The acting chief of the U.S Border Patrol testified Tuesday that border agents have apprehended more than double the number of unaccompanied minor illegal immigrants from October 2015 to January 2016 as the same time period last year.
“For FY 2016, as of January 31, 2016, USBP apprehended 20,455 [unaccompanied minors], compared to 10,105 apprehended during the same period in FY 2015,” said the Border Patrol’s Ronald Vitiello during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
The U.S. government’s fiscal year 2016 began Oct. 1, 2015.
The hearing, “The Unaccompanied Children Crisis: Does the Administration Have a Plan to Stop the Border Surge and Adequately Monitor the Children?” had a panel featuring members of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) officials.
Alabama Sen. [crscore]Jeff Sessions[/crscore] asked Thomas Homan, executive associate director Enforcement And Removal Operations for ICE, whether immigration would go down if 90 percent of illegal aliens were returned promptly and safely.
“I think if you have a consequence and deterrence to illegal activity, the illegal activity will slow down,” said Homan.
He later testified that it is harder to deport illegal alien children due to the fact “Spanish media, Spanish newspaper, a lot of NGOs are educating these folks on how to not comply with law enforcement.” Homan continued to say. “There’s been many situations where we’ve been at the residence, we know they’re there, but they won’t open the door. And my officers don’t have the authority, of course, to go into the house.”
The Obama administration has framed the surge of undocumented minors across the southern border as a humanitarian crisis, but Homan testified, “Based on my experience, I think there are some that are escaping fear, but I think there are many more that are taking advantage of the system.”
Of the estimated 127,193 unaccompanied minor illegal immigrants apprehended in the past two-and-a-half years, Sessions said, “only about 3.5 percent [are] apprehended and returned home.”
Many of these unaccompanied minors get released to “sponsors.” Mark Greenberg, top HHS official, said that his agency can’t confidently say that none of these minors have been sexually abused, sexually trafficked or forced into coerced labor.