The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WHO IS TRYING TO CROSS THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER
Border security is at the center of the funding dispute between the Trump administration and Democrats that has shut down part of the U.S. government.
The southwestern border is facing an unforeseen crisis: an influx of Central American families fleeing poverty, gang violence and threats. Two young children died in federal custody last month, and border officials say they are not equipped to deal with the thousands of parents and children who continue to flow in.
Here’s a closer look at who is trying to cross the border and what the United States is doing in response. Has the number of people crossing changed?
The best way to measure illegal border crossings is by the number of people arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol after entering. In 2000, border agents arrested more than 1.6 million people along the U.S.-Mexico border. Agents arrested 303,916 in fiscal 2017, the lowest number since 1971. In fiscal 2018, which ended in September, the number rose to nearly 400,000.
Authorities detained 60,782 migrants in December, the third consecutive month that the figure — the most widely used barometer of border trends — topped 60,000, remaining near the highest levels of the Trump presidency.
Who is crossing?
In the 1990s and 2000s, detained migrants were generally adult men from Mexico who could be easily deported after a short stay in holding facilities. Now, the majority of crossers are Central American families or unaccompanied minors who are difficult to quickly remove because of federal laws prohibiting the swift deportation of unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico and legal limits on how long children can be detained with their parents.
A busy December set a record for the number of migrant parents and children taken into custody, as U.S. border agents arrested 27,518 members of “family units,” according to government statistics.
Last fiscal year, agents arrested 107,212 family members, compared with 14,800 five years earlier.
How many of those crossing are seeking asylum?
U.S. immigration courts received nearly 120,000 asylum claims in fiscal 2017, four times the number from 2014.
The Trump administration argues that migrants are filing frivolous claims, aware that they are likely to win release in the United States as their cases move through the backlogged immigration courts.
Advocates say migrants are fleeing some of the world’s most dangerous nations and have legitimate asylum claims.
Some argue that the solution is to assign more judges to handle the cases.
How many people are in detention facilities?
Five years ago, the government was detaining an average of 33,000 immigrants a day.
As of Jan. 1, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 48,019 in custody — about 8,000 more than Congress has authorized. Most are adults; 1,928 are detained families.
Officials say most detainees aren’t eligible for release because of criminal records or other reasons. Because immigration records are not available for public scrutiny, it’s impossible to independently confirm that.
How has staffing at the border changed?
President Donald Trump promised to increase Border Patrol and ICE staffing substantially. The number of border agents is currently about 20,000, double the number who were patrolling when arrests peaked in 2000.
What’s the pace of cases in immigration courts?
The Trump administration set a goal of slashing the immigration court backlog in half by 2020. But the number of immigration judges has been about 400. And despite new production quotas of 700 cases a year for each judge, the backlog has grown.
The Justice Department, which runs the courts, estimated a backlog of 760,000 before the partial government shutdown that began in late December.
Trac, a Syracuse University organization that publishes court data, estimates that the backlog has surpassed 1 million.