Yuma Sector doubles migrant apprehensions over last fiscal year
May 24, 2019, 4:55 AM
PHOENIX — The Yuma Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol has caught 50,000 migrants since Oct. 1, almost double the number for the last federal fiscal year.
That’s also quadruple the amount for fiscal year 2017.
An Arizona senator has one idea to move all the migrants: “Working with sponsors to fund charter bus routes to ease the pressure on crowded Greyhound routes,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) told the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.
At the hearing Thursday, Sinema learned from acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan that his department is getting by with new buses and borrowing Department of Defense drivers.
He also recounted how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently stopped some asylum fraud in Texas.
“Out of 560 interviews, they found 160 cases of fraud,” McAleenan said. “Granted, these were targeted cases based on risk, based on visuals and prior interviews by Border Patrol.”
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McAleenan called for tighter asylum laws to stop the migrant surge.
The Border Patrol has said most apprehensions are voluntary surrenders of Central Americans seeking asylum in the U.S.
Also Thursday, ICE announced it has released 32,500 migrant families into Arizona since Dec. 21.
By comparison, ICE has released 65,000 in El Paso and 71,000 in San Antonio in that time.
