It’s rather astounding, not to mention dismaying and disturbing: Illegal crossings at the California-Mexico border grew by 51 percent in April.
This border crossing activity has strained federal resources and led to delays in the screening of legitimate travelers, border patrol officials revealed on Friday in a news release.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) officials said that at least 1,632 illegal immigrants were stopped between April 1 and April 26 of this year—compared to 1,081 inadmissible individuals for the same period in March.
“These individuals are increasingly citizens of countries other than Mexico,” officials said.
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They also disclosed that the steady push of illegal immigrants into this country since Joe Biden entered the White House in January was creating very real consequences for the department.
“With these increases, operations at the border crossings have been impacted as CBP officials must dedicate resources to securing the port of entry and processing these individuals, repositioning resources that would otherwise be dedicated to critical passenger and cargo processing, leading to increased wait times for the traveling public,” the agency said on Friday.
In the same release, it also noted, “CBP officials are committed to securing the border while safely facilitating legitimate trade and travel into the U.S. and continue to adjust operations.”
It added, “We also continue to reach out to our partners in Mexico as well to coordinate and secure their assistance; our combined efforts to address illegal crossings in both countries are necessary to allow us to get back to devoting the resources necessary to keep legitimate traffic flowing.”
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—By CNJ Staff