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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: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday March 13 2017, @04:59PM (3 children)
He is also busily undermining the press and the judiciary, while purging every post he can get his tiny hands on of dissenters at an unprecedented rate and stuffing them with cronies.
Meanwhile the Republican party - with a few notable exceptions - doesn't seem to be offering much in the way of resistance at all. Apparently they are thrilled to have someone wearing their colours in the Whitehouse regardless of his actual beliefs, policies, actions or character - which surprises absolutely nobody with a half-decent grasp on reality.
The "ineffectual village idiot" line may have had some credibility last Autumn, but right now Trump is proving that he can and will deliver his vile promises.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 13 2017, @07:27PM (2 children)
He is also busily undermining the press and the judiciary, while purging every post he can get his tiny hands on of dissenters at an unprecedented rate and stuffing them with cronies.
Actually, it has been remarked how slowly he's doing that compared to previous administrations. For example, this story [dailysignal.com] states that Trump has appointed cronies to his cabinet at the slowest rate since George Washington.
What's really going on is that for the first time in a while, the press is doing its job perhaps with some increased visibility from the fumblings of the Trump officials in charge of the house cleaning. You're finally hearing about the routine stuff of presidential transitions that the press hasn't cared about in a long time.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday March 14 2017, @09:28AM (1 child)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/us/politics/us-attorney-justice-department-trump.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/29/state-department-purge-trump-foreign-policy [theguardian.com]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trumps-purge-of-non-loyalists-takes-shape_us_586f9b3ee4b08052400ee18c [huffingtonpost.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 14 2017, @02:01PM
As to the "purge" of the third story, we'll see if anyone goes through with that. Just because there's a 1876 law doesn't mean that there isn't more recent law that will void that.
But in all, I just don't see yet the case that Trump is acting all that different from previous administrations at least at present. And given the administrations vague stance towards changing/reducing government, a higher level of firings and such is to be expected.