Border Update – Detentions at southern border total more than several states
Bottom Line: Last year we were talking about a border crisis with a crush of illegal immigrants, led commonly in caravans, by front groups like Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Whatever 88% more of a crisis is, that’s what we’ve experienced year over year. On Tuesday,Customs and Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan revealed the detentions recorded at our southern border and the numbers were simply staggering.
Detentions totaling 977,509 were recorded – an 88% increase year over year. To put that number in perspective, that’s higher than the population of six states! And those are just the detentions processed, not factoring in illegal immigrants who successfully made their way past authorities. The president’s critics have called into question his characterization of the organized caravans as “invasions” but is he wrong?
Here’s a definition for the word invasion:
- an unwelcome intrusion into another's domain
If you have populations of people totaling numbers greater than six of your states inside of a year seeking access to your country unlawfully, what is that if not an invasion? According to CPB, most detentions continue to come from central Americans countries. Morgan noted that while the total number of detentions isn’t a record (the record for a fiscal year was over one million in 2000), the burden on the system is. Unlike detentions of times previous, these caravans have been coached to claim asylum to enter the process in the American legal system. All in the hopes of effectively side-stepping the legal immigration application process. The already overwhelmed system has reached stunning levels. The current projected wait time for an asylum case to be heard... 700 days!
Of the asylum cases to be heard,greater than 98% have been deemed to be illegitimate by the courts. That means that out of the greater than 977k detentions over the past year, only around 19,500 will have status granted. And in the meantime, what’s the impact to us? The average cost per person detained to us is $137 per day. With a process time of 700 days every detainee costs American taxpayers a stunning $96,000. These are not victimless crimes. We’re all paying a very expensive price for these illegal immigrants. For those who claim that we can’t afford a border wall or whatever the excuse today is... We can’t afford not to have one.