The number of illegal alien children traveling alone who have been caught at the US border has more than doubled over the same two month period from last year, according to U.S. Border and Customs Protection.

And the number of illegal alien families who have been apprehended has risen 173% over the same period.

What's going on? Authorities cite a change in routes used by smugglers to avoid Mexican and American checkpoints along the border and the continuing violence in Central America caused by gangs and drugs.

NBC News:

While the world has been focused on Europe's migrant crisis, apprehensions of unaccompanied minors along America's own border have exploded: More than 10,000 undocumented children have been stopped in just the last two months, according to U.S. Border and Customs Protection.

The 10,588 apprehensions are a 106 percent increase over the same Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 period from last year, when 5,129 kids were picked up.

Apprehensions of family units — legal guardians with children under 18 — have proliferated too, with 12,505 detentions in those two months, representing a 173 percent increase from last year's 4,577 seizures in the same time frame.

In June 2014, during the height of the border crisis, Obama tapped FEMA to lead an effort across federal agencies to address the young refugees.

"These children are some of the most vulnerable, and many become victims of violent crime or sexual abuse along the dangerous journey," the White House said in a statement on June 20, 2014, during the height of the influx.

Changes were implemented: Department of Homeland Security boss Jeh Johnson deployed 150 additional Border Patrol agents to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where the largest numbers of unaccompanied minors arrive, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And the administration approved a plan to allow young children from Central America to apply for refugee status in the U.S. as a way of discouraging them from making the risky trek across Mexico.

But recently, said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that represents unaccompanied children in their deportation proceedings, smugglers have changed their tactics, working around the points where the U.S. and Mexico are cooperating to intercept their routes.

"The smugglers have adjusted their routes and they're working around those border control points that the Mexicans have put in place, finding new routes," she told NBC News.

Here we go again. The fact that things are bad in some Central American countries is not the point. The only reason these illegals are coming to America is that they know we won't turn them away and that we will take care of them after they arrive.

"Refugee" should be a term reserved for those suffering from oppression or who are being persecuted for their religious or political beliefs. Those who simply want a government that will take care of them, school their children, give them good health care - these are economic migrants. Unless they have skills that we can use, they should be sent back. Instead, most of these illiterate illegals will be released, given benefits, and put on a path to US citizenship.

Like the German government being burdened with refugees, we'll be taking care of these illegals for 25 years.