The main drivers of illegal immigration rates are rumors spread over WhatsApp. When Trump was in office the rumors were negative. When Biden came in they were positive. The policy didnt actually change much, just the rumors

The main driver of the rate of encounters is whether the illegal immigrants want to be encountered. The last 2 years of the Trump administration they were generally sent back to Mexico, so they didn't want to be found. Under Biden they are given a court date but allowed to stay, hence, many of them self report now, driving up the number of encounters even if the number of crossers hasn't changed. The paper they get not only has a court date, it also says they can't work for 6 months. Which is hard. Some of them obviously disobey that, some don't.

All of this against the backdrop of, unless you put them on a bus to somewhere with mandatory housing laws where they have no family contact, they usually blend right in and don't cause much trouble. Unemployment is still extremely low and many places of employment are short staffed.

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