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Border crisis blown out of proportion, says Border agent

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The people arrested for illegally crossing the southern U.S. border are only about half the story. The other half are getting through, says Chris Cabrera, Border Patrol agent and spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council.

“I would put the number at 40 percent apprehension rate. I know the Border Patrol has come out as high as 80 (percent). I think they’ve settled in on about 50 percent is what we apprehend. I think that’s fair, but I think we’re more in the 40 percent range.”

He says the media have sensationalized the situation.

“Not much had changed. It just got widely publicized. There was that zero tolerance which prosecuted more people, however, not everyone was prosecuted, like it was put out in the media. And there were a lot of circumstances where families did get separated, if there was some sort of criminal history or warrant, then the family did get separated. So it wasn’t anything that was new, anything that was ground-breaking. And up until about two weeks ago, you would separate that family for about eight hours, ten hours while the parent went to court.  And they came back with a slap on the wrist for time served and then they still got released. They got separated and reunited in about 24 hours.”

Chris Cabrera was a guest on McIntyre in the Morning.

By Sandy Wells

KABC News