Source: Breitbart

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released nearly 8,000 border crossers and illegal aliens over the last week, new federal data confirms.

According to catch and release numbers obtained by Breitbart News, DHS has released about 7,935 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the United States in the last seven days.

The catch and release process often entails federal immigration officials busing border crossers into nearby border cities and dropping them off with the promise that they will show up for their immigration and asylum hearings, sometimes years later. The overwhelming majority of border crossers and illegal aliens are never deported from the country once they are released into the U.S.

Since December 21, 2018, DHS has released:

• 13,200 border crossers into the San Diego, California, area
• 23,700 border crossers into the Phoenix, Arizona, area
• 40,600 border crossers into the El Paso, Texas, area
• 56,000 border crossers into the San Antonio, Texas, area

In total, since the end of last year, DHS has released about 133,500 border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. — a population more than double the population of Portland, Maine, and nearly triple the population of Galveston, Texas. Current data suggests that DHS releases more than 1,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. every day.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been tasked with releasing border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S., ICE officials have confirmed, under an agreement between former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and ICE official Ron Vitiello.

At current rates, DHS is on track to release nearly 415,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S. by the end of this year. The mass release of border crossers has coincided with a surge of illegal immigration at the southern border, where about one to 1.5 million illegal aliens, in total, could arrive in the U.S. this year at current projections. Some analysts project that there could be a surge of about half a million illegal aliens arriving at the southern border over the next three months.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.