Surge in Illegal Aliens, 500% Increase in Some U.S. Ports of Entry

Hordes of Central Americans continue infiltrating the United States through the Mexican border with three ports of entry seeing a mind-boggling 500% increase in illegal immigrants during the first months of fiscal year 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, according to government records.

The Boquillas, El Paso, Texas and Yuma, Arizona entry ports experienced the inconceivable 500% hike in Central Americans during the first two months of fiscal year 2016 compared to 2015, U.S. Border Patrol figures show. El Paso and Yuma are notoriously busy crossings, but Boquillas is in the more remote Big Bend National Park vicinity of Texas and has only been opened two years. After consulting with its Mexican counterparts, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it was opening Boquillas to fill a “void” created by a long stretch of border—between Presidio and Del Rio—with no port of entry. The agency created after 9/11 to keep the nation safe assured that it would maintain “robust border security in the area” surrounding the new border crossing.

The agency’s own statistics certainly contradict that, showing that the southern border region is as porous and vulnerable as ever. Other entry ports that saw large hikes in Central American illegal immigrants during the first two months of this fiscal year include Del Rio, Texas (269%), El Centro, California (216%) and Rio Grande Valley, Texas (154%). The Border Patrol breaks the stats down by “family unit” and illegal immigrants under the age of 18, referred to as “Unaccompanied Alien Children” or UAC. The Rio Grande Valley port of entry topped the list in both categories with 8,537 family units and 6,465 UACs during the two-month period. In all, the nation’s nine southern border crossings saw an average of 173% increase in family units and a 106% increase in minors during the short period considered.

Some of the illegal immigrants are Mexican nationals, but the overwhelming majority comes from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The government records show that somehow 4,450 family units from El Salvador evaded our topnotch border security and entered the United States in a period of only two months. Guatemala and Honduras had 3,934 and 3,203 respectively. Mexico had 538 family units. Of interesting note is that, during this period, the Border Patrol reports 35,234 apprehensions in the region of foreigners labeled by the government as “Other Than Mexican” or OTM. This is a term used by federal authorities to refer to nationals of countries that represent a terrorist threat to the U.S.

Judicial Watch has been a leader in exposing the serious threat created by OTMs entering the U.S. through the long susceptible Mexican border. Last fall Homeland Security sources told JW that four ISIS terrorists, who had infiltrated the U.S. through Mexico, were arrested in McAllen and Pharr, Texas. Over the summer JW reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling foreigners from countries with terrorist links into a rural Texas town near El Paso. Earlier this month JW broke a story about five young Middle Eastern men being apprehended by the Border Patrol in an Arizona town just 30 miles from the Mexican border. Two of the men were carrying stainless steel cylinders in backpacks, alarming Border Patrol officials enough to call DHS for backup.