WASHINGTON _ Trump administration officials say an increase in the number of Central American families and minors seeking asylum has brought the immigration system to the "breaking point." The 66,450 migrants arrested crossing the southwestern border in February _ a rate of more than 2,300 a day _ was more than almost any month in the past decade.
Yet illegal crossings remain at historic lows overall. In fiscal 2018, which ended Sept. 30, 2017, U.S. agents arrested 396,579 people at the U.S.-Mexico border. From the 1980s into the mid-2000s, that number routinely surpassed 1 million, hitting a high of more than 1.6 million arrests in 2000.
This seeming discrepancy in the significance of the latest figures has allowed both sides to seize on the interpretation that fits their argument.
President Donald Trump cites the near-term increase to buttress his case for a national emergency, which he declared to enable him to bypass Congress and divert more than $6 billion in federal funds for his long-promised border wall. Many lawmakers scrutinizing the border situation and the administration's response point to the long-term trend.
"They're confusing," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said of officials' conflicting assessments in a hearing Wednesday. "In the short term, apprehensions at the border are up. ... In the longer term, I'm told that total apprehensions at the border last year were actually ... their fifth-lowest levels over the past 46 years."
At the same hearing, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, used the latest statistics to rebut criticism that the president's emergency is nonexistent.
"In order to believe that there's a fake emergency at the border, you have to be blind to the facts or simply unwilling to listen," he said.
Yet Trump administration policies intended to deter migrants may be contributing to the recent increase, even as immigration overall remains at historic lows.
