What has President Donald Trump Done to Stop Illegal Immigration?
People keep asking me: ‘when it comes to illegal immigration, what has Trump done so far?’
Lots—although you wouldn’t know it, because the mainstream media is entirely consumed with spreading their fake Russian conspiracy theories day-in and day-out.
Very briefly, I’ll give you some of the highlights regarding what President Trump has done so far when it comes to immigration (both legal and illegal).
1. President Trump’s Executive Orders Have Dramatically Decreased Illegal Immigration Levels
First of all, illegal immigration is bad for America. Full stop. Don’t believe me? Here’s a breakdown that shows just how much illegal immigration’s costing America.
Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what Trump’s doing about it:
President Trump’s term began with a number of executive orders that covered everything from border security, interior enforcement, and the travel ban (or as the media hysterically calls it, the ‘Muslim ban’). Although we have yet to see the full implementation of these executive orders, as putting them into practice is time-consuming (not to mention the fact that liberal courts have done their very best to stymie the administration), we’re starting to see the effects.
For example, President Trump has given the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents a new mandate: find and deport illegal immigrants, particularly those who pose a risk to American citizens (criminals). Basically, President Trump gave ICE teeth, and a longer leash.
ICE is getting results: arrests for immigration-related offences are up by nearly 40 percent. Furthermore, ICE has increased its issuance of detainers by 75% (when they request local law enforcement to hold individuals in their custody so ICE can get them), and increased the number of people it places in removal proceedings by 47%.
Oh, and illegal border crossings are down by 70%—we can’t forget to mention that. Why? Because people are scared of being deported. This is just commons sense.
I think the numbers speak for themselves: President Trump’s strategy to stop illegal immigration is working.
2. Trump is Cracking Down on Sanctuary Cities
Under President Trump, ICE was instructed to increase its cooperation with local law enforcement so that it could better find illegal aliens who have committed crimes. They did that, and they did a good job. In fact, ICE now has official cooperation agreements with 59 law enforcement agencies (known as ‘287(g) agreements‘) in 18 states.
In addition to this, ICE is in the process of partnering up with many more jurisdictions. All good news.
The wrench in the machine are so-called ‘sanctuary cities‘, which are municipalities (or other local jurisdictions) that refuse to cooperate with ICE agents. Basically, they protect criminal illegal aliens from deportation. Why? Who knows. One would assume that any rational person would want criminals who are in the country illegally deported, rather than being released back into the community.
But, in defiance of all logic and reason, sanctuary cities exist.
To deal with these rebellious enclaves, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that federal funding for sanctuary cities will be cut if they refuse to comply with federal immigration law. Specifically, sanctuary cities could be denied their Edward Bryne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, or JAG grants.
New rules will be in place later this year to make the determination transparent, but they boil down to three main points: to receive JAG grants, municipalities must:
- Comply with federal law. They must not prevent local law enforcement from sharing prisoner’s immigration information with ICE.
- Allow ICE agents into detention centers.
- Give ICE a 48-hour notice before releasing anyone for whom ICE requested a detainer.
These are common sense rules. I, like many Americans, am surprised they weren’t in place from the get-go. But then again, who would’ve assumed democrats would refuse to obey the law (given how much they love big government).
3. Trump Will Build the Wall Along the Mexican Border & Mexico Will Pay
Big WIN today for building the wall. It will secure the border & save lives. Now the full House & Senate must act! ➡️https://t.co/TTg7lvBdo2 pic.twitter.com/xhiknXko70
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017
The wall has been contentious from the beginning, but we’re finally starting to see some movement.
This June, the Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee allocated $1.6 billion to fund the border wall with Mexico. Consider it a down-payment. Subcommittee chairman John Carter had this to say:
Trump promised a wall, he will build a wall. And don’t worry, there are still lots of ways we can make Mexico pay for it.
4. The Department of Homeland Security Will Roll Out Visa-Overstay Tracking Software
As per President Trump’s executive order, the Department of Homeland Security will roll out visa-overstay tracking software beginning in 2018 (I too was shocked to learn they don’t currently track them).
This is big. Why? Visa-overstays are the number one cause of illegal immigration in the United States. Out of the 53 million people who entered the US last year for temporary stays, 730,000 of them never left.
Now that’s a pretty low rate, but given the sheer amount of people that enter the US annually, this causes huge long term problems if that many people are staying annually. In fact, about 40% of all the illegal immigrants currently residing in the US are visa overstays.
According to John Wagner, the deputy executive assistant commissioner of the US Customs and Border Protection, they expect to roll out this new visa tracking system in major US airports by early 2018.
At a Senate hearing, he expanded on this:
For the rest of this calendar year and into the beginning of next year, we’ll be building out platforms that will be able to do that at all of our commercial air locations. It’s going to take us until early next year to be able to finish that. We’ve got to build the services to be able to pull the photos, we’ve got to buy the databases, the [software] matchers to be able to do the facial recognition element it has, and then look at the front-end deployment of the technology, where does it go in the airport, [find out if] the airlines will work with us.
This is a no-brainer, and should’ve been done a long time ago. About time.
5. President Trump’s Has Imposed a Travel Ban from High-Risk Countries
One of the very first things President Trump did upon assuming office was to institute a travel ban from six countries that were flagged by the Obama administration as having a high risk of terrorism. The nations impacted are Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, and Syria. Important to note: all of these countries are failed states (with the exception of Iran, which is simply hostile to America).
Despite the rather obvious risks these nations impose, the left said this was a “Muslim ban” and was therefore immoral. After a tussle in the appeal courts, the Supreme Court finally removed the various injunctions, and the ban is now in full effect (with some slight modifications).
6. Trump Reversed Obama’s Islamophilic Refugee Policy
Trump reversed Obama’s Islamophilic refugee policy, and is prioritizing those most in danger (Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East).
According to data collected by Pew Research, the number of Muslims accepted into the US as refugees has fallen under President Trump, from 50% in February of all refugees to 31% in June. Likewise, the proportion of Christians accepted has increased from 41% to 57% during the same period, as has the number of other religious minorities.
This is, in part due to President Trump’s executive order requiring better vetting from certain countries, and travel bans in others (the infamous “Muslim ban”), a temporary halt of the US Refugee Resettlement Program, and the lowering of the refugee admissions cap.
7. The ‘RAISE Act’ May Fundamentally Reform the US Immigration System
Right now, senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia are working with the White House administration to create a bill (the RAISE Act) that will fundamentally transform, and possibly fix, America’s broken legal immigration system.
The RAISE Act would not only stop the practice of chain-migration, but it would also cut the number of immigrants in half over the next decade.
Should the Act eventually get passed, it would be the biggest change to America’s immigration system since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which opened up the US borders to mass migration from the developing world.
Whether or not this goes anywhere remains to be seen.
What Has Trump Done to Stop Illegal Immigration? Lots. What’s Next?
When it comes to immigration reform, President Trump’s been busy, as you can see. But there’s a lot more on the horizon.
For example, the DHS will likely seek to expand the fast-track deportation program, currently in place along the southern border, across the whole country. Part and parcel with this is the Trump administration’s plans to dramatically increase the number of detention beds, from a funding level of 34,000 beds in recent history, to as many as 51,379 beds.
All totaled, the Trump administration has done a lot to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, and they have much more planned.
