(NewsNation) — NewsNation rides with Border Patrol to show you the border the way no other news network can.
NewsNation will present a special edition of “Dan Abrams Live” Thursday, May 9, at 9 p.m. ET. Hosted by Dan Abrams, the one-hour “Crisis on the Border” episode will go beyond the headlines to take a comprehensive look at what’s really happening at the border, one of the top issues facing voters ahead of the 2024 election.
NewsNation reporters will be fanned out nationwide to report live on the border crisis and its impact on communities, education and crime rates. National correspondents contributing to the special will be Ali Bradley from Eagle Pass, Texas, Jorge Ventura from San Diego and senior national correspondent Brian Entin from Nogales, Arizona. Additionally, NewsNation teams will be riding along with law enforcement using night vision technology and a specially outfitted NewsNation border truck.
The special broadcast will feature a live panel of border agents and police chiefs from Texas to New York to discuss how the border crisis is impacting their own communities.
Keep up with our extensive online coverage of the border crisis here and tell us what you think using #border on social.
Here’s some of the issues NewsNation has been covering on the border so far.
Mexico steps up enforcement
Although they were at a record high in December, illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border are down. A study by the Washington Office on Latin America says this is because of a crackdown by Mexican authorties. In the first two months of the year, Mexican officials encountered or apprehended 240,000 migrants, up 20% from previous monthly highs, according to Mexican government data cited by WOLA.Mexico has also issued significantly fewer humanitarian visa cards that allow migrants to travel across the country in recent months. The number of those cards has plummeted 98% from an average of 13,294 per month for most of 2023 to just 213 per month between November and February.Recent crackdowns could also be seen in the northern border state of Chihuahua where Mexican patrols have become more visible along the Rio Grande.Over the weekend, President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discussed new steps to clamp down on illegal migration — a plan that reportedly includes tougher enforcement on railways, buses and in airports.
FULL STORY: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/mexico-migration-enforcement/
Animal smuggling on the border
Mexican drug cartels make billions smuggling humans across the southern border, but in recent years, another lucrative crime has taken off: wildlife trafficking. Some animals can fetch thousands of dollars for smugglers. The International Criminal Police Organization, or INTERPOL, warned in November that the growing issue has pushed many species “to the brink of extinction.” Online marketplaces and social media have made it significantly easier for consumers to get wild animals on the black market, many of which arrive from outside the country through U.S. ports of entry.Latin America is especially vulnerable because of its biodiversity. Ecuador, for example, has about 1,600 species of birds, and Brazil hosts between 15% to 20% of the entire world’s wildlife diversity.
FULL STORY: https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/border-exotic-animals-wildlife-smuggling/
Voters say immigration is US’ top issue
For the third straight month, Americans say immigration is the top problem facing the U.S., the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years, a recent Gallup poll showed. 27% of Americans said immigration is the biggest crisis facing the nation, according to poll results taken in April. Though the issue has not ranked as the top problem often in Gallup’s monthly trend, it does stand as the most “politically polarizing issue in the past 25 years of Gallup’s measurement,” the group stated. The survey showed that 48% of Republicans, compared with 8% of Democrats, mention immigration and independents come in at 25%.
FULL STORY: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/immigration-remains-top-problem/
What happens to contraband seized at border?
There have been thousands of illegal items including drugs, guns and illicit cash smuggled into the U.S. this year. CBP works with other state and federal agencies to make sure these items are handled safely, and the process involves strict and sometimes lengthy processes, an agency spokesperson told NewsNation.When drugs are seized at the border, they are immediately tested to identify what the substance is, the agency said. Cash taken by authorities that was determined to be used for illegal activity goes to the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, an account with the Department of Treasury, CBP told NewsNation, while weapons and ammunitions found illegal are forfeited, with the title on them going to the government. After that, these weapons are destroyed.
FULL STORY: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/drugs-guns-cash-at-border/
Humanitarian groups outraged over immigrant detention expansion
President Joe Biden expanded funding for immigrant detention centers in an effort to improve border enforcement and tame the migrant crisis, but his move has sparked outrage by dozens of humanitarian groups who say he has gone back on his human rights promises. Over 200 organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the National Immigrant Justice Center and Amnesty International, called Biden’s funding “an utter betrayal of campaign promises” in a scathing open letter last month. “Detention does not provide an efficient or ethical means of border processing, and it certainly does not indicate to migrants that they are welcome in the United States,” their letter stated. The groups said immigrants who stay at detention centers carry “lifelong scars from the mistreatment and dehumanization they endured because of the United States’ reliance on detention, mostly through private prisons and county jails.”
FULL STORY: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/immigration-detention-expansion-outrage/
Migrants who can’t work taking odd jobs to make money
Migrants and asylum-seekers navigating a new life in American sanctuary cities are often willing to do whatever is necessary to make financial ends meet. However, this is made difficult without legal work authorizations, which can take five to six months for asylum-seekers.Some migrants work for cash by washing windows and hawking candy or food to strangers on the street. Others find ways to skirt authorizations. Either option often comes with risks and long hours. Migrants say it’s worth it for a chance to chase their version of the American dream.
“It’s hard to be in a new city. You don’t know where to start,” Edelyn Flores, a Venezuelan migrant in Chicago, told NewsNation in Spanish. “It’s hard, but I feel capable of starting from scratch.”
FULL STORY: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/migrants-odd-illegal-jobs-make-ends-meet/
How migrants are cared for as resources are stretched thin
Communities across the country are grappling with how to pay for the influx of migrants coming to the United States, even as they lack the resources to do so. For example, NewsNation spoke to school district officials in the the rural town of Albertville, Alabama,with a population of under 23,000. About 65% of students are Latino, some of whom have never had a formal education, even in their native Spanish.Figuring out how to provide students — 35% of whom are learning English for the first time — with a proper educational experience has become a task that is equal parts motivation and frustration. A doctor at a Denver, Colorado hospital, meanwhile, estimates that just in the past year, the health system tended to 20,000 medical visits that are linked to the city’s migrant population.
“That’s a lot of care that we weren’t planning on giving,” Federico said, adding, “We’re going to need some additional public funding to make it going forward.”
However, local municipalities aren’t the only places seeing their budgets stretched by the migrant crisis. Federal officials estimate that $5.5 billion has been spent nationwide on providing medical care to migrants and asylum seekers. They have used funding from local governments where resources would typically be reserved for area residents.
NewsNation digital reporters Andrew Dorn, Safia Samee Ali and Jeff Arnold contributed to this report.
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