America is facing a security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border even though apprehensions are down compared to 20 years ago, President Trump’s top border official insisted to Congress Tuesday.
“There is an ongoing debate as to whether this constitutes a border security crisis or a humanitarian crisis. Let me be clear, it is both,” Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost testified in the House Judiciary Committee.
“I’ve been asked many times how the current situation can be a crisis compared to years when we surpassed 1 million apprehensions. To understand the numbers, you have to look at what’s happening on the ground.”
Her testimony backs up the view of Trump, who has said a crisis exists that requires him to claim billions of unused federal dollars to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Provost said the lower numbers of apprehensions only tell part of the story.
In fiscal 2018, which ended Sept. 30, the Border Patrol arrested around 361,000 people. That was up a little from 310,000 in 2017, which was a 45-year low.
Last year’s numbers are still less than half of the 1 million people who were caught illegally crossing into the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s. But Provost said the type of person being caught at the border today has different needs and is taking up more agency resources than a person they used to arrest.
Decades earlier, most of those apprehended were adult Mexican citizens who would typically be taken into custody, documented by Border Patrol and then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office for immediate deportation.
More recently, the number of Central American children or families arriving at the border have crept up to more than half of all apprehensions. Because the children are from countries other than Mexico and Canada, they are protected by a 2008 trafficking law that mandates they cannot be immediately removed, she explained.
“Up until this decade, most of those crossing the border illegally were single adult males. Today, family units and unaccompanied alien children (UAC) make up 60 percent of illegal border crossings along the southwest border,” Provost said in her prepared remarks.
Provost said this change in demographics and different legal factors has pushed Border Patrol to its limits. The 2,000 people being arrested daily cannot be referred for immediate deportation because so many are families who are claiming asylum after illegally entering.
She cited other factors, including difficulties relating to the remote areas where these migrants are picked up.
“In the El Paso Sector alone, we have seen a 434 percent increase in apprehensions this fiscal year. Many of these are family units and UAC arriving in large groups, exacerbating capacity constraints in our facilities,” according to Provost’s prepared remarks.
In addition, a small portion of immigrants who illegally enter then claim asylum are also asking for medical care and must be taken to local medical centers. Provost said about 5,000 of her 20,000 agents are no longer manning the U.S.-Mexico border because they are instead needed to transport and care for illegal immigrants in need of medical care.
“Each day, nearly 25 percent of my agents are diverted away from our border security mission to care for, transport, and process family members and unaccompanied children,” she said.
Provost, the first woman to oversee the patrol, said around 55 people are taken to medical appointments at outside facilities daily. While Border Patrol agents are tasked with carrying out federal immigration laws, Provost said they “do not leave their humanity at home” when they report to work and are caring for immigrants as best they can.
However, the surge of immigrants in need of medical care subverts agents from border security duties, allowing drug smugglers, criminals, and gang members to illegally cross into the U.S.
