Illegal crossings plunge as US extends policy across border
By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press
Illegal border crossings have plummeted after the Trump administration made more asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. The drop has been most striking on Arizona’s western border, a pancake-flat desert. Border arrests there fell 94% from May to October. A Border Patrol official says traffic plunged after asylum-seekers learned they couldn’t stay in the U.S. while their cases wound through court. More than 55,000 asylum-seekers were returned to Mexico to wait for hearings through November, 10 months after the policy was introduced in San Diego.