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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 4 February 2020

AP Exclusive: Border apprehensions drop 8 straight months

By COLLEEN LONG and BEN from Mexico as "bad hom-
FOX bres. "
Associated Press Trump uses the monthly
WASHINGTON (AP) — The border tallies as a bench-
number of border appre- mark to determine how his
hensions has dropped for policies are working, railing
the eighth straight month, against Homeland Secu-
following crackdowns by rity officials when the num-
the Trump administration bers are up. The number of
that include forcing asylum people crossing the border
seekers back over the U.S.- traditionally declines when
Mexico border to wait out it's hot outside — but the
their claims, a Homeland winter months often see
Security official said Mon- creeping increases.
day. The monthly tally is down
The official said the number almost 75 percent from the
of encounters with border peak last May, when there
officials over the past four were more than 144,000
months was 165,000. A year encounters with migrants,
earlier during the same the large majority fami-
time it was about 242,000. lies from Central America
The official spoke to The who are not easily returned
Associated Press on condi- over the border. The immi-
tion of anonymity because gration system was vastly Mexican National Guard troops patrolling the country's northern border are seen from Sunland
the official results have not strained last spring, with mi- Park, New Mexico on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020, in the nearby town of Sunland Park, New Mexico.
been released. grants crammed for weeks Associated Press
The tally for the month of into small border stations
January was about 36,000, not meant to hold people Mexico has also stepped anyone from claiming asy- still signing up on a waiting
including apprehensions beyond a few days. News up its own border enforce- lum if they crossed through list to enter the U.S. at an
of people crossing illegally of the conditions in the ment, making clear that another country first. Offi- official crossing in San Luis,
and migrants who were border stations, coupled caravans that once trav- cials are also now sending Arizona. U.S. Customs and
declared inadmissible by with migrant deaths, pro- eled through its territory asylum seekers to Central Border Protection calls the
border officers at a port of moted massive outrage are no longer allowed to American nations as part Mexican shelter that man-
entry . It was a 10 percent and pushed Congress into do so, following intense of a border security agree- ages the list to say how
decline from December. emergency funding to help pressure and threatened ments with Guatemala, many asylum claims it will
The steep decline will al- ease the crush. trade tariffs from Wash- Honduras and El Salvador. process each day. The
most certainly figure heav- The reduction comes at a ington last year. And U.S. Despite the nosedive at the shelter estimates the wait
ily into President Donald cost. More than 55,000 asy- policy now essentially bans border, asylum seekers are at three to four months.q
Trump's State of the Union lum seekers, including fami-
address Tuesday. Trump lies and pregnant women,
has made cracking down have been sent over the
on immigration — legal border to Mexico to wait
and illegal — a signature out their asylum cases and
issue. He has railed against have faced sickness and
asylum seekers and other squalid conditions in make-
border crossers as con art- shift camps, plus assault
ists who "scam" the system, and kidnapping by cartels
and derided immigrants that patrol the borderlands.