April 1, 2018

Raw Data: Southwest Border Apprehensions

Donald Trump celebrated the spirit of Easter today by railing againt the “big flows” of immigrants crossing over illegally from Mexico. “Getting more dangerous,” he tweeted ominously. “They laugh at our dumb immigration laws.”

Perhaps. But in case you’re interested in some baseline data to work from, here it is. Border apprehensions are generally taken as a proxy for changes in illegal immigration, under the assumption that more people getting caught means more people trying to cross. Here is ICE data for Southwest border apprehensions:

You may decide for yourself if this seems like a dire situation.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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