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NewsTranscript
00:00It's 10.30pm here in Paris and time to take a closer look at one of tonight's big stories.
00:22This is Apropos.
00:23Well, US Vice President J.D. Vance has been visiting the Mexico border along with the
00:28Defense Secretary and Director of National Intelligence to highlight the tougher immigration
00:33policies the White House says have led to dramatically fewer arrests for illegal crossings
00:39since Donald Trump began his second term in office.
00:43The trio have been speaking with reporters.
00:45Let's take a listen.
00:48It turns out we didn't need new laws, we didn't need fancy legislation, we just needed a new
00:52President of the United States and thank God that's exactly what we have.
00:56And I will say that the most heartening message that I take away from my visit here at the
01:01Texas border is the number of Border Patrol agents who have come up to me and said thank
01:06you or said because of this, we've cut the number of border crossings from 1,500 a day
01:12to 30 a day.
01:13Well, for more, let's cross live now to Fraser Jackson, he's our Washington correspondent.
01:18Fraser, we heard a little bit of what the US Vice President had there to say during
01:23that press conference.
01:25What else emerged?
01:26Yeah, well, JD Vance effectively saying that it's because of Donald Trump that the crossings
01:33are now at a record low, they're at the record low numbers since the year 2000, the financial
01:38year 2000.
01:40But of course, those numbers have been trending downwards in recent months.
01:45It wasn't something that started when Donald Trump got into office, it had been started
01:50at the end part of 2024 after record numbers under Joe Biden.
01:54JD Vance said that at that point in the border had been encountering 1,500 migrants a day
02:01and said that was down to 30.
02:03But like I said, crossings have been trending downwards, driven in part by policies on either
02:07side of the US-Mexico border.
02:10The numbers have plunged since Trump began implementing and broadcasting his sweeping
02:14immigration crackdown, it should be said, however.
02:16JD Vance says Trump has empowered border agents to do their jobs and said that he'd spoken
02:21to many of them over the course of his day-long trip there to the border with Secretary of
02:25Defence Pete Hexeth and the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as well.
02:30Now, the numbers kind of bear that out.
02:32There were over 130,000 encounters in both 2023 February and February 2024, while last
02:41month's numbers are down to just 8,300, which is the lowest since the record data began
02:49in the year 2000.
02:51Illegal border crossings spiked at the end of 2023 but started to slow downwards in 2024,
02:56like I said, after the Biden administration implemented new restrictions that Joe Biden
03:00put in place and also because of Mexican officials who ramped up the enforcement of those new
03:06laws as well, which experts believe played a key role in the lower numbers that we're
03:10seeing now.
03:11But of course, we've also seen the Mexican government sending thousands of troops to
03:16the border as part of an agreement to try to avoid some tariffs as well, and that has
03:20also played a role as to why we're seeing these lower numbers at the moment.
03:24Fraser, we'll leave it there for now.
03:25Thanks so much for joining us.
03:27That's Fraser Jackson, France 24's correspondent in Washington.
03:30Well, for more, let's bring in Ernesto Castaneda.
03:34He's Director of the Immigration Lab and the Centre for Latin American and Latino Studies
03:39at the American University.
03:41Thanks so much for being with us on the programme, Ernesto.
03:45Firstly, Donald Trump himself hasn't made a trip to the border since he was inaugurated
03:50for a second time.
03:52The White House saying this visit is evidence of the scope of his administration's focus
03:57on the issue.
03:58What do you think was the main message that these three were trying to portray this evening?
04:02We heard a little bit of what JD Vance had to say a little earlier.
04:07That's right.
04:08If it was Biden, he would be criticised for not going to the border himself.
04:13He spoke about this yesterday at the meeting with the joint Congress.
04:19And instead, we have the vice president here, a headset from the minister of defence and
04:24Gabbard from intelligence.
04:26And they are going there to celebrate.
04:28They are going there to support the Trump victory and to claim wrongly that the lower
04:32numbers at the border are thanks to President Trump.
04:36But as Fraser was saying, indeed, these numbers have been going down since 2024 because of
04:43some changes to asylum processes that the Biden administration put into place.
04:48And also because Mexico has been sending people back to the southern part of Mexico for them
04:54to wait there for an appointment, which used to be the application, the app CBP1, or also
05:00Mexico deporting an important number of people to their countries of origin.
05:03So this is where the trends are going.
05:05And if somebody should be giving credit for this, it should be Biden, not Trump.
05:10And Donald Trump, though he did, you know, it was one of the things that he really focused
05:14on when he came back into office, cracking down on immigration.
05:18Are any of the proposals that he has initiated since retaking office, are they actually having
05:24consequences yet on the ground?
05:27No, there was a bottleneck that happened during the pandemic where the border was crossed
05:35de facto, technically because of public health reasons.
05:39Since then, I had been saying that there will be an increase in border crossings between
05:44ports of entry or undocumented, and that they will eventually stabilize.
05:48And I think we're in that time when numbers have stabilized and people are setting in
05:53place.
05:54What we are seeing with the new executive orders from the Trump administration are changes
05:59for the people who were already inside the United States.
06:04That's where the numbers are.
06:05So on one side, he's restarting deportations from cities like New York, Chicago, et cetera,
06:11with increasing numbers compared to the Biden administration.
06:14And he's also now trying to deport people that entered during the Biden administration,
06:19but they enter legally either by asking asylum in the ports of entry or between ports of
06:24entry at the border wall.
06:26That administration has been calling illegal entries, but it's a way to enter legally.
06:30So there's people from four countries, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua, who could be here
06:36in the U.S. with permission.
06:37But Trump has already said that he's not going to renew those temporary protected statuses.
06:42Therefore, these people could be deported.
06:45And we're seeing some of them being renewed.
06:47So there's a difference between Biden deporting people mainly arriving at the border and Trump
06:51now trying to deport more people from the interior.
06:54And Trump has also had a lot to say about what he feels is the negative impact of immigration
06:57within the United States.
06:58But you yourself have done research aimed at quantifying how much immigrants actually
07:04contribute to the American economy.
07:06What did you find?
07:10That's right.
07:11So immigrants contribute in many ways.
07:14They are proven to be sources of innovation.
07:17They start companies.
07:19They find different ways to solve practical problems.
07:21So they help in the advancement of science, technology and businesses solving problems
07:27and expanding to new markets.
07:29But besides the cultural and the human aspects, immigrants are an important fuel for the economy
07:35of any country, particularly the United States.
07:38Here, me and my colleagues did an estimation that in 2022, the people that sent remittances
07:44to their home countries, many of them undocumented, they sent $81 billion to other countries.
07:50And then we made a calculation and it turns out that they contributed to the U.S. economy
07:56at least $2.2 trillion.
07:59In other words, 8% of the GDP of the U.S. in 2022 or more than the whole Canadian economy.
08:07So if Trump really was to deport all of them, we will see a decrease in the GDP of the U.S.
08:14of around 8%, which will mean that the U.S. will be in a severe recession.
08:20So that's just some of the economic impact that immigrants have, whether they have papers
08:23or not.
08:24But most immigrants and asylum seekers are working or studying.
08:28That's what they do.
08:29And Ernesto, there have been reports also that the defence secretary has been warning
08:33that the U.S. will take military action inside Mexico if the country fails to meet Trump's
08:40border demands.
08:41How much of a concern is that raising inside Mexico?
08:45Yes, this discourse is new, is unique to this Trump administration.
08:53It's very open with very little coordination with the Mexican government.
08:57So therefore, many people inside of Mexico, including some government officials, are very
09:02offended and very worried about this possibility because Mexico has for many years been very
09:09careful about protecting its borders and its national sovereignty to armies from other
09:14countries.
09:15We haven't seen an incursion from the U.S. in many, many years.
09:19So this will be worrisome.
09:21But what we saw today in one of the declarations from J.D. Vance at the border today, he said
09:26that the purpose of nominating or calling organized crime, cartels in Mexico, and gangs
09:33was, he basically said it, an excuse so that they could use the military to protect the
09:39border and to defend it.
09:41And now yesterday, Trump said something very delicate in his state to Congress, his address
09:46to Congress, that the Mexican government has been helping organized crime.
09:52So therefore, Trump is creating this legal structure where an intervention like that
09:57in Mexico will be part of the U.S. defending its national security and its interests.
10:02And that is something justifiable in the eyes of the United States.
10:06But this wouldn't be something that Mexico would take lightly.
10:10And the international community will be very shocked if really troops or drones were sent
10:16to attack inside the Mexican territory.
10:18And is there any evidence of all at all of collusion between the Mexican government and
10:22drug cartels, as Trump suggests?
10:26And what can Mexico actually do about this?
10:28Well, this is something very delicate and something very complicated.
10:33And if there is evidence, there's ways to show this in court and to do trials.
10:37So in a way that Mexico has been cooperating already with the U.S. government is through
10:42extraditions or expulsion.
10:44Just a few days ago, 29 very looked after cartel members that were in prison in Mexico
10:50were sent to the United States for trial there.
10:54We have also Chapo Guzman, this famous drug lord, who is in New York following criminal
11:00proceedings.
11:01So Mexico has been cooperating with the U.S. on that.
11:04Mexico could go back to allowing DEA agents, the drug trafficking agency in the U.S., to
11:09operate and collaborate with Mexican agencies in Mexico.
11:13The Mexican government has been utilizing the military to fight the war on drugs in
11:17Mexico with mixed results.
11:20And there can be evidence found about collusion between local officials and some cartels.
11:26But to say that all of Mexico is corrupted and that all of Mexican politicians are in
11:32collusion with the drug traffickers, it's a big statement that has not been proven.
11:36And it's unlikely true, because there's many areas of the country that are still very peaceful,
11:40very productive, and that don't have this problem.
11:43But there's areas when there is an issue, and international cooperation will be welcome,
11:47but not a military intervention.
11:49Ernesto, we'll have to leave it there for now.
11:51Thanks so much for being with us this evening.
11:53That's Ernesto Castaneda, Director of the Immigration Lab and the Center for Latin American
11:58and Latino Studies at the American University.
12:00Thanks so much.
12:01Well, that's it from us for now.
12:04Do stay with us, though.
12:05We'll be back shortly with more world news.