Migrant Crossings Head Toward Highest Since 2007, DHS Chief Says

(Bloomberg) -- Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border are on track to reach the highest level in more than a decade, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen plans to announce Monday as the Trump administration presses its case for an immigration emergency.

The administration projects that it will apprehend close to 100,000 migrants illegally crossing the border this month, the most since March 2007.

“I want to cut through the politics to tell you loud and clear: There is no ‘manufactured’ crisis at our southern border. There is a real-life humanitarian and security catastrophe,” Nielsen plans to say in her annual State of Homeland Security address Monday at George Washington University in Washington, according to prepared remarks.

President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency on the southern border in a bid to circumvent Congress and redirect money from the Pentagon’s budget toward construction of a border wall. On Friday, he issued the first veto of his presidency against a congressional resolution disapproving of his emergency declaration.

The U.S. apprehended 75,000 migrants in February and intercepted 50,000 to 60,000 on average during the final months of 2018. In fiscal 2018, apprehensions peaked at just over 40,000 in May, the same month that the Trump administration stepped up its “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separations of thousands of migrant children from their parents.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net

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