Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border plummeted after the Trump administration required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for court hearings in the U.S., according to a report. When the policy took effect in the Border Patrol's Yuma sector in May, arrests hit 14,000. Anthony Porvaznik, chief of the Border Patrol's Yuma sector, said the so-called Migration Protection Protocols have been a huge deterrent, based on agents' interviews with people arrested. Over 55,000 asylum-seekers were returned to Mexico to wait for hearings through November, 10 months after the policy first took effect in San Diego. In Yuma, asylum-seekers have been held in short-term cells until space opened up to be returned to Mexicali through a neighboring California sector.

Source: Fox News January 19, 2020 22:18 UTC