WASHINGTON – Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border are likely to approach the 1 million mark this fiscal year, a remarkable turnaround for a U.S. border security environment that just two years ago had witnessed the lowest levels of illegal immigration since 1971.
What was a major, if often unrecognized, enforcement success story has been replaced by a migration and humanitarian crisis that has overwhelmed border operations, strained an already overloaded immigration court system and resulted in unsafe, precarious conditions for migrants.