…This distinction between the shifting demographics at the border isn’t just semantics. It’s not so much an illegal immigration problem, but rather, a steady stream of asylum-seekers.

U.S. officials have known for years that a significant number of Central American migrants are actually turning themselves in at Border Patrol stations and begging for protection. And because they’re asylum-seekers, agents can’t simply turn them away or immediately deport them. The United States has a legal obligation to accept the thousands of migrants until their asylum claims are processed.

“It’s not just economic migrants that are trying to get to the United States for a better living,” Meyer said. “The numbers constitute a high degree of people fleeing for their lives.”

The Obama administration initially responded ..by filling up immigrant detention centers with mothers and their children while their asylum claims were assessed.

The intention was to swiftly process and deport the detainees.

[Authorities found] …that the vast majority of the detained families passed the first of many tests on their asylum applications — more than 86 percent of immigrants held in family detention showed a “credible fear” of returning to their home countries, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It meant they could remain in the United States to follow their applications to the end.

Illegal Immigration Is Changing. Border Security Is Still Catching Up – NBC News

hmmm