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An aerial view shows a truck crossing into the United States over the Cordova of the Americas border bridge, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on April 2, 2025.

REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Hard Numbers: Border apprehensions plunge, Maplewashing crops up, Fentanyl trickles in, Trump puts “Truth” on the block

7,180: US border authorities apprehended just 7,180 migrants illegally crossing the Southern Border in March, the lowest monthly number on record. The figure marks a twentyfold decline from the monthly average over the past four years as the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on undocumented migration continues. A recent poll put popular support for Trump’s immigration approach at 49%, the highest mark of any issue.

6: You may have heard of “pinkwashing,” “greenwashing,” “sanewashing,” or the more conventional “whitewashing.” But now there’s “maplewashing.” As of mid-March, Canadian authorities have busted six companies for fraudulently claiming their products are made in Canada rather than the US. The crackdown comes as the “Buy Canadian” movement, which boycotts American products, continues to grow in response to Donald Trump’s threats against Canada.

0.1: Donald Trump has said fentanyl is “pouring” into the US from Canada. But one man’s “pour” is another man’s “barely perceptible trickle.” Turns out, barely 0.1% of the drug seized along the US northern border last year actually came from Canada, according to government data obtained by the Globe & Mail. The remaining 99.9% came either from Mexico or from elsewhere in the US.

2.3 billion: The truth may be priceless, but Truth Social? That’s a different story. President Donald Trumpsuggested this week that he was open to selling his $2.3 billion stake in the social media company, which is a competitor of X in the microblogging space. The company has lost some 40% of its market value this year amid a wider stock market plunge triggered by uncertainty about Trump’s trade and tariff plans.

Migrants, most with children follow a path along the concertina wire where ultimatley they will placed under guard by Border Patrol after having crossed the Rio Grande on May 27 2022 in Eagle Pass Texas, USA. Title 42, the Trump era mandate which was set to prevent migrants from entering the US, was to expire on May 23 but was blocked by a lawsuit filed by several states citing that the move to strike down the law “failed to meet standards set by the Administrative Procedure Act” and that there is no permanent solution to handling the inevitable surge in immigration. Opponents to upholding of the law voiced their demands stating that Title 42 is illegal in that it violates immigration laws that prevents immigrants from their right to seek asylum. Since the implementation of Title 42 in March 2020, US Customs and Border Protection has effected “more than 1.8 million expulsions, mostly on the southern border of the US-Mexico Border”.

John Lamparski via Reuters Connect

Migrants rush to US border fearing Trump’s return

Hundreds of migrants from around a dozen countries left Mexico’s southern border area by foot onSunday, heading north toward the US border. They hope to make it to the frontier before November’s election out of fear that Donald Trump could win and close the border to asylum-seekers.

Migrants in the group reported that they fear that a Trump administration might stop granting appointments to migrants through CBP One, an app used by asylum-seekers to enter the US legally — by getting appointments at US border posts, where they then make their cases to officials. The app only works in northern Mexico and Mexico City.

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United States President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Black History Month Reception at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, February 6, 2024.

Annabelle Gordon / Pool/Sipa USA

Border bill fails in Senate: the jockeying intensifies

President Joe Biden is blaming Donald Trump for killing a Senate bill on Ukraine support and border security on Wednesday.

The bill would have delivered billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and Israel along with stricter border security – including asylum restrictions, a major stated goal for the GOP.

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Texas Governor Gregg Abbott speaks during a news conference near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S

REUTERS/Marco Bello

Texas takes immigration into its own hands

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott just signed SB4, a bill that is being described as the harshest state immigration law in modern US history, into law. Set to take effect in March 2024, it will allow law enforcement in the Lone Star State to arrest and jail migrants on new state-level illegal entry charges and enable state judges to issue de facto deportation orders.
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United States Senator Ron Johnson (Republican of Wisconsin)

Credit: Rod Lamkey / CNP/Sipa USANo Use Germany

Will Democrats and Republicans head for the border?

Now’s the time to watch the fascinating politics of immigration policy in the United States. For years, both Democrats and Republicans have played high-stakes political poker by using dysfunctional US border policy, and a series of migrant surges across the US-Mexico boundary, as a wedge issue. The Dems say Republicans hate immigrants. The Republicans say Democrats use immigrants to win more votes. (Reality check: President Joe Biden hasn’t changed former President Donald Trump’s policies very much.)
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Migrants gather near the border wall

Reuters

Biden is (re)building the wall

No, you haven’t gone back in time to 2016. Yes, the US government is building a wall along the southern border.

The Biden administration announced this week that it will bypass environmental laws to fast-track 20 miles of barrier construction in the Rio Grande Valley – where 245,000 border arrests were made over the last year.

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Mexican authorities and firefighters remove injured migrants, mostly Venezuelans, from inside the National Migration Institute (INM) building during a fire, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico March 27, 2023.

REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Hard Numbers: Deadly Mexican fire, ZAUKUS, terror in the Sahel, Luke Skywalker saves Ukraine

38: Migrants fearing deportation set an immigration detention center ablaze in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, killing 38 asylum-seekers and critically injuring dozens. The blaze was one of the deadliest incidents ever for Mexico's immigration system, which is accused of mistreating migrants as it struggles to accommodate the rising number of asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S-Mexico border.

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Migrants use their phones to access the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a shelter near the US-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico February 24, 2023.

REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Hard Numbers: Glitchy US border app, Japanese no-show canned, Paris stinks, Argentina’s inflation hits triple digits

2.5: A new US government app meant to speed the processing of asylum-seekers and other migrants arriving from Mexico has a rating of just 2.5 stars on Google play. Small wonder, given that the app is reportedly glitchy, difficult to use, and creates opportunities for scammers to prey on migrants and their families.

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