WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have unexpectedly fallen, not risen, since Title 42 curbs expired and reinstating criminal penalties for illegal entry is likely the biggest reason, the Biden administration said on Sunday.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since Thursday, when President Joe Biden’s administration shifted to a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.
“The numbers we have experienced in the past two days are markedly down over what they were prior to the end of Title 42,” Mayorkas said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. He said there were 6,300 border encounters on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday, but cautioned it was still early in the new regime.
Mayorkas credited the criminal penalties for migrants who illegally enter the country, which resumed under existing
For the second Sunday in a row, Central Illinois had several severe weather warnings as heavy rain, wind, and hail pounded several of the counties in the Regional Radio listening area.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since the pandemic-era immigration policy known as Title 42 expired at midnight on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday.
“Over the past two days, the United States Border Patrol has experienced a 50% drop in the number of encounters versus what we were experiencing earlier in the week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday,” Mayorkas said.
“It is still early. We are in day three. But we have been planning for this transition for months and months.”
Mayorkas said that U.S. Border Patrol agents had about 6,300 encounters with border-crossers on Friday and another 4,200 on Saturday, compared with more than 10,000 shortly before Title 42’s expiration. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The personal information of 237,000 current and former federal government employees has been exposed in a data breach at the U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT), sources briefed on the matter said on Friday.
The breach hit systems for processing TRANServe transit benefits that reimburse government employees for some commuting costs. It was not clear if any of the personal information had been used for criminal purposes.
USDOT notified Congress Friday in an email seen by Reuters that its initial investigation of the data breach has “isolated the breach to certain systems at the department used for administrative functions, such as employee transit benefits processing.”
USDOT said in a statement to Reuters the breach did not affect any transportation safety systems. It did not say who might be responsible for the hack.
The department is investigating the breach and has frozen access to the transit benefit system until
Caption to picture, from the left: Jennifer Franklin, President, Greater Taylorville Chamber of Commerce; Chamber Executive Director Linda Allen; and Lou Johnson, Manager of the McLane Fo.