03/06/2019
The Washington Post declared on March 6th that
Trump is losing ground on top priorities to curb illegal immigration, cut the trade deficit and blunt North Korea’s nuclear threat — setbacks that complicate his planned reelection message as a can-do president who is making historic progress.
‘Not my fault’: Trump struggles to defend his record amid setbacks on immigration, trade, North Korea, by David Nakamura, Seung Min Kim and Josh Dawsy, Washington Post, March 6, 2019
What can Trump do to pull his administration out of this tailspin? For starters, how about getting control of the southern border?
Illegal immigration this year is on pace to more than triple the levels of just two years ago, new projections reveal. In the month of February, there were more than 76,000 illegal border crossings and inadmissible foreign nationals, the most in this month in 12 years — a record for President Trump’s administration. Princeton Policy Advisor Steven Kopits now projects that illegal border crossings for this calendar year will be more than three times what they were in 2017 and nearly double last year’s total crossings. The projection predicts there will be more than 840,000 illegal border crossings this year, though Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen predicts about 900,000 crossings.
Three Times the Illegal Immigration of 2017 Levels at Current Rate, by John Binder, Breitbart, March 6, 2019
Looks as though the Trump Effect has worn off.
Should illegal immigration reach this level, as Kopits projects, it would mean that border crossings in Trump’s third year in office outpace every single year of illegal immigration under former President Obama.
Of course, we need more fencing on the border.
The vast majority of voters say a border wall would be effective in stopping illegal immigration, though that has not equated to progress on constructing new barriers at the border.
So the public supports a border wall. Good. That should help.
Only about 40 miles of replacement fencing have been built since Trump’s election, although about 124 miles of new wall and replacement fencing has been approved by Congress. This month, about 14 miles of new wall is expected to be constructed in southern California and some new portions of a wall have been constructed in the El Paso, Texas region.
It’s not that Congress isn’t serious about border security. It’s just not serious about our border’s security.
Today, the majority of the U.S.-Mexico border remains open. At the same time, the U.S. has continued funding border walls and border security programs in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Lebanon.
But the border wall is not the only solution. The current catch and release policies need to be ended. Every single man, woman and child crossing the border illegally needs to be deported.
I understand that Trump is under enormous pressure and has to deal with a hostile media, hostile Democrats, and Republicans who sabotage his agenda. But Trump himself needs more self-discipline and needs to replace his people who can’t or won’t do the job with those who can and will. "Personnel is Policy". Why isn’t Kris Kobach in the administration?
Trump ought to assemble an administration task force to come up with plans to develop a strategy on the border, as quickly as possible.
And quit talking about the need for legal immigrants. That doesn’t help either.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.