Illegal Border Crossings Plummet
US Border Newsletter summary of fourth week of Trump Immigration Actions
Here is the latest US Border News Newsletter summarizing actions during the fourth week of the Trump Administration:
Migration plummeting along the U.S.-bound route as the new U.S. administration leads people to pause: In part because of the Trump administration’s near-complete ban on asylum access, in part because of Mexico’s crackdown, migration levels are low from South America to the U.S.-Mexico border. Large numbers of people are coming to terms with extended stays in Mexico.
Related US Border News Story: Illegal US Border Crossings & Migrant Arrests Drop
Guantánamo: as planes keep bringing migrants, some are not “the worst of the worst”: The Trump administration has taken about 100 people, likely all of them Venezuelan, to detention at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Some do not appear to have criminal backgrounds. Groups are suing to allow attorneys to gain access.
“Mass deportations”: as Trump blasts their pace, Congress begins work on a giant spending measure: President Trump is reportedly angry that arrests and deportations from the U.S. interior are not increasing faster. Agencies lack capacity, but that could be vastly increased by a spending package, now underway in Congress, that could add $175 billion for border and migration crackdowns.
Related US Border News Story: Immigration Raid Blitz Underway
Venezuela sends two planes to pick up deportees: Following a friendly meeting between a Trump administration representative and Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan regime sent two planes to Texas to retrieve deported Venezuelan citizens.
Updates about the U.S. military border deployment: The number of active-duty troops and National Guard (state and federal) deployed to the border may now exceed 10,000. Air Force personnel running deportation flights are removing name tape and unit insignias from their uniforms. Those flights cost about three times as much as civilian deportation flights.
Eight Latin American criminal groups to be added to the U.S. terrorist list: The Trump administration is adding eight criminal groups from four countries to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. This will affect the asylum cases of people threatened by these groups, strengthening some cases and devastating others.
The U.S. aid freeze affects programs designed to integrate migrants and receive deported people. The administration’s 90-day freeze on most forms of foreign assistance has damaged Mexican shelters and weakened programs that aim to integrate migrants into countries like Colombia so that they might not continue their journeys northward.
Finally, in case you missed it (recent US Border News stories of note):
NOTE: This newsletter's summary was generated from a far more comprehensive weekly summary by wola.org, which you can read HERE. (If you found this summary helpful, we invite you to support WOLA’s work).
We remain committed to delivering a US Border Newsletter that is not only educational and insightful but also engaging and easy to digest in five minutes or less.
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
