White House: ‘Surprising uptick’ in USA border crossings

According to statistics released by the U.S. Border Patrol almost 10,000 unaccompanied minors and families were arrested in the month of August, a 52 percent jump from previous year .

Overall, for the first 11 months of the fiscal year that began in October, the arrivals of children traveling without adults to the southwest border from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala dropped 46 percent from the year-ago period.

Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Josh Earnest it was “a surprising uptick” and that the administration is taking it “very seriously”.

“There is no family that should even contemplate putting a young child in the hands of a human trafficker in response to promises that that person can get their child into the United States”, he said.

Historically, fewer people try to cross the border in August than do May-July.

Isacson said that this could indicate the beginning of another surge, noting that the number of people caught traveling as families also ticked upward last month.

“We are aware that smugglers, or ‘coyotes, ‘ often use misinformation about current immigration policies and practices to lure individuals seeking to cross the border illegally to employ their services”, he said.

A federal judge in California ruled last month that the Homeland Security Department’s detention of families violated a longstanding legal agreement requiring that immigrant children not be held in secure facilities that aren’t licensed to care for children.

Obama administration officials are planning later today to brief members of Congress when they’ve finalized the numbers from border sectors, according to US officials.

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