Border Chief Reports that 5,800 “Fake Families” were Discovered at the Border
Published 13 hours ago on Aug 2, 2019 By Jose Nino
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The Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Mark Morgan revealed to a Senate committee on Tuesday that 5,800 “fake families” were discovered to have been trying to enter the U.S. illegally this year.
Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) questioned Morgan during a Senate Homeland Security hearing about the border crisis, asking him “Our laws prevent us from holding people more than 20 days and because we can’t get the information we’re probably releasing them even sooner than that in many cases, correct?”
Morgan responded, “With respect to family units, since March of this year, United States Border Patrol has been releasing family units directly so in some cases they’re being released in under 48 hours into the interior of the United States.”
Johnson then remarked, “Because it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to try and find facilities to hold them for 20 days with this overwhelming flow so instead of border patrol turning them over to ICE for a more thorough vetting process and then ICE releasing them, border patrol is doing it directly?”
Morgan replied, “That’s correct.”
Johnson stated that releasing undocumented migrant families into the interior without proper vetting poses a “real danger” to both the public safety of Americans and to the migrants themselves.
“Especially with the amount of fake families that we are uncovering every single day,” Morgan said.
Johnson claims that U.S. authorities “do not have the time to determine” if migrant children are accompanied by their parents or human traffickers.
Morgan responded by saying that “It’s a challenge.”
He added, “As long as our laws are the way they are you are going to grab a kid because that is your passport to the United States. They know that in the Northern Triangle countries and they are exploiting that every single day.”
On April 30, 2019, reports surfaced the Department of Homeland Security began DNA testing to determine family ties at the border. Later during the hearing, Johnson asked Morgan about the number of “fraudulent families” that have been discovered through DNA testing programs at the border.
Morgan stated, “I don’t have the overall percentage but we do have the numbers. Right now at border patrol, 5,800 and HSI, part of ICE, they’ve identified hundreds since their pilot program of pushing agents forward.”
The occurrence of “fake families” will likely increase as the U.S. continues to drag its feet on immigration reform.
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