The numbers of immigrants coming across the border illegally dropped by 28% from May to June, but that only means "we have gone from calamity to near disaster," Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday.
"The May numbers were unprecedented, particularly given that over 70% of those people were in family units or unaccompanied children," Cuccinelli told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "In May, it reached certainly epic proportions. Some of that has eased in June. The numbers dropped down to 104,000 from 142,000 I want to say."
But still, the numbers mark the third-highest month in years, he added, "so we are still in crisis mode."
There is no question, though, that President Donald Trump's handling of foreign policy is making a difference, Cuccinelli said.
"Mexico is now a better partner than they have been in recent memory, and I believe you're going to see more headway made with the Northern Triangle countries as well," said Cuccinelli. "The president has taken some heat for withdrawing financial aid that we provided to those countries. It seems like the only way that others prior to this president believe we could do is to pay more, give more, do more, rather than to start withholding some things."
However, the situation at the border won't change until Congress acts on the nation's asylum policies, he added.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has the same position that the Obama administration had, by pushing to fix holes that encourage migrants to come into the country illegally, said Cuccinelli.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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