Katie Pavlich: Where is Congress on illegal immigration?

When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, illegal crossings over the southern border with Mexico came to a standstill. Human traffickers and drug cartels temporarily heeded crackdown warnings from the new commander-in-chief and patiently waited to see how the new administration would handle border security.

A year and a half later, border crossings are through the roof. As of March, there was an increase of 202 percent over last year; in April, it was 223 percent over April 2017. The vast majority of crossers are families, mostly women with small children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Because of the way U.S. law is currently written, families seeking asylum from countries other than Canada and Mexico require processing in America. In other words, they are given an immigration court date and released into the United States indefinitely. If they have children with them, they are not eligible for expedited processing or deportation.

Building a wall is important, but the latest illegal immigration problem can't be solved without legal and policy changes through Congress. The White House has taken available executive action and been calling on lawmakers for months to take up the issue. Yet, addressing illegal immigration continues to be absent from the agenda. While a Republican Congress sits by and desperately holds onto tax reform as the single accomplishment going into the 2018 midterms, the crisis at the border continues to escalate.

The issue came to a head last week during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, where President Trump reportedly blew up at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen over the seemingly never-ending wave of illegal immigrants flowing into the country. The nation's sovereignty is under attack and the best DHS is able to do, again under current law, is process thousands of illegal immigrants abusing the system into America.

During a recent interview with Fox News, Nielsen didn't deny Trump berated her on the issue and sympathized with the president's frustration.

“It's really frustrating. I share the president's frustration on this and that of the American people,” Nielsen said. “I mean, can you imagine? Here's the president of the United States saying, ‘I want to secure this country. Americans must come first.' And Congress is saying, ‘Yeah, we don't have time. We're busy, and we've got to go on recess.'

“It's a broken system. We've got to work with Congress. Congress has got to close these loopholes,” she continued. “Apprehension without detention and removal is not border security.”

Meanwhile, criminal operations and illegal immigration advocates are encouraging families and individuals to continue their asylum claims, valid or not. After all, there's nothing Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can do about it.

Congress has an obligation to deal with this issue, and politicians on Capitol Hill are failing to carry out their duties by sitting on the sidelines. It's typical for Democrats not to move on this issue in order to attack Republicans as bigots, but Republicans with a majority have no excuse not to act, especially given how urgent the situation has become.

Katie Pavlich is news editor of TownHall.com. Her exclusive column appears on the first and third Fridays of the month.