Interior Dept. apprehends 4,000 immigrants at US border in 6 months

Interior Department law enforcement officers in the past six months apprehended 4,010 immigrants illegally entering the country and turned them over to U.S. Border Patrol, according to government data released Friday. In addition to border apprehensions, agency officers seized 2,356 pounds of drugs, as well as vehicles and firearms, according to the Interior Department. The officers, whose jobs typically focus on patrolling federal parks in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York City, were sent to the U.S.-Mexico border at the behest of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to aid President Trump’s call for a border surge. The agency said the decision to place officers at “identified Interior lands” near the border was made in order to patrol U.S. park and public land and provide Border Patrol assistance with arrests. The re-assignment of agency law enforcement increased arrests by almost 4,000 percent compared to the last six months of the Obama administration, according to Interior...MORE