The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday called on Congress to pass new immigration reform legislation after releasing new data showing that border apprehensions are still rising this year.
“It is also clear change will take more than administration action alone,” DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton said Wednesday. “Congress must act to end legal loopholes that have left us with policies that serve as tremendous magnets for illegal immigration.”
“Smugglers, human traffickers, and nefarious actors know our loopholes well and accordingly exploit them,” he said. “The refusal by members of Congress to close catch-and-release loopholes have prevented the Administration from controlling the border.”
DHS’s statement was part of a release that said U.S. border officials apprehended more than 50,000 people in May for the third month in a row. U.S. Customs and Border Protection acknowledged that elevated levels are a sign that it will take “many months” to control the border.
“These numbers show that while the Trump administration is restoring the rule of law, it will take a sustained effort and continuous commitment of resources over many months to disrupt cartels, smugglers, and nefarious actors,” Houlton said. “We are taking action and will be referring and then prosecuting 100 percent of illegal border crossers, we are building the first new border wall in a decade, and we have deployed the National Guard to the border.”
Total apprehensions were about 52,000 in May, up slightly from March and April.
Those numbers are much higher than the numbers seen in that three-month period in 2017, when apprehensions were under 20,000 in each month.
However, the last three months weren’t as bad as the crisis year of 2014, when apprehensions jumped to nearly 70,000 in May.
