"As midnight nears, the lights of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, fill the sky on the silent banks of the Rio Grande. A few months ago, hundreds of asylum-seeking families, including crying toddlers, waited for an opening to crawl through razor wire from Juarez into El Paso.

No one is waiting there now.

Nearly 500 miles away, in the border city of Eagle Pass, large groups of migrants that were once commonplace are rarely seen on the riverbanks these days.

In McAllen, at the other end of the Texas border, two Border Patrol agents scan fields for five hours without encountering a single migrant.

It’s a return to relative calm after an unprecedented surge of immigrants through the southern border in recent years. But no one would know that listening to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump talking about border enforcement at dueling presidential campaign events. And no one would know from the rate at which Texas is spending on a border crackdown called Operation Lone Star — $11 billion since 2021."

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

A new reality? Fuck off. It's the same as it's been for the past few decades. Migrant surges and chaos are bullshit made up by racist Republicans in order to manipulate their bigoted base.

If the press had bothered to fucking check in the first goddamned place instead of just taking the "border chaos" narrative at face value, maybe they wouldn't be so surprised when they actually bother to look.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Arrests for illegal crossings plummeted nearly 80% from December to July

The data disagrees with you. I think both are true...Republicans make up stories and use scare tactics about immigration to manipulate their voters, and the number of people crossing or attempting to cross the border illegally is significantly down from a year ago.

Also the Texas Tribune isn't your enemy my man

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You want a cookie for just not reading the article or what? Also the Texas Tribune has done amazing reporting on the border for years. Just an ignorant ass comment to claim they don't know what's going on there when they've been calling out the disinformation the entire time.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Then don't call it a new reality. It's the same fucking reality. The border chaos narrative has always been racist bullshit.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Again why just prove that you didn't bother to read the article? Just willful ignorance. Few things more shameful than what you're proud of right here.

[–] minnix@lemux.minnix.dev 10 points 2 weeks ago

In the words of Carville, it's the economy stupid. Migration is and has always been driven by employment. Currently unemployment is rising while vacancies are stabilized and predicted to decrease, hence lower rates of immigration. Political posturing has zero effect on this basic rule of economics.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You'd also assume that border counties are overwhelmingly Republican because of illegal immigrants causing so much crime and using so many government services without paying. The border is where most of the blue counties are.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Texas

[–] TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

The retort you’ll get hit with is they’re blue because of the people immigrating there voting for democrats in their own best interest.