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A drop in border crossings?
The last four months at the Texas border have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of migrant encounters, according to the latest numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
From January to April, the federal government reported 204,000 migrant encounters in the five sectors of the border that are in Texas. In 2023 during the same stretch, there were 350,000 encounters. And in 2022, nearly 450,000.
I've told you before about how Gov. Greg Abbott has taken a lot of credit for the decline. At last Saturday's NRA Convention in Dallas, he said Operation Lone Star has been pushing migrants to Arizona and California to cross.
"Texas has done more than any state in the history of America to secure our border," Abbott said.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, as you can probably guess, said the administration deserves a lot of credit for the drop in crossing in Texas and along the rest of the border.
He said in an interview with CBS News that it is "because of a number of actions that we have taken, not only strengthening our enforcement, not only attacking the smugglers, but also building lawful pathways that enable people who qualify for relief to reach the United States in a safe, orderly and legal way."
Of course, Mexico has played a big role, too. They have become a lot more aggressive in turning away migrants on their southern border and have cracked down on migrants who were jumping on trains to get to the Texas border fast.
While the numbers are in decline, don't expect the recent drop to impact how big the issue remains in the presidential election. A new Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed immigration as one of the top three issues for voters nationwide. Among just Republican voters, it remains the second biggest issue after the economy.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's up, who's down
He survived an impeachment attempt and now border numbers are plummeting. He's far from in the clear, but the declining border crossing numbers are certainly taking some of the pressure off the 64-year-old cabinet secretary.
Down: Ted Cruz.
AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — is "pausing" fundraising for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and some others who voted against the big foreign aid package that included funding for Israel, according to the Jewish Insider. In April, after he voted against the aid package, Cruz said it was a hard vote because he almost always supports aid to Israel but couldn't do it this time because the bill didn't include enough to address security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
What else is going on in Texas
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Lauren Mitchell
May 24 will always be a little hard to get through. On the second anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting, it's hard not to think about the 19 school children, the two teachers and all of their families who are going through things most of us just can't imagine. Here's a reminder of who we lost that day.
What else I'm reading
On Sunday morning, I'll be on Eye on Politics with Jack Fink on KTVT-TV CBS-11 in Dallas talking about House Speaker Dade Phelan's struggle to win reelection in Beaumont. Check it out here on Sunday.
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