That is the fundamental reality of immigration policy: incentives matter. Smugglers closely monitor legal and political developments. Every perceived weakening of enforcement becomes another marketing campaign encouraging illegal migration. 

Twenty-two European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, publicly criticized Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s migration policies, warning that his proposal to regularize up to 1.2 million unauthorized migrants created a powerful “pull factor” encouraging additional illegal migration. 

Italy responded by temporarily suspending portions of the Schengen free-travel agreement with Spain. 

“This is an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation,” Meloni wrote on X. 

Germany likewise announced that it would extend its internal border controls beyond September. 

“The situation in Ceuta highlights the volatile state of affairs regarding illegal migration,” German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said, arguing that “flexible and tailored internal border controls” remain necessary. 

These are extraordinary developments. The Schengen Area was built upon the principle of free movement. When member states begin restoring internal borders because they no longer trust one another’s immigration policies, the consequences extend far beyond migration–they strike at one of the European Union’s defining achievements. 

While Europe struggles to contain the consequences of weakened deterrence, the Trump administration has pursued an immigration policy centered on enforcement, deterrence, and the restoration of operational control of the nation’s borders. 

According to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the United States has now recorded 12 consecutive months of zero migrant releases into the country by U.S. Border Patrol. Daily apprehensions along the Southwest border have fallen 95% compared with the previous administration, while Border Patrol has recorded 15 consecutive months with fewer than 9,000 apprehensions. 

Those statistics are supported by independent research via the Pew Research Center, which found that Border Patrol encountered 236,538 migrants at the southern border during fiscal 2025, the lowest annual total in more than 50 years. Just a few years earlier, annual encounters exceeded 2.2 million, illustrating how dramatically illegal crossings have declined following changes in enforcement policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin summarized the administration’s position succinctly: “Twelve straight months of ZERO releases at the border. Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we are delivering the most secure border in American history. The days of catch and release are over.”

Border czar Tom Homan has consistently argued that the most humane immigration policy is one that prevents illegal crossings in the first place. Consistent enforcement discourages migrants from entrusting their lives to criminal smuggling organizations, reduces incentives for illegal entry, and ultimately saves lives that might otherwise be lost crossing deserts, rivers, or open water. 

Supporters of more permissive immigration policies frequently frame enforcement as incompatible with compassion, but compassion that lacks credible enforcement produces the opposite result. When migrants believe they are likely to remain if they successfully reach a country’s territory, more people attempt dangerous crossings. Smuggling organizations profit. Governments lose operational control. Humanitarian tragedies become more frequent. 

The images from Ceuta also expose another uncomfortable reality. Dangerous maritime crossings disproportionately favor young, nondisabled men who possess the physical ability to undertake hazardous journeys. If immigration increasingly rewards those capable of reaching a country’s borders first, policymakers should ask whether such a system truly prioritizes the world’s most vulnerable populations, especially women and children, or merely those most capable of making the trip. 

America, especially the bleeding hearts and leftists, should view Europe’s experience as a warning. 

Immigration is not only about who arrives at a nation’s borders, but it is also about whether governments maintain the credibility necessary to distinguish between legal immigration and illegal entry. A functioning immigration system depends upon both compassion and enforcement. Remove either component, and public confidence quickly erodes. 

Spain’s border crisis demonstrates how rapidly migration incentives can change when governments signal that enforcement has weakened. The reaction from Italy, Germany, and much of Europe suggests that many leaders understand this reality, even if Madrid does not. 

Americans should support Trump’s immigration agenda because it protects American citizens, saves migrant lives by deterring dangerous border crossings, and weakens the criminal smuggling networks that profit from human suffering.

The evidence is increasingly difficult to ignore. An enforcement-first approach has coincided with historic reductions in illegal border encounters in the U.S. In contrast, Europe’s more permissive approach has coincided with renewed instability, political division, and humanitarian tragedy.

SPAIN FORFEITED ITS BORDERS. TRUMP SHOULD HAND CEUTA TO MOROCCO

Border security is not an act of hostility. It is a prerequisite for an immigration system that is lawful, orderly, and sustainable. 

Europe is now discovering what the Trump administration recognized from the outset: Secure borders are not the enemy of compassion. They are what make compassion possible.

Sophia Aros is a former NeW student media fellow, a Fordham University graduate with a bachelor’s, a Don Lavoie Fellow, and a University of Virginia Batten student pursuing a master’s in public policy.