The last few months have seen a record surge in what the Border Patrol calls OTM’s (Other than Mexicans) pouring illegally across the Southern Border.
Nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children were caught in October, and nearly 3,000 more had been caught in the first half of November — a record pace for those months — and it signals just how closely smuggling cartels and would-be illegal immigrants themselves are paying attention to lax enforcement in the U.S.
Worse yet, the increases are borderwide, with every one of the nine Southwest border sectors showing spikes in what the Border Patrol dubs OTMs, or “other than Mexicans.”
The leaky border has become a far more important issue now that the signal has gone up from Obama that anyone who can get into the U.S. can essentially stay on the taxpayers dime.
“The greatest existential threat to this nation right now is this administration’s open-border policy. This is no longer about immigration, it’s about the president and DHS keeping open the corridors on the southern border that are accessible to anyone in the world,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who has raised concerns over national security risks at the border.
“We can defend our country against another country’s navy, a missile threat and even repel a conventional military invasion. But the president’s policy of allowing anyone into the nation as students or refugees presents a serious threat,” he said.
Clearly, Obama’s amnesty and other executive actions have spurred this surge in so-called “refugees.”
Indeed, in court documents the administration has admitted both the smuggling cartels and would-be crossers pay close attention to U.S. policies, and any perceived relaxation of enforcement entices more of them to undertake the perilous journey.
That’s exactly what illegal immigrants themselves are telling Border Patrol agents when they’re caught, according to an Associated Press report last month. The migrants say they believe that under Mr. Obama’s policies, they will earn a “permiso,” or free pass, if they can reach the U.S. border.
And generous welfare benefits along with virtually guaranteed work permits have magnetically drawn another wave of illegal immigrants.
Stephen Miller, spokesman for Sen. Jeff Sessions and the immigration subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, said illegal immigrants are responding to the push for leniency in the U.S., including the 2013 Senate bill that would have legalized most illegal immigrants, Mr. Obama’s executive actions halting most deportations and the increasing use of “catch-and-release” policies for illegal immigrant women and children.
“These are immense pull factors,” Mr. Miller said. “This surge occurs at a time when the federal government continues to admit on visas more than 1 million permanent migrants and 700,000 temporary migrant workers each and every year — holding down pay for a financially drained workforce.”
