Posted at 5:01 pm on November 12, 2019.
The number of people apprehended at the southern border dropped again in October for the 5th straight month. Vox reports that makes for a cumulative 75 percent drop since May and credits President Trump’s policies for the decline:
The number of migrants apprehended at the southern border dropped again in October to 36,300, marking the fifth month straight they have declined, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The decline in border apprehensions, which have decreased by about 75 percent since their height of 132,856 in May, and 10 percent in the last month alone, appears to be due to more than typical seasonal fluctuations and suggests that President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are having their intended effect…
Under the administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the administration has sent about 55,000 migrants back to Mexico while they await a decision on their US asylum applications. Both migrants who wait in line at ports of entry and those who try to cross the border outside ports of entry without authorization can be subject to the policy if an asylum officer finds their claims credible.
The administration also recently brokered agreements with the Northern Triangle countries that aim to facilitate cooperation with US law enforcement, and eventually allow the US to return asylum seekers to those countries. And after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods in June, the Mexican government deployed a record 15,000 troops to detain over 31,000 migrants that month and almost 19,000 in July.
Vox reports it’s not clear if the drop in apprehensions is a result of fewer people making the attempt to reach the border or simply the result of more people being prevented from reaching it by increased enforcement. Whatever the case, it’s clear Trump’s policies are having an impact. In fact, Bloomberg’s Noah Smith says Trump has, in a sense, kept one of his campaign promises:
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