RECORD BREAKING: Migration Numbers Reach Highest Point In Years
April Data Shows Crushing Numbers of Migrants Arriving at Southwest Border

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Customs and Border Protection released last month’s border data and the numbers are staggering. In April, Border Patrol encountered more than 109,000 migrants along the southwest border—a 591 percent increase compared with April 2017. Fiscal year totals have topped over half a million migrants, approximately the population of Tucson, Arizona.

More on the magnitude of the crisis:

• In just the last seven months, more than 1 percent of the total population of Honduras and Guatemala have migrated to the United States.
• A group of 421 adults and children crossed the border near El Paso, the largest single group CBP has ever seen. Smugglers have been known to use large groups of migrants to divert law enforcement.
• Law enforcement is increasingly rescuing migrants from dangerous situations, pulling migrants from the Rio Grande river and saving children who smugglers have abandoned. CBP has already rescued more than 2,000 migrants in the last seven months.

Our system can’t handle this influx.

• 40 percent of Border Patrol agents are pulled off the front line to process and care for migrants.
• Detention facilities are beyond capacity: the Yuma station is currently at more than 400 percent capacity. Four other stations are at least 68 percent above capacity.

Bottom line: President Trump called on Congress to provide emergency funding to address the immediate humanitarian and security crisis at our border. It’s time for Congress to stop playing politics and provide the administration what it needs to address the crisis.

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Contact: Nicole Hager

202-226-8417