Apprehensions along the southwestern border plummeted in January: CBP
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(WASHINGTON) — The number of apprehensions along the southwestern U.S. border plummeted by a third during January, according to statistics obtained by ABC News on Tuesday.
There were 61,465 apprehensions along the southwest border in January, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, down from 96,048 in December 2024.
The numbers fell even more after President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, according to the data.
In the three weeks before the inauguration, there was a daily average of more than 2,000 apprehensions, which fell to a daily average of 786 migrant apprehensions after the inauguration.
There were 176,195 migrant apprehensions along the southwest border in January 2024.
From Jan. 21 through Jan. 31, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85% from the same period in 2024, according to data obtained by ABC News. In the 11 days after Jan. 20, migrants apprehended at ports of entry declined by 93%.
Trump signed executive orders shortly after taking office that declared a national emergency at the border and authorized active duty military and National Guard troops to support CPB’s law enforcement activities. The government has been using military planes to return migrants to their home countries. In addition, the administration has said it is targeting gang members and violent offenders in its crackdown. It also rescinded a policy that barred law enforcement activities at schools and churches and at courthouses.
“The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are aggressively implementing the President’s Executive Orders to secure our borders. These actions have already resulted in dramatic improvements in border security,” said Pete Flores, acting CBP commissioner. “The reduction in illegal aliens attempting to make entry into the U.S., compounded by a significant increase in repatriations, means that more officers and agents are now able to conduct the enforcement duties that make our border more secure and our country safer.”
CBP and military troops have “dramatically increased” patrolling the southern border, according to CBP.
Numbers of monthly border apprehensions fell below 100,000 for the first time in years in November 2024, according to CBP data.
(WASHINGTON) — When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sworn in as the nation’s next health secretary Thursday, his first order of business will be to investigate America’s problem with chronic illnesses.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order creating a “Make America Health Again” commission and direct Kennedy “to investigate this chronic crisis plaguing our country and the minds and the bodies of the American people.”
What that will mean exactly remains to be seen. But here are three things to watch for as Kennedy takes the helm, based on what he and Trump have said in the past:
More study on food dyes or other food additives?
MAHA has easily emerged as a deeply popular slogan by Kennedy as much of America struggles with obesity and chronic diseases. The question though is how to do that in a way that won’t weigh down the federal budget or trigger an avalanche of legal challenges from the food and drug industry.
One possible avenue for Kennedy could be to call for additional safety studies of certain ingredients used by manufacturers, including food dyes.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration revoked its authorization of one type of red food dye. “Red Dye No. 3” is known to cause cancer in laboratory animals but was allowed to be used by manufacturers for years because scientists didn’t believe it raised cancer risk in humans at the level typically consumed. The FDA, under President Joe Biden, acted after longtime pressure by consumer advocates.
But a different type, Red Dye No. 40, remains on the market and hasn’t been studied by the FDA in more than 20 years. FDA and health officials say there is no evidence though that it’s harmful, and food manufacturers say they need to be able to rely on ingredients generally recognized as safe.
Still, health advocates argue more can be done to look at the health impacts and or do the kind of post-market monitoring of food more common in Europe.
All of those efforts though will take significant federal resources and rely on a workforce that Trump has promised to cut.
Rewriting discrimination rules for hospitals, doctors and insurers to exclude transgender protections
Kennedy hasn’t personally focused much on the question of transgender rights. But eliminating federal rules at Health and Human Services that President Barack Obama and Joe Biden pushed to protect transgender Americans is a major priority for Trump and the conservative party.
Federal law prohibits sexual discrimination, but it’s up to the executive branch to spell out specific rules that schools, insurers and hospitals must follow if they want to retain access to federal aid.
Obama triggered a fierce legal fight in his second term when he issued federal regulations aimed at protecting transgender people from discrimination in schools and medical settings. Under rules written by Obama’s Health aand Human Services Department, doctors and hospitals were told couldn’t decline care for a person because of their gender identity. Insurance companies also were specifically prohibited from offering different benefits to certain groups, including transgender individuals and people with HIV.
Trump quickly dropped Obama’s rules in his first term, writing new rules that granted exceptions for medical providers on discrimination rules if they cited religious objections.
President Joe Biden tried to resurrect Obama’s initial rules but was swiftly challenged in court by Republican states, tossing the issue back to Trump. It’ll now be up to HHS under Kennedy, if he’s confirmed, to decide what those federal rules should say.
Making it easier for parents to send unvaccinated kids to public schools
School vaccine requirements are up to the states, and currently all 50 states have laws requiring certain vaccines for students to attend public schools.
But HHS sets the recommendations for childhood vaccines followed by schools, while the Education Department provides vital grant money to schools used to teach low-income or children with disabilities.
On the campaign trail, Trump threatened to revoke spending for schools that mandate vaccines currently recommended by public health experts and HHS.
“I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate,” Trump declared last year.
Such a move could have big implications for public health. According to the nonpartisan KFF, routine vaccination rates for kindergarten children is on the decline while exemptions are on the rise, including non-religious exemptions.
While running for president before aligning with Trump, Kennedy rejected the numerous studies finding that childhood vaccines are safe, including several studies that debunked a myth that vaccines cause autism. During his Senate confirmation, Kennedy insisted he doesn’t oppose vaccines but wants more study.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican doctor from Louisiana, said he was concerned by Kennedy’s past in “undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments.” Facing a Republican primary next year, Cassidy decided to back Trump’s pick after getting Kennedy to agree the two would work together closely.
“Ultimately, restoring trust in our public health institution is too important, and I think Mr. Kennedy can help get that done,” Cassidy said.
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart, Molly Nagle and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said Thursday he believes anti-obesity drugs “have a place.”
The comment, given in a brief interview to CNBC off the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, was the strongest suggestion yet that, if confirmed to take over the Department Health and Human Services, Kennedy wouldn’t necessarily move to block access to a class of drugs that he’s sharply criticized in the past but that doctors are hailing as a powerful tool in the obesity epidemic.
When asked how he felt by drugs that mimic the actions of the GLP-1 hormone, Kennedy said “the first line of response should be lifestyle, it should be eating well, making sure that you don’t get obese, and that those GLP drugs have a place.”
Kennedy’s aside comes one day after Trump adviser Elon Musk said he believes “nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors super low cost to the public.”
The seeming endorsement of medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound from two people who have Trump’s ear is likely to be a relief for the pharmaceutical industry following Kennedy’s sharp questioning of America’s reliance on weight-loss medications. Previously, Kennedy has said that if America paid more for quality food, it would solve the obesity crisis “overnight” — a statement obesity experts criticized as overly simplistic.
Still in question is how the incoming administration plans to handle coverage of the drugs through Medicare and Medicaid and any regulation of the private insurance industry.
The Biden administration has called for Medicare and Medicaid to expand coverage of weight-loss drugs for people struggling with obesity, not just as a treatment for diabetes. But because that rule won’t kick in until 2026, it’ll be up to the incoming administration to enact.
Covering GLP-1 drugs under federal health insurance programs would come at a significant cost to the country. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs in Medicare alone would increase federal spending by about $35 billion from 2026 to 2034.
Calley Means, a top adviser to Kennedy, has criticized the Biden proposal’s embrace of weight-loss drugs instead of pushing lifestyle changes and suggested that the incoming administration should work on “benefit flexibility where patients can work with their doctors on the best solution to reverse obesity for them,” including “lifestyle coaching, food interventions, or, in some cases, drugs.”
Means also said the government should ensure the price mirrors European costs.
“The problem isn’t that Ozempic exists,” Means tweeted on Thursday. “It is the fact that this Danish company has been able to pay US regulators, media, and lawmakers to force this drug down our throats as the only option.”
In the CNBC interview on Thursday, Kennedy also reiterated his stance that he doesn’t oppose all vaccines.
While Kennedy has said he’s not opposed to all vaccines, he has falsely claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, despite the retraction of the fraudulent study that originally suggested this link, and numerous subsequent high-quality studies disproving this theory.
In a Time magazine interview, Trump said the issue of vaccine safety still warrants a “big discussion” and that he would be open to restricting some vaccines if Kennedy found them “dangerous.”
Kennedy has said he is “fully vaccinated,” except against COVID-19.
(WASHINGTON) — Current and former U.S. Agency for International Development officials, speaking anonymously due to fear of retribution, blasted the Trump administration’s gutting of the aid agency, saying it has left critical partners in the lurch and much of its staff in limbo overseas.
In addition to the humanitarian work that has halted, scores of career USAID workers living abroad are also seeing their lives turned upside down. Several officials were very emotional describing their current situations and uncertainty.
All USAID humanitarian work around the world has effectively stopped, these current and former officials said, despite the State Department saying there are waivers for lifesaving programs.
“Right now, there is no USAID humanitarian assistance happening,” a current USAID official in the humanitarian division said. “There are waivers put in place by Secretary Rubio for emergency food assistance and a number of other sectors, but they are a fraud and a sham and intended to give the illusion of continuity, which is untrue.
The official also slammed the waiver as unclear and largely unactionable because staff has been furloughed, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency seized control of the agency.
“There is no staff left anymore to actually process waiver requests or to move money or to make awards or to do anything,” that official added. “We’ve ceased to exist.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday pushed back on nongovernmental organizations saying aid programs remained paused despite the waiver.
“I issued a blanket waiver that said if this is lifesaving programs, OK — if it’s providing food or medicine or anything that is saving lives and is immediate and urgent, you’re not included in the freeze,” he said. “I don’t know how much more clear we can be than that.
“And I would say if some organization is receiving funds from the United States and does not know how to apply a waiver, then I have real questions about the competence of that organization, or I wonder whether they’re deliberately sabotaging it for purposes of making a political point,” Rubio added.
But the above USAID official pushed back, saying those sectors are “actually unable to access their lines of credit here in Washington, D.C., for money already obligated to, already contractually put forward by the U.S. government.”
“And this is meaning [a] lack of provision of assistance,” the official continued. “This is meaning staff layoffs, meaning absolute confusion and mayhem. Some may have some money to keep going for a little bit, but not for long.”
Another former official who spoke with numerous USAID humanitarian partner organizations said, “Not one has received any funding since the stop-work order to continue work, even if theoretically that work is allowed to continue.”
One current USAID official based in Asia is pregnant.
She broke down in tears on the call, explaining how she doesn’t know what is going to happen to her family, worried that the administration is going to “abandon” her overseas or back in the U.S.
“I am among more than a dozen American families that are either on or planning obstetric medevac to deliver our babies. We have a nursery painted with a crib ready for our baby that has taken us three years of fertility treatments to conceive,” the official based in Asia said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Instead of nesting and planning for their arrival, we are unsure if Secretary Rubio and President Trump are going to abandon us overseas or abandon us when we land on American soil. We have been told there is no money to assist USAID families that are awaiting the arrival of our infants with resettlement in the U.S.”
“We have been using refugee resources from our churches and community groups that we usually use to help refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan,” the official added. “We are using these resources to figure out how to land as close to on our feet as possible. Unless the tide of public opinion shifts, each of these families are going to arrive homeless, jobless and insurance-less within a matter of days, or possibly even hours, of stepping foot on American soil.”
The spouse of a current official in the Latin America region said their family does not have a home to return to in the U.S.
“My spouse has served in a war zone. We have school-aged children with typical challenges you would face in the U.S., but with not the resources you would have in the U.S., that we’ve had to manage, and we’ve been willing to move wherever is best for the agency,” this official explained.
“We worked across administrations with programs changing, growing, shrinking, and it’s a circumstance right now where we literally have focused our life on this USAID mission, and we do not have a home to go back to, which is quite typical of Foreign Service families, and we don’t know how we’re supposed to pick up and just leave,” the official added.
“How do you leave when you have not just family, not just school-age kids — you have pets, you have things, you don’t have a home to go back to, and you have a mission that you believe in and that you’ve supported for decades?” the official said. “And it’s just the rug pulled under you.”
Rubio said this week it is “not our intention” to uproot USAID families abroad despite the agency issuing a 30-day mandate for their return.
