Southern Border sees increase in apprehensions of families

A higher number of people are trying to cross illegally into the U.S. it's a concern for congress and for those dealing with border security.  The number of people who attempted to illegally cross the border has increased, if you look at the big picture.

In Laredo, we've seen a 41-percent increase of families and children who were caught attempting to cross. Overall along the U.S./Mexico border, we've seen an increase of families at 187-percent and children at 117-percent.  That's when we compare the Department of Homeland Security datacompiled for the financial year of 2015 and 2016.

This has been a concern for Congressman Henry Cuellar who represents Laredo and The Valley, two areas that have seen increased activity from Central American immigrants.

Cuellar says he's helped secure funding to address border security; there are also efforts to help address the problem further than our ports of entry.

"We also added $750-million to help Central America to address the security, the violence, the drug problems that they have down there. We're hoping with the security, economic, and social assistance that we're providing to them that it will hopefully keep more of those kids and family members from coming over here", said Cuellar.

Cuellar says they've also provided funding to Mexico to help them secure their border with Guatemala.

The majority of people caught illegally coming into the U.S. are from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.  The funding to help address border security in Mexico and increase security in Central America is coming from the 2016 omnibus appropriations bill passed in December.  A 36-percent reduction in apprehensions along the southwest border has been seen in January compared to the previous month.

However, the congressman is using the data collected from a longer period of time.  To see the complete data on these crossings, you can head over to the extras tab on our home page. There has been an increase of 171 percent in family units apprehended along the Southern Border.  The numbers also show a 102 percent increase in unaccompanied children apprehended in South Texas.

Congressman Henry Cuellar says he is concerned with these numbers of apprehensions. Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security released January numbers - noting a 36 percent decrease in apprehensions.

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