Despite the anti-immigration rhetoric at last week’s Republlican convention, the number of Illegal immigrant crossings at the U.S. southern border has been declining.[1]
For this year’s June, there were 83,000 apprehensions of such immigrants, the lowest monthly total since January 2021 and down from the 117,000 for this year’s month of May and from 250,000 for last December. And it appears likely that the figure for this July will be about 60,000.
After Congress failed to pass a bipartisan immigration bill that was structured reduce such crossings, President Biden in June issued an executive order that would close the southern border after U.S. apprehensions of border-crossers reached a certain number and swiftly deport those who could not prove that their lives would be endangered if they were returned to their home countries. Mexico also helped by beginning to intercept more migrants traveling throuth their country. .
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[1] Jordan & Goodman, Amid Talk of Border Chaos, Crossings Have Sharply Declined, N.Y. Times (July 20, 2024).
