Most who illegally enter as families released without needing to claim asylum

More than 75% of the 473,682 people who illegally crossed the southern border into the United States as part of a family during fiscal 2019 did not seek asylum and were simply released into the country without the legal justification that they need to be here to avoid danger

Senior Homeland Security officials who appeared before a Senate committee Wednesday said only 105,000 of those arrested on the southern border in fiscal 2019 claimed they had a “credible fear” of returning to their home country, far fewer than expected. It's an indication migrants believe they can enter illegally and successfully remain without having to present a legitimate reason for doing so.

“The bottom line is we literally let hundreds of thousands of people in, and they didn’t even have to claim credible fear,” said Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday.

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