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Fact Sheets

Confronting the Urgent Crisis at Our Border

Immigration

Issued on:

GROWING CRISIS: Our country is facing an urgent crisis as illegal aliens stream across our border, including a caravan of thousands heading here at this moment.

  • Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 saw the highest number of family unit apprehensions and of inadmissible aliens on record – more than 40 percent higher than any previous year.
    • Family unit apprehensions at the southern border have increased by a staggering 620 percent since 2013, from 14,855 to 107,212.
  • The number of unaccompanied minors apprehended along the southern border has grown by 171 percent since 2010.
    • United States Border Patrol apprehended 18,411 unaccompanied minors at the southern border in 2010, compared to 50,036 in 2018.
  • Catch-and-release loopholes backed by Democrats and created by activist judges have blocked us from quickly removing illegal aliens and instead allow them to remain here for years.
    • In FY 2000, 95 percent of apprehensions were repatriated within hours as the vast majority were adults from Mexico and not subject to outrageous loopholes.
    • In FY 2018, roughly 4 out every 10 aliens apprehended along the southern border face effectively no legal consequence for illegal entry due to loopholes.
  • There has been a dramatic increase in the number of aliens claiming a fear of return at the southern border over the past several years.
    • The number of aliens claiming credible fear of persecution in their home countries has spiked by over 1700 percent since 2010.
    • While approximately 80 percent of migrants from the Northern Triangle countries claim credible fear, only 15 percent are granted asylum.

THREAT TO OUR SECURITY: Our porous southern border has allowed drugs and criminals to flood into our country and endanger the security and well-being of American communities.

  • CBP stopped 17,256 criminals and 1,019 gang members from entering our country in FY 2018.
  • Brutal gangs like MS-13 have exploited the influx of unaccompanied minors for recruitment.
  • Mexico is the source of more than 90 percent of wholesale heroin seized by law enforcement in the United States, up from only 10 percent in 2003.
  • The amount of fentanyl seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in FY 2017 (2,370 pounds) was enough to kill every American citizen by overdose.
  • The southern border is the main entry point for cocaine entering the United States.
  • Methamphetamine seizures at the southern border jumped by 157 percent from 2012 to 2016.

DEMOCRATIC OBSTRUCTION: Democrats have blocked all efforts to secure our southern border and protect our communities.

  • Democrats defend loopholes that enable the release of illegal aliens and further this crisis.
  • Every single Senate Democrat supports an open-borders bill that would effectively grant amnesty to any alien within 100 miles of the border as long as they arrive with a minor.
  • Democrats have opposed legislation to crack down on sanctuary cities, be tougher on aliens who reenter after deportation, keep out alien gang members, and fully fund a border wall.
  • Earlier this year, 90 percent of House Democrats failed to take a stand and vote in favor of a resolution to support the brave men and women of ICE.