Illegal Border Crossings Down for Eighth Straight Month

Finally the border is coming under control.

Border arrests dropped for the eighth straight month in January as the Trump administration’s new policies continue to discourage new people from coming, according to Homeland Security officials -- though they're warning numbers are likely to go up as spring approaches.

The Border Patrol’s 29,200 apprehensions along the southwestern border is the at its lowest in nearly two years, and the number of children and families --0 the toughest cases -- is at its lowest since 2017.

Another 7,479 migrants were encountered at ports of entry, showing up without permission to enter.

Both the border and port numbers are not only lower than December, but are massive improvements over the peak of the migrant surge last year, when more than 140,000 migrants were arrested or encountered.

"Eight months ago your chance of being allowed into the United States was pretty high," said acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan. "That has changed. Catch and release is all but done. You will not be allowed in."

Trump has built a wall of sorts. That wall is called "Mexico."

Jorge Ramos has an opinion piece in the NY Times today in which he argues that Mexico's president Obrador is making a terrible mistake by, essentially, becoming Trump's border wall:

Mexico is now the wall. President Trump got his wish.

The heart-wrenching images documenting a recent confrontation in the state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, are evidence of this. Dozens of Mexican National Guard troops equipped with helmets, batons and transparent shields coalesced on the highway connecting the Mexican cities of Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula to stop a caravan of migrants heading to the United States from Central America.

The guardsmen used pepper spray on the caravan, which as of mid-January included about 4,000 people, many of them women and children. In the end, hundreds were detained, sent back to Guatemala or deported to Honduras. A spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the actions of the National Guard, saying that the use of force to stop and disperse immigrants should be avoided.

I wrote about the confrontation on Mexico's southern border as it was happening. What Ramos doesn’t tell readers is that Mexico closed the bridge the caravan attempted to cross and, when that failed, hundreds of migrants crossed the river and attempted to enter Mexico illegally. Because the Mexican national guard was waiting on the other side of the river, the migrants began throwing stones and bottles at them. That's why the guardsmen were wearing helmets and carrying riot shields.

So ultimately, Mexico did wind up paying for the wall after all.

posted by Ace at 02:15 PM

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