Illegal immigrant children at the Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, Texas had a very merry Christmas, courtesy of border patrol agents and their wives.

immigrantsantaSanta Claus visited children at the facility last Friday to give away presents purchased by staff and homemade treats baked fresh by the wives of Border Patrol agents, ABC 12 reports.

“These children are thousands of miles from home, and most of them are essentially alone for the holidays as they came here without their parents or another family member,” Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. said in a prepared statement.

“Christmas is a tough time to be without your family, so management at the CPC got together and raised money to purchase gifts for the kids and help make Christmas better for them.”

The Washington Examiner points out the number of undocumented immigrant children decreased in 2015 after a huge influx of children crossing the southern border in 2014 convinced the Obama administration to address the crisis, though the figure still remained higher than in the past.

The flood of illegal children comes mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

A new wave of illegal immigrant children are flooding the border again this fall, with figures on pace with the 2014 crisis, according to the news site.

“In the Rio Grande sector, UAC apprehensions are up more than 100 percent, as nearly 6,500 have been taken in so far this fiscal year,” the Examiner reports. “Overall UAC apprehensions at the southwest border are up more than 100 percent this year, and in some sectors of the border, apprehensions are up more than 200 percent.”

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is preparing to deport hundreds of illegal immigrants who entered the country over the last year, The Washington Post reports.

“DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has been pushing for the moves, according to those with knowledge of the debate, in part because of a new spike in the number of illegal immigrants in recent months,” according to the site.

“The pressure for deportations has also mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centers.”

And while the deportations are drawing complaints from immigration advocates, others seem convinced they’re mostly for show, and will do little to actually curb the problem.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies told the news site. “What share is this going to be? … It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number they’ve admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show. It’s just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater.”

The deportations are expected to be carried out in a series of raids starting in January.