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Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) gathered approximately 1,500 asylum-seeking Central American migrants together in March 2018, to form a caravan for a 2000-mile march to the United States. It attracted a lot of attention which turned out to be much ado about nothing.

On April 3, 2018, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted:

I’ve been advised by Mexican officials that the caravan is dissipating. GOM has repatriated several hundred participants to Central America and is offering refugee status to others who qualify. I thank the GOM for their partnership on this and other security issues.

Nevertheless, President Donald Trump was concerned about the caravanwhen he sent a memorandum to the secretary of Defense directing him to arrange for the deployment of National Guard troops at the border. And the House Subcommittee on National Security held a hearing on it, “A ‘Caravan’ of illegal immigrants: A test of U.S. borders.”

Despite political spin to the contrary, the border is not secure, and the hearing highlighted problems which are preventing DHS from securing it.

The National Immigration Forum submitted a statement claiming that U.S. border policies have been effective, but that claim was contradicted by testimony from the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Colonel Steven McCraw.

According to McCraw, the federal government did not respond to numerous requests from Texas Governor Greg Abbott to provide the Border Patrol with the resources it needs to secure the border, so Texas has had to provide the necessary assistance at its own expense.

Texas deployed State Troopers, Special Agents, and Texas Rangers to the border to conduct around-the-clock ground, marine, and air operations. Then, three years later, it deployed 500 State Troopers, tactical marine boats, aircraft and detection technology assets, and the Texas National Guard to the border.

But illegal crossings and smuggling continued and crime in the border region continued to rise.

Read more at http://thehill.com/opinion/immigrati...called-caravan

About the author. Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an executive branch immigration law expert for three years; he subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years.