Illegal Border Crossers Exploit Lack of Detention Capability

A Reuters report on illegal alien apprehension in the Eagle Pass, Texas border sector documents how foreigners other than Mexicans (OTMs) have found that they can achieve illegal entry into the United States even if they are apprehended by the Border Patrol in the effort. The inability of the authorities to deport the aliens immediately - as they can Mexicans by putting them back across the border - and the limited detention facilities mean that the aliens get released to continue on into the country. Because of the miniscule threat of apprehension by interior immigration operations, they are effectively home free - except, of course, this is not their home. The Reuters report says that, "The U.S. Border Patrol has nabbed 15,195 non-Mexican migrants crossing over the Rio Bravo around Eagle Pass in the past eight months, a rise of almost 240 percent on the same period last year, officials said on Monday. Agents say … 'OTMs' … now account for 90 percent of all migrant detentions in the sweltering trade and ranching hub of 40,000 people. That is up from the 5 percent to 10 percent nationwide normally recorded by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

(FAIR Comment: This trend is reminiscent of the asylum scandal of the 1990s when aliens arriving at U.S. ports of entry with fake documents or no documents were being waived into the country if they asked for asylum because detention facilities were swamped. The worst of that situation was corrected when Congress instructed the INS to contract for more detention space and to detain asylum claimants.)

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