In fact, DHS reports that at least seven known or suspected terrorists are apprehended every day, or roughly 2,500 per year.
The continuous speculation about a DACA amnesty, combined with the proliferation of dangerous sanctuary jurisdictions across the nation, seems to have incentivized illegal immigration once again. There has been a 622 percent increase in family units detained at the border since April. And despite the fact that roughly 95 percent of family units with children who are released never show up for their pending hearings, they’re being released in 20 days or less into the interior of the country.
Further, once asylum applicants are released, they can wait as long as four years for a hearing – if they intend going – because there’s a backlog already of well over 300,000 cases. Additionally, some 628,000 aliens overstayed their visa and remained illegally in the country in 2016 alone. And that’s in addition to the 950,000 illegal aliens with final orders for removal who remain in the country.
Still think we have a handle on the problem?
Clearly, we need to have the right enforcement tools in place – including the wall, mandatory E-Verify, and increased interior enforcement against sanctuary cities – before any talks related to the DACA population take place. To do otherwise would simply be throwing fuel on the fire.