Up against a Democratic Party that believes the U.S. should function as the world’s welfare provider, the Trump administration is basically doing a good job controlling the chaos at the southern border.
That’s not enough, and if any one of the Democratic presidential candidates wins in 2020, it will all be for nothing. But the administration deserves credit for doing what it can to stem the tide of Central Americans gaming our absurdly generous immigration system.
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The number of southwest border apprehensions — people who were taken into U.S. custody after they made it on American soil — fell from 64,000 in August to 52,000 in September. Those are the lowest numbers we’ve seen since January, down from a high of 144,000 in May.
The numbers are still too high. But here’s the most important point: President Trump and his Department of Homeland Security reduced the numbers by more than half without “THE WALL.” They did it, instead, by addressing the real issue — the asylum scam.
Hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans were making their way to the border, floating a short distance across the river that separates us from Mexico and then claiming asylum with their children. Human traffickers were also taking Central American children and just heaving them onto American soil, thrusting them into the care of Border Patrol. It burned through our resources, overwhelmed our agents and backlogged our immigration courts.
Congress wouldn’t pass any legislation to end the asylum racket — thanks Democrats! — so the Trump administration pressured Central America and Mexico to take some responsibility in slowing the tide of migrants. The White House also implemented new rules requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for a hearing and, for Central Americans, to first try seeking official refuge in a country that they would have to cross before reaching the U.S. This has changed the incentives, deterring illegal border crossings.
I was admittedly skeptical that any of these measures would work. And I will still scream from the rooftops that they will only last so long as Trump has the presidency (which could end as soon as January 2021). But the grip on asylum is, at least for now, somewhat effective.
