Illegals flood across border – from everywhere
‘Central America, Chinese, Romanians are a big one right now’
by Michel Marizco
AZPM.org
JUNE 6, 2016
Refugees from Central America are pouring into the United States, a trend from 2014 that seems to be resurfacing along the U.S.-Mexican border this year. Many of them are children, sent on the long journey alone.
The Border Patrol, immigration courts and refugee workers were overwhelmed the last time it occurred, in 2014. Border officials have asked for more resources this time out.
In Yuma County, Arizona’s southwestern most corner, work to strengthen the fence and add patrols led to a significant decline in illegal crossings last year, 90 percent by some accounts.
It is picking up again, Yuma County law enforcement officials said.
“They’re not what you would consider a typical border crosser,” Yuma Sheriff’s Capt. Eben Bratcher said. “Many of these people are from other nations, other than Mexico. Central America, Chinese, Romanians are a big one right now, and so that’s kind of a change in what we’ve come to expect here.”
In 2014, Central Americans flooded the U.S., mostly at the Texas border. By April that year, 28,000 lone children were among them. That number dropped by half last year. This year, the surge is already back to 2014 levels with more than 27,000 children, officials reported.
The Yuma Sector of the Border Patrol has seen its own spike. In 2014, 178 kids arrived here. By March this year, the number was 1,500.
Customs and Border Protection officials declined interview requests. In February, agency Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske asked the House Appropriations Committee for enough funding to manage an expected 75,000 children at the border, about the same number as in 2014.
The Rest…HERE
