Wall or no wall, the actions of the Trump administration are slowing the flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border to a trickle. Some illegal immigrants who have already made it inside the country are even fleeing north to Canada. Saagar Enjeti writes at The Daily Caller:
“There has been an increase in illegal migration in Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia, with the largest increase being seen in Quebec,” a spokesman for the Royal Mounted Police told The New York Times.
Canadian law stipulates that asylum seekers cannot simply show up at the border, so they must make their way illegally into Canada. A Somali man who fled to San Diego in 2013 before being denied asylum, illegally crossed through the border to arrive in Canada and request asylum. “I knew Trump was going to deport me,” he lamented to The NYT.
As I wrote earlier this week, the number of border crossings have plummeted since Trump took office. One of the most effective ways Trump has been able to scare away potential illegal immigrants, according to Reuters report Julia Edwards Ainsley, has been to threaten to separate mothers from children if they cross the border illegally. She writes:
In December, 16,000 parents and children were apprehended; in March, a month in which immigration typically increases because of temperate weather, the number was just over 1,100.
It was a remarkable decline – steeper than the 72 percent drop in overall apprehensions – but for eight DHS officials interviewed by Reuters it was not surprising.
Trump has spoken about the need to crack down broadly on all illegal immigrants. But, internally, according to the DHS officials familiar with the department’s strategy, his administration has focused on one immigrant group more than others: women with children, the fastest growing demographic of illegal immigrants. This planning has not been previously reported.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has piled on the effort to discourage illegal immigrants this week by telling them “This is a new era. This is the Trump era.” He continued on the Sean Hannity show “The border is not open. Please don’t come. You’ll apprehended if you do come and you will be deported promptly.”
Sessions’s message to the world: The border is not open
To continue to improve on its success, the Trump administration appears to be building up the nation’s deportation manpower. Reports on an internal Department of Homeland Security memo cite the administration’s desire to add 5,000 border agents and 10,000 ICE agents to the current ranks. Fox News reports:
Trump seeks to bring in an additional 5,000 border agents and 10,000 ICE agents. That pricetag could cost up to $100 million, the agency said.
Homeland Security has also found locations that could increase detention space, but may not be able to secure the necessary funding for it, The Post reported.
Border Patrol is also looking to possibly hold immigration-court hearings through video conferences at or near U.S. ports of entry if Mexico agrees to the procedure, according to the paper. The U.S. could also send judges to so-called “port courts,” thought it could cost $400,000 per location.
Read more here.
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