Illegal alien apprehensions at the Southwest U.S. border topped 40,000 for the first time under the Trump administration during the month of December, according to newly released data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
It’s the highest monthly apprehension rate in nearly a year, though still lower than last January’s roughly 42,000 apprehensions right before Donald Trump took office. Still, the 40,513 apprehensions CBP reported in December are a pretty hefty increase from the Trump administration’s record low of 15,766 in April of last year.
And Illegal alien apprehensions have been on the rise ever since, surpassing 30,000 in August and steadily ticking upward. In December, CBP caught a post-Trump record 4,083 unaccompanied children and 8,121 members of family units, along with more than 28,000 single adults.
Granted, not all illegal aliens who are caught at the border are those who jump the river and make a run for it. In fact, around than 25 percent attempt to pass through a port of entry before being deemed “inadmissible.” Just fewer than 29,000 of those caught in December were nabbed in between ports of entry, while the remaining 11,500 or so were caught trying to cross unlawfully through a border station.
Historically speaking, December’s total of 40,000 illegal alien apprehensions is still far lower than CBP's average monthly numbers during the latter Obama years. In fact, the last time border apprehensions were under 40,000 pre-Trump was in February of 2016, and even that was a bit anomalous.
But the steady uptick in apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico line proves once again that America's illegal immigration crisis won't be solved by tough talk alone – or, apparently, by the leftist media's deluge of highly publicized deportation stories. Without a physical barrier and an actual increase in border security (not just a promised one projected for some vague and nebulous future), illegal alien crossings will continue, likely inching back to their old numbers with time.