Number of migrants caught at Mexican border plunges 40% under Trump

Illegal border crossings have declined dramatically since Donald Trump took office, according to Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly.

“It’s easy for border security efforts to change when and where people cross, but it won’t change the overall level of migration in the long term”, he said. In announcing the new numbers, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said they decrease meant that fewer people are risking their lives to make the unsafe journey north.

That there has been a vast change in the illegal cross-border traffic since Trump took office can be readily observed by comparing the latest figure just released by CBP with the figures we reported in our article last December 16.

The agency credited the decline to the president’s executive order on immigration announced January 25, which includes plans to increase detention space for unauthorized crossers, the fast-tracking of the border wall and order for Customs and Border Protection to immediately hire thousands more Border Patrol and customs agents. Trump hasn’t hired the 5,000 Border Patrol agents or the 10,000 immigration officers, or built the new detention centers near the border.

This is dramatic and when one examines the border toughness exhibited by the president in his executive order regarding protecting the nation’s interior, illegal immigrants have apparently gotten the message.

The drops are sure to hearten of President Donald Trump’s supporters, 79 percent of whom said in a July Pew Research Center poll that immigration was “very important” to their votes. The new data shows that beyond giving immigration enforcement more discretion during arrests and getting the “bad ones out”, the new policies may be stopping people from coming to the U.S.

Speaking to Radio Sputnik about the implications of this steep decline in illegal immigration, professor Westy Egmont, director of the Immigrant Integration Lab at Boston College, shared his thoughts on the possible causes behind the drop. During November, 47,214 illegal aliens were apprehended – a 44-percent increase from November 2015.

Customs and Border Patrol releases monthly totals for attempted illegal border crossings, and they’re normally pretty stable or follow established trends.

During his campaign, Trump, 70, appalled Mexicans and many Americans by calling Mexicans who crossed the border illegally into the U.S., drug dealers and criminals. “But some other folks would say if this is the only way we can stop these people from.making this unsafe journey.then you have to take more serious measure, or even float the idea to see if it has any initial effect”.

Some 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, many from Mexico. “Generally, that’s done through an NTA … a notice to appear”.

The president made immigration and border control a key part of his election campaign, promising to protect Americans from “bad dudes”.