WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, issued the following statement after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released operational statistics for April 2021 regarding the crisis at our southern border:
“I am very concerned that CBP reported more than 178,000 total encounters at the border in April, the highest amount in more than two decades. This includes more than 50,000 migrant family members, 50 times more than in April 2020; more than 100,000 single adult migrants, seven times more than last year; and more than 17,000 unaccompanied children, the second-highest monthly total since Border Patrol began counting unaccompanied children. March 2021 had the highest monthly total on record with more than 18,000 unaccompanied children encountered at the border.
“The Biden administration’s border crisis of surging numbers of unlawful migrants is a direct result of its decision to dismantle the previous administration’s policies with no consideration of the ramifications. This situation is unacceptable and unsustainable. I look forward to Secretary Mayorkas’ testimony on the crisis at our border at tomorrow’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing and the opportunity to ask whether the Biden administration is removing critical protections for unaccompanied children in an effort to expedite processing and place them with sponsors, and about reports of sexual abuse of children at HHS holding facilities.”
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