The Obama administration says it is “surging” resources to confront the flood of illegal unaccompanied minors and family units coming across the southern border.
On the enforcement side, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday it is stepping up enforcement resources to detain more adults with children and increase immigration court hearing capacity as a way to get illegal immigrants from Central America who are ordered removed back to their home countries more “quickly.”
DHS Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on a conference call Friday afternoon that since October, 52,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended along the southwest border as of June 15, and approximately 39,000 adults with children have been apprehended along the border as of the end of May.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte quickly criticized the Obama plan to confront the border crisis as “smoke and mirrors.”
“President Obama’s plan to deal with the crisis at the border created by his administration’s bad immigration policies is nothing but smoke and mirrors,” the Virginia Republican said Friday after the announcement.
“Many of the children, teenagers, and adults arriving at the border are able to game our asylum and immigration laws because the Obama Administration has severely weakened them and many thousands have already been released into the interior of the United States. What does President Obama plan to do with those who have already been released from custody?” he rhetorically asked.
Administration officials were unable to tell reporters Friday how many illegal immigrants released into the country with notices to appear had actually returned for their immigration hearings.
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