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BREAKING: America's southern border is at a "breaking point," according to @CBP, with more than 76,000 migrants crossed the border illegally in February, more than double the levels from the same period last year. nytimes.com/2019/03/05/us/…
More than 90% of the new arrivals are from Guatemala, officials said. Many Guatemalan families are now boarding buses and reaching the southwest border in as little as 4 to 7 days.
Who is paying for the buses?
Who is paying for the buses?
In El Paso, a volunteer network temporarily houses migrants after they are released from custody. They've had to expand from 3 facilities last year to 20 facilities today, according to the NYT.
“We had never seen these kinds of numbers,” said Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House. He said that during one week in February, immigration authorities had released more than 3,600 migrants to his organization, the highest number in any single week ever.
CBP said migrants are drawn to the U.S. by federal laws & court rulings that do not allow them to be deported without lengthy processing, and that require detained migrant families to be released into the country after 20 days.
As of March 3rd, 237,327 migrants had been apprehended along the southwest border since the fiscal year began in October, a 97 percent increase from the previous year.
U.S. immigration authorities have enough space to detain about 3,000 members of migrant families, but more than 28,000 crossed the border in January.
Because ICE facilities across the country are full, ICE has begun releasing single adults into the country.
Because ICE facilities across the country are full, ICE has begun releasing single adults into the country.
More than 50,000 adults are currently detained in ICE custody, the highest number ever.
Based on intelligence gathered in Central America as well as patterns from previous years, the U.S. government projects the numbers of families traveling to the U.S. will increase in the months ahead.
Meanwhile, cocaine seizures in the last 5 months already exceeded the total seized in the previous 12 months.
All of this is detailed in @itscaitlinhd's explosive article: nytimes.com/2019/03/05/us/…
