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Illegal Southwest border crossings were down 40% last month, according to just released Customs and Border Protection numbers -- a sign that President Donald Trump's hardline rhetoric and policies on immigration may be having a deterrent effect.
Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly himself announced the month-to-month numbers, statistics that CBP usually quietly posts on its website without fanfare.
According to CBP data, the 40% drop in illegal Southwest border crossings from January to February is far outside normal seasonal trends. Typically, the January to February change is actually an increase of 10% to 20%.
The drop breaks a nearly 20-year trend, as CBP data going back to 2000 shows an uptick in apprehensions every February.
The number of apprehensions and inadmissible individuals presenting at the border was 18,762 people in February, down from 31,578 in January.
It will still take months to figure out if the decrease in apprehensions is an indication of a lasting Trump effect on immigration patterns. Numbers tend to decrease seasonally in the winter and increase into the spring months.
But the sharp downtick after an uptick at the end of the Obama administration could fit the narrative that it takes tough rhetoric on immigration -- backed up by policy -- to get word-of-mouth warnings to undocumented immigrants making the harrowing journey to the border.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/politics/border-crossings-huge-drop-trump-tough-talk/index.html
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Monday March 13 2017, @12:35PM (7 children)
Maybe they just don't want to live under a different despot.
Ignoring the "illegal" bit, how much has legal immigration changed in the same time? If that's down 40% or more, then it's telling of something else.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday March 13 2017, @01:35PM (1 child)
My first thought was to wonder if they'd cooked that 40% drop. Stand by for a "revised" estimate.
And if they have fiddled with the stats, why? Reduced or no illegal immigration before the border wall is built undermines their case for building it. Build wall first, then make up the reduction in numbers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @01:57PM
My first thought was to wonder if they'd cooked that 40% drop. Stand by for a "revised" estimate.
It doesn't have to be on purpose.
Maybe trump's election caused the border patrol agents to party so much, so they were too hungover to work very much.
But more seriously, I think the reason the numbers are down is because the numbers before the election were up.
It was widely reported that trump's campaign rhetoric was causing an increase in the number of border crossings [cnn.com] because people were afraid that if he was elected they would not be able to get in, so everyone rushed to get in before the inauguration.
But there are not an infinite number of migrants. So that surge depleted the pool of potential migrants, kind of like how the "cash for clunkers" program caused a burst of new car sales followed by a big slump. Give it a few more months and the numbers will probably return to "normal."
(Score: 0, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday March 13 2017, @03:51PM (4 children)
Either you don't know the meaning of that term or you have some serious reality filtering going on in your head.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @06:02PM
Well, we aren't there quite yet, but it looks to me like Der Drumpf does have aspirations in that direction. Luckily, it looks like the courts and a few in the legislature are giving some desperately needed push back. I just hope they can hold the line for four to eight more years.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @06:22PM (1 child)
Ok, fair enough.
However I do have a rebuttal. Trump is a despot wannabe. That is how he ran his businesses and even his little TV show. He is a petty little tyrant and it is clear he is having a tough time adjusting to reality where POTUS does not have quite the same indiscriminate power as a owner/CEO.
Back to immigration: The world has paid attention to the actions of the US, and it is clear that if you violate US law then your future can be quite grim. From mild "toss you back over the border" to more serious prison sentences, and on the extreme end places like Gitmo. I would 100% be terrified of getting caught by US agents under the Trump administration.
Now, is that a good thing for the US to have lower illegal immigration? You could argue that point. Is it a good thing to have people terrified of coming to your country in the off-chance they get picked up by border patrol for any number of reasons? I'm going with NO! I don't much like my own country being viewed as a bunch of fearful and violent turds with serious bigotry issues.
To head off the "SJW calls everyone racist" misdirection: it is about time we admitted that there is a huge amount of bigotry in the US, and many other countries. Every single country has their own bigots, and trying to pretend like its some liberal conspiracy is stupid. Own up to it, the US has a shit-ton of bigots, for the most part quite mild ones. Even some younger members of my own family referred to some group as "the asians" which isn't too bad, but the manner in which it was done just screamed of minor subconscious prejudice. That mild prejudice swings into action when someone like Trump promotes policy that will bring down a "righteous hammer of wrath" on illegals. It gives people that emotional validation that their bigotry/fear is right and good, yet in reality Trump is working on a huge amount of PORK for private contractors. The wall will not really fix the problem, and it definitely won't be worth the price tag. Lets spend those billions on something more productive!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @11:18PM
Go ahead and use the term "Fascist".
Don't think it applies?
Compare his actions to the list.
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism [ratical.org]
In 1944, Vice President Henry Wallace described USAian Fascism. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [thomhartmann.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Monday March 13 2017, @06:42PM
Says the "so-called" ""Mighty Buzzard""! Hope you got ch'er pocket constitution on you at all times, just in case.