On May 4, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton released the following statement on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Southwest Border Migration numbers for April:
"The recently released April 2018 Southwest Border Migration numbers underscore the continuing security crisis along our southwest border. The number of illegal border crossers increased in April from the previous month, and more than tripled in April 2018 in comparison to April 2017. For the second month in a row, we have seen more than 50,000 individuals try to illegally enter the United States.
"If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. DHS has zero tolerance for those who break the law and will no longer exempt classes or groups of individuals from prosecution. Whether you are a single adult or an adult member of a family unit, if you are apprehended you will be prosecuted and put in removal proceedings.
"DHS has significantly increased our referral rates to the Department of Justice for illegal border crossers when compared to the same time period in FY 2017. DHS and DOJ have taken recent steps to surge the necessary resources – such as asylum officers, immigration judges, prosecutors, and ICE attorneys – to promptly adjudicate cases through our civil immigration system or through criminal prosecution.
"To those seeking to abuse our generous laws – we are watching. We will not sit back and watch our laws exploited. If you make a false immigration claim, you will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach individuals in making false immigration claims, you will be referred for prosecution."
CBP’s Southwest Border Migration Numbers for April can be found here.
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