Number of Illegal Immigrants Crossing Southwestern Border Rises to Highest Level in 15 Years

There's been a call for action at the Southwest border after authorities there reported the largest monthly number of migrants attempting to cross in 15 years. They say about 178,600 illegal migrants tried to cross the border in April and most of them were single adults.   

The number of families and children was down slightly. It's still an obvious problem, however, five young girls were discovered stranded Sunday on a Texas farm just across the border. 

"This is where my husband found them this morning when he was checking on the farm," said Kate Coleman Hobbs in a video posted on Facebook Sunday. "He thought one of them was dead."

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Officials say the girls range from just eleven months old to seven years. Three of them were from Honduras and the other two from Guatemala.

"This is one of our worker's wives right here taking care of this tiny one," Hobbs said. "No one with these children dumped out on the side of the river here on our farm."

"If there's no other reason for Joe Biden to say he's got to change, think about all these young children and what's happening to them," said Senator Rick Scott from Florida during a news conference Wednesday.

Scott held the news conference to try to apply pressure to the White House to do more to secure the border.

"Kamala Harris could have walked to the border, walked to the Texas border in the time that she's been giving the responsibility to solve this problem and not done anything," Scott said.

And 20,000 migrant minors are in HHS care right now in long-term facilities. Speakers at Wednesday's news conference pointed the finger squarely at the President who immediately repealed many Trump-era immigration policies after he took office.

"As someone who knows this situation inside and out, as someone who lives this, my agents and I, we live this day in and day out," said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. 

"As someone who sees this, I can confidently say that President Biden owns this crisis. It is his fault," he added.

Judd criticized Biden not only for repealing Trump's policies, but not introducing new ones.

Another reason why the border problem is so challenging is that those attempting to cross are persistent. 

Customs and border patrol agents report 40 percent of the adults arrested trying to cross the border are repeat offenders.