The number of migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border is on pace to be the highest since 2008 and twice as high as two years ago.
By David Nakamura David Nakamura Reporter covering the White House Email Bio Follow March 21 at 6:00 AM Democrats who have railed against President Trump’s national emergency as a manufactured crisis are facing a political dilemma as border apprehensions have spiked and are on pace for the highest level since 2008.
Over the first five months of fiscal 2019, CBP had apprehended 268,044 migrants, on pace for more than 643,300 this year. If reached, that total would be the most since 705,005 in 2008 and more than twice as high as the 310,531 migrants taken into custody two years ago. In their fight, Democrats have pressed administration officials to acknowledge there is no emergency. During a Senate oversight hearing this month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal asserted that border crossings “are still at a historic low compared to other times in our nation’s history.”
But over the past decade, the average number has plummeted to 400,751 per year. Federal officials attributed the steep decline to the start of the economic recession in 2007 and beefed-up border enforcement during the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said the governor is not ignoring the situation at the border, noting he has put money in the state’s budget to build shelters for the Central American families, as they await their asylum court hearings.
He criticized the Trump administration for making “hypothetical projections about border crossings off of a very short window of time” and for selectively presenting data “in its bad-faith effort to foster an anti-immigrant agenda.” The Republican National Committee posted a video clip of Blumenthal’s exchange with McAleenan on Twitter, where it has racked up more than 92,000 views.
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