Federal report 'stunning indictment of migrants'

President Trump has called the waves of illegal aliens crossing America's border from Mexico an emergency, and he's allocating federal money to build sections of wall there.

Now, a federal investigatory panel finds illegals are jumping through loopholes – with the help of smugglers – to gain entry.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the report by the Homeland Security Advisory Council's CBP Families and Children Care Panel makes startling conclusions.

Andrew Arthur of CIS called it a "stunning indictment of migrants (largely from Central America, as that report makes clear) gaming loopholes in our immigration system with the assistance of smugglers along the southwest border."

The bipartisan team that produced the report included aides to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who adamantly has opposed building a wall, and Jim Jones, who was Bill Clinton's ambassador to Mexico.

"After being held for several days at inadequate and overcrowded holding areas at [U.S. Border Patrol] stations, most of the adults – provided they have a child with them and have stated that they fear returning to their country of origin – are issued Notices to Appear (NTA) at a later time before an immigration judge somewhere in the U.S. and then dropped at a local bus station or delivered to already overwhelmed non-profit shelters," the report said.

"The NTA, combined with long delays in the adjudication of asylum claims, means that these migrants are guaranteed several years of living (and in most cases working) in the U.S. Even if the asylum hearing and appeals ultimately go against the migrant, he or she still has the practical option of simply remaining in the U.S. illegally, where the odds of being caught and removed remain very low.

"A consequence of this broken system, driven by grossly inadequate detention space for family units and a shortage of transportation resources, is a massive increase in illegal crossings of our borders, almost entirely driven by the increase in [family unit (FMU)] migration from Central America."

The report said: "By far, the major 'pull factor' is the current practice of releasing with a NTA most illegal migrants who bring a child with them. The crisis is further exacerbated by a 2017 federal court order in Flores v. DHS expanding to FMUs a 20-day release requirement contained in a 1997 consent decree, originally applicable only to unaccompanied children (UAC). After being given NTAs, we estimate that 15 percent or less of FMU will likely be granted asylum. The current time to process an asylum claim for anyone who is not detained is over two years, not counting appeals."

It points out that despite "the interests of the U.S. in enforcing the court ordered removal of unsuccessful asylum seekers, very few non-detained asylum claimants whose claims are denied are actually ever located and deported from the U.S."

CIS said the system is overwhelmed by illegal aliens.

The federal report states: "Turned on its head, CBP personnel are instead tending to the daily needs of thousands of illegal migrants who CBP has already processed but is left holding for days and sometimes weeks in confinement space that was built decades ago and designed to confine only a fraction of these illegal migrants for hours, not days or weeks, and certainly not intended to confine tender age children."

The number of family units over the last year alone has risen 600 percent.

The federal report makes clear that "properly caring for this population [has] overwhelmed the entire government and brought our border security and immigration management systems to the point of collapse."

The report proposes building tent cities to detain and process asylum seekers.

CIS said DHS "failed to take steps in a timely manner to stem the flood of aliens rushing the border months ago."

"The administration, however, has the authority … to erect temporary housing to detain migrants entering illegally at least through the credible-fear processing stage."