Migrants in America: Karoline Leavitt disagrees with reporter on legality issue

The number of migrants arriving at the southern border has dropped by over 60% since President Donald Trump took office last week, new data obtained by Fox News Digital shows.

There were 7,287 migrant encounters at the southern border in the first seven days (Jan 20-26) after Trump’s inauguration by both Border Patrol between ports of entry and by the Office of Field Operations (OFO) at ports of entry, with a daily average of 1,041 encounters a day.

That compares to 20,086 encounters in the seven days in the final days of the Biden administration (Jan 13-19) prior to Trump’s inauguration, averaging 2,869 encounters a day.

The Trump administration will hold its first White House press conference with newly minted press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday afternoon, White House officials confirmed to Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump has been on a media blitz since his inauguration on Jan. 20, including sitting down for his first White House interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and speaking with the media as he traveled to states rocked by natural disasters, including North Carolina and California. Trump’s press secretary also has frequently joined media outlets for interviews since Trump was sworn in, but has not yet held a White House press briefing.

Leavitt, 27, is the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history — unseating President Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969. Leavitt was a fierce defender of Trump throughout his hard-fought campaign against former Vice President Kamala Harris, and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022.

That equals more than a 63% decrease in the number of encounters at the southern border.

President Trump entered office last week and immediately declared a national emergency at the southern border, and ordered the expulsion of migrants without the possibility of asylum.

He also shut down the Biden-era use of the CBP One app that allows migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry so they can be allowed into the U.S. via humanitarian parole. The numbers suggest that the moves are having an impact at both the ports of entry and for those crossing illegally.

Fox News reported on Monday that fewer than 600 people crossed illegally into the U.S. on Sunday, and that not a single of the nine sectors received more than 200 illegal crossings. The Del Rio sector – which is the same sector that would sustain over 4,000 crossings per day during the height of the border crisis in December 2023 – only recorded 60 crossings.
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