Under President Trump’s leadership, appointments, and guidance, Customs, and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland security have been quietly changing the immigration game right under the Democrat’s noses. With just a quick peek at a few of Mark Morgan’s most recent tweets, one can get a very good sense of just how much.
The acting Commissioner of the CBP reported today that for the last 5 months, the United States is removing and returning more illegal ‘migrants’ than those apprehended. He also stated that “we are also more effective and efficient at doing so, applying a consequence or pathway to 95% of those we apprehend.” He ended the caption of a graph by saying that these new facts are a game-changer. The graph clearly shows a steady drop in both “inflows” and “outflows” of illegal immigrants, but the most notable is the convergence of more deportations than people being caught at the border.
Even though this just scratches the surface of dealing with the millions upon millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States, it shows notable progress, a scratching of the surface if you will. From here, President Trump can, in essence, build on the progress to doing what no leader has been able to do in decades, actually stem the tide of illegal immigration. See Morgans tweet below:
For the last 5 months, we are removing and returning more illegal migrants than those apprehended! We are also more effective and efficient at doing so, applying a consequence or pathway to 95% of those we apprehend. This is a game changer. pic.twitter.com/2QTXxk82cj
— Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) March 5, 2020
Morgan can be seen in a YouTube video below from a couple of months ago where he is touching on some of the progress they are making under the direction of President Trump and Homeland Security as well.
The Washington Times also reported on the news:
“We’ve got the tools in place now where we have the capacity to remove more people than we’re actually apprehending,” Mr. Morgan told reporters ahead of announcing the February numbers Thursday.
After eight months of declines, the number of illegal immigrants either apprehended by Border Patrol agents or encountered by officers at ports of entry ticked up from about 36,650 in January to about 37,100 in February.
In February 2019, by contrast about 76,550 unauthorized migrants were caught trying to enter.
And at the height of last year’s surge in May, more than 144,000 migrants were nabbed. Of those, more than 80,000 were immediately released into communities, because under a patchwork of laws and court rulings there was no way to hold and quickly deport them.
Most remain in the U.S. still, authorities believe.
But the new lower numbers at the border mean Homeland Security is finally cutting into the backlog, Mr. Morgan said.
“For the last five months, the number of those we removed have outpaced the number we have encountered at the southwest border,” he said.
In January, for example, Homeland Security ousted nearly 42,000 illegal immigrants, or about 5,200 more than were nabbed at the border.
Mr. Morgan said President Trump deserves credit for pushing the changes that allowed the U.S. government to get a handle on things. The administration suspended aid payments to key Central American countries until they agreed to do more to keep their people at home, and to try to stop other nationalities from using their territory as a crossing point.
Morgan had some other notable tweets giving updates on the situation on the border as well in recent days. In his most recent one as of this writing, he posted a photo of the southern border wall and gave commentary on how big of a difference the wall is already helping shape “the behaviors and activities of illegal border crossers and smugglers in fundamentally important ways”. He goes on to add that as more wall goes up, so does the CBP’s capacity to interdict dangerous drugs. See tweet below:
Our ongoing construction of border wall system has helped us shape the behaviors and activities of illegal border crossers and smugglers in fundamentally important ways. In short, as the border wall system goes up, our operational capacity to interdict dangerous drugs goes up. pic.twitter.com/t3NzV79GjO
— Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) March 5, 2020
Morgan also tweeted about the war on narcotics coming over the border illegally in more detail. In another Twitter post, he reports that the CBP is remaining “absolutely relentless” in their counter-narcotics mission. Seizures of “the four major drugs” were up in February, including a 75% increase in the deadly drug fentanyl and a 30% increase in methamphetamines seized. See tweet below:
We remain absolutely relentless in our counter-narcotics mission. The men & women of @CBP remain committed to keeping drugs out of our communities. In February, seizures of the 4 major drugs were up, including a 75% increase in fentanyl seized and a 30% increase in meth seized. pic.twitter.com/jsDkCE9ufH
— Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) March 5, 2020
“The threat we face is not just about illegal immigration—it’s much more broad and much more complex. The drugs pouring into our country—at the hands of the transnational criminal organizations—are killing our citizens every day. This is a real threat.” Morgan reported in yet another tweet, notating the multifaceted reasons for having a strong border, something many in both parties, but especially on the left and in the media that often gets swept under the rug for political reasons. That isn’t even to mention the corporations that profit off of illegal immigration labor that undercuts wages of American citizens of all races and creeds. See the tweet below:
The threat we face is not just about illegal immigration—it’s much more broad and much more complex. The drugs pouring into our country—at the hands of the transnational criminal organizations—are killing our citizens every day. This is a real threat.
— Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) March 5, 2020
Morgan is also reporting that they have nearly ended the age-old practice of “catch and release”, implementing Trump-backed policies to deal with illegal immigration in a more precise manner as soon as they get here, either returning them to the other side of the border or assisting those with legitimate asylum claims. See tweet below:
We’ve all but ended catch & release. In May 2019, 80,000+ immigrants were released into the interior of the US—57% of those encountered. We’ve reduced this by 87%. While Congress continued to fail to enact meaningful legislation to address this crisis, we didn’t stop our efforts. pic.twitter.com/QnT6M2NL8X
— Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) March 5, 2020
President Trump will (or should) seize on this information to rally his base with the upcoming election. He should also acknowledge that although he is advocating for a merit-based legal immigration system, many of his core supporters think native-born Americans and especially college graduates are struggling more and more to get jobs in their field due to skilled immigrants competing with them and often accepting lower wages in the process than Americans might normally be able to garner from jobs offered by large global corporations among others.
