Daniel Bermudez’s family had fled Venezuela and was headed to the U.S. to seek asylum when the freight train they were riding through Mexico was stopped by immigration officials.

His wife tried to explain that her family had permission to go to the U.S. Instead, they flew her to Mexico’s southern border as part of a surge of enforcement actions that U.S. officials say have contributed to a sharp drop in illegal border crossings.

In addition to forcing migrants from trains, Mexico also resumed flying and busing them to the southern part of the country and started flying some home to Venezuela.

Even if temporary, the decrease in illegal crossings is welcome news for the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration is locked in talks with Senate negotiators over restricting asylum and $110 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel hangs in the balance.

  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Looks like their entire national debt is around 870 billion USD. Maybe a bit higher since that was September. That’s about what we spend on the military per year in discretionary funding.

    • aelwero@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I was only talking about the specific amount of funding the “budget shortfall” amounted to… Essentially, they funded whatever that amount was, and got these results.

      Might be worth a look at setting up an annual grant to fund whatever they’ve done on a long term basis…

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I couldn’t find a “budget shortfall” number. I was agreeing. Apparently we could balance their entire budget in one year. That probably means that this particular line item is only tens to hundreds of millions of dollars per year at worst.

        This proposal would be a rounding error for Congress.