Since he first promised to build a wall along the U.S. southern border, President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a mainstay of his platform. In the ongoing effort to decrease the flow of undocumented migrants across the border, the Trump administration has implemented policies that also limit the number of legal immigrants.

Since the federal government enacted a law to fight sex trafficking online, the predictions of one Oregon congressman who opposed the measure appear to have come true.

“The bill passed today by the House will make it harder to catch bad actors and protect victims by driving this vile crime to shadowy corners of society that are harder for law enforcement to reach,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in February 2018.

After a campaign fundraising visit to San Francisco last week, President Donald Trump accused the city of allowing human waste and needles to wash down storm drains. The problem—a side-effect of the city’s homelessness crisis—could constitute a violation of Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the president said.

“It’s a terrible situation that’s in Los Angeles and San Francisco,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “They’re in total violation. We’re going to be giving them a notice very soon.”

The United States has the lowest poverty rate it has seen since 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week. The overall poverty rate dropped from 12.3 percent in 2017 to 11.8 percent last year. The slight percentage drop finally brings the poverty rate below its 2007 number, marking further recovery from the Great Recession. 

WORLD readers know it’s hard work to help those who have spi­raled into drugs, homelessness, and despair. That’s why many of them voted this summer for Watered Gardens in Joplin, Mo., as the 2019 grand prize winner of the Hope Awards for Effective Compassion. The ministry teaches residents to work for their room and board and eventually helps them transition to financial independence combined with dependence on God.

The midsize city of Stockton, Calif., grants some residents an extra special perk: $500 a month in additional income. The money, part of a privately funded poverty-fighting experiment, allows 31-year-old Jovan Bravo to take off from his construction job every other Saturday.

“It’s made a huge difference,” Bravo said. “Just being able to spend more time with the wife and kids, it brings us closer together.”

Court cases against opioid manufacturers are starting to make big bucks for the nation’s hardest-hit states. With potentially billions of dollars coming in, advocates for victims and their families want to make sure the money goes to help the people who need it most.

Opioid makers are dumping hundreds of millions of dollars in state coffers.