Illegal border crossings - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Rio Grande border crossing: Live video shows migrants with young children

Bill Melugin, Evie Fordham | Fox News — Thu, 13 May 2021 20:54:25 +0000

During mornings when river is low, smugglers start sending groups across Rio Grande.

Fox News captured dramatic live video of migrants, including young children, crossing the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas, on Monday as a surge of border crossings continues to cause problems for the Biden administration.

“You see the steady stream of people coming across the border with Mexico entering our nation without going through a legal checkpoint, without any of those things. You don’t see them being COVID tested right there, right?” narrated anchor Harris Faulkner of “The Faulkner Focus.”

BIDEN DESCRIBES BORDER SURGE AS A ‘CRISIS’ AS HE DEFENDS REFUGEE MOVES

“Just moments ago there appeared to be an elderly gentleman they were helping out of the river. Some have camping gear so they can spend the night and do what they need to do. This is a heavy stream of people. A lot of children in the group that we are seeing now, too. Women and children in this group. Looks like that woman is praying as she comes across,” Faulkner continued. “We have seen instances where our Border Patrol have had to get engaged to save people. That water is moving.”

Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA

May 10, 2021

NEW: For the third day in a row, we just witnessed another large group of migrants crossing the Rio Grande into the US here in Del Rio, TX. @FoxNews

See video here.

Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA

This is the biggest group we’ve seen yet. More than 50. All of them say they are from Venezuela, just like what we’ve seen the last two days. @FoxNews

8:29 AM · May 10, 2021

Migrants hoisted young children above the current that was sometimes knee-deep for adults. During the mornings when the river is low, smugglers start sending groups across the Rio Grande. They come clutching babies and backpacks and slowly make their way across the river on foot, stepping from one small island to another.

All of the migrants in the group of roughly 50 people told Fox News that they were from Venezuela. About half of them said they have family in the U.S.

Local Border Patrol has been overwhelmed with more than 5,000 apprehensions in the last week.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a briefing at the White House, Tuesday, May 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ((AP Photo/Evan Vucci))

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently blamed the “nature” of the media for being a “big driver” behind the push to say there’s a border “crisis.”

“But really a big driver was we understand and know the nature of some components of social media and media these days and we just didn’t want to feed into that on this issue or really any issue,” she said in a podcast interview.

“We’ve seen surges at the border,” Psaki said. “Every time it happens it’s bad.”

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The White House’s claim that the border surge is “cyclical” or seasonal, however, has been widely disputed.

Fox News’ Talia Kaplan contributed to this report.

Bill Melugin currently serves as a national correspondent for FOX News Channel based out of the Los Angeles bureau.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/border-crisis-video-migrants-crossing-rio-grande

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The post Rio Grande border crossing: Live video shows migrants with young children first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The U.S.-Mexico border is at a ‘breaking point’ as 76,000 migrants cross in a month. Here’s what you need to know

Emily Hoeven — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 04:01:24 +0000

Moises Castillo, Associated Press

Hundreds of Hondurans are blocked at the border crossing in Agua Caliente, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A caravan of Honduran migrants moved toward the country’s border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States.

SALT LAKE CITY — Over 76,000 undocumented immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in February, more than double the number that crossed during the same time period last year, according to data released by Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday.

“The system is well beyond capacity, and remains at the breaking point,” Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.

The last time the month of February saw so many border crossings was in 2007. This month also had the highest total of border crossings of any month during President Donald Trump’s presidency, NBC News reported.

So far in fiscal year 2019 — which began in October — 237,327 migrants have been apprehended by U.S. officials along the border, a 97 percent increase from the previous year.

Let’s take a closer look at the data to understand who is crossing the southwest border and why, and how the U.S. is handling this surge in migration.

Who is crossing the border?

More than 90 percent of recent migrants are from Guatemala, The New York Times reported. While in the past undocumented immigrants were primarily single men from Mexico, the number of Mexicans crossing the border illegally has plummeted by over 300,000 in the last decade, the Deseret News previously reported.

At the same time, the number of undocumented immigrants from Central American countries — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — shot up by over 375,000 between 2007 and 2016, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center study.

“Central American families have become the new face of undocumented immigration,” Miriam Jordan wrote in The New York Times.

Indeed, 65 percent of the migrants who crossed the border in February were either children traveling alone or children with families.

The number of migrant families illegally entering the U.S. at the southwest border has increased dramatically over the last year. In the first five months of fiscal year 2019, U.S. officials detained 136,150 people traveling in families with children. This compares to 107,212 people traveling in families that were detained throughout all of fiscal year 2018, the Times reported.

Why are families crossing the border?

Central American families are primarily traveling to the U.S. to escape danger and poverty in their home countries. According to the Times, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala have some of the highest homicide rates in the world, including widespread gang activity that can target civilians.

Traveling as a family unit can also make it easier to evade deportation or detention.

Delmer Martinez, Associated Press

U.S.-bound migrants walk past security forces who are stopping some vehicles carrying migrants to check their documents in Cofradia, Honduras, early Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. Yet another caravan of Central American migrants set out overnight from Honduras, seeking to reach the U.S. border following the same route followed by thousands on at least three caravans last year.

U.S. border officials told reporters that some of the strongest “pull factors” bringing families to cross the border have to do with federal laws that prevent the government from holding families in standard detention facilities for more than 72 hours. By law, officials are required to transfer families to a facility suitable for children or let them go free while their cases are pending, the Times reported.

Because Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has only three residential family centers that can hold up to 3,326 parents and children combined, it has been forced to release thousands of migrants each week because there isn’t enough space to detain all of them — nor enough judges to hear all of their cases.

More than 40,000 family members crossed the border in February alone, according to government data.

Why the increase?

In 2017, the number of migrants intercepted at the border was the smallest in decades, with 310,531 arrests, the Deseret News previously reported. The last time there were so few border arrests was in 1971.

The recent sudden increase in migrants may be partially due to President Trump’s goal to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and his promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

“Previous spikes in border traffic have often preceded crackdowns. … The announcement of a government spending deal to build a border wall on Feb. 15 may have precipitated a similar rush, as numbers had been steadily declining over December and January,” NBC News reported.

In addition, new policies instituted by the Trump administration have led to long waiting linesat legal points of entry at which migrants can claim asylum. This frustrated some migrants, resulting in more deciding to cross the border illegally.

Moises Castillo, Associated Press

Honduran migrants receive free water from Guatemalan police at the Honduran border crossing that connects with Agua Caliente, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Hundreds of Honduran migrants were eventually allowed to cross at the Guatemalan border under a broiling sun Monday hoping to make it to new lives in the United States, far from the poverty and violence of their home nation.

The problem has also been exacerbated by a dearth of immigration courts, judges and lawyers and an increasingly high volume of cases. As the Times reported, many migrants come to the U.S. to seek asylum, and the number of asylum cases has shot up in recent years. In 2008, around 5,000 migrants said they had a credible fear of persecution, which is the first legal step to request asylum. In 2018, that number rose to nearly 100,000.

The system, which already faces a backlog of over 700,000 cases, became even more pressurized when more than 40,000 immigration hearings were canceled during the government shutdown in January, pushing many immigrants’ hearings back by years.

The Times reported that the number of migrant families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is predicted to keep growing in upcoming months.

How to handle the migration surge?

Officials and citizens along the border say they have been overwhelmed by the sudden influx in migrants.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement not only lacks adequate space for migrant families, it has also run out of detention space for single adults who cross the border illegally, according to the Times. As a result, it is releasing adults before their immigration court cases or asylum requests have been finalized.

More than 50,000 migrant adults are currently being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the highest number ever, officials told the Times.

The lack of space for detainees has led volunteers, church leaders and other community members to find creative solutions. The Times and the Deseret News reported that churches, nursing homes and hotel rooms funded by donations have been hastily made available in towns along the border so that migrants to have a place to go.

Delmer Martinez, Associated Press

Migrants hoping to reach the U.S. wait in line to board a bus toward Honduras’ border with Guatemala, as hundreds of migrants set off by bus or on foot from a main bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, late Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. Yet another caravan of Central American migrants set out Monday from Honduras, seeking to reach the U.S. border following the same route followed by thousands on at least three caravans last year.

Customs and Border Protection is also increasing the medical care it makes available for migrants, after two children died in a detention facility in December 2018. Now all migrant children will receive comprehensive health screenings, and a new center will be set up in El Paso to provide improved shelter and medical care for families.

“These solutions are temporary and this situation is not sustainable,” McAleenan said. “This is clearly both a border security and a humanitarian crisis.”

McAleenan identified several ways for the involved parties to move forward, calling for Central American governments to improve economic security and opportunity in their countries and for the U.S. to cooperate with the Mexican government to invest in border security.

“We also face the acute need for legislative action to address the gaps in the legal framework” of immigration law, he said.

Source: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900059057/the-us-mexico-border-is-at-a-breaking-point-as-76000-migrants-cross-in-a-month-heres-what-you-need-to-know.html

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February had highest total of undocumented immigrants crossing U.S. border in 12 years

Julia Ainsley — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 03:11:18 +0000

It is also the highest single month total since Trump was elected in November 2016.

A Central American migrant who hopes to reach the United States, climbs the US-Mexico border fence in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on Dec. 29, 2018.Guillermo Arias / AFP – Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The number of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border last month was the highest total for February in 12 years, according to statistics released by Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday.

In 28 days, and in the same month President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in order to build a border wall, 76,103 immigrants without the needed documentation to enter the U.S. either presented themselves at legal ports of entry or were apprehended by Border Patrol between ports of entry.

It is the highest total for February since 2007, DHS officials said at a press conference Tuesday. It is also the highest single month total since Trump was elected in November 2016. Crossings hit 66,842 in October 2016, just before Trump’s election.

Still, February did not set an overall record for border traffic. Before 2008, monthly border crossings were consistently over 100,000, and were higher than 200,000 per month in 2000.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan attributed the rise to human smugglers knowing how to exploitloopholes in the American immigration system.

However, previous spikes in border traffic have often preceded crackdowns, such as the uptick that started just before Trump, who had campaigned on getting tough on immigration, was elected and continued till he was inaugurated. The announcement of a government spending deal to build a border wall on Feb. 15 may have precipitated a similar rush, as numbers had been steadily declining over December and January.

The proportion of immigrants crossing illegally by going between ports of entry, rather than presenting themselves at legal ports of entry, also increased in February, making up 87 percent of all undocumented immigrants stopped by CBP.

NBC News previously reported that more immigrants were growing frustrated with long lines to cross the border at legal entry points.

Children traveling unaccompanied as well as families with children made up 65 percent of the crossings in February, up from 61 in January, which CBP officials told reporters is a result of smugglers knowing that children have an easier chance getting through the U.S. immigration system.

The majority of children and families are turning themselves over to U.S. authorities to claim asylum. McAleenan said there was a 120 percent increase in immigrants claiming asylum between fiscal year 2017 and 2018. And so far in fiscal year 2019, which began Oct. 1, there has been a 90 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Border processing facilities were not equipped for children or medical needs of such a vulnerable population, McAleenan said. CBP will add a center in El Paso, Texas, to process families and children.

But, he said, it is only a temporary solution until Congress changes immigration laws.

“The system is well beyond capacity and remains at the breaking point,” McAleenan said.

Julia Ainsley

Julia Ainsley is a national security reporter for NBC News.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/highest-february-total-undocumented-immigrants-crossing-u-s-border-12-n979546

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As El Paso region sees surge in migrant crossings, nonprofit groups’ support services feel the strain

Longview News-Journal — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 16:00:48 +0000

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — The statue of Mount Cristo Rey standing over this small border community is the site of an annual pilgrimage near the Texas-New Mexico state lines, where tens of thousands gather each October to celebrate their Catholic faith and honor the sacrifices it demands.

This month, however, the site bore witness to a different type of mission, one that immigrant rights groups say is borne out of necessity and desperation.

On Feb. 11, U.S. Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector apprehended 311 undocumented migrants near the site of the famed statue. That same day, more than 330 people were apprehended in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. And on Tuesday, Border Patrol agents came across 180 migrants in Sunland Park, adding to the number of large groups that sector agents have encountered this fiscal year, when such figures are tallied.

Through Wednesday, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector have encountered at least 29 groups of migrants of 100 or more people.

As the number of families apprehended skyrockets, nonprofit and faith-based groups are scrambling to ensure that migrants seeking asylum aren’t let out onto the streets without shelter.

“We’re doing everything we can with all of our shelter network, with the Diocese of El Paso,” said Marissa Limón, the deputy director of the Hope Border Institute, a faith-based community organization in the El Paso, Las Cruces and Ciudad Juárez area. “There are several shelters operating in churches but also through the diocese itself, and they are almost at capacity right now.”

The surge of migrants illegally crossing into Texas has continued even as the Trump administration has tried to crack down on asylum-seekers. The administration and Republican hardliners say the latest surges are the result of an immigration system that is easily exploited by migrants and smugglers. But some analysts think it’s the administration’s policies that are fueling the latest influx, and they say it’s unclear when the numbers will begin to fall.

From Oct. 1, when the federal government’s 2019 fiscal year began, through January, more than 25,700 family units were apprehended in the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, which also includes New Mexico. That’s compared with the 1,523 families Border Patrol encountered during the same time frame last fiscal year, an increase of about 1,600 percent. In the Rio Grande Valley sector, which has been the nation’s busiest, about 43,600 families were apprehended. That’s a 180 percent increase from last fiscal year’s 15,570 during the same time frame.

Although the El Paso sector has always been busy, the latest surge could result from the Trump administration’s policy of stationing Customs and Border Patrol agents on international bridges to turn back potential asylum-seekers. CBP officers have said the move, known as metering, is necessary because the agency has limited space to house asylum-seekers while they wait for their claims to be processed.

“Part of the [surge] is a confluence of factors,” said Jessica Bolter, a researcher with the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “Smugglers do learn quickly about the most effective routes to bring people into the country, and metering itself is likely to cause increased illegal crossings and also to cause people to go to remote ports of entry.”

In a statement about the Feb. 11 apprehensions near Antelope Wells, a CBP press officer said the smuggling of large groups could be a diversionary tactic.

“In many instances, criminal organizations are saturating areas with large groups with the belief that they can smuggle narcotics or other contraband into the United States while Border Patrol agents are occupied,” the statement asserts. “The U.S. Border Patrol will continue to enforce the rule of law.”

The Trump administration also attempted, through an executive order, to bar asylum for undocumented immigrants who cross in between the ports of entry. A federal judge has since blocked that effort, which Bolter said isn’t lost on smuggling networks.

“It drives the idea that you have to cross while you can before another restrictive policy might be issued,” she said.

As the increases continue, shelter directors and faith-based groups on the border are scrambling to make sure migrants have a temporary place to visit before they move to their final destinations, which are usually cities far north of the borderlands. In El Paso, that means avoiding a repeat of what happened days before Christmas, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers released hundreds of migrants at a downtown bus station with no place to go.

Ruben Garcia, the director the Annunciation House, said last week his organization received more than 3,600 migrants, the most in the organization’s 40-year history. He told local media he expected the numbers would continue to spike during the upcoming spring months when the weather turns more agreeable for travel.

Limón said her organization’s shelters are nearing capacity.

“We’re trying to figure out if there are more spaces that can be open, how can we work better with Annunciation House, but also with ICE and Border Patrol to ensure that the flows are better [managed].”

Things don’t seem as uncertain in the Rio Grande Valley. During a visit to the El Paso area Tuesday as part of the Tex-Mex Bishops Conference, Sister Norma Pimentel of the Rio Grande Valley’s Catholic Charities said her organization is able to manage the influx based on what it’s learned since 2014, when the modern-day immigration crisis began in earnest.

She credits volunteers for stepping up and helping but said communication with Border Patrol and ICE is also essential to ensure people have a place to go.

“The numbers of families have not slowed down,” she said. “But it’s amazing how the Valley continues to be very generous. And not only on the U.S. side but also the Mexican side.”

Pimental said that since 2014, when the Border Patrol opened its processing center, a place where migrants have access to more resources like showers and medical help, they aren’t as desperate when they arrive at her shelters.

“Border Patrol did a magnificent job in moving them to Ursula,” she said. “They picked up a lot of the things that we did as a respite center and tried to model that.”

She added, however, that federal facilities should only be temporary stops for the migrants once they are processed.

“I totally think that’s not the place for a family to be,” she said.

The surge in the El Paso sector has also coincided with the arrival of the latest caravan from Central America. On Feb. 4, about 1,600 asylum-seekers arrived at the border city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass. Most of the migrants there were given the option of applying for yearlong, renewable work permits that allow them to stay in Mexico. Hundreds were also bused to other Mexican cities, including Ciudad Juárez. That angered Ciudad Juárez’s mayor, who considered filing a formal complaint against the governor of Coahuila.

Limón said that dispute proves that the work groups like hers are doing is that much more relevant.

“It is a different story when it comes to what happens on the Mexican side of the border,” she said of the decisions made south of the Rio Grande. “But obviously the more shared responsibility and cooperation, there is the better for everybody.”

Read related Tribune coverage

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Even after Tornillo tent city’s closure, more than 5,600 migrant kids are living in Texas shelters

As Trump arrives for rally, El Pasoans say history shows he was wrong about their city

“As El Paso region sees surge in migrant crossings, nonprofit groups’ support services feel the strain” was first published at by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Source: https://www.news-journal.com/news/state/as-el-paso-region-sees-surge-in-migrant-crossings-nonprofit/article_480fc928-3bc2-11e9-80dc-3355d52f8369.html

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