by Catherine Smith
The number of migrants arrested for illegally crossing the southern border from Mexico significantly dropped 73 percent in October for a fifth consecutive month, down from nearly 133,000 arrests in May to just over 35,000 in October.
Border Patrol officials and line agents interviewed by Breitbart Texas said the dramatic drop was due to actions from the Trump administration and the Mexican government. Those actions include the “Remain in Mexico” program where migrants remain in Mexico while waiting for their asylum hearing, and the deployment of Mexico’s newly formed National Guard along the country’s northern and southern borders.
In May, President Trump addressed the crisis at the border and followed through on a threat to impose tariffs on Mexican imports if Mexico did not take action to deter people from Central America passing through Mexico on the way to the U.S. southern border.
The Mexican government deployed its National Guard to the U.S border, also the Guard and federal police were sent to its southern border with Guatemala. Checkpoints were placed along highways in Central Mexico to stop buses of people traveling North, and arrested and deporting those without legal documents, The Washington Examiner reported.
A Border Patrol agent told Breitbart Texas on Thursday, “When the Mexican National Guard deployed on the southern side of the Rio Grande, traffic across the border virtually stopped,” said the agent. “We still see crossings along the river, but it has dropped from more than 1,000 per day to only about 200.”
Acting Customs Border Patrol commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters at the White House earlier Thursday that the amount of children and people travelling as part of a family have dropped for the first time in more than a year. Most arrests were adults.
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Catherine Smith is a contributor to American Greatness.
