WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, under fire from Democrats for deportations and Republicans for border crossings, announced some positive news on Tuesday: The numbers of families and unaccompanied minors apprehended at the Southwest border fell last month.
Border agents picked up 3,145 family members in January, compared with 8,974 in December, according to figures released by DHS. They also apprehended 3,113 children traveling without parents, down from 6,786 the previous month. Johnson said in a statement that the overall number of Southwest border apprehensions, which the government says indicate how many people are attempting to cross without authorization, were at the lowest levels since January 2015.
The number of children and families coming to the U.S. without authorization climbed in the final months of last year, prompting concern about another border surge like the one in 2014 that overwhelmed border patrol and social service agencies. Many of the mothers and children picked up at the border have said they were fleeing violence in Central America.
Even with a dip last month, the apprehension figures remain considerably higher this fiscal year than during the same period in the 2015 fiscal year. From Oct. 1 to the end of January, DHS apprehended twice the number of unaccompanied children as agents did during the same period the prior fiscal year, and more than twice the number of families.
DHS began to conduct raids last month on families previously apprehended at the border that had received final orders of removal. Democrats and immigration advocates have warned that the mothers and children would be in grave danger if returned to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The administration has remained firm on what officials call "enforcement actions," despite the public pressure. Johnson indicated that is not changing, although he said he had spoken to critics and has "great respect for the views expressed and those who expressed them."
"While the one-month decline in January is encouraging, this does not mean we can dial back our border security efforts," Johnson said in the statement. "Recent enforcement actions, which focus on those apprehended at the border on or after January 1, 2014, will continue."
Johnson emphasized that people apprehended at the border are priorities for deportation -- a rebuttal to arguments that the administration was failing to keep promises to remove "felons, not families" in its latest enforcement efforts. Johnson added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement "will not, except in emergency circumstances, apprehend an individual at a place of worship, a school, a hospital or doctor’s office or other sensitive location."
Johnson's statement was similar to a letter he and Secretary of State John Kerry sent last week to Democratic House members and senators defending their response to Central Americans coming to the U.S. In both the letter and the statement, Johnson talked up new efforts to expand refugee admissions in Central America so those eligible can apply within their country rather than making a risky trip to the U.S. without authorization. (Opponents of the raids have questioned why mothers and children are being deported to countries considered so dangerous they need a renewed refugee effort.)
"Our policy is clear: we will continue to enforce the immigration laws and secure our borders consistent with our priorities and values," Johnson said in his statement. "At the same time, we will offer vulnerable populations in Central America an alternative, safe and legal path to a better life."
