What’s Driving the Latest Surge of Illegal Immigration From Central America

In a reprise of the humanitarian crisis of summer 2014, rising numbers of Central American children and families are crossing the Rio Grande Valley into Texas, causing a reckoning over whether the U.S. is facing a “new normal” of illegal migration from countries facing violence and poverty.

U.S. Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol in La Joya, Texas, on April 10, 2013. According to the Border Patrol, undocumented immigrant crossings have increased more than 50 percent in Texas' Rio Grande Valley sector in the last year. Border Patrol agents say they have also seen an additional surge in immigrant traffic since immigration reform negotiations began this year in Washington, D.C. Proposed refoms could provide a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented workers living in the United States. John Moore/Getty Images

In a reprise of the humanitarian crisis of summer 2014, rising numbers of Central American children and families are crossing the Rio Grande Valley into Texas, causing a reckoning over whether the U.S. is facing a “new normal” of illegal migration from countries facing violence and poverty.

Though the U.S. is better prepared to handle the influx compared to last time, immigration experts caution that the problem is likely to sustain beyond a surge, with many of the cases from last year yet to be adjudicated in overburdened immigration courts and more coming.

“It’s honestly the next chapter in an ongoing crisis,” said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that represents unaccompanied children in deportation proceedings.

It's honestly the next chapter in an ongoing crisis.

— Wendy Young, president, Kids in Need of Defense