Agents at the U.S. southern border last month arrested a record 76,000 migrants who either crossed illegally into the United States or attempted to enter at a port of entry without permission—more than double the number from the same period last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Tuesday. The government plans to construct a new processing center in El Paso, Texas, to accommodate the increasing numbers.

The Trump administration announced a new policy on Thursday requiring people seeking asylum at the U.S. border to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed. The previous policy allowed people claiming asylum to be released in the United States after an initial screening. The Mexican government said foreigners will have temporary permission to remain in Mexico on humanitarian grounds and will be allowed to seek work authorization after getting a notice to appear in U.S. immigration court.

When Yazidi advocate Pari Ibrahim goes back to the Yazidi refugee camps in the Kurdistan region in Iraq, the people always ask, “What did the U.S. say? What will happen now?” Four years ago ISIS radicals began a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis, killing or kidnapping almost 10,000 people; now survivors languish in refugee camps on Kurdistan’s Mount Sinjar and in Syria and Turkey.

Thanksgiving month: A time to celebrate pioneers who came to America, natives who were hospitable, and the sweet land of liberty that resulted.

The immigration debate rages hot, and here are three columns (from 1994, 2002, and 2008) from the WORLD Magazine vault that I wrote in relation to that debate. I don’t at all minimize the concerns many Americans have in regard to radical Islamists or MS-13 gangsters in our midst. I would like to suggest that our basic predisposition should be pro-immigration for historical, sociological, and theological reasons.

A New York moment:

The media here are buzzing over incidents surrounding an event the Metropolitan Republican Club hosted with Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes on Friday. First and foremost is the surprising decision of the club—with its staid, establishment Republican reputation—to host the leader of a nationalist group that appears to be a sort of counter to the antifa movement. It’s no wonder then that violence broke out.

One of the most unsettling images in recent American politics came last Saturday as protesters pushed past Capitol Hill police and tried to claw open the massive doors of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

It struck me as visceral and strange and disturbing.

They were protesting the swearing in of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and though they may not have had a clear plan, I wondered: What would these protesters have done if they had gained entrance to the court?

On Oct. 4 as American citizens were gripped by the drama surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation and Chinese citizens took time off for a weeklong national holiday, Vice President Mike Pence gave the administration’s strongest rebuke of the Chinese Communist Party and how it engages its own citizens and the rest of the world.