July 1, 2019
Hot News Today:
- Speaker Pelosi on Deportations: “What’s the Point?”
- Mexico Improves Border Security as Congress Reduces Border Security
More Than One Million Individuals Have Final Removal Orders, But Remain in Country
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t see the value of interior immigration enforcement and deportations. In recent comments, the Speaker asked, “In terms of interior enforcement, what is the purpose? What is the point?” Interior immigration enforcement remains essential as the nation faces an unprecedented immigration crisis, so here are five key figures to know about its importance:
- According to the Trump administration, there are nearly 1.1 million individuals with final removal orders.
- In FY2018, ICE removed 256,086 illegal aliens, with convicted criminals accounting for the majority of removals (57%).
- In FY2018, the most frequent criminal convictions included DUI traffic offenses, dangerous drug offenses, and general traffic offenses.
- In FY2018, suspected gang members or terrorists accounted for 5,914 of removed illegal aliens, which is a nine percent increase from FY2017.
- More than 12.5 million illegal aliens reside in the United States, costing the nation more than $116 billion annually.
Interior immigration enforcement is necessary to hold those accountable who have openly broken the nation’s laws. Weak interior enforcement only exacerbates the current immigration crisis. If law-breaking individuals understand that there is a realistic chance that they will be apprehended and removed, it will help deter them from entering the country illegally or overstaying their visa in the first place.
Mexican Government Shows Immediate Progress in Securing its Borders; U.S. Congress Shows Disdain for Enforcing Ours
Mexico is swiftly increasing its interior and border enforcement efforts as it aims to avoid a recent tariff threat from President Trump.
The Mexican government has less than 45 days to show improvement in tackling illegal immigration in its country, but so far, the results are promising. Below are recent measures its government has taken to address our border crisis:
- Deployed 6,000 National Guard troops to secure its southern border with Guatemala.
- Deployed 15,000 National Guard and army units to secure its northern border.
- Froze the accounts of 26 individuals for “their probable link with human trafficking and illicit support of migrant caravans.”
- Sent 1,000 immigration agents to the northern and southern borders of Mexico.
- Apprehended nearly 800 migrants in the state of Veracruz, one of the largest captures all year.
These actions have already made an impact on curbing migration flows, according to the New York Times. Ironically, it appears that Mexico is improving its border security while our own Congress is passing legislation to reduce border security.
Last week, Congress acted to appropriate $4.6 billion in emergency funds to deal with the crisis at our southern border. Both houses approved additional funding requested by the administration for humanitarian relief, but utterly ignored the president’s request for additional border security and detention space. The bill allocates roughly $2.9 billion to Health and Human Services (HHS) to take care of unaccompanied minors and more than $1 billion to shelter and feed individuals detained by immigration authorities.
Most importantly, however, the bill underfunds Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), provides no additional funding for the border wall, and does not provide more funding for Border Patrol personnel.
