By Christopher Snyder
Published June 23, 2014
FoxNews.com

The significant increase of migrants illegally crossing into the United States has sparked growing concern, leading some officials to say the spike in apprehensions is turning into a humanitarian crisis.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported 52,193 children apprehended between October 1, 2013, and June 15, 2014 -- an average of 205 children per day.

Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke about the crisis with Fred Burton, a former U.S. State Department counterterrorism agent who currently serves as vice president of intelligence at Stratfor, a global intelligence firm.

Burton explained the number of border apprehensions so far in June has been 1,100 a day.

“We’re are probably about two, three weeks away from a larger group of illegals heading toward the Rio Grande valley,” said Burton. “The bulk of these children, as well as [adult] females and males, are from Central America.”

This has border officials worried that they could be overwhelmed by the influx of people trying to cross.

“They are learning if you make your way to the border now you are literally going to have a free pass into the United States,” Burton told McFarland.

One law enforcement official told Burton Friday “many of these individuals in numbers of 50 to 100 are crossing the Rio Grande River into the United States and just waiting for the U.S. border control to pick them up.”

Critics have blasted the federal government for weak border controls along the southern border. This has the potential, Burton says, to hurt U.S. national security.

“We have absolutely no idea how many others [not appended] are getting through,” said Burton. “The influx of these large volumes of migrants is causing resources to draw away from the issues … like counter-terrorism [surveillance].”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/23...r-expert-says/