HOUSTON - Border patrol agents in Rio Grande Valley are seeing larger groups of people trying to cross into the U.S. illegally.
Andrew Arthur, Senior in Law and Policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, thinks the courts and the mainstream media have helped fuel the recent increase.
Arthur says, "I think it's definitely the media focus and I think it's the very short-sighted court orders because I believe these are some activist judges trying to deliberately subvert the administration policies. Americans only see small child standing by the border agent crying. They don't see the rapes that take place in the desert. They don't see the people left alone to die in the vast wastelands of northern Mexico."
Ankle monitors have been used to try to keep an eye on migrants, but Arthur questions just how effective they can be. "The fact is if you are at-large in the United States and you had the ability to cut off your ankle monitor and you are under a final order of removal then you don't have any real incentive. You might have the incentive to show up for the hearing but not the deportation."
So, the battles at the border and in the courts will continue.