U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) requested information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday regarding the surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America arriving at the nation’s southwest border.
Johnson, in a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, also requested information regarding DHS’s plan to deal with the humanitarian crisis at the border as the situation continues to worsen.
“In fiscal year 2014, we faced a humanitarian crisis at our border,” Johnson said in his letter. “In all, more than 68,000 unaccompanied children and just as many family units arrived at our southwest border. The majority of these people came from Central America, specifically Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.”
Johnson added that there was a “shocking” increase in apprehensions in August compared to the previous month.
“Nearly 6,000 unaccompanied children and more than 9,000 family units were apprehended in August,” Johnson said. “For comparison purposes, these figures reflect a doubling to tripling of the number of people apprehended in the crisis of FY2014, where in August there were 3,138 unaccompanied children and 3,296 family units apprehended. And yet, despite the shocking nature of this growing crisis, the administration does not seem to be taking it seriously.”
DHS has yet to issue a formal response to Johnson’s request.