Covering Up the Immigration Crisis

Today we continue our coverage of the ongoing crisis at the border. The number of children that have crossed the border since last October is now at 57,000 and rising. And as we covered last week, along with those 57,000 children have come 39,000 adults.

These immigrants come largely from Central America. Because of that, the United States guarantees them a court process before they can be sent back. But they’re rarely ever sent back. They either ignore their court date, or the courts grant them asylum. Either way, the vast majority stay in the United States—permanently.

As you’ve heard, the Border Patrol is scrambling to manage this flood of humanity. Illegal immigrants are tying up border agents, overflowing detention facilities and being transferred to youth shelters across the country. To alleviate this situation, the federal government has requested billions of dollars.

Over the past two years, Obama administration officials have been consistent in declaring that America’s southern border is “more secure than ever.” Even though few people believed it, the White House stuck with that talking point. But now there’s evidence that the Obama administration wasn’t in denial—they knew what was going on.

Cecilia Muñoz, one of President Obama’s domestic policy advisers, said, “Nobody could have predicted the scale of the increase we saw this year. The minute we saw it, we responded in an aggressive way.”

But a mountain of evidence shows immigration workers and Border Patrol officers have been warning Washington for some time about this problem and how it has been escalating. Let’s take a look.