With the increase in asylum seekers, there is now a record-setting spike in arrested families at the southern border.
What We Know:
- Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan announced that nearly a million people have tried to pass the southern border this year. Nearly 475,000 of those people have been detained at the border, according to CNN.
- Morgan went on to say that “These are numbers that no immigration system in the world can handle, not even in this country. And each month during the fiscal year, the numbers increased. You saw them. We all saw them”.
- A Texas border facility had almost 900 detainees when the maximum capacity is 125. These over-packed cells have been struggling to maintain proper hygiene. Detainees are forced to wear the same clothes for days and have limited showers.
- Morgan also admitted that the number of arrest at the border has declined, due to policies in Central America which allow refugees to seek asylum there. For example in El Salvador, migrants seeking persecution or corruption could go to a closed country rather than trying to pass through the dangerous journey to America.
With hiring outpacing attrition last year of border workers the Trump administration hopes they can improve on their numbers next year.
