Donald Trump’s policies to deal with the crisis on our southern border are working as intended. Mark Morgan, acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, says that daily apprehensions of illegal aliens have fallen from about 4,000 at the height of the crisis to around 1,300 now. What’s more, the 21-day average is less than 1,000 — a 78 percent drop over the last year.
No one element of the policy appears to be responsible for its success.
Then there are the numbers of illegal immigrants “in custody.” That was a horrific 20,000 in May for an agency that has just 4,000 beds.
Now a quarter of those beds are unused.
“We were having those conversations back then about how the system was overwhelmed, there was overcrowding. We’re just not experiencing that now,” Morgan said.
“Currently, right now, what we’re seeing is our in-custody numbers right now are actually below 3,000, and it has been steady for the past few weeks,” he said.
Fewer people are being stopped at the border because there are fewer people trying to cross. And the reason for that is the agreements the U.S. now has with Mexico and Guatemala.
While he stressed that the crisis is far from over, especially as Mexican cartels turn to drugs to replace moving people across the border as their money source, he said that President Trump’s policies get the credit for the change.
Noting that Congress has done little to change outdated immigration laws, he said that Trump took action and built relationships with Mexico and other Central American nations that now hold immigrants seeking to come into the U.S. until the government gives them the green light.
“This is not a political statement, it’s because I believe it and because it is true: The success that I just outlined is absolutely a direct result of this president’s strategies,” said Morgan, a career government officer. He added, “We are succeeding in addressing this crisis.”
Limiting the number of those seeking asylum as well as cracking down on enforcement has done more to address the illegal alien problem than any other policy put in place by any other president.
The hysterical opposition generated by these policies is misplaced. There were enormous problems caused exclusively by the overwhelming numbers of people showing up at our borders. We heard relentless and harsh criticism from Democrats for months, but precious little in the way of offering other solutions. Aside from throwing the border wide open and allowing everyone entry, Democrats were bereft of ideas.
The policies weren’t perfect, but characterizing them as “Nazi” “or Gestapo” was silly. A plurality of voters agrees with what Trump has been doing, despite rabid reporting from the media and hysterical denunciations by the opposition.
The illegal alien issue probably won’t be as strong for Trump in 2020 as it was in 2016. But it will certainly be a political plus with his base, giving the president a head start toward victory.
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