Less than a week ago, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser was pleading guilty to lying to the FBI and cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation, but things might be looking up for the president. Both houses of Congress have now passed a version of his signature tax reform plan (or the “massive tax cut,” as he would prefer we call it). On Wednesday, he followed through on his campaign promise to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, winning high praise from conservatives and even some bipartisan support.
But what might be Trump’s biggest victory of the week has received far less attention. The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that border-crossing arrests fell 25 percent this year to 310,000, a 46-year low. With interior enforcement and deportations up under the Trump administration, fewer people are attempting to cross the border illegally, officials said.
“Removals are down because the border’s under better control than it has been in 45 years,” acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan said Tuesday.
Conservative immigration policy groups, which are watching anxiously to see how the Trump administration tackles DACA administration, see these results as a vindication of their long-time argument that penalizing illegal immigration discourages potential illegal immigrants from making the trip.
“Decreased pressure on the border, accompanied by increased deportations, is welcome news, and proof positive that tough talk on border enforcement, combined with targeted interior enforcement, can reduce the pressure of illegal immigration while removing illegal and criminal aliens from the interior of the country,” Dave Ray of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “It certainly disproves all of the naysayers who long said illegal immigration just couldn’t be stanched.”
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01.22.2025