U.S.-Mexico Border Transformed Under Trump’s Policies, Bensman discusses recent border trip on Parsing Immigration Policy podcast

Summary

Fieldwork undertaken by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals a border now under control, offering clear evidence that the border crisis was never an unstoppable force but rather the result of policy decisions.

Last week the Center sent analysts to the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector and across the border to Tijuana, and to the El Paso Sector and across the border to Juarez. These two border sectors had some of the heaviest migrant traffic over the last few years, but now the numbers have plummeted.

Center researchers Andrew Arthur and Todd Bensman join Parsing Immigration Policy to discuss what they saw and what policies are making the difference, and three tools in particular:

Infrastructure – Expanded fencing and additional concertina wire have been added.
Manpower – Border Patrol agents are forward-deployed, no longer being pulled off the line for processing migrants.
Criminal Prosecutions – Not only are apprehended migrants no longer being released, but illegal entry is increasingly being handled as a criminal offense, with first-time illegal-crossers facing up to six months in a federal penitentiary.

In his closing commentary, host Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director, explains the Alien Enemies Act, enacted in 1798, which is now in the headlines due to the Trump administration using it as the basis for the swift deportation of a group of Venezuelan gang members. The law can only be triggered by a declared war, an invasion, or a predatory incursion by a foreign nation or government. Its application faces legal challenges and will likely reach the Supreme Court.