Trump Policy Could Trigger a Border Population Explosion, Rights Group Warns
- Mexican border ‘will look like South Sudan’ if closed: Isacson
- Nearly 4 in 5 migrants don’t come through checkpoints anyways
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President Donald Trump’s threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border to block immigration may not work even if he does decide to act, because four-in-five migrants already avoid the checkpoints he’d shut down.
The southwest border is witnessing the greatest surge in migrants since 2014, but then almost twice as many undocumented immigrants went to official ports of entry, Customs and Border Protection statistics show. This time, the influx has been harder to manage because so many are skirting the ports and instead trekking across deserts, mountains and rivers, many tethered to human smugglers.