Read anything about 2016 likely being a record year for illegal immigration into the United States?
Of course you haven't. It doesn't fit into Big Media's scenario for electing Hillary Clinton president.
This year is already second behind the peak of fiscal 2014 for illegal immigration, but a new report by the Wilson Center indicates "August 2016 had the highest number of [unaccompanied children] and family unit apprehensions of any August in the past five years, including 2014."
Usually in August, according to the report, the numbers decline because of the heat and a reduced demand for seasonal labor. If the August numbers continue, though, the country could break its record of lawless entries.
Although fewer illegal immigrants have been removed from the interior of the U.S. every year since 2009 and fewer have been removed from the border every year since 2013, this year's surge - mostly from Central America - is partially driven by those who have been deported but long to return and by the number of illegals willing to pay smugglers extra money for "VIP services," the report states.
The report, "Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking at the Rio Grande Valley," details how those wanting to come to the U.S. pay up to $6,000 to $8,000 for the "VIP services," which assist with repeated attempts to get people across the border and even help them get deep into the interior of the country.
"The smugglers offer the migrants logistical support and intelligence," according to the report, which was based on information from two Wilson Center immigration experts who toured the border to conduct interviews. "Their services include transportation networks, moving from place to place northward to the border based on the smugglers' sense of the securest route."
However, it said, "the majority of migrants seems to pay to be brought to the U.S.-Mexico border, taken to a crossing point, and sometimes helped across the river."
Students from immigrant households, legal and illegal, now account for 23 percent of all U.S. public school students, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
And while the numbers of persons from Mexico and Central America were higher from 2010 to 2014, the countries with the largest percentage increases in immigrants living in the U.S. over the period were Saudi Arabia (up 93 percent), Bangladesh (up 37 percent), Iraq (up 36 percent), Egypt (up 25 percent), Pakistan, India and Ethiopia (up 24 percent each), most largely Muslim countries.
Census Bureau information tells more of the story.
* Illegal and legal immigrants totaled 42.2 million U.S. residents in 2014, the highest total in the country's history.
* Foreign-born workers were 49 percent of maids, 47 percent of taxi drivers and chauffeurs, 33 percent of butchers and meat processors, and 35 percent of construction laborers in 2014.
* Nearly one in three U.S. children under the age of 18 who live in poverty have immigrant fathers.
* Every 100 immigrant households have 64 public-school children, while every 100 native households have 38 public-school children.
Clinton doesn't talk about any of those numbers because she knows immigration is not a winning issue for her. If she talks about illegal immigration at all, it's to castigate her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, for suggesting the United States build a wall on the country's Southern border. However, she would never complete the thought - that he wants to build a wall to keep out a surge of illegal immigrants that, counting 2014 and likely 2016, constitute the two largest groups of illegal immigrants ever to attempt to enter the U.S.
Here, in words from her campaign website, are what she would do if she is elected president next month:
* "Introduce comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to full and equal citizenship."
* "Defend President Obama's executive actions [on illegal immigration]."
* "Let families - regardless of immigration status - buy into the Affordable Care Act exchanges."
* "Create a national Office of Immigrant Affairs through $15 million in new grant funding for community navigators and similar organizations [to help illegal immigrants assimilate]."
Illegal immigration is a problem that has not been stopped or stemmed in most of the past two decades. It is a problem that will continue to worsen unless action is taken. From federal government numbers alone (and cited above), it is a problem that involves the taking of American jobs, the increasing of costs to local governments because of school enrollment without a corresponding increase in the tax base, and an increase of children living in poverty.
America has been a land of legal immigrants and should continue to be one. But it also has been one where the rule of law was sacrosanct. We believe voters should want the next president to return us there.