Illegal Immigration Is Up Yet Again

Today brings some bad news for Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security. Border apprehensions were up yet again in May:

It turns out that bluster and threats will apparently scare people away for a few months, but after that you need actual policies to keep the numbers down. Unfortunately, Trump’s idea of “policy” is to scream at his Secretary of Homeland Security:

Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, told colleagues she was close to resigning after President Trump berated her on Wednesday in front of the entire cabinet for what he said was her failure to adequately secure the nation’s borders, according to several current and former officials familiar with the episode….Mr. Trump’s anger toward Ms. Nielsen, who was sitting several seats to his left at the meeting, was part of a lengthy tirade in which the president railed at his cabinet about what he said was its lack of progress toward sealing the country’s borders against illegal immigrants, according to one person who was present at the meeting.

That was last month, and now things are even worse. Nielsen is really in for it now.

BY THE WAY: If you’re wondering why other sources say that border apprehensions were “over 50,000” last month, it’s because that number includes people who present themselves at ports of entry and are turned away. The numbers in my chart are solely people who are apprehended after crossing illegally into the United States.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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