The number of migrants apprehended while trying to illegally enter the United States from Mexico hit a new high under President Trump in April, and was three times higher compared to last April.
New data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed 50,924 immigrants were taken into custody at the southwest border last month, a more than 40 percent increase from January’s 35,817 reported apprehensions.
By comparison, just 15,766 people were detained in April 2017, just months into Trump’s first term. That’s a 233 percent increase year-to-year.
Border officials use the number of apprehensions as a proxy for how many people are trying to enter the country illegally, and said the new data from April 2018 shows there is still an immigration crisis.
“The recently released April 2018 southwest border migration numbers underscore the continuing security crisis along our southwest border,” said Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Q. Houlton. “For the second month in a row, we have seen more than 50,000 individuals try to illegally enter the United States.”
Apprehensions have been known to jump from winter to spring months due to warming weather and better conditions for migrants to travel from Central America to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.
The level of unaccompanied minors — those under 18 years of age who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian — jumped to its highest in seven months: 4,314. Family unit levels also peaked in March at 9,647.
Houlton said Friday that DHS has “significantly increased” its referral rates for the prosecutions of illegal entrants.
“If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. DHS has zero tolerance for those who break the law and will no longer exempt classes or groups of individuals from prosecution. Whether you are a single adult or an adult member of a family unit, if you are apprehended you will be prosecuted and put in removal proceedings,” he said.
“To those seeking to abuse our generous laws — we are watching. We will not sit back and watch our laws exploited. If you make a false immigration claim, you will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach individuals in making false immigration claims, you will be referred for prosecution,” Houlton added.
March and early April have presented new challenges in border security and interior immigration enforcement for the Trump administration. Reports of a 1,000-person caravan of Central American people moving north through Mexico prompted Trump in early April to send in the National Guard to secure the border.
Despite Trump’s push to keep them out, only those who are caught illegally entering the country, as was the case for 11 suspected caravan members over the weekend, will be prosecuted and immediately deported.
Others can apply for asylum, and can apply in the U.S. even if they could have sought asylum in Mexico but chose not to do so, a CBP spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
A DHS official said the caravan migrants, who are mostly from Guatemala and Honduras, will be “treated the same” as any person who arrives on their own at the border and cites credible fear concerns. But that doesn’t mean they will all get asylum, and different people can be processed at different rates of speed.
Both U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployed additional prosecutors, judges, asylum officers, and immigration attorneys to the border in late April due to the anticipation of the caravan’s arrival.
