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 largest federal prison in the nation is Fort Dix, which has a rated capacity of 4,600 people. The largest of these warehouse camps may hold more than twice that number of people.
The federal government hasn't operated a prison camp that large since Japanese Internment.
🚨HOLY CRAP. The Trump admin just took a SLEDGEHAMMER to due process, largely eliminating the Board of Immigration Appeals process and MANDATING DISMISSAL of ALL appeals (which cost $1,000 thanks to OBBBA) filed after March 9 unless a majority of the BIA votes to hear the case.
The Trump admin is ALSO changing the rules so that rather than 30 days to file a Notice of Appeal, people will now only have 10 days in most cases.
That's just 10 days to find $1,000 and appellate counsel for an appeal the government says it will likely automatically deny!
The goal is clear; mass deportations over due process. An order of removal does not become "final" until the Board of Immigration Appeals denies an appeal. After that, ICE can deport the person unless they file ANOTHER appeal to a federal circuit court AND get an emergency stay.
This is a LIE. The most recent Haitian TPS grants began in August 2021, after President Moïse was assassinated by mercenaries, plunging Haiti into chaos. Thousands were killed in an earthquake two weeks later.
Since then, it’s been redesignated twice as the situation worsened.
Only about 1 in 7 people with Haitian TPS were protected in 2010 or 2011 after the earthquake. The Obama admin extended TPS for those ~50,000 people in 2012, 2014, and 2015, given the slow recovery. Here's Judge Reyes summarizing it.
In 2017, the Trump admin tried to end it.
The fate of the 50,000 people with Haitian TPS was tied up in court battles through Trump's first term. Long story short, the admin failed to end TPS for them.
After Biden took office, President Moïse was assassinated and the situation in Haiti took a massive turn for the worse.
NEW: Judge Reyes blocks the Trump admin from ending Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians granted protection in the years following the assassination of President Moïse in July 2021.
She begins with a comparison: President Washington versus Kristi Noem.
Judge Reyes begins by explaining who the plaintiffs are: not "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies" as Kristi Noem suggested.
They are a neuroscientist, a software engineer, a laboratory assistant, a registered nurse, and an economics major. All were facing deportation.
Right at the top, Judge Reyes lays out her official findings, after reviewing the evidence. She says it is "substantially likely" that Secretary Noem's decision to end Haitian TPS was "preordained" and based on Secretary Noem's general "hostility to nonwhite immigrants."
BIG news from Bloomberg, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* some commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — the literal warehousing of people in converted buildings.
ICE has already spent $172 million to purchase two warehouses, one in Hagerstown, MD and one in Surprise, AZ.
ICE will then have to pay more to convert them into makeshift detention camps. Leaked reports suggest each of these two warehouses will hold 1,500 people each.
The Hagerstown and Surprise warehouse detention camps are set to be DWARFED by the purchase of a massive warehouse in El Paso where ICE wants to hold 8,500 people, making it instantly the second-largest jail in the entire United States (behind only Rikers Island in NYC).
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!
ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth.
ICE secretly told its officers that any time someone has been ordered removed, ICE can break down their door.
It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo!
Chillingly, the whistleblower says that ICE trainers were directed (no paper trail?) to train all of ICE's new recruits that these administrative warrants authorize breaking into peoples' homes, even though DHS's own training materials still make clear that's illegal!