Tide Of Young Texas Border Immigrants Beginning To Wane

Is the tide starting to ebb at the border? "There’s anecdotal evidence that the tide is ebbing as efforts are made to intercept the young migrants crossing Mexico. As many as six deportation buses a day are now arriving in El Salvador from Mexico — a big increase over this spring. At the same time, the daily rate of unaccompanied children apprehended at the U.S. border has dropped significantly from what it was in late June and early July....But as early as March, Democrats pressed the White House to be more forthright about the crisis....Perhaps most striking, the delay testifies to the real human costs that result from what’s become a destructive alienation between the executive branch and an often dysfunctional Congress." David Rogers in Politico.

With two weeks to go, Congress is still fighting over migrant-crisis legislation. "In the Senate, the Appropriations Committee will begin hammering out a supplemental bill on Thursday, according to a Democratic aide. The funding will be roughly at the $3.7 billion level that President Barack Obama has asked for, or slightly less and it’s unclear whether it will include policy changes. House leaders, meanwhile, are debating whether to move forward on legislation that would provide significantly less funding than Obama is seeking and attaching policy language that would change a 2008 anti-trafficking law to make it easier to return children to their home countries if they’re not from Mexico or Canada." Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett in Politico.

Why those politics matter: Now public support for pathway to legal status is slipping. "Overall support for giving undocumented immigrants a path to legal status fell to 68% in July from 73% in February, according to the survey released Wednesday....Republicans, who supported a path to legalization by nearly a two-to-one margin in February...now favor it by a much narrower margin, with 54% in favor and 43% opposed. Among Republicans who identify with the Tea Party, 41% believe undocumented residents should be put on a path to legal status, down from 56% early in the year. Support among Democrats and independents dropped only slightly, by four points each since February." Miriam Jordan in The Wall Street Journal.

Poll: Immigration's share of most important issue triples, but economy and government take the cake. "That jump — from 5% last month to 17% — appears striking, but perhaps just as surprising is that the poll shows that, despite the large volume of publicity over the border situation, the overwhelming majority of Americans say they are focusing more on other problems, including dissatisfaction with government and economic issues. Perhaps less surprising is that two other polls, by the Pew Research Center and for the Washington Post-ABC News, give President Obama low marks for how he handled the crisis at the border. Congressional Republicans fare even worse." Michael Muskal in the Los Angeles Times.