Important Takeaways:
- The number of unlawful crossings by migrants at the US southern border has dropped for the fifth consecutive month, according to official data.
- US Border Patrol agents apprehended around 57,000 migrants along the border in July – the lowest recorded since September 2020.
- The numbers are down significantly from December, when around 250,000 migrants were caught crossing the border.
- President Joe Biden’s administration has credited the decrease to recent actions by him to tackle illegal immigration into the US, an election-year political vulnerability for the Democrats.
- Government data shows that the number of migrants stopped at the US-Mexico border had dropped even before the order.
- Border Patrol recorded 141,000 apprehensions in February, 137,000 in March, 129,000 in April, 118,000 in May and 84,000 in June.
- The figures do not include official border crossings, where the Biden administration has been processing around 1,500 migrants each day through a smartphone app that schedules appointments between migrants and US border agents.
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Important Takeaways:
- New president José Raúl Mulino has vowed to close the route through which thousands of migrants travel to the US every year
- Last year, a record 520,000 migrants risked their lives, often at the hands of people smugglers, to traverse the Darién Gap, a dense jungle on Panama’s border with Colombia.
- Mulino’s new foreign minister signed a memorandum of understanding with the US government to “allow the closing off of the passing of illegal immigrants through the Darién”, Panama’s government said in a statement.
- The agreement, signed by US homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who attended Mulino’s inauguration, will see the US agree to “cover” the costs of repatriating migrants who enter Panama illegally.
- The agreement was designed to reduce the number of migrants being “smuggled through the Darién, usually en route to the United States”, a spokesperson for the White House national security council said in a statement.
- Under the terms of the agreement, US homeland security teams on the ground in Panama would help the government there train personnel and build up its own expertise and ability to determine which migrants, under Panama’s immigration laws, could be removed from the country, according to two senior administration officials.
- For those migrants who are to be removed, the US would pay for charter flights or commercial airplane tickets for them to return to their home countries.
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Important Takeaways:
- Twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was walking to a convenience store in Houston when she disappeared, police say; she was found dead in a creek earlier this month.
- Two undocumented men from Venezuela are accused of killing the girl and both are facing charges of capital murder in her death, according to the Houston Police Department.
- It is also the latest case to bring immigration to the forefront as a critical issue this election year, as the two men were in the country illegally, according to the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- Where and when they entered the country is unclear, the spokesperson said, but each had been apprehended near El Paso by US Border Patrol – Martinez-Rangel on March 14 and Peña Ramos on May 28 – and released with a notice to appear in court in the future.
- The family will have a celebration of life for Jocelyn on Thursday afternoon in Houston.
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Important Takeaways:
- Tens of thousands of migrants from countries including China and Venezuela could be exempt from the Biden administration’s ‘tough’ new border restrictions — because their home countries refuse to accept them back.
- Over 150,000 people from those two nations alone have illegally crossed into the US so far in 2024, and hundreds more arrive daily
- Despite new orders to stop processing asylum claims once migrant encounters hit 2,500 per day for seven consecutive days, instructions from the Department of Homeland Security to border agents provide exceptions.
- ‘Section 240 removal’ means “they’re released,” into the US, a Border Patrol source told The Post — explaining such migrants will be given a court date and allowed to pursue asylum, which typically take years to resolve
- “They [migrants who can’t be deported] are not included in that 2,500 number, the language was ambiguous for a reason.”
- It doesn’t appear that migrant crossings have been affected by Biden’s new executive order and border agents have expressed doubt that it will have any real impact on the continued crisis.
- “That’s like trying to plug the leak on the titanic with chewing gum. It’s way too little too late. He’s trying to act tough on the border but we know he’s been the most open border administration ever”
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Important Takeaways:
- Rioting charges against 211 illegal migrants caught on video by The Post pushing past Texas troops and attempting to break into the US on March 21 have all been dismissed — based on a technicality
- El Paso County Judge Ruben Morales dismissed the cases at a hearing Wednesday, May 8, saying his “hands [are] tied” after the state did not provide a required transfer order, a simple document, to move the matter from district to county court
- The migrants were all arrested by Texas authorities on riot-related charges after the rush at an area known as Gate 36, as seen in the shocking footage captured by The Post.
- The riot charges carried a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and up to a $2,000 fine.
- The migrants were mostly adult males who severely outnumbered the guardsmen, who had been trying to place them into groups so they could be taken into CBP custody.
- Nine migrants were later singled out as the “ringleaders” of the stampede and eight of them are in custody facing additional felony charges, which are being heard separately from the riot charges.
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Important Takeaways:
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott has celebrated the decision by a Texas grand jury to indict 141 migrants on misdemeanor rioting charges, a day after a county judge ruled there was insufficient probable cause to press charges.
- On March 21, a group of migrants broke through some of the border defenses near El Paso in Texas following which they were arrested. Footage showed the migrants tearing down a fence and forcing their way past a group of uniformed men—who appeared to be National Guard soldiers—before reaching a more robust barrier.
- According to El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks, around 221 people were arrested over the incident during which several Texas National Guard soldiers were injured.
- On Sunday, Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta ruled that “all the rioting participation cases will be released on their own recognizance,” according to The El Paso Times.
- However, the decision was overturned on Monday by a grand jury.
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Important Takeaways:
- Thousands of migrants could be released en masse onto the streets in days, causing chaos in southern border communities as support funding dries up, say officials.
- Local governments and nonprofits in the region have long worked with U.S. border officials to take migrants to sites such as Casa Alitas, a Catholic-run shelter for migrant families in Tucson, Arizona, or the Regional Center for Border Health in Yuma.
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disburses funds from the Shelter and Services Program to entities providing shelter, food, transportation, and support to people who have been processed and released from custody while awaiting the outcome of immigration proceedings. But that federal funding will run out on March 31.
- The migrant releases and reduction in adequate shelter will sow more disorder at the border, said Diego Piña Lopez, the executive director of Pima County’s Casa Alitas—which is expected to stop most operations soon due to lack of federal funding
- “I think that’s going to lead to a lot of chaos, and a lot more cost across the board for folks to get services, as many of the people coming through leave fairly quickly here,” Piña Lopez told The Arizona Republic.
- Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said the county cannot afford the roughly $1 million per week that previously would have been covered by federal funds to keep migrants off the streets in border communities.
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Important Takeaways:
- EU “Suicide Pact” Threatens to Flood Continent With 75 Million More Migrants
- Severe penalties for countries that refuse to take them.
- The EU has passed a migration pact dubbed “the suicide of Europe” which could lead to the continent being flooded with as many as 75 million new migrants.
- Because cultural enrichment and diversity is “our greatest strength,” countries that try to maintain their national identity without being subsumed by migrants will be hit with severe financial penalties.
- Marine Le Pen, the leader of National Rally’s parliamentary wing, previously said the pact would lead to “the suicide of Europe,” adding that it was a deal with the devil and represents an “organized plan of submersion of Europe and the nations which compose it.”
- Member states will be forced to accept migrants or pay a massive financial penalty of €25,000 per migrant.
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Important Takeaways:
- 151K Migrants Apprehended Last Month in 2 Border Sectors — Shatters Prior Records
- Border Patrol agents in the Tucson and Del Rio Sectors apprehended approximately 151,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry during the month of December, according to unofficial reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas. The reported apprehensions shatter prior records for both sectors.
- Agents in the Tucson Sector broke a record going back to the Clinton administration with the apprehension of approximately 80,000 migrants in December. Del Rio Sector agents also obliterated a record set just over a year ago with the apprehension of approximately 71,000 migrants.
- The prior record for migrant apprehensions in the Tucson Sector was set in March 2000 when agents encountered 76,245 migrants, according to U.S. Border Patrol Encounter Reports. The December report of approximately 80,000 migrants beats that record by nearly five percent.
- During the first three months of Fiscal Year 2024, which began on October 1, Border Patrol agents in the nine southwest sectors apprehended 673,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry.
- During the past 12 months, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 2,132,000 migrants. Since President Joe Biden’s first full month in office (February 2021) agents apprehended nearly 6.4 million migrants. These numbers do not include known or unknown got-aways.
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Important Takeaways:
- Border Patrol agents assigned to the nine southwest Border Patrol sectors apprehended at least 29,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry between December 22 and 25, according to unofficial Border Patrol reports obtained by Breitbart Texas.
- On Thursday, December 21, agents apprehended at least 9,000 more migrants. This brought the total for the last five days to at least 38,000 migrant apprehensions.
- The numbers included in these reports are likely understating the true number of apprehensions as migrants who are kept camping in outdoor detention areas along the border’s edge are not counted until they are processed into Border Patrol shelters, law enforcement sources previously told Breitbart.
- The Tucson Sector remained at the hot spot along the U.S.-Mexico border. Tucson agents apprehended at least 12,250 migrants during the five-day period. This was just slightly ahead of the nearly 12,000 migrants apprehended in the Del Rio Sector
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