This Issue: Border apprehensions and inadmissibles down nearly 50% in November compared to last year

Fri, Dec 13^th

Lost in this week's news over the House vote on farm amnesty legislation was the report on November's border statistics. For the sixth consecutive month, the total number of border apprehensions and inadmissibles was down compared to the previous month, hitting their lowest mark since July 2018.

In general, reductions in apprehensions is a good sign that total illegal crossings are similarly dropping.

Last month, border patrol officers arrested 33,510 illegal border crossers. They included:

Single adults -- Nearly two-thirds of the total.
Family units -- 9,000 was a decline from October.
UACs -- The number of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) did increase by 17% with 3,321 UACs being apprehended last month.

The number of inadmissibles also declined in November by 6%. Inadmissibles include individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking admission but deemed inadmissible, individuals seeking humanitarian protection, and individuals who withdrew an application for admission.

It's still difficult to assess how much of the decline in illegal border crossings is due to policies put in place by the Trump Administration during the height of the border surge, or due to seasonal fluctuations.

The most recent border surge began right around this time last year. In November 2018, total apprehensions and inadmissibles were 62,469, so we've seen close to a 50% decline year-to-year.

But last month's total -- 42,649 -- was still 9.2% higher than the total number of apprehensions and inadmissibles in November 2017.

SEN. LEE TO TRY AGAIN TO LIFT COUNTRY CAPS

Breitbart reports that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) will once again ask for unanimous consent next week to pass S.386, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act. The bill would lift the per-country caps on employment-based green cards, allowing most green cards to go to foreign workers from either India or China.

While the bill would not directly increase legal immigration, it would result in most employment-based green cards going to nationals from only a handful of countries, reducing diversity within the immigration system. Further, since Indian and Chinese immigrants are concentrated in the tech industry, few employment-based green cards would be available for workers in other industries.

We've already seen opposition to S.386 from the healthcare industry, and now the dairy industry is speaking up. Breitbart reports that Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) will object to Sen. Lee's next unanimous consent request on behalf of the dairy industry. Dairy farmers are concerned that by allowing most green cards to go to nationals from India, it would prevent them from rewarding long-serving dairy workers with green cards.

Chris Chmielenski
NumbersUSA Deputy Director

The U.S. House this week approved a giant ag amnesty bill that would greatly increase the number of foreign workers competing with Americans in all kinds of lower-wage jobs.

Let's take a look at where the most popular presidential candidates for 2020 stand on protecting the jobs and wages of less-skilled Americans.

These are the ratings currently assigned by the Grading Team on NumbersUSA's "WORKER PROTECTION IMMIGRATION GRADE CARDS":

REDUCE VISAS FOR LOWER-WAGE JOBS?

Trump -- Mixed
Biden -- Mixed

Booker -- Mixed
Buttigieg -- No Action
Klobuchar -- STRONG NO

Sanders -- Leans YES
Warren -- Leans NO
Yang -- Leans YES

House Approves Amnesty & Indentured Servitude for Illegal Farm Workers

Thu, Dec 12^th

The House of Representatives approved legislation on Wednesday night that would grant amnesty to more than 1 million illegal farm workers and renew the outdated system of indentured servitude to guarantee a steady and cheap foreign worker labor force going forward. The bill passed 260-165, mostly along party lines with all but four Democrats who were present supporting the legislation and more than 80% of the Republicans opposing the legislation.

U.S. Interior Immigration Arrests Fell Despite Admin Push

Thu, Dec 12^th

Non-border immigration arrests in the United States fell by 10 percent in the year to September from a year earlier, the latest U.S. data shows, a drop the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said was partly due to the diversion of the agencc's resources to the border.

Rep. Ross Spano: We can delay a budget, but we can't delay a crisis

Tue, Dec 10^th

It has been more than two months since we entered fiscal year 2020, and not a single full-year appropriations bill has been completed. Moreover, I have yet to see evidence that we're any closer to resolving this issue. Despite my opposition to using continuing resolutions to manage our government, Congress passed another continuing resolution just before Thanksgiving to extend funding to Dec. 20 at fiscal year 2019 levels. Kicking this can further down the road hurts our military, ports, infrastructure investments, and borders.

372,000 Born to Immigrants Every Year, 33,000 to 'Tourists'

Fri, Dec 13^th

Illegal and visiting immigrants give birth to enough children in the United States every year to top the populations of St. Louis, Pittsburgh, or Anaheim, and at least 33,000 are considered "birth tourists" eager to win their children birthright citizenship and themselves a quick ticket in, according to two new reports out Thursday.

Border Apprehensions Dropped for 6th Consecutive Month, per DHS Data

Mon, Dec 9^th

Law enforcement apprehended or turned away 42,649 migrants at the southern border in November, according to preliminary data reviewed by Fox News -- a sixth month of declines that the administration is hailing as proof that the set of policies and initiatives to combat the border crisis is working.