TEXAS — The number of families crossing illegally from Mexico into Texas and Arizona has continued to spike in October, according to federal officials in both states, as President Donald Trump keeps raising his rhetoric on immigration and a caravan of thousands of migrants is traveling through southern Mexico.
The increase is causing difficulty at every stage for the Department of Homeland Security, including at the border processing facilities, for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and at shelters for unaccompanied minors, as well as at Greyhound stations in South Texas, where many migrants are released and travel around the US, said a senior DHS official, who asked to have their name withheld because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
All the facilities from processing to detention are “breaking at the seams,” said the official.
This comes as Trump has railed against the caravan ahead of the midterm elections, calling its participants “criminals” and threatening to cut off aid to Central American countries that don’t stop the progress north. The administration has accused migrants of abusing the US asylum system and has faced increased political pressure from the President to stop the flow of illegal immigration. – READ MORE