From thenationaldesk.com
Southern border crossings have plummeted since President Donald Trump took office and began implementing his crackdown on illegal immigration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it recorded its lowest southwest border crossings in history last month.
There were under 23,000 southwest border encounters in February and March combined, compared to nearly 380,000 in the same two-month period a year earlier.
“THE SOUTHERN BORDER IS NOW THE STRONGEST AND SAFEST IN USA HISTORY. IT WILL REMAIN SO!!!” Trump said Thursday on social media.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meanwhile, has stepped up interior arrests, targeting illegally present immigrants with criminal backgrounds first.
Deportations, especially deportations of violent criminals, have the support of the American people.
About a third of Americans want all immigrants living in the country illegally to be deported, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
A larger share of Americans, just over half, said some, but not all, undocumented immigrants should be deported.
And there was nearly unanimous agreement that violent criminals living in the country illegally should be deported. That view was held by 97% of Americans who support some deportations, with no differences between Republicans or Democrats.
So, three months into Trump’s second term, is the border now secure?
“I think the border is more secure, but I don’t think the border is secure,” said Sheriff Kieran Donahue, the president of the National Sheriffs’ Association. “That’s a big lift.”
Some parts of the border are more secure than others, he said.
But Donahue said the combined manpower of federal immigration authorities, local officials and American military troops has strengthened border security.
Ernesto Sagás, an expert in politics and U.S. immigration policies who teaches at Colorado State University, said the border was already secure.
But it’s now more “sealed,” he said.
Even over the last few years, when border crossings were high, he said many migrants weren’t evading authorities. They were surrendering to Border Patrol agents and requesting political asylum.
Trump replaced the CBP One app that helped schedule asylum requests with one that encourages migrants to self-deport.
“So, what has changed is not the effectiveness of the Border Patrol and other federal agencies,” Sagás said. “It’s the fact that the welcome mat has been taken away by the Trump administration. They have pretty much slammed the door on those modes of entering the United States that (former President Joe) Biden allowed.”
Trump’s telling immigrants to stay away, Sagás said.
And he said Trump’s message “has resonated among would-be immigrants throughout Mexico, Central America and into South America.”
They’re deciding to stay in Mexico, go back to their countries, or even go to other parts of South America instead of making the trek to the U.S.
Donahue also said Trump’s policies are dissuading migrants from even attempting to come to the U.S.
And the sheriff said the U.S. is getting more cooperation from Mexico and countries in Central and South America.
But Donahue warned that our northern border is much more porous than the southern border.
And he said Mexican cartels will exploit that vulnerability.
Donahue said cartels will use boats and planes to move drugs and humans they’re smuggling to Canada, where they’ll find an easier time getting them into the U.S. across the northern border.
“I’ve been up in that country quite a bit over the last several months talking to our northern border sheriffs, and they do not feel that the border is secure up in their area,” Donahue said. “And they’re right.”
The financial incentives for the cartels to continue infiltrating the U.S. are enormous, Donahue said.
He said it’s in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
And Donahue said cartels have embedded themselves in American communities over the course of decades, establishing distribution networks that can’t be taken down overnight.
“This is a long fight,” the sheriff said. “This is going to be a long haul to get this stuff done.”
Donahue said American cities are safer under Trump’s crackdown.
But he said authorities are going to have a hard time keeping up their pace of arrests.
“You’re going to see these people be harder to find because of that pressure,” Donahue said. “We have great people on it. DHS doing a hell of a job. But we’re talking about the criminal element, and they’re going to go deeper underground.”
Sagás said he doesn’t see much of a future for immigration – “immigration in the sense, in the traditional sense, that we know it as the United States as a welcoming nation that will accept immigrants” – with Trump in office.
The long-term impact of Trump’s immigration policies will depend partially on who wins the White House next time, Sagás said.
“If the Democrats get back in the White House, obviously, they will be more careful regarding immigration. They won’t allow it to become the hot mess that it was under Biden,” Sagás said.
Either way, there are going to be ripple effects from Trump’s immigration policies throughout American society, Sagás said.
There will be negative economic effects, he said.
There will be a smaller labor pool, not just from immigrants who are willing to do the “dirty jobs” in America, he said.
But fewer foreign students will seek a higher education in the U.S., Sagás said.
He said he has some students at Colorado State University who had visas revoked and others who have decided to call it quits at the end of the semester and go back home.
“We’re losing that goodwill that is generated by these people that come studying in the United States, go back to their home countries, where they are big defenders of the American way of life,” Sagás said.
From thenationaldesk.com