“Enforce the law and stop the cartels from profiting from the smuggling of thousands of unaccompanied minors and families across our border.” That is the message of the letter sent to President Obama led by Chairman John Carter (R-TX31), Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY5).

The letter, sent to the President June 20, cites that the President’s immigration policies are creating a dangerous incentive for illicit networks to smuggle thousands of children into the United States. The number of undocumented children apprehended by the United States Customs and Border Protection in May 2014 increased by 267 percent over the number apprehended in May 2013.  During the same period, the number of undocumented adults increased 72 percent.  At a rate of $5,000 per child, these criminal smuggling groups earned at least $53,230,000 in May alone. 

“Thousands of children and families are crossing our border every month because the President has chosen not to enforce our border and immigration laws. The chaos created by the President’s lack of enforcement is at a tipping point and this crisis has to be solved before our border patrol is completely overwhelmed,” said Congressman Carter, Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. “The President has the resources and the authority to enforce the law and I demand he do so.”

The letter urges the President to take the following actions immediately:

1. Detain families who are recent border crossers in appropriate shelters near the Southwest border where practical and consistent with current law. 
2. Utilize existing expedited immigration proceedings to determine whether these families have arrived in the country illegally. 
3. Remove and deport those families who are ineligible to remain in the United States (not eligible for an immigration benefit), including those who make false claims of credible fear.  
4. Place family members who are ineligible for immigration relief in expedited removal proceedings where appropriate.
5. Deliver “notices to appear” via post or issue 210 letters (which order recidivists to leave the United States within 30 days) to family members living in the United States illegally and with whom an undocumented child has been reunited.
6. Broadcast public service announcements on U.S.-based, Spanish-speaking television reporting on the deprivations and dangers of crossing from Central America through Mexico to the United States.

The letter was led by Chairman John Carter (R-TX31) and Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY5) and co-signed by Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX10), Chairman Jack Kingston (R-GA1), Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA10), and Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK4).