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What impact has Donald Trump had on illegal immigration? Government shutdown: Is there a crisis on the US-Mexico border?
(7 months later)
President Donald Trump recently ended a practice that separated children from families illegally crossing the border. But more generally, what effects have his policies had on illegal immigration in the United States? President Donald Trump says a federal government shutdown will continue until he receives billions in funding to address a "humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border".
"We're going to build the wall. We have no choice." Then-candidate Donald Trump promised at a rally in California that, as president, he would crack down on illegal migrants in the US. The crowd chanted in response: "Build that wall! Build that wall!" As the partial shutdown pushes through its third week, an estimated 800,000 federal employees are going without pay and the effects are being felt across the US.
Sixteen months into his presidency, Mr Trump maintains that constructing a wall on the US-Mexico border and "the swift removal" of unlawful entrants will protect the safety and prosperity of Americans. Nevertheless, President Trump is adamant that the shutdown is necessary to force Congress to approve $5.7bn (£4.5bn) for his long-promised border wall, a cornerstone of his 2016 campaign.
What's happened to border crossings? Democrats, newly in control of the House of Representatives, are blocking the president's request and say the administration's immigration policies and rhetoric amount to a "manufactured crisis".
Changes under the Trump administration include expediting the process to determine eligibility to remain, promptly removing those who are denied, and criminally prosecuting migrants for first-time border offences, which were previously treated as a civil violation. So what's really happening?
Between 5 May and 9 June, 2,342 children were taken from their parents and held in separate government centres, according to the Department of Homeland Security. How many people are crossing the border illegally?
On 20 June, Mr Trump reversed the order to separate families. That same day, officials said those children already taken would not be immediately reunited with their families, but the situation is evolving. It's impossible to say for certain but apprehensions made by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents provide one measure.
Mr Trump's executive order still allows for long-term detention of immigrant children (albeit with their parents), which does violate federal law that limits child detention to 20 days. CBP made a total of 396,579 apprehensions on the south-western border in fiscal year 2018, and 303,916 in 2017.
In Mr Trump's first year in office in 2017, arrests of migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border were down at 303,916, compared with 408,870 in President Barack Obama's last year. While illegal crossings cannot be accurately counted, border arrests are used as a measure of illegal border crossings. The number had fallen dramatically in President Trump's first year but rose again last year.
There were also about 3,027 illegal apprehensions from along the Canadian border and 3,588 from the coastal border. Looking at the wider picture, there has been a sharp fall in the number of people arrested in the last 18 years.
These numbers include asylum seekers (a person who applies for refugee status at a US port of entry or from within the country). The most recent report, 2016, shows a total of 115,399 applied and 20,455 individuals were granted asylum to stay in the United States. So, is there a current "crisis" of illegal immigration on the southern border?
However, since February 2018, the number of migrants crossing the border illegally was up, with arrests last month more than double those in May 2017. "No," says Jacinta Ma, director of policy and advocacy for the National Immigration Forum, which advocates on behalf of immigrants.
A US Customs and Border Protection report credits any changes to the president's policies to improved border security. "Even with the rise in apprehensions over the last year, it's way down from the early 2000s."
And while cross-border migrants often make headlines, the largest number of illegal migrants settling in the US each year are the people who stay in the country after their visas expire. Do most illegal entries take place at the southern border?
According to the most recent reports by the Department of Homeland Security and the Center for Migration Studies, the number who overstayed their visas has outnumbered those who crossed the border illegally every year since 2007. Canadians make up the largest group of these illegal migrants. Illegal border crossings are not limited to the southern border - in 2017, for example, there were also 3,027 illegal apprehensions along the Canadian border and 3,588 from the coastal border.
While cross-border migrants often make headlines, the largest number of illegal migrants settling in the US each year is those who stay in the country after their visas expire.
According to the most recent reports by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Center for Migration Studies, a non-partisan think-tank, the number who overstayed their visas has outnumbered those who crossed the border illegally every year since 2007.
In 2017, Canadians made up the largest group of these illegal migrants that entered by air or sea port of entry, followed by Mexicans (it should be noted that the majority of Canadians and Mexicans enter the US by land, and the DHS Overstay Report only provides air and sea overstay rates).
In 2016, there were a total of 739,478 overstays, compared to 563,204 illegal border crossings.In 2016, there were a total of 739,478 overstays, compared to 563,204 illegal border crossings.
Deportations It's also important to note that, according to the Pew Research Center, overall the number of immigrants living in the US illegally has actually declined since 2007, in large part due to a dip in the number of people coming from Mexico. Apprehensions at the south-western border peaked in 2000, at 1.64 million.
At his first town hall meeting, then-candidate Mr Trump said "If I win ... day one of my presidency, they're getting out and getting out fast", referring to illegal migrants in the United States. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented individuals living in the country. In total, Pew estimates that in 2016, there were 10.7 million unauthorised immigrants living in the US.
Arrests of illegal migrants inside the US (not border arrests) are up 42% since Mr Trump took office, compared with the previous year, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). How many people are attempting to cross legally?
This included an increase of individuals with no criminal convictions. Those arrested are then processed through the immigration court system. Apprehension numbers released by the CBP include asylum seekers (a person who applies for refugee status at a US port of entry or from within the country).
Like arrests, the number of people deported from the interior of the country was also up, not including arrests or removals at the border. In Mr Trump's first year - 2016-17 - 81,603 people were removed from the interior, compared to 65,332 the year before. In fiscal year 2018, 92,959 people were deemed to have made claims of credible fear" and asked for asylum at the border. That's a pretty big jump from fiscal year 2017, when 55,584 claims were made.
'Build that wall' Kate Jastram, senior staff attorney for the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, says that families fleeing violence in Central America began to make up a much larger part of border crossings beginning in 2014.
The US-Mexico border is 1,954 miles (3,145 km) long, with 654 miles of various types of fencing going through California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. She says that has more to do with conditions in those countries than any immigration policy implemented by the Trump administration.
Almost the rest of the unbarred border along Texas is marked by 1,240 miles of the Rio Grande. "Single men from Mexico were by and large not seeking asylum, they were looking for work," says Jastram. "[Now] we have families and children specifically seeking protection."
Citing security concerns, Customs and Border Protection does not publish where the physical border exists, and will only confirm that two replacement projects are under construction. In November, a caravan of 7,000 migrants arrived at the US-Mexico border, many claiming to be fleeing violence in countries like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Mr Trump labelled the caravan an "invasion".
During his campaign, Mr Trump promised to build a wall across the entire border, and, as president, he invited the media to see eight 30-foot prototypes. Overall, the rate of asylum denials is on the rise in the US, and has been for the past six years.
In January, he asked Congress to pay $18bn (£13.6bn) over the next decade for an initial phase of construction, but the bill ultimately failed. Estimates are that a cross-border wall would cost anywhere from $12-40bn. What has the Trump administration done to address all this?
On 23 March, Mr Trump signed a bill that included $1.6bn for projects at the border, but the bill stipulates that the funds cannot be used towards a wall. Instead, the funds are going on projects improving and replacing existing fences. Over the past two years, President Trump and his administration have tried a variety of deterrent measures affecting both illegal entrants and asylum seekers.
'Change the law' They are:
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives voted down one immigration bill that was meant to increase border security, and postponed the vote on a second - "compromise" bill - until next week. Last week, Mr Trump said he was considering declaring a "national emergency" in order to force through his border wall funding.
The president had said he would sign the bill if it was approved by Congress, but on Friday, he tweeted that "Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration [legislation]" until after the next election. Legal and constitutional scholars are divided on whether or not the president has the power to do such a thing, or if the laws exist to accomplish what he wants.
The "compromise" immigration bill, as it is called, would cut down legal immigration, lower eligibility for asylum, and offer conditional legal status to Dreamers - young undocumented immigrants who grew up in the US. The bill would also commit $25bn in the future to build the wall along the southwest border. What about terrorists?
It Is not certain the bill has the votes to pass in the House of Representatives, and it faces even longer odds in the narrowly-divided Senate. It was an eye-catching claim from the White House press secretary.
"Last year alone there were nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists that CBP picked up that came across our southern border," Sarah Sanders told Fox and Friends on Friday.
That is not true. Even her colleague, Kellyanne Conway, later called it "an unfortunate misstatement".
So where did that figure come from?
A White House briefing report on immigration says 3,755 known or suspected terrorists were prevented from entering the US in the fiscal year 2017.
But that includes terror suspects who have been stopped at any US border, and the vast majority are stopped at airports.
"The debate is over a land border wall. To include airport statistics is irrelevant and misleading," says Todd Bensman from the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank which favours lower immigration.
Bensman, a former counter-terrorism intelligence manager who worked at the Texas border, analysed data from a "reliable intelligence community source" and concluded that more than 100 migrants on terror watchlists were apprehended at the southern border between 2012-17.
Data from NBC News seems to support his assertion. It learnt that in the first half of 2018 six immigrants on the terror watchlist were stopped at the southern border
No-one who has crossed the US southern border illegally from 1975 to the end of 2017 has been responsible for a terror attack on US soil, according to David Bier and Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute.
Seven so-called "special interest aliens" were convicted of planning an attack on US soil, during that time, says the libertarian think tank's report.
But that category includes any visitor from a country deemed by the US intelligence community as a risk. In the past it has been a list of 50 countries.
Reporting by Micah Luxen, Jessica Lussenhop and Rajini Vaidyanathan