Border cops: U.S. election driving new immigration crisis

The new surge of illegal immigration at the southern border is being driven by the U.S. election and the related debate over whether to ease or tighten immigration laws, according to representatives of border agents and border-state sheriffs.

The last few months have seen a dramatic rise in apprehensions of illegal immigrants, on a scale that rivals 2014, when members of both parties agreed it became a humanitarian crisis. That crisis abated in 2015, but the numbers have spiked again, and federal officials have mostly been silent on why.