Border Patrol agents and other immigration hardliners in the government are delighted by Trump

[basquebromance]

“We’re walking on air,” said one U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee. “We’re actually getting someone who supports our mission. We’re getting the respect we deserve for all the crap we have to deal with.”

Trump stressed the importance of border security during his campaign and won the endorsement of the National Border Patrol Council, a union for agents.

“With this administration, we feel as though we have that ability to make our voice heard and someone's actually paying attention to it,” said Terence Shigg, president of a Border Patrol local union in the San Diego area.

Shigg is stationed at a Border Patrol checkpoint 50 miles north of San Diego when he’s not performing union duties. At the checkpoint — a controversial space in immigrant-friendly California — he noticed a change in the way the public interacts with him.

“Whereas before, working on the highways, waving traffic, you generally expect to get flipped off or yelled at at least once a shift,” he said. “Now it’s kind of the opposite. You get usually one thumbs up, or a honk, or a ‘good job’ every shift.”

 

[waltky]

Mixed news on immigration...

Surge in Illegal Border Crossings Not Unusual For The Time of Year, Say Experts
May 8, 2018 – A surge in the number of illegal crossings from Mexico into the U.S. along the southwest border in March and April should not be compared to 2017 figures, but is actually in line with most years since 2013, according to two immigration experts.

The number of “apprehensions and inadmissables” at the southwest border increased by 203 percent in March and by 223 percent in April compared to the same months in 2017, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. The totals were 50,206 in March compared to 16,588 in March last year, and 50,924 in April compared to 15,766 during the same month last year. In 2016, there were 46,117 apprehensions in March and 48,502 in April. Illegal border crossings normally increase in the spring because immigrants prefer not to make the journey during cold winter or hot summer months, said Randy Capp, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute.

President Trump’s first year in office may explain why there was no surge in spring crossings last year and why the numbers for the two months were unusually low. “There was a surge in crossings right before the election and then numbers dropped like a rock right as Trump was inaugurated, probably because of his front lining of immigration policy during the campaign and under the assumption he would be tougher on border enforcement,” Capp said. “March and April last year were two of the lowest numbers since the 1970s,” he said. Compared to April 2017, the number of illegal crossings now are high, but April 2017 “was an anomaly” compared to previous years, said Maureen Meyer, director for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America.

A Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agent pats down a man before he is returned to Mexico.​

Illegal crossings dropped during the first few months of the Trump administration in 2017 due to uncertainty around his immigration policies, she said. Meanwhile, families now account for approximately 25 percent of all immigrants apprehended by border authorities attempting to cross the border illegally. Families and unaccompanied children together make up 40 percent of the illegal crossing apprehensions. The rest are adults. More than 80 percent of the families are from Guatemala and Honduras, Capp said.

Meyer attributed the large number of families and unaccompanied children from Central America attempting to cross the border illegally to the high level of violence in the region. Recently, immigrants from Honduras “significantly” outnumber those from Guatemala or El Salvador apprehended at the border. She said that reflects political repression in Honduras after the recent re-election of the country’s president and the government’s inability to provide security. While numbers from Central America rise, the number of Mexicans crossing the border illegally has declined dramatically and now totals approximately 200,000 per year. By contrast, illegal crossings by Mexicans totaled some one million per year in 2006 and 2007, when Mexicans accounted for more than 90 percent of total apprehensions at the border.

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59% Drop in Refugee Admissions Through April
May 4, 2018 – A total of 6,865 refugees were admitted to the United States during the first four months of 2018, down from 16,743 for the same period last year and 21,121 for the same period in 2016. The admissions account for a 59 percent fall from the same period last year, and a 67.5 percent drop from the first four months of 2016.

Along with the overall reduction in the number of refugees resettled in the U.S., the proportion of Christians to Muslims among the new arrivals has changed significantly too, according to figures from the State Department Refugee Processing Center database. From January to April this year, 67.3 percent of the refugees were Christians and 19 percent were Muslims. By comparison, during the January to April period in 2016 – when President Obama was in office – Christians still held a majority, but a much smaller one: Christians accounted for 47.2 percent (9,968) of the total refugee admission numbers, and Muslims for 44.4 percent (9,387) of the total.

Refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at Gihinga camp in Burundi. In recent years the DRC has accounted for the largest number of refugees admitted to the United States.​

During the same period last year, the proportions were roughly reversed, with Christians comprising 43.8 percent (7,332) of the total number of refugees admitted and Muslims 46 percent (7,717) of the total. The four-month period in 2017 includes the final weeks of the Obama administration, which ended on January 20. Of the total 16,743 refugees admitted during that Jan.-Apr. period, 4,451 (26.5 percent) were admitted in January, before Trump’s inauguration. Of the 4,451, 1,598 (35.9 percent) were Christians and 2,494 (56 percent) were Muslims.

In Jan.-Apr. this year, the countries of origin of the biggest groups of resettled refugees were the Democratic Republic of Congo (2,111), Burma (1,465), Ukraine (772), Eritrea (454), Bhutan (431) and Afghanistan (365). The biggest contingents of refugee arrivals during the period, by Christian denomination, were 1,150 Pentecostalists (mostly from the DRC), 597 Catholics (with DRC again comprising the biggest group), and 1,355 refugees self-identifying simply as “Christian” (with the largest groups coming from Burma and DRC.) Muslim arrivals comprised 293 Shi’ites (most from Afghanistan), 189 Sunnis (also mostly Afghans), 76 Ahmadiyya (all from Pakistan), and 750 refugees described simply as Muslim (with the largest groups coming from Burma, DRC and Eritrea.)

Eleven Syrian refugees – six Christians and five Sunni Muslims – were resettled in the four-month period. That compares to 2,499 Syrian refugees (98 percent Muslim, 1.4 percent Christian) admitted during the same period last year – of which 1,052 (97.6 percent Muslim, 2.1 percent Christian) were admitted before Trump’s inauguration. During the same period in 2016, 1,062 Syrian refugees were admitted, of whom 98.6 percent were Muslim and 0.4 percent were Christian.

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