If you build it, they won’t come.
During one of the Republican primary debates, now-President Donald Trump made the case that we could expect some illegal immigrants to “self-deport” once we began actually enforcing our immigration laws. “Let me just tell you that Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president, people liked him. ‘I like Ike,’ right?” Trump said in a November 2015 debate hosted by Fox Business. He “moved 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border. They came back. Moved them again beyond the border, they came back. Didn’t like it. Moved them way south. They never came back.”
Trump was making reference to Operation Wetback, when there was a massive ramp-up in immigration enforcement – leading many to “self-deport” over fears that they would inevitably be next.
United States immigration enforcement actions, 1940–1960, data from Dept. of Homeland Security.
Admittedly, I had predicted a surge in border crossings following Trump’s surprise November victory. After all, wouldn’t they want to get in before a “big beautiful” wall prevents them from coming in?
In reality, the opposite occurred as illegals fearing immigration enforcement legged it back down to Mexico.
The chief of the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector says President Trump should get the credit for a break in a historical trend in illegal immigration. New data out for the month of May shows the Border Patrol apprehended 19,967 illegal immigrants last month. That’s 35,475 fewer apprehensions than the 55,442 in May 2016.
“The administration has communicated clearly that they support our people out in the field that they will enforce our immigration laws and there will be consequences to those who violate those laws,” Jeffrey Self, Chief Patrol Agent for the El Paso Sector, told Fox News during a recent ride along.
Self also credits the ending of the “catch and release” program as well as new infrastructure for the downward trend in border arrests. Catch and release is the unofficial name for a longstanding protocol where illegal immigrants are arrested for being in the U.S. but are released as they wait for a hearing.
Historically, the number of illegal immigrants arrested across the southern border and the number of immigrants attempting to cross spikes from February to June. Not this year. The downward trend in apprehensions that started when President Trump took office has continued through Spring.
April 2017 had the smallest number of Border Patrol apprehensions in five years, at 15,780. This year is the first time in at least five years that apprehensions have dropped below 20 thousand a month.
Self said the Trump Administration has created what he calls a mindset of deterrence.
H/T Fox News
Of course, we still need to follow up and actually build a wall – and when that happens, the number of illegal crossings will fall down to a healthy zero.
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