(NEW YORK) — The Border Patrol has made fewer than 1,800 apprehensions per day over the past week, a major decline following the implementation of new asylum restrictions that significantly cut humanitarian protections for those who cross the border illegally.
Migrant encounters along the southern border are down 55% since the restrictions took effect seven weeks ago, according to new data from the Department of Homeland Security.
The Border Patrol made 83,536 apprehensions in June, the lowest number since Biden took office in Jan. 2021.
DHS officials credit a dual-track approach that balances increased enforcement measures along with the expansion of new options for legal migration. The measures, announced at the beginning of last month, all but banned asylum for those who crossed into the U.S. illegally. Meanwhile, at U.S. ports of entry, the administration continues to admit a limited number of pre-screened migrants for asylum processing.
“So it’s the kind of culmination of a yearslong effort to build up both of those things, and I think that we are really seeing that pay dividends,” one senior Customs and Border Protection Official said.
“We’ve been kind of building up both enforcement at the border and access to lawful pathways since, since we started here,” the official added.
The official said the White House has been directly involved in this effort, including Vice President Kamala Harris herself, to craft the strategy that has brought illegal border crossings down dramatically.
“I think we’ve, we’ve got some real positive impacts here, and we’re also continuing to work to maximize them, and to double down on these efforts, both ourselves and in coordination with our foreign partners, to not only maximize enforcement at our border, but to disrupt the way that people are moving up and getting to our border,” the official said.
DHS continues to engage in an aggressive deportation effort, removing or voluntarily returning 65,000 individuals to more than 125 countries, with more than 200 international repatriation flights in recent weeks, according to DHS. The number of people released into the U.S. pending deportation proceedings has declined by 70%, officials say.
The San Diego region continues to see the highest level of migrant encounters compared to other border regions, but those numbers have reduced by 60% in recent weeks, according to a senior CBP official.
“So we’re really now, just now, starting to see the full impact out there,” the official told ABC News. “And I think that’s definitely an indication of success, and also something that we continue to work to even see if we can achieve further results.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Three rapidly growing Southern California wildfires have burned more than 100,000 acres in less than a week and continued to threaten homes in multiple communities as the state mobilized an all-hands-on-deck response to bolster front-line fire crews battling the raging flames.
Nearly 6,000 National Guard members, law enforcement officers and other first responders have been sent to the firelines. Additionally, a squadron of 51 firefighting helicopters, nine fixed-wing aircraft, including two National Guard C-130 airplanes, 520 fire engines, 75 bulldozers and 141 water tankers were being used in an attempt to tame the blazes, two of which were out of control Wednesday.
The biggest blaze is the Bridge Fire, which ignited Sunday in the Angeles National Forest about 31 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and exploded overnight from about 4,000 acres on Tuesday to nearly 48,000 acres by Wednesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire remained out of control with 0% containment after spreading across Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, destroying the Mountain High Ski Resort where images emerged of the chairlift going up in flames. The fire is also threatening the small mountain communities of Wrightwood and Mt. Baldy, officials said.
At least 33 homes in Wrightwood and Mt. Baldy have been destroyed and another 2,500 structures in the area are being threatened by the fire, according to Cal Fire.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
During a news conference Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said three people, including an off-duty sheriff sergeant, were trapped by the Bridge Fire about 5 miles west of Mt. Baldy in Los Angeles County. Luna said efforts are underway to rescue the people, who are unable to access roads and need to be airlifted out of the remote area. Luna said heavy smoke in the area was preventing a helicopter from reaching the trapped people and the Los Angeles County Fire Department was attempting to get to them by vehicle.
“It’s just a nightmare,” Candace Lace, a homeowner in Lake Elsinore, a town being threatened by the Bridge Fire, told ABC News. “My girlfriend lost her home and I had to call her and tell her she’s losing her home. I could see it on fire.”
By Wednesday morning, the Bridge Fire had consumed 47,904 acres and prompted numerous evacuation orders and warnings, according to Cal Fire.
Stephanie Beck, a resident of Wrightwood, told ABC News that she has never seen a blaze move as quickly as the Bridge Fire.
“We really didn’t even have time to think,” Beck said of evacuating the fire zone. “It was just throw everything in the car and go.”
The Line Fire
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested a man Tuesday in connection with the Line Fire ravaging areas east of Los Angeles since Sept. 5.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, a 34-year-old man from Norco, California, was identified “as the suspect who started a fire in the area of Baseline Road and Alpin Street in the city of Highland, also known as the Line Fire,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Halstenberg was being held on suspicion of arson with his bail set at $80,000, officials said.
As of Wednesday, the Line Fire had burned 34,659 and was at 14% contained, according to Cal Fire. The sprawling fire is threatening more than 65,600 structures, including homes and commercial property, according to the latest update.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for 13,300 structures with another 52,300 under evacuation warnings. Evacuation orders were issued for 9,200 structures in the area, with another 56,400 structures under evacuation warnings, Cal Fire said.
No structures are confirmed damaged or destroyed. Three firefighters have been injured in the effort to contain the blaze, fire officials said.
“Today elevated winds and continued dry conditions will allow the fire to grow,” Cal Fire said in a statement. “Smoke from fires across the region will help moderate fire activity unless the skies clear and the smoke thins. That would allow for more slope and vegetation aligned runs.
More than 3,100 firefighting personnel were battling the blaze.
Gov. Gavin Newsom requested Federal Emergency Management Agency aid Tuesday evening to “secure vital resources to suppress the Bridge and Airport fires.”
The Airport Fire
The Airport Fire — which broke out on Monday in an unincorporated area of Orange County and spread to Riverside County — had burned 22,376 acres as of Wednesday, growing by 3,348 acres overnight, according to Cal Fire. The blaze is 0% contained.
The blaze is threatening 10,500 structures, including homes and businesses, and has so far injured five firefighters and two civilians, Cal Fire said.
The Airport Fire began around 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, sparked by county public works crews working on a fire prevention project by trying to move boulders to prevent public access — mostly by motorcyclists — to an area of the canyon with a lot of dry vegetation that could ignite easily, officials told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, officials said 1,400 homes in Robinson Ranch in Rancho Santa Margarita were under mandatory evacuation due to the fire moving south toward communities like Lake Elsinore and Dove Canyon.
A total of 16 active wildfires were scorching California on Wednesday and have burned 613,819 acres, according to a statement Gov. Newsom released Tuesday.
So far this fire season, 6,045 wildfires have erupted in California and consumed more than 900,000 acres, Newsom said.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
(BUTLER, Penn.) — At least five U.S. Secret Service officials involved in the planning of Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where a gunman attempted to kill the former president, have been placed on administrative leave, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
The officials are still working but not allowed to be involved in anything operational including the security planning, the sources told ABC News.
The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigation has been intensifying, and while the investigation has focused on the failures, miscues and planning up to Butler, the probe is now focusing on a number of issues, including the number of classified threats against former President Trump by Iran and what the agency did in response security-wise regarding the new intelligence.
An official tells ABC News this means even more senior officials might be caught up in the review.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” the agency said. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
The agency said it holds its personnel to the “highest professional standards” and would not comment further.
Trump was struck in his ear by a bullet during the assassination attempt at his campaign rally on July 13, which also killed one spectator and injured two others, according to officials. The gunman, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents.
The U.S. Secret Service recently made arrangements for Trump to resume outdoor campaign rallies by surrounding his podium with bulletproof glass, multiple sources told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who pleaded guilty to federal offenses for leaking sensitive information online, will now face a military court-martial, according to the U.S. Air Force.
No trial date has been set yet for the military legal proceedings, which will take place at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.
Teixeira faces charges alleging he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to a statement from the Air Force.
The first charge alleges he failed to obey an order to “cease and desist from accessing information not pertaining to his duties” on or about Sept. 15, 2022, and on or about April 13, 2023, according to the statement.
The second charge alleges that he “dispose[d] of an iPad, computer hard drive, and cell phone, with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself” sometime between March 1, 2023, and April 13, 2023, according to the statement. It also alleges he similarly directed another person to delete Discord messages he sent “with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself” on or about April 7, 2023.
Teixeira was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense. Federal prosecutors said Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and posted images of them on Discord prior to his arrest in April 2023.
He pleaded guilty to all six charges and agreed to accept a 16-year prison sentence in March. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.
His sentencing is set for Sept. 27.
The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.
An Air Force evidentiary hearing was held in May to determine whether his case should move forward to an Air Force court-martial.