“Hundreds of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the southern border as part of massive migrant caravans were found to have criminal histories in the U.S., according to newly obtained Department of Homeland Security documents,” Fox News reported on Thursday.
“The DHS files were provided to House Oversight Committee Republicans in May and included internal data showing more than 1,000 migrants traveling as part of caravans to the border within the past nine months had ‘U.S. criminal histories” and hundreds had “U.S. criminal convictions.'”
The government files showed that in one instance, in a caravan of 8,000 migrants that began movement in October 2018, at least 660 people had U.S. criminal convictions, some of them violent—”40 convicted of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and three convicted of murder.”
Another caravan from January of this year also contained hundreds of criminals, “including more than 20 convicted of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, nearly 30 convicted of sexual offenses, two convicted of violence against law enforcement, and one convicted of attempted murder,” according to the Homeland Security Investigations team, a part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“The newly revealed DHS information comes amid a stunning surge across the border this year. Last month, the number of migrants apprehended at the southern border skyrocketed to levels not seen in over a decade, with CBP reporting nearly 133,000 arrests in May. The number surpassed 144,000 when counting migrants deemed inadmissible—more than a 30 percent increase from the prior month and double the influx recorded at the beginning of the year. The number was the highest monthly total in more than 13 years, officials said.
Last week, the heads of DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) penned a joint letter to members of Congress requesting emergency funding to deal with the ongoing border crisis, echoing the Trump Administration’s request to Congress to provide $4.5 billion.
Thursday this week, The Hill put out a news report detailing congressional Democrats’ about-face on the border crisis—previously considered “manufactured”—and claimed that Democrats are finally considering passing legislation to address the situation: “Democrats now acknowledge there is a genuine humanitarian crisis and are preparing to pass legislation that would provide as much as $4.5 billion in federal aid to address the surge of migrants from Central America. “
