We asked and he delivered: President Trump is fulfilling his promise to fix America’s broken immigration system.
Trump has already closed one of the most glaring loopholes in our immigration law by tightening up the asylum process, which had been exploited by huge numbers of illegal immigrants in recent years.
Although the United States only grants asylum under strict conditions, migrants realized that simply applying for asylum, especially while claiming to be crossing the border as a “family unit,” would allow them to reside in the U.S. for months or years while awaiting a hearing in our backlogged immigration courts. The overwhelming majority of asylum applications are fraudulent, but by the time those rulings are handed down many migrants are unwilling to leave the country. As a result, we still have to deal with a large volume of illegal immigrants whose asylum requests have been rejected, even though the loophole is now closed.
Fortunately, Trump is well aware of this fact, and he’s making sure that people who have been ordered to leave the country after submitting a fake asylum claim cannot brazenly defy our laws.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 2,500 illegal immigrants in August and September who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as “family units” but were deemed ineligible for asylum. That’s a 435% increase compared to the monthly average in 2018.
By rigorously enforcing legal orders of deportation for fraudulent asylum seekers, Trump is addressing multiple elements of the illegal immigration crisis simultaneously. In addition to protecting American communities and saving taxpayer money, the strategy will help to deter false asylum claims in the future, easing the pressure on our overwhelmed Border Patrol agents as they work to secure the southern border.
A recent study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, known as FAIR, suggests that illegal immigration creates “a net fiscal burden of at least $131.9 billion annually on U.S. taxpayers.” Notably, FAIR’s current estimate is $16 billion higher than it was just two years ago — a clear sign that the situation only would have gotten worse without Trump’s action.
Contrary to the opinions of some Democrats in Washington, deportation also plays a crucial role in deterring future illegal immigration. If we were to actually reduce the number of deportations while “decriminalizing” unlawful border crossings and giving away taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants — the approach advocated by most of the 2020 Democrat presidential candidates — the country would rapidly become inundated with desperately poor economic refugees from all over the world.
To make matters worse, open borders would serve as an invitation to multinational criminal organizations, allowing violent gangs and drug cartels to expand their human trafficking and drug smuggling operations into our own neighborhoods, as we have already seen for years. As the president of the National Border Patrol Council, I’ve witnessed the devastating impact of immigration-related crime in American communities firsthand. I know that the people who are most eager to exploit weaknesses in our immigration system are the very people we most need to keep out.
The recent surge in deportations of fraudulent asylum seekers is a major victory for Trump, but more importantly, it’s a major victory for our country.
Trump has already secured the funds to build a wall on the border, strengthened our immigration enforcement policies through executive orders, and used the power of diplomacy to secure cooperation from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to stem the flow of migrants traversing Mexico to enter the U.S. illegally. Deporting those who abused America’s generosity by making false asylum claims is simply the next logical step in the president’s comprehensive strategy to end the illegal immigration crisis once and for all.
Make no mistake, the only way to secure the border is by giving our immigration enforcement agents the tools they need to properly enforce our existing immigration laws. That’s what Trump promised to do and it’s precisely what he’s done.
Brandon Judd is the president of the National Border Patrol Council and the exclusive labor representative of approximately 16,000 Border Patrol agents.
