Illegal immigration has been on the uptick so far in 2019.

With unusually high levels of illegal immigration in January and February at the southern border, 2019 is set to have the highest levels of illegal immigration in a decade.

Approximately 58,000 migrants were detained on the border with Mexico. And the numbers have only grown bigger, with 70,000 more migrants apprehended in February.

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The Department of Homeland Security expects higher rates of illegal immigrants for March and April, putting 2019 on pace to have record numbers of illegals entering the country.

A Homeland Security Official told The Washington Post that the “numbers are staggering, and we’re incredibly worried that we will see another huge increase in March.”

Detractors of President Trump’s emergency order at the southern border nit-pick the numbers by highlighting how these numbers are historically lower than previous levels of illegal immigration during the early 1990s and 2000s.

But border patrol officials point out a difference in the type of illegal immigration that is generating this crisis.

The large number of Central American migrants making their way to the southern border are not from Mexico or Canada, which don’t allow for quick deportations because of trafficking laws. Many of these migrants are family units, not individuals trying to cross the border. Additionally, these kinds of migrants actively seek border enforcement officials and are simply pleading for asylum.

According to Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost, this profile of migration is overstretching her agency’s resources.

Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost says the combination has stretched her agency to the breaking point.

Provost made her case in front of a House Judiciary committee:

“Each day, nearly 25 percent of my agents are diverted away from our border security mission to care for, transport and process family members and unaccompanied children.”

Provost added:

“We know that when agents are occupied, narcotics smugglers, criminal aliens, gang members and others use the opportunity to violate our borders and our laws.”

Indeed, what’s going on at the border is no trivial matter.

Sadly, the political class has kicked the can down the road since Trump was elected in 2016, and has now forced him to make an emergency declaration.

Beyond the immediate violence human and drug traffickers can bring about, there are very real long-term problems with the U.S.’s porous borders and flawed immigration system.

Large-scale ethnic ghettoes and welfare dependency will soon become the norm in the U.S. should it not address the question of immigration correctly.

Frankly, our political leaders needs to wake up.