The Media’s Misleading Math on Biden’s Border Crisis

With Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy that allowed for the quick expulsion of illegal migrants, expiring at the end of last week, the U.S. southern border is embroiled in crisis. But after a week of reporting on the evolving humanitarian disaster, the corporate press is cutting the Biden administration some slack.

{snip}

The press has largely shifted its framing of the story to fit Biden’s, noting that border encounters were down to 6,300 on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday, according to Homeland Security {snip}

{snip} The supposedly encouraging decline in border encounters was relative to all-time highs earlier in the week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday each saw more than 10,000 migrant apprehensions, surpassing any previous day on record. Even with the downticks on Friday and Saturday, last week’s numbers shattered the previous weekly high.

{snip}

{snip} In a court filing on Friday, Biden’s deputy Border Patrol chief, Matthew Hudak, said that between 12,000 and 14,000 apprehensions are still expected per day as a result of the end of Title 42.