The Trump hardline policies against illegal and legal immigration seems to have slowed the legit’s and had little effect on the illegals….
Typical Trump moves….
Backwards….
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, under Director Francis Cissna, has rained downpolicy memos and directives aimed at rooting out fraudulent and non-meritorious visa applications, but critics say they’ve had the effect of slowing down or blocking legitimate visa applications.
The changes amount to “reform by a lot of trimming and shaping,” according to Jessica Vaughan, a policy director with the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs lower levels of immigration. “It’s really a lot of small changes that in the aggregate make a big difference.”
By contrast, arrests by Border Patrol — a proxy for illegal crossings — rose in recent months to the highest levels of the Trump presidency. Border Patrol nabbed 51,856 migrants at the southwest border in November, a 78 percent increase from a year earlier. The arrest levels resemble the higher months of the Obama presidency, a sign that Trump’s attempts to limit illegal immigration haven’t worked.
Despite the surge, illegal immigration remains low compared with the late 1980s through the early 2000s, when border arrests numbered about twice what they do today. But this past year’s increase was enough to prompt Trump to fume about a migrant “invasion.” Administration officials implemented a succession of border policies, including the deployment of nearly 6,000 military troops, intended to end the perceived crisis. None of these deterred rising numbers of migrants, principally from Central America, from trekking north. And deportations under Trump remain far below levels under Obama: In fiscal year 2018, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 256,058 people. By comparison, ICE removed 409,849 people in fiscal year 2012, a high-water mark during the Obama administration.
The border wall itself remains unbuilt, despite Trump’s frequent threats to force a federal government shutdown over what he estimates would be a $20 billion project and the current budget stalemate over the wall in Congress. A spending bill passed in March devoted just $1.4 billion to an estimated 84 miles of new and replacement barriers along the southwest border. During Trump’s first year in office, Congress provided only $341 million for 40 miles of replacement fence…..