The Department of Homeland Security on Friday issued a warning that border Customs and Border Patrol will show "zero tolerance" to anyone caught attempting to illegally cross the border.
DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton noted in a statement on recently released CBP data for April of this year that illegal border crossings have "more than tripled" compared to April of last year, and that "for the second month in a row, we have seen more than 50,000 individuals try to illegally enter the United States.
"If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution," he wrote. "DHS has zero tolerance for those who break the law and will no longer exempt classes or groups of individuals from prosecution. Whether you are a single adult or an adult member of a family unit, if you are apprehended you will be prosecuted and put in removal proceedings."
Houlton added that the department has "taken recent steps to surge the necessary resources – such as asylum officers, immigration judges, prosecutors and ICE attorneys – to promptly adjudicate cases through our civil immigration system or through criminal prosecution.
"To those seeking to abuse our generous laws – we are watching," he wrote. "We will not sit back and watch our laws exploited. If you make a false immigration claim, you will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach individuals in making false immigration claims, you will be referred for prosecution."
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