California Border Patrol saw a 51% increase in illegal immigrants in April

Illegal crossings across the California-Mexico border increased by 51% in April compared to March, border officials said Friday. The increase has slowed legitimate travel and exhausted federal resources.

“For the April 1- 26 time period CBP officers at California land border crossings encountered 1,632 inadmissible individuals, compared to 1,081 inadmissible individuals the same time period last month,” a Customs and Border Patrol release said.

The report warned that passenger and cargo travel has been impacted by the illegal immigrant increase.

“With these increases, operations at the border crossings have been impacted as CBP officials must dedicate resources to securing the port of entry and processing these individuals, repositioning resources that would otherwise be dedicated to critical passenger and cargo processing, leading to increased wait times for the traveling public,” the report warned.

With COVID-19 precautions, however, the border remains closed to those who are not essential.

 “On a daily basis, CBP officers along the California/Mexico border continue to restrict travelers that are not exempt from crossing the border for non-essential travel purposes,” the report said.

Read the full report here.