John Cornyn: “The latest data shows that U.S. authorities apprehended about 90,000 people along the United States-Mexico border…”

“The latest data shows that U.S. authorities apprehended about 90,000 people along the United States-Mexico border between October of last year and March of this year. Given that we apprehend fewer than half of illegal border crossers, this means we still have hundreds of thousands of people coming into the country across our southern border every year. The problem, it will not surprise the Presiding Officer, is particularly serious in my State because we have the largest common border with Mexico, 1,200 miles. As the New York Times reported this last weekend: ``The front line of the battle against illegal crossings has shifted for the first time in over a decade away from Arizona to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.'' Indeed, on one day in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, the Border Patrol detained 700 people coming across the border; 400 of them were from countries other than Mexico--400 of them. During the fiscal year which began last October, the number of apprehensions in South Texas has increased by 55 percent, with more than 94,000 apprehensions just in the Rio Grande Valley. I was in South Texas a few weeks ago meeting with property owners, ranchers, law enforcement officials, and others deeply concerned about the rising tide of illegal immigration.…”