Coast Guard, working without pay in shutdown, sees a surge in West Coast migrant intercepts

The U.S. Coast Guard saw a nearly fivefold increase in the number of migrants it intercepted off the coast of southern California in 2018, underscoring the challenge that will remain in stopping illegal migration even if President Trump secures funding for his southern border wall.

The numbers, released to The Washington Post in recent days, show the service intercepted 1,022 migrants at sea there in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. That was up from 213 in 2017 and 142 in 2016.

Nationwide, the number of migrant intercepts at sea dropped from 2,512 in 2017 to 1,668 in 2018, indicating a shift in which more migrants are now intercepted off the West Coast. The majority of migrants taken into custody there come from Central and South America, while migrants caught along the East Coast are more likely to come from Haiti or other islands in the Caribbean Sea.

A Coast Guard spokesman, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Barry Lane, said that the migrants intercepted at sea in 2018 come from numerous countries in the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Guatemala. Others came from farther away nations that include China, Sri Lanka, India and Jordan, he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coast-guard-working-without-pay-in-a-government-shutdown-sees-a-surge-in-west-coast-migrant-intercepts/ar-BBSfJIy?li=BBnbcA1

I'm sure you'll see more of these.