Illegal border crossings are finally declining massively after the explosion of illegal crossings faced earlier this year. In addition to illegals crossings including the relatively new phenomenon of unaccompanied minors making the journey.
While we don’t have a complete border wall (though there is expected to be 100+ miles of new wall completed by year end), Donald Trump has come through on his other half of his promise to build a wall – making Mexico pay for it. Trump has tweaked of the Migrant Protection Protocols (forcing illegals attempting to enter the U.S. to wait in Mexico if they claim asylum), thus outsourcing much of the enforcement burden to Mexico’s armed forces to help combat illegal immigration, which the Mexican government is footing the bill for.
As reported by Money and Markets:
Arrests of migrants for illegal southern border crossings have fallen a whopping 75% since May in a sign that President Donald Trump’s hard-line policies are paying off with one of the most dramatic drop-offs in history.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said 33,510 people were arrested for border crossing in November, the sixth straight month of decline since May, when 132,000 people — a 13-year high — tried to illegally cross into the U.S. from Mexico, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Border crossing arrests typically fall in the winter and pick up in the spring as it gets warmer, but the May-to-November decline this year was still the biggest in “absolute numbers” and second largest of any six-month period ever by percentage in the last century.
Immigration experts say the MPP, otherwise known as “Remain in Mexico,” is one of the single biggest factors in the decline in border arrests because those arrested know they’ll have to then remain in Mexico for several months while their cases are decided.
While this represents great progress, until a physical barrier is built, any progress is really just putting a band aid on the situation.
