by Justin Gest
Justin Gest (@_JustinGest) is a Newsweek columnist. He is a professor and director of the Public Policy program at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He has authored six books on the politics of immigration and demographic change, including his newest, Majority Minority.
In his last editorial, Newsweek collaborator Mr. Justin Gest, declared Mexico is influencing the U.S. election.
Vice President Kamala Harris strode along the United States’ southern border in Douglas, Arizona recently, she sought to draw voters’ attention to a tougher Democratic stance on immigration policy.
She claimed former President Donald Trump “did nothing to fix our broken immigration system” as president, and that Republicans offered a “false choice” between border security and a “safe, orderly, and humane” immigration system. “We can and must do both,” she said.
But Harris’ campaign event and photo op was only possible because the Chihuahuan desert backdrop behind her was as quiet as it has been in years.
After reaching a record high in December 2023, the monthly number of U.S. Border Patrol encounters with migrants crossing the southern frontier has dropped by 77 percent overall—a stunningly sharp decline in 9 months.
Since June executive orders limited the extent to which U.S. border officers will consider asylum claims—a likely violation of international and U.S. humanitarian law—the Biden Administration and Harris have been quick to take credit.
But the difference since last December is not only that prospective entrants are being turned away by U.S. law enforcement; it’s that these would-be asylum seekers are barely even approaching the border in the first place because Mexican officials are proactively intercepting them en route and transporting them to the southernmost reaches of the country.
Click here to read the complete, original article by Justin Gest in Newsweek
Source: Newsweek
