#U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data

[ctcnewsca]

🇨🇦🇺🇸 Canadian travel to the U.S. has plummeted by 500,000 due to an escalating trade war, impacting crossings and commerce. 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Uncover the stats, trends, and reasons behind this shift 👇🏻

[ceekbee]

Today, one day before the U.S. imposes 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, one thing is absolutely clear: this is what happens when misinformation and disinformation are left unchecked.

Donald Trump has blithely used the excuse that Canada is allowing fentanyl and immigrants to pour into the U.S., yet the data paints a very different story.

Consider this: in Fiscal Year 2024, U.S.

Customs and Border Patrol seized 21,148 pounds of fentanyl coming in from Mexico.

From Canada? 43 pounds. That’s 0.2% for those keeping score.

Same deal on the people side. over 1.5 million people were detained in FY24 crossing from Mexico into the U.S. On the northern border, 23,721 - less than 1,6% of the total - people crossed illegally.

Yet President Felon repeatedly insists Canada is a leaking cauldron of debauchery as he also claims they’re “subsidizing” us to the tune of inflated figures that have no basis in reality, and change with every rage-post to his failing social media platform.

In reality, trade imbalances are not subsidies, and Trump’s warped reasoning suggests a pathetic lack of basic economic theory.

Yet his base, trained by years of being fed a torrent of lies so intense that every word is now accepted as fact, applauds. Making matters worse, American media, cowed by frivolous lawsuits from a guy who wrote the book on predatory litigation, now pays Trump off as they pressure their own journalists into backing off from critical coverage.

No, the Jim Acosta case was not isolated, and there will be more.

Society does indeed die in darkness, and imagine where we’d be if a society now content to live in darkness had had the wherewithal to recognize the lies for what they were, and push back.

As a higher-tech rerun of the Nazi party’s 1930s playbook, we’d think Americans would know enough to recognize the signs that they’re being lied to.

Sadly, we’d think wrong.

I’m hoping Canadians have what it takes to finally appreciate mis/disinformation for the democracy-killing disease that it is.

I suspect my hope is misplaced. This, ultimately, is how empires end.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #red #maple #leaf #autumn #stilllife

-By Carmi Levy

[darkmaga-returns]

By John Kudla

I wrote a similar article when Joe Biden was still a presidential candidate.  Back then, the polls suggested that a Trump landslide was a real possibility.  Now the polls are closer, and some pollsters claim that Kamala Harris will win.  I disagree.

Please remember that most of what you are about to read is my opinion based on an analysis of political articles and polling data.  As such, it should be taken with a grain of salt.  

The reason you should be both doubtful and cautiously optimistic is simple.  Although the polls say the election will be close, Trump is currently in the best position polling-wise of any of his three presidential campaigns.  

Let’s set the stage for this election.  Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrat elite raided the U.S. Treasury to the tune of over $3 trillion during their first two years in office.  This was done under the guise of the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS Act, and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.  The resulting tidal wave of government cash caused inflation to spike, pushing prices up over 20% in four years.  Everything from food and electricity to insurance and interest rates went up and have stayed up.

At the same time, President Biden and Border Czar Harris allowed almost anyone to illegally cross our borders.  Estimates are that around 8 million people crossed the border, with another 1.5 million got-aways not apprehended by the Border Patrol.  According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, over 660,000 have criminal histories.  The cost to house, feed, and care for these people is at least $150 billion/year nationwide.  That money could have gone to U.S. citizens to help pay for natural disasters and other problems.

[chamerionwrites]

The Biden administration, desperate to limit border crossings after a key pandemic-era measure expired late Thursday, slashed the amount of time asylum seekers have to find lawyers before their crucial first interviews with immigration officials.

The Trump administration issued a similar policy in 2019, but that effort was later blocked by a federal court. President Biden’s move is the latest example of him adopting a Trump-style scheme in an attempt to manage high numbers of border crossings.

Biden’s version of the policy, outlined in an email sent to asylum officers Wednesday and obtained by The Times, gives asylum seekers at least 24 hours to find and consult an attorney once they receive information on the process. Before the change, migrants had at least 48 hours from their arrival at a Department of Homeland Security facility to find a lawyer.

The move could allow officers to more rapidly remove migrants who do not pass their first screening, known as a “credible fear” interview.

Title 42, a decades-old policy invoked during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow border agents to quickly turn back migrants, expired just before midnight on Thursday, and officials were expecting a spike in migrants trying to cross the border. Complicating matters, just hours before Title 42’s expiration, a federal judge in Florida blocked the Biden administration from quickly releasing migrants from Border Patrol custody without court notices.

Border agents already apprehended more than 10,000 migrants in a single day Tuesday, according to internal data obtained by The Times. By Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection had more than 28,000 migrants in custody, significantly more than its facilities are rated to hold, the data showed.

“In support of the Department’s goal to more quickly provide relief to those who are eligible while more quickly removing those who are not, effective immediately the minimum time between the noncitizen’s acknowledgment of receipt of the Form M-444, Information about credible fear Interview, and the credible fear interview will be 24 hours,” a lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official on asylum wrote in the email announcing the change.

The directive also made clear that migrants who request to reschedule their initial interviews will need to “demonstrate extraordinary circumstances” to do so as to not “unreasonably delay the overall process.”

USCIS will “continually assess” whether a return to the 48-hour wait period is appropriate, according to the email.

A USCIS spokesperson said in a statement that the agency “is committed to ensuring that noncitizens in expedited removal are given time to consult with the person of their choosing after being referred to USCIS for a credible fear interview. In order to expeditiously process noncitizens in expedited removal, USCIS will ensure that noncitizens will have at least 24 hours for consultation.”

Biden administration officials believe that deterrence, through quick deportations and a policy that limits asylum for those who cross without authorization, will allow them to manage increases in migration at the border.

In credible-fear interviews, migrants who convince an asylum officer that there is a significant possibility that they could establish they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country usually get to stay in the U.S. and pursue their asylum cases in immigration court.

Migrants who can’t clear that bar are usually deported.

“The decision to cut the time makes it clear that the Biden administration is doing everything possible to fast-track people for deportation as opposed to giving them the opportunity to truly access due process and a fair chance to have their asylum claim adjudicated,” said Taylor Levy, an immigration attorney specializing in border cases.

The so-called consultation period for asylum seekers is crucial, advocates have previously said.

Immigration lawyers argued that former President Trump’s version of the policy, which allowed migrants a business day, rather than 48 hours, limited migrants’ ability to find attorneys, gather evidence and prepare for the interview.

The Trump policy was one of the first changes under the leadership of then-USCIS head Ken Cuccinelli, who followed the Trump administration’s continuous efforts to limit asylum at the border and deport more migrants. Ur Jaddou, Biden’s director of the agency, called Trump’s effort “another way to limit the process” and said it would lead to “more deportations.”

A federal court blocked the policy after advocates challenged the legality of Cuccinelli’s appointment.

“For asylum seekers, credible-fear interviews are often matters of life and death. Cutting in half the time that people have to prepare for what might be the most important interview of their life raises the risk of errors even higher,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, said Thursday. “The Biden administration should stop trying to sacrifice due process and a fair shot at protection for expediency.”

The administration has said it is prepared for the end of the Title 42 policy and will send troops to the border, institute a policy that limits asylum for those who cross without permission, surge asylum officers and judges to help process people and rapidly deport those who do not have a right to stay in the U.S. DHS officials have also said they would expand the number of phone booths for migrants to consult attorneys in custody.

The U.S. also recently solidified a deal with Mexico to allow DHS officials to turn back nationals from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua to Mexico.

“The border is not open, it has not been open, and it will not be open subsequent to May 11. And the smugglers who exploit vulnerable migrants are spreading misinformation,” DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a recent news conference. “They are spreading false information, lies in a way to lure vulnerable people to the southern border, and those individuals will only be returned. To the individuals themselves who are thinking of migrating: Do not believe the smugglers.”

While the administration has pursued deterrence-focused policies, it has also opened up more slots for asylum seekers to seek entry at ports of entries and will create processing centers to help migrants determine whether they have a legal path to the U.S.

At the same time, the Biden administration will allow migrants from Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala to apply to enter the U.S. if they qualify for a family reunification program.

The Department of Homeland Security will continue to also allow immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela who have verified sponsors in the U.S. to apply to enter the country legally.

[beardedmrbean]

Mexico will deport certain migrants from some of its northern border cities as part of an agreement with U.S. immigration officials who have reported a sharp increase of migrants attempting to cross the border in recent weeks, according to Mexico's immigration enforcement authority.

Mexico's National Migration Institute said it wants to "depressurize" the border cities of Ciudad Juárez, Piedras Negras, Tijuana and the northern state of Tamaulipas, where large numbers of migrants have recently crossed the border and where U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested thousands of them.

The institute didn't say when the deportations will begin or how long they will last, adding that it will first negotiate with Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba to make sure those countries will receive its citizens.

"It should be noted that CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] representatives offered the Mexican authorities all technical assistance to address the immigration issue at airports or other inspection points such as trains to reduce the numbers of people who use these mobility routes," the institute said in a statement.

The statement also said Mexican immigration officials will take into custody migrants who have been expelled by the United States at an international bridge connecting El Paso and Juárez.

The agreement was announced after Mexican and American officials met in Juárez on Friday. Officials with Ferromex, Mexico's largest rail operator, were part of the meeting; hundreds of migrants have arrived at the border after hopping aboard freight cars.

"We are continuing to work closely with our partners in Mexico to increase security and address irregular migration along our shared border," said CBP acting Commissioner Troy A. Miller, who attended the meeting. "The United States and Mexico remain committed to stemming the flow of irregular migration driven by unscrupulous smugglers, while maintaining access to lawful pathways."

The move comes as Eagle Pass and El Paso have scrambled to find shelter for recently arrived migrants, or help them get transportation out of the border cities, after they have been processed and released by immigration officials.

On Saturday, CBP said that it reopened a port of entry to rail and vehicular traffic in Eagle Pass; agents had closed it on Wednesday to help process the hundreds of migrants who were waiting to be processed under the bridge.

CBP said in a statement last week that it "swiftly vetted and processed approximately 2,500 individuals into custody and cleared the area" under one of the Eagle Pass' international bridges on Thursday. Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. told CNN that on Friday, immigration agents apprehended between 800 and 1,000 migrants in Eagle Pass.

In August, federal agents encountered an average of 957 migrants each day in the Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, according to government data.

In El Paso, more than 2,000 migrants have arrived each day, Mayor Oscar Leeser said in a news conference on Saturday afternoon. That's nearly double the 1,073 daily encounters that the El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico, recorded in August, according to government data.

As of Monday, immigration agents were releasing 1,200 migrants per day into the city, according to the city's website. That's up from between 300 to 400 migrants per day just six weeks ago, the mayor said.

The city has come to "a breaking point," Leeser said. "We're preparing for the unknown."

On Saturday, the city opened an overflow shelter at the Nations Tobin Recreation Center, which can hold 400 individuals, Deputy City Manager Mario D'Agostino said at the news conference.

Last week, the El Paso Independent School District's board agreed to sell a vacant middle school building to the city for $3.8 million for use as an overflow shelter. The city council will vote on the purchase on Monday.

Officials for three shelters in downtown El Paso said the facilities are at capacity and have had to turn away single men in order to shelter women and children first. The shelters can house up to 450 people.

"We're now at numbers that none of us have ever seen," Blake Barrow, CEO of the Rescue Mission El Paso, said during a news conference on Friday.

Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said the large number of migrants who arrived in Eagle Pass last week was a tactic by organized crime to draw immigration agents' focus to that region to make it easier to smuggle drugs elsewhere on the border.

"I believe it's a money-making opportunity for those smugglers," he said during an interview with ABC News on Good Morning America.

In the months after the emergency health order known as Title 42, which immigration officials used to turn away many migrants at the border, expired on May 11, the number of migrant apprehensions dropped significantly. But in the past few weeks, the number has skyrocketed.

According to CBS News, which cited unpublished federal government data, immigration officials on average made 6,900 apprehensions per day along the southern border in the first 20 days of September -- a 60% increase from the daily average in July.

Many of the migrants are from Venezuela who are fleeing the country to escape an authoritarian government, death threats from organized crime and a collapsed economy.

Last week, the Biden administration announced it will allow Venezuelans who entered the United States on or before July 31 to receive temporary protected status, a program Congress approved in 1990 that allows undocumented people to get a work permit and defer deportation for 18 months.

[leviathangourmet]

Senator Kyrsten Sinema said Wednesday that she is furious that $100 million in federal aid for migrants is being distributed to New York City instead of Arizona, which she says is bearing the biggest burden of the border crisis.

Arizona, her home state, and Texas have been hit with massive influxes of illegal immigrants seeking resources and shelter for months, she said.

“What we’re experiencing here in Arizona is matched only by what folks are experiencing in southern Texas,” the now-independent senator said during an event in the Yuma sector of Arizona near the southern border, according to the Hill. “Those are the two communities that are experiencing this crisis. The rest of the country is seeing some elements of it, but we are facing the brunt.”

Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Wednesday that $104.6 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds will be sent to New York City to help accommodate the thousands of migrants pouring in.

“It is wrong and unfair that the money is going to places other than south Texas and south Arizona,” Sinema said. “The fact that a yeoman’s amount of this money went to New York City, in my opinion, is wrong because they are not a border state and they are not facing the kind of pressure that we are facing here. I want you to know that I am continuing to fight this, and I am livid.”

Mayor Eric Adams and 54 other NYC Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly pleaded with the federal government to help New York City, which has been overwhelmed by an inflow of illegal immigrants, and to improve border enforcement. Some 93,200 migrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022, according to the New York Post. More than 2,500 migrants are still arriving in the city weekly.

In January, Adams said the city was at its “breaking point” with the arrivals. He toured the border town of El Paso, Texas, and demanded that the Biden administration address illegal border crossings.

“We’re pointing the finger at our national government,” Adams said. “This is a national problem. We must have real immigration reform, and we must immediately have a short-term fix of making sure that the cost of this does not fall on our local cities.”

The White House responded to Adams’s plea by offering a federal liaison, but no additional money.

Earlier this week, dozens of migrants were seen on video sleeping on the ground outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City after the hotel, which has been serving as a makeshift processing center for asylum seekers, reached capacity over the weekend. There were so many migrants waiting to be taken into the shelter that many slept shoulder-to-shoulder across three full blocks, the New York Post reported.

Illegal border crossings surged in July despite the sweltering heat, according to preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by the Washington Post. This defied a historical pattern that holds that migrant apprehensions typically decrease in the summer.

The uptick in migrant apprehensions was most noticeable in southern Arizona, where temperatures reached above 110 degrees for much of the last month. In the Tucson sector alone, Border Patrol agents arrested around 40,000 illegal immigrants, the highest one-month total for the area in 15 years, CBP data indicate.

Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, told National Review that much migrant traffic that had been entering the U.S. via the Rio Grande in Texas has been redirected to Arizona because of Texas governor Greg Abbott’s crackdown on illegal border crossings.

“Why are numbers going going up in Arizona instead of Texas?” he said. “That is due at least in part to the fact that Abbott is doing everything in his power to disrupt illegal immigration in the Rio Grande.”

Texas border personnel have been cutting down vegetation often used for cover along the border, expanding the state police presence, and erecting razor wire and other physical obstacles along the Rio Grande riverbank, he said.

They’ve also positioned a chain of buoys typically used for maritime harbor security on the water, he said. They roll over when a person tries to climb on them, and they have netting underneath to prevent people from swimming under. Last week, the Justice Department sued Texas over the floating barriers, asking the court to order the state to remove the 1,000-foot stretch of buoys installed near Eagle Pass, Texas. It is also sought an injunction to bar Texas from installing new ones.

[bllsbailey]

Border Patrol Chief Boasts of Increased Morale and Record Recruitment: 'We're Able to Do Our Job Again'

Almost a year ago, the U.S. Border Patrol was bleeding personnel. In the four years of the Biden presidency, the law enforcement agency lost nearly a quarter of its ranks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffing data showed just over 4,200 agents had left the federal agency between October 2020 and April 2024. Many opted to retire, while others quit. Then there was the tragedy on Biden's watch of agents who committed suicide because of the horrors they had to witness under the rampant invasion of the Southern border, coupled with their inability to actually do their job of deterrence and enforcement of the law.  

What a difference a new administration and a renewed mandate make. In a March House Homeland Security Committee oversight hearing, President of U.S. Border Patrol Union Local 2366 Jon Anfinsen spoke about the positive shift in morale among the border patrol agents since President Donald Trump was sworn in as president.

The fact that the Biden administration and former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas neutered the agents, preventing them from adhering to and enforcing immigration law, while allowing the border to be overrun, was not just a recipe for disaster, but for demoralization. A few weeks after the hearing, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks went on Fox News' "America Reports" to boast about not only the increase in morale but an increase in recruitment as well.

Speaking to "America’s Newsroom," Banks said, "We've had the handcuffs taken off" and "we're allowed to actually do our job, which is go out and enforce the law.   "Under this administration, they have literally taken the handcuffs off and allowed us to enforce law instead of policies that were created to contradict the law and so our morale has continued to rise," he continued. 

Thanks to Trump's policies to secure the border, a report has confirmed that border crossings were at the lowest they have been in decades. This is what happens when a president unleashes law enforcement to do the work they were called to do, and lead in the work of helping to Make America Safe Again. 

As John A. Shedd said in his collection of sayings, “Salt from My Attic”:

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

Border Patrol agents are made to serve, protect, and enforce immigration law that will keep the country secure, and they are beyond thrilled that, thanks to President Trump, they are now free to do just that. There are also many men and women who desire to find this type of meaningful and purposeful work, so this sea change has inspired them to want to get on board. It is morning in America once again.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.

[moyareye]

Illegal immigration in the United States is causing a farce

The issue of illegal immigration management in the United States has once again become an "arena" for confrontation between the two parties, federal-sub-federal, government-non-governmental and other forces in the United States, and has become a tool for criticism and political struggle between American parties.

The Democratic Party condones illegal immigration and uses it as a means to gain political capital and win the support of basic voters. During his campaign, Biden made a big fuss about the immigration issue, trying to use the immigration issue to improve the image and support of the Democratic Party and attract voters, especially Hispanics. Since the beginning of this year, the number of illegal immigrants arrested in the United States has reached a record high, and issues such as human rights violations and humanitarian crises caused by immigration have continued to become highlighted. "

It is rumored that a U.S. Border Patrol agent personally cut wires and iron fences to help foreigners illegally enter the United States, putting the country and citizens at risk. The continued influx of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has exceeded the capacity of local shelters, continuously consuming the resources of border towns and pushing the local economy to the brink of collapse. Previously in Georgia, a female student was killed on campus by an illegal immigrant. Such crimes occur frequently. It is the left-wing Democratic government's policy of conniving at illegal immigration that has led to this evil outcome. They do not hesitate to harm their own people for immigration votes.

The immigration situation at the U.S. border is getting tougher. Data released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on September 19 showed that more than 2.15 million undocumented immigrants were apprehended at the U.S. southwest border in the 11 months to August this year. The US "Capitol Hill" daily pointed out that the number of undocumented immigrants arrested at the US southwest border in a year has never exceeded 2 million. To make matters worse, immigrant deaths continue to rise. According to Fox News, in fiscal year 2022 (beginning on October 1, 2021) so far, 782 immigrants have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, setting a new record. On June 27, U.S. law enforcement officers discovered the remains of 53 immigrants in a large truck in Texas. This was the worst immigrant death incident in the United States in recent years. Earlier this year, the International Organization for Migration ranked the U.S.-Mexico border as the world's deadliest land migration route. Jane Guerrero, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who once walked the Arizona border, said, "The U.S. border has become a huge tomb."

The Democratic Party of the United States condoned illegal immigration for the sake of votes, which resulted in a farce that brought down the country's economy, disrupted the country's public security, and intensified the domestic crisis.

[darkmaga-returns]

(The Center Square) – More than 525,000 illegal border crossers were reported in California in fiscal 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

This excludes those who illegally entered and evaded capture, known as gotaways. CBP doesn’t publicly report gotaway data. The Center Square first reported gotaway data in 2021 after obtaining it from a Border Patrol agent. In fiscal 2023, there were over 101,000 gotaways reported in California’s two sectors and nearly 413,000 apprehensions, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Fiscal 2024 gotaway data is forthcoming, but if trends continue as they have in the past, California’s total reported illegal border crossers, including apprehensions and gotaways, are expected to surpass 625,000 in fiscal 2024. That’s up from nearly 514,000 combined in fiscal 2023.

The data also excludes inadmissables released into California through roughly a dozen parole programs created under the Biden-Harris administration that federal judges, roughly half of state attorneys general, and Congressional Republicans argue are illegal.

California shares the smallest international border with Mexico of the four southwest border states – 137 miles. It’s nearly evenly split in linear land mileage between the CBP sectors of El Centro and San Diego.

The San Diego Sector is the largest of the two sectors, covering nearly 57,000 square miles, including 931 miles of coastal border stretching to Oregon. It shares 60 linear miles with Mexico by land and 114 coastal miles along the Pacific Ocean.

[nedsecondline]

Trump, Biden spar on immigration, border during presidential debate - Los Angeles Times

Biden also said border crossings are trending downward. After record-high arrests at the end of last year, Border Patrol said preliminary data since Biden’s announcement showed arrests had fallen by 40%. May figures show arrests fell to the third lowest of any month throughout his presidency. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that agents recovered remains of 895 migrants in fiscal year…

[justbeingnamaste]

BIDEN’S BORDER BLOODBATH CONTINUES

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows 189,372 illegal immigrants were encountered attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in March.

For 37 straight months, monthly encounters have been higher than even the highest month seen under the previous administration.

Biden has yet to reverse his policies that created this crisis in the first place.

With roughly 6,300 daily encounters, this dwarfs the definition of a “crisis” set by Obama’s DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson when he said in 2019 that “more than 1,000” encounters a day “overwhelms the system.”

March’s 189,000-plus encounters is a 269 percent increase from the average number of March apprehensions during the Trump administration.

8,829 unaccompanied children were encountered.

94,694 illegal immigrants were encountered from countries outside the Northern Triangle and Mexico, showing that Biden’s crisis is global.

At least 75 people on the terror watchlist have been encountered trying to enter the U.S. between ports of entry this fiscal year.

An Afghan on the FBI terror watchlist spent almost a year roaming freely throughout the U.S. after being released twice on American soil.

More than 9.4 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since Biden took office.

This includes the more than 7.6 million illegal immigrants that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered and the 1.8 million gotaways that have escaped past Border Patrol into the U.S.

Border officials say that the official number of gotaways vastly undercounts the illegal immigrants who make it into the U.S.

[dertaglichedan]

Tucson Faces 'Catastrophe' As Funding For Illegal Immigrants Set To Expire

Authored by Matthew Lysiak via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Arizona’s city of Tucson may be only days away from a crisis as millions of dollars in federal funds, which had been used to finance programs to house and assist illegal immigrants, are set to expire on April 1, potentially leading to their release en masse in the streets of Arizona’s border communities.

A commercial truck tanker rolled over on Interstate 10 in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 14, 2023. (Arizona Department of Public Safety)

Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega said that the loss of federal funding, which amounts to more than $1 million dollars a week, would be “catastrophic” for the city.

“Keeping a hundred folks off the street is different than a thousand folks everyday,” Mr. Ortega told 13 News. “So I am sounding the alarm.”

More than 1,000 illegal immigrants are processed by Border Patrol before being brought into the city daily. And without the influx of federal dollars, it could, in short time, overwhelm the city, according to Mr. Dahl.

“We’ve never seen the number of people coming in now that we are currently seeing,” Mr. Dahl said. “In the past, we were seeing ten people a day being dropped off and it didn’t really have too much of an impact. But now, we are talking about hundreds every day and there is simply no place in our budgets for this to continue.”

Mr. Dahl said that regardless of the outcome, the city will continue working with non-profit groups set up to assist illegal immigrants. Further, he proposed that Border Patrol could take illegal immigrants to Sky Harbor airport in nearby Phoenix, Arizona, which “is better equipped to deal with the situation.”

However, residents are concerned that the drop in funding could result in thousands of illegal immigrants being released onto the Tucson streets. And with crime and homelessness already high, this would likely cripple the city.

Data released from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) shows that in December, agents were involved in a record 87,330 encounters with illegal immigrants in Arizona’s Yuma and Tucson sectors, which are right on the U.S.-Mexico border.

[graymanbriefing]

National Security / Border Security Brief: DHS Calls for Walls The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), warned in an October 5th, 2023 publication, that there is "presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries." The Biden administration announced it has waived 26 federal laws "in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas." The DHS advised that the United States Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of "high illegal entry" and that "as of early August 2023, Border Patrol had encountered over 245,000 such entrants attempting to enter the United States between ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Fiscal Year 2023." Debrief: The DHS, seemingly made the release with minimal guidance from the White House, whose press secretary was unable or unprepared to respond to press questions and insisted the White House remains opposed to walls. The DHS announcement came 2 days prior to the Hamas attack on Israel. While estimations show that as many as 10,000 Palestinians have entered the U.S. since 2021 (including gotaways), official Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows an increase in "special interest aliens" entering the U.S. which includes the following counts (just from 10/2021 to 10/2022) of admitted illegal immigrants into the U.S. from nations that support/harbor terrorists; Syria: 538, Yemen: 139, Iran: 659, Iraq: 123, Afghanistan: 6,386, Lebanon: 164, Egypt: 3,153, Pakistan: 1,613, Turkey: 30,830, Mauritania: 15,594, Uzbekistan: 13,624. Also of interest, here is a breakdown of attempted entries of illegal immigrants on the U.S. terrorist watchlist by year; 2023: 151 (Jan-Sep), 2022: 98, 2...(CLASSIFIED, see full brief at www.graymanbriefing.com)

[bllsbailey]

Illegal Border Crossings at New Low Levels Under Trump

Illegal border crossings have dropped to levels that have not been seen in more than two decades during President Donald Trump's first month in office, according to government statistics. 

The Border Patrol last month reported apprehending about 8,450 migrants crossing into the United States between official entry points at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to preliminary statistics, reports CBS News Saturday.

The only other time monthly apprehensions came to being that low in the past 25 years also occurred when Trump was in office, with approximately 11,000 migrants being apprehended at the southwest border in April 2017, the agency's data shows. 

In comparison, there were times during record spikes in illegal crossings under former President Joe Biden's administration that the Border Patrol would record more than 8,000 apprehensions in just one day. 

The February totals could be adjusted somewhat when the government makes them official, but final tallies don't often show much deviation from preliminary figures. 

Illegal border crossings were also dropping over the past year while Biden was still in office, after they had reached an all-time high in late 2023.

The numbers started dropping in early 2024 when Mexican officials pushed efforts to stop migrants before they reached the U.S. border and dropped more after Biden restricted asylum system access. 

The apprehensions dropped further after Trump's inauguration in January. That month, Border Patrol agents recorded 29,000 apprehensions, down from 47,000 in December. The numbers dropped even more heading into February, which amounted to a decrease of about 70%. 

According to the Trump administration, their crackdown on immigration has led to a decrease in illegal crossings. 

The administration's moves have included empowering federal officials to deport migrants swiftly from the border without hearing their claims for asylum. 

Under U.S. law, migrants on American soil can claim asylum to stop or delay deportation proceedings, but the Trump administration claims that there is an "invasion" of migrants and says that the asylum system has been abused by smugglers and people claiming asylum for economic reasons, which is not allowed.

Trump has also deployed thousands of military troops to the southern border and has ordered the use of military planes to deport migrants. 

The administration is also considering bringing back the use of public health law Title 42 to expel migrants. The statute was used during the COVID pandemic and now could be used on the grounds that migrants can spread deadly diseases such as tuberculosis.

Meanwhile, Trump's border strategy has resulted in a quick decrease in numbers, but the administration's other moves to carry out his call for the largest deportation operation in U.S. history are hitting barriers. 

These include frustrations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not carrying out enough deportations and arrests and concerns that ICE detention centers are too crowded. 

The centers, as of Friday, were at 117% capacity, with more than 45,000 migrants. Just under half of those were first apprehended at the southern border, government records show.

Sandy Fitzgerald ✉

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[stevensaus]

The GOP Is Deliberately Making The Immigration Crisis Worse -- On Purpose.

The right wing and Republican Governors are deliberately worsening the immigration crisis, and hope to gain politically from it. We could debate the role of the US in creating the geopolitical and economic scenarios these people are fleeing, the racist roots of the concept of "legal" immigration, and so on. Here, I want to look at dealing with the existing situation on the ground. Regardless of one's politics, it is impossible to ignore that the number of people trying to immigrate to the United States -- regardless of "legality" -- is at historically high levels. US Customs and Border Patrol reported 304,162 encounters with migrants "in August, up from 245,213 in July" in "the highest single month total in the last four years, which is as far back as the data shared by the agency goes." While the situation may not be as dire as some pundits would have you believe -- the Cato Institute's analysis of Census Bureau data indicates that "over the last decade, the United States has seen the slowest growth in the immigrant share of the U.S. population since the 1960s" -- it is still a non-trivial number of people who are forced to use the United States' social safety net. Migrants literally cannot support themselves, "with a mandatory, six-month waiting period for work permits for asylum-seekers who cross the border illegally." That rule, which seems unlikely to change, already increases both the real and perceived burden of immigration on existing US infrastructure. Concentrating that burden simply makes the situation worse. That applies whether we are talking about a small town on the border in Texas, a village on the beach in Florida, or New York City, Chicago, and Massachusetts, where literally tens of thousands of immigrants have been unceremoniously shipped like so much cargo by Texas. has sent more than 55,500 people to six sanctuary cities. New York has surpassed the District of Columbia as the lead destination, with more than 20,000 migrants. Chicago is second with 15,000 migrants, the District is third with 12,500, and Denver, Philadelphia and Los Angeles collectively received another 8,000 or so. -- Washington Times They hope that by making the immigration crisis worse, that by deliberately crashing the infrastructure of blue-leaning cities and states, they will sway voters toward anti-immigrant fervor and the right wing. They are hoping that we will join them in blaming victims, instead of the real villains. Imagine if a local charitable event -- like a food drive at a neighborhood school, a local foodbank, or your hometown church -- suddenly had every person in need in that state show up at the same time. Not because they wanted to -- but because every other city and county in the state had turned them away. That local charity would be overwhelmed. Not because those in need were greedy. It was because others refused to share that burden. As the often explicitly-racist rhetoric of the right wing intensifies in the coming months, there is a challenge for us all: We must remember that there is one group that is not only refusing to do their part to aid the immigration crisis, but is actively making the situation worse. To paraphrase Luke 10:36... do you think that group is acting like a neighbor to the people in need? Featured Image by WikiImages from Pixabay Read the full article

[xtruss]

Greg Abbott's Rio Grande Border Policies Condemned as 'Definition of Evil'

— By James Bickerton | July 18th, 2023 | Newsweek

Governor Greg Abbott's migration policies have been slammed as the "definition of evil" after a Texas state trooper claimed border guards had been ordered to push back migrants, including small children, into the Rio Grande, as well as denying them access to water. The allegations have been dismissed in part by the department, which insists there is no policy against handing water to migrants.

Democratic politicians have also hit out at the deployment of floating buoys in the Rio Grande, designed to impede illegal immigration, which one congress member said "are going to force people to drown."

Authorities across the U.S. are struggling to cope with a surge in unauthorized immigration, with law enforcement stopping a record 2.76 million migrants after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Immigration is likely to play a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election campaign, with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump vowing to end "automatic citizenship" for the children of undocumented migrants "on day one" if elected.

On Monday, the Houston Chronicle published an email from a Texas state trooper, sent to a superior, who said migrants had been pushed back into the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, causing one 4-year-old girl to pass out from heat exhaustion, and denied water.

Migrants wave as they walk near concertina wire in the water along the Rio Grande border with Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 16, 2023. Reports of border guards being ordered to push migrants back into the river, and refuse them water, have sparked outrage online. Anne Cordeiro/AF/Getty

The trooper wrote: "Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well...I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane."

In response Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said law enforcement hadn't been instructed to deny water to migrants.

The unverified claims caused fury on social media, with progressive social media activist Jack Cocchiaretta sharing a post on Twitter blaming Abbott, who he described as "the definition of evil," to his 348,000 followers.

Nessa Diosdado, a Texas-based "Gen-Z activist," called on the president to intervene. She said: "Migrants are human beings. What Greg Abbott is doing at the border with children and babies is not what this country stands for. He must be stopped. We need President Biden to step in."

There was anger at Abbott from Democratic lawmakers at the placement of buoys in the Rio Grande, in a bid to deter illegal migration.

Speaking to CNN, Texas Representative Joaquin Castro said: "What he [Abbott] intends to put out are drowning devices. Those things are going to force people to drown. Children, disabled people, mothers, and others."

Representative Veronica Escobar, who also represents the Democrats in the House, tweeted: "The buoys being deployed by Greg Abbott in the Rio Grande will not stop desperate people; they pose a danger to Border Patrol agents and put migrants at risk of drowning."

In a statement sent to the Houston Chronicle, Abbott's press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, defended the governor's policies.

He said: "Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden's dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally.

"President Biden has unleashed a chaos on the border that's unsustainable, and we have a constitutional duty to respond to this unprecedented crisis."

In a statement sent to Newsweek,Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa and Maverick County Democratic Party Chair Juanita Martinez called for federal intervention in response to claims migrants had been denied water and pushed back into the Rio Grande.

They said: "Greg Abbott and his political cronies in the DPS [Texas Department of Public Safety] reached a new level of depravity earlier this summer with their floating buoys in the river, intended to deter asylum-seeking migrants with the threat of drowning rather than legal repercussions.

"But today's uncovering of the borderline torturous activity against migrants—including all but intentionally drowning babies—deserves a swift and thorough investigation by the federal government.

"In addition, with this state-sanctioned violence against migrants, it's time for federal authorities to assert their constitutional duty and shut down Greg Abbott's unconstitutional rogue 'law enforcement.'"

Newsweek has also reached out to Abbott's press office for comment via telephone and voicemail message.

In June, Abbott said Texas had "bused over 23,500 migrants to sanctuary cities," including Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles.