U.S. border patrol agents spent the last two years issuing warnings to the Obama administration about an uptick in the number of illegal minor-aged immigrants crossers, a new report from the University of Texas at El Paso found.
But President Obama and his administration ignored the warnings, researchers said in the 41-page report, the Daily Mail reported.
The report that sounded the alarm bells about the border surge was presented to the Department of Homeland Security in March, the Daily Mail reported.
One item in the report showcased how in August of 2013, Border Patrol agents at the Fort Brown station in Brownsville, Texas, had set up a makeshift transportation facility for the illegal children — where they also engaged in such jobs as washing the kids’ clothes, preparing them sandwiches and taking them to offsite facilities for showers, the Daily Mail reported.
Thirty agents were assigned to that duty, the researchers found.
In early 2012, the White House even helped negotiate the terms to establish a temporary shelter for the illegal minor-aged immigrants at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, the Daily Mail reported.
“There were warning signs, operation folks raising red flags to high levels in terms of this being a potential issue,” said one former federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to The Washington Post.
A domestic policy adviser to the president, however, said the present day border situation is different from what’s occurred in the past.
“It was not the same pattern,” said Cecilia Munoz, the Daily Mail reported. “We assume a significant increase, but this was not the same kind of trend line.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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