Changing Dynamics at Southwest Border are Driving a Humanitarian Crisis

WASHINGTON  President Trump is right: there is a crisis at the southwest border that is a result of demographic shifts and changing migration patterns.

Dramatic demographic changes are pushing this crisis

• Central American smugglers are telling migrants to take children with them as a  visa and are urging migrants   now or never because the wall is going to be built, and it won’t be possible to cross, in the future.
• The smugglers are right: Authorities must release Central American families and unaccompanied children into the United States within 20 days to await legal proceedings, under the Flores court settlement.
• Most of them vanish into the U.S. interior during their legal proceedings.

Family apprehensions are on track to at least double from FY 2018.

Look at the numbers:

• In the first four months of FY19, 99,901 families were apprehended. Compare that with the total of 107,212 from FY 2018.
• Family apprehensions for FY 2019 are already 572 percent higher than FY 2013.
• Illegal immigration is at a five-year high
• About 119,000 migrants attempted to illegally enter the United States along the southwest border in Dec. 2018 and Jan. 2019. That’s a 56 percent spike from the same time last year.
• Migrants are arriving at the border in record large groups, overwhelming Border Patrol stations and port of entry processing facilities
• Migrant groups are getting dangerously large, like the more than 8,000 person caravan in November.
• Migrants didn’t used to come in such large groups.
• In FY 2019, there were 62 groups of over 100 migrants just since October 1.
• In FY 2018, there were 13 groups of over 100 migrants.
• In FY 2017, there were just two groups of over 100 migrants.

The surge in families is creating a humanitarian crisis and depleting CBP manpower

• More migrants are arriving at the border in need of urgent medical care, which means border patrol agents are spending less time processing migrants and responding to their border security duties.
• Border Patrol projects a 133 percent increase in migrants needing medical treatment after crossing the border over last year.
• In FY2018, border patrol agents assisted and rescued more than 4,300 people in distress along the border before they reached CBP custody  a 20 percent increase over the previous year.
• In January 2019, border patrol agents spent nearly 28,000 man-hours at a hospital or medical facility with illegal immigrants. This trend could equal 115 agents off the line for an entire year.

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Contact: Nicole Hager
202-226-8417