Trump's Trials - The Trump administration claims credit for a quiet border. The data say otherwise

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

The U.S.-Mexico border is quieter than it's been in years. Vice President Vance says the Trump administration deserves the credit, but migrant apprehensions have been falling for months. Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Dattrow. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. Unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you NPR's coverage of President Trump acting on his own terms. And that means sometimes doing things that no American president has tried before. NPR is covering it all in stories

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TNCs apply. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. The U.S.-Mexico border is quieter now than it's been in years. Migrant apprehensions fell last month to historic lows, and the Trump administration has been quick to claim the credit. But that's only part of the story, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.

If you visited downtown El Paso in the last few years, the blocks around Sacred Heart Catholic Church were often crowded, with recently arrived migrants hoping for shelter and a meal on their way to a new life in the U.S. Now it looks very different. What you don't see is the large presence of migrants that we've had in years past. Dylan Corbett is the founder and director of the HOPE Border Institute, a nonprofit humanitarian group in El Paso, which sits just across the Rio Grande from the Mexican city of Juarez. This has long been a gateway for migrants from the south. Corbett says

the number of crossings has been falling since last summer, but now the Trump administration has made it all but impossible to get asylum. They've really sealed the border, bona fide asylum seekers who are in need of protection right now. There really is no process. They've ended asylum as we've known it. It's the same from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. Migrant shelters that were straining to keep up with record arrivals a few years ago are closing their doors with no one to serve.

Border encounters fell again in February to fewer than 8,500 nationwide, according to the White House, the lowest monthly total since modern record keeping began 25 years ago. At the same time, the number of troops deployed to the border has been climbing into the thousands. PETE HEGSETH, U.S. Secretary of Defense Defense Secretary of Defense, Defense Department, U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department,

Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, Defense Department, into the thousands. Border security is national security. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the border last week along with Vice President J.D. Vance in Eagle Pass, Texas, where daily crossings have dropped from a peak of about 1,500 a day to just 30 now. By the next morning, Vance had posted this video of the event on social media. It turns out we didn't need new laws.

We didn't need fancy legislation. We just needed a new president of the United States and thank God That's exactly what we have Vance did not mention that the number of migrants arriving at the border had already been falling for months before the election as the Biden Administration put limits on asylum and pushed the Mexican government to step up enforcement There's a lot of border theater going on and it's very quiet enforcement. There's a lot of border theater going on and it's very quiet around the border. Laurie Cantillo is with Humane Borders, a volunteer organization in Arizona that provides water for migrants crossing the Sonoran

Desert. We see about the same number of Border Patrol vehicles, many with agents pulled off to the side of the road and look pretty bored. This is not the first time border crossings have dropped when policies changed. It happened at the beginning of President Trump's first term as well. Guadalupe Correa Cabrera is a professor at George Mason University, who's been living in Tijuana, Mexico,

just across the border from San Diego. The fear and the uncertainty discussing these numbers going down very rapidly. People are waiting to see what is going to happen. But they won't wait forever, Correa Cabrera says. And if history is any guide, the numbers will eventually go up again, as long as migrants believe there is opportunity

and hope north of the border. Joel Rose, NPR News. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detro. Thanks for listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt

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