New! June border numbers are out, and the diverging trends I've discussed re: families/kids and single adults have—once again—diverged!
After rising every month since May 2020, single adults apprehensions finally fell. Meanwhile, after falling for two months, families/kids rose.
Overall border apprehensions rose 3.4% from May to June, after having fallen by 1% from April to May.
However, as has been the case for months now, the vast majority of people apprehended after crossing the border continue to be expelled under Title 42.
Despite a rise in families coming to the border, there were still over 8,000 expulsions of family units last month.
As a result, it continues to be the case that significantly fewer families and kids are being allowed into the United States to seek asylum than in 2019.
If we look only at families, 41,945 family units were allowed into the US last month after crossing the border between ports of entry, and 8,070 were expelled back to Mexico.
That's compared to 57,358 in June 2019, of which several thousand were sent back to Mexico under MPP.
One big new trend we're seeing is the Biden administration finally opening up the ports of entry for people to seek asylum, which is also driving up overall "encounters"—which is why my previous charts were all apprehensions, not counting people who come through the ports.
Finally, some important context when looking at comparisons to 2006 or earlier.
In 2006, for every 3 migrants apprehended crossing the border, an additional 5 made it through successfully. Today, it's closer to 1.
I'll end with this graph, which is one of the most important to understanding the numbers.
Title 42 led to unprecedented levels of repeat border crossings. As a result, even though apprehensions are now much higher than 2019, the number of PEOPLE who've crossed is still lower.
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🚨The Supreme Court today gives Trump a license to engage in racial profiling, with Justice Kavanaugh writing in concurrence to expressly endorse ICE and Border Patrol targeting any Latinos they observe in Los Angeles speaking Spanish and then demanding their papers.
Justice Sotomayor is utterly scathing: "We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent."
Sotomayor: "The [Gov't], and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, US citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction."
🚨NEW: Reversing *generations* of practice, the Board of Immigration Appeals gives ICE exactly what it demanded, ruling that any undocumented immigrant who entered illegally is categorically ineligible to ask a judge for bond — expanding mandatory detention by millions of people.
The new decision comes after the Trump admin announced in July that it would take the legal position that a 1996 law barred release on bond anyone who crossed illegally — despite no admin having EVER made that claim before. Now the BIA greenlights that completely novel argument.
The Board of Immigration Appeals has upheld grants of bond to people in this situation THOUSANDS of times in the past. NO ONE previously put forward the argument that they greenlit today — one that they claim is just a straightforward application of the law, not even ambiguous.
Trump is now moving to strip protections and deport the same people that he himself granted deportation protections to in his last week in office in 2021.
Trump’s order said protecting noncriminal Venezuelans from being sent back to Maduro was a matter of U.S. national interest.
Trump's DED order for Venezuela applied to anyone here before January 20, 2021. Only weeks later, Secretary Mayorkas granted Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans here before March 9, 2021. So effectively speaking, this is the same group of people that Trump protected.
🚨NEW: Declarations filed in the lawsuit against the rushed attempt to deport 600 Guatemalan children reveals the chaotic way the Trump admin carried out the operation.
Children were taken out of bed after midnight to be rushed onto planes. One girl "was so scared she vomited."
Other declarations directly refute the Trump admin's claims that the children's parents requested their return to Guatemala.
One dad in Guatemala says he got "a strange call" two weeks ago saying that his daughter was about to be deported — despite never having asked for that.
One 17-year-old describes what happened to him on Sunday night. He says he was woken up at 2:00 in the morning and told to get his things. He was scared, so he prayed to God and hoped he'd be protected.
Throughout the fateful morning, no one told him what was happening.
NEW: The Trump admin plans to double the number of immigration judges, ordering hundreds of military lawyers to serve as immigration judges, despite flimsy legal authority to do so.
Notably, immigration law is infamously complex, and judges normally require months of training.
Many former JAGs serve as immigration judges today, having gone through a competitive hiring process. JAGs are often good lawyers, so I am not of the belief that they will all become rubber stampers. But the command pressure to deny will undoubtedly be *enormous.*
Indeed; the Trump admin has actually fired dozens of judges already and moved to purge many of the Biden appointees.
While I don’t believe military judges will be ordered to deny, they will undoubtedly be pressured to do so. And their inexperience will cause serious issues.
NEW: McCarthyism returns to immigration law, as @USCIS announces that it will begin screening applicants for immigration benefits for "Anti-America ideologies or activities." The term has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump admin.
The full policy memo is here. The Trump administration says that it will use its discretion to deny immigration benefits to anyone it deems to have supported a group with "anti-American ideologies" or engaged in "ant-American activities." uscis.gov/sites/default/…
The new policy on "anti-Americanism" and discretionary benefits comes just days after the Trump admin tightened standards for naturalization, ordering a more searching analysis of whether applicants for citizenship have met the required "good moral character" standard.