Number of migrants illegally crossing Rio Grande sharply rises | News & Observer
NOVEMBER 26, 2015 By JULIA PRESTON
New York Times News Service
The number of unaccompanied children caught by Border Patrol has more than doubled -
The new flows come after a year of declines in illegal crossings across the southwest border -
,,, Once again, smugglers are bringing hundreds of women and children each day to the Mexican banks of the river and sending them across in rafts. In a season when illegal crossings normally go down, “The numbers have started going the other way,” said Raul L. Ortiz, acting chief of the Border Patrol for the Rio Grande Valley. Since Oct. 1, official figures show, Border Patrol apprehensions of migrant families in this region have increased 150 percent over the same period last year, while the
number of unaccompanied children caught by agents has more than doubled.
The new flows here are smaller than the surge in the summer of 2014 but come after a year of declines in illegal crossings across the southwest border. The increases come as Americans’ concerns about border security are heightened after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris raised fears that terrorists would try to sneak into the United States. And they are complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to reassure the country that the border is under control.
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