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philucky app download ios The screen fills with images of migrants dodging highway traffic. "They keep coming," says a narrator. "The federal government won't stop them yet requires us to pay billions to take care of them. ... Enough is enough." This message might sound familiar, but it isn't new. It's a 1994 campaign ad in support of Republican politician Pete Wilson's run for reelection as California governor. At the time, California was experiencing its worst recession in decades. Although immigrants living in the state illegally did not cause California's economic crisis, they were a convenient scapegoat. By blaming immigrants for California's financial woes, Wilson turned his faltering campaign around and won reelection in November 1994. Thirty years later, the United States is in a similar political moment, with many Americans worried about the cost of living and immigration. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly – and misleadingly – blamed immigrants for crime, high housing costs and other problems. He is promising to quickly close the U.S. southern border and deport the nearly 12 million immigrants without legal authorization to remain in the country. As a scholar of migration in the Americas, my research shows that Trump's approach is unlikely to stop migrants from trying to enter the U.S. but very likely to enrich criminals. Migrants will keep fleeing desperate circumstances under even more treacherous conditions that leave them vulnerable to exploitation by criminal groups. Prevention through deterrence A few months after Wilson's campaign ad hit the airwaves, the U.S. Border Patrol issued its strategic plan for 1994 and beyond. In this plan, the Border Patrol proposed a strategy called "prevention through deterrence" that was designed to make illegal entry across the southwest land border so risky that potential migrants would decide to stay home. By concentrating border enforcement in the urban areas where most migrants were trying to cross, the plan aimed to force them "over more hostile terrain" in the desert and to increase the cost of hiring a smuggler. Today, illegal migration to the U.S. is far more deadly and expensive than it was 30 years ago, just as the authors of the 1994 Border Patrol plan anticipated. But the report's authors believed that potential migrants would forgo the dangers of migrating to the U.S. without authorization, as well as the high costs of getting there. They thought potential migrants would simply stay in their home countries. They were wrong. Fortified borders The strategy of discouraging migrants from coming to the U.S. by making it more difficult required a large federal investment in border enforcement and cooperation from other countries, especially Mexico. Over the past 30 years, the Border Patrol's budget has grown more than sevenfold, and the number of agents stationed along the southwest border has quadrupled. The U.S. government has also built physical infrastructure to stop migrants from entering the country, including massive walls that extend into the Pacific Ocean. In more remote areas, drones, surveillance towers and extreme temperatures do the work of border control, often with deadly consequences for migrants. The U.S. also provided more than US$176 million in funding between October 2014 and Sept. 30, 2023, to support Mexico's immigration control efforts. There is some evidence that stricter border enforcement deterred Mexicans from crossing illegally into the United States after the 1990s. The number of migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the southwest border plummeted from 1.6 million between October 1999 through the end of September 2000, to 327,577 between October 2010 and the end of September 2011. But the deterrent effect of increased enforcement did not last. Migrant apprehensions at the southwest border began to rise again in 2012 and spiked to 851,508 between October 2018 and Sept. 30, 2019. After falling briefly during the pandemic, total apprehensions averaged 1.9 million per year between October 2020 and Sept. 30, 2024. These numbers exceed the historic peaks in 1986 and 2000 – despite the much greater costs and dangers of migrating illegally today. Illusory deterrence In 2023, my research team and I interviewed over 130 migrants in Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico to understand why they were taking such enormous risks to get to the United States. What we found is that deterrence isn't working because of shifts in who is migrating and why they are leaving home. Until 2011, the vast majority of illegal border crossers were Mexicans, mostly young men seeking higher incomes to support their families. As the Mexican economy recovered and fewer young people entered the labor market, Mexican workers had less need to migrate. Those who made it to the United States stayed put instead of going back and forth. Today, more than 60% of the migrants who cross the U.S. border without legal authorization are from places other than Mexico, including Central America, Venezuela, Ecuador and Haiti. Forty percent of them are parents traveling with children. Many of these migrants are fleeing chronic violence, rampant corruption, natural disasters or economic collapse. For these migrants, it is worth the risk of being kidnapped, dying in the desert or being deported to escape a desperate situation. "If they deport me, sister, I will come back," a Honduran mother of three told us in Tijuana in June 2023. "If you go back, you die. So you have to go forward, forward, forward all the time." Increased criminality While prevention through deterrence has not stopped migrants, it has enriched smugglers, corrupt government officials and other criminals who take advantage of vulnerable migrants on their way to the U.S. border. "Before I would charge you $6,000," explained a Salvadoran smuggler to an Associated Press reporter in December 2019. "Now I am charging you double. And depending on the obstacles on the way, the price can go up." This doesn't include the fee to cross the heavily fortified U.S.-Mexico border, which increased from a few hundred dollars in the 1990s to between $2,000 and $15,000 today. According to one estimate, smuggling revenues in the Americas grew from $500 million in 2018 to $13 billion in 2022. "Criminals have shifted from their primary business, which was drug trafficking," the director of an anti-kidnapping unit at an attorney general's office in Chihuahua, Mexico, told a journalist in June 2024. "Now 60 to 70% of their focus is migrant smuggling." It's not just smuggling that is lucrative. As Mexico's own immigration policy has become more restrictive, migrants have fallen into the clutches of an extensive extortion racket that involves kidnapping migrants once they set foot in Mexico. Prevention through deterrence is a failed policy with a tragic human cost. It doesn't stop migrants who are fleeing dire conditions, and it fuels violence and criminality. Drug cartels, armed groups and corrupt officials get rich while insecurity spreads, fueling more migration. It is a vicious cycle that will likely only get worse with stricter enforcement and mass deportations. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)Key details to know about the arrest of a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO

Adebayo Commends Okonjo-Iweala’s Reappointment As WTO’s DGSAINT PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Kendall Blue and Nolan Minessale had 22 points each in St. Thomas' 88-81 victory over Montana on Saturday. Miles Barnstable had 17 points for the Tommies (7-4). Malik Moore led the Grizzlies (6-4) with 30 points. Money Williams added 14 points, six rebounds and four assists for Montana. Jensen Bradtke had 11 points. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

Kings head to San Jose looking to build off strong defensive homestandBeirut: Insurgents’ stunning march across Syria gained speed on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) with news that they had reached the suburbs of the capital Damascus and with the government forced to deny rumours that President Bashar al-Assad had fled the country. The lightning rebel advance suggests that Assad’s government could fall within the next week, US and other Western officials said. A giant portrait of Syrian president Bashar Assad sets on a building, as empty streets seen in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday. Credit: AP Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at a dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose up in places where the rebellion had long seemed over. The twin threats to the strategically vital city of Homs and the capital, Damascus, now pose an existential danger to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran. The rebels’ moves around Damascus, reported by an opposition war monitor and a rebel commander, came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of the southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. If the insurgents capture Homs, they would cut the link between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where the president enjoys wide support. The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the United Nations. In their push to overthrow Assad’s government, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army. For the first time in the country’s long-running civil war, the government now has control of only four of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Homs, Latakia and Tartus. People arrive at the Jordanian side of the border as others wait in their cars, after a ban on crossings into Syria, on December 7, 2024 in Jaber, Jordan. Credit: Getty Images The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition”. Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s chief international backer, said he feels “sorry for the Syrian people”. In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria’s border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country. Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told the Associated Press, and those still open had run out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price. “The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” the resident said, insisting on anonymity, fearing retributions. “People are worried whether there will be a battle [in Damascus] or not.” It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018 when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a years-long siege. The UN said it was moving non-critical staff outside the country as a precaution. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Backed by Russia and Iran – both of which are bogged down in separate conflicts. Credit: Saudi Press Agency/AP Assad rumours Syria’s state media denied social media rumours that President Assad had left the country, saying he was performing his duties in Damascus. Assad has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia is busy with its war in Ukraine and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad’s forces, has been weakened by a yearlong conflict with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes. US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the US should avoid engaging militarily in Syria. Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation a UN resolution, adopted in 2015, and calling for a Syrian-led political process, would be announced later. The resolution calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with UN-supervised elections. A Syrian opposition fighter holds a rocket launcher in front of the provincial government office. Credit: AP Foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, along with Pederson, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit on Saturday to discuss the situation. No details were immediately available. The insurgents’ march Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents were in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition fighters were marching toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he added. An insurgent commander, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaeda, ditching hardline officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance. Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani. Credit: Al Jazeera Syria’s military, meanwhile, sent large numbers of reinforcements to defend the key central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as insurgents approached its outskirts. The shock offensive began on November 27, during which rebel fighters captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth-largest city. Opposition activists said insurgents entered Palmyra on Friday, which is home to invaluable archaeological sites, that had been in government hands since being taken from the Islamic State group in 2017. To the south, Syrian troops left much of the province of Quneitra, including the main Baath City, activists said. The Syrian Observatory said government troops had withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces and were sending reinforcements to Homs, where a battle loomed. If the insurgents capture Homs, they would cut the link between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where the president enjoys wide support. The Syrian Army said in a statement that it had carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by “terrorists”. The army said it was setting up a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area”, apparently to defend Damascus from the south. The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since conflict broke out in March 2011. Diplomacy in Doha The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey, meeting in Qatar, called for an end to the hostilities. Turkey is a main backer of the rebels. Qatar’s top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticised Assad for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting in recent years to address the country’s underlying problems. “Assad didn’t seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people,” he said. Sheikh Mohammed said he was surprised by how quickly the rebels have advanced and said there was a real threat to Syria’s “territorial integrity.” He said the war could “damage and destroy what is left if there is no sense of urgency” to start a political process. AP, Reuters Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter .