How Trump is enforcing immigration law

Today was supposed to be the day that President Obama’s illegal DACA order expired. However, a lawless leftist judge contrived to find that President Trump’s revocation of Obama’s illegal order somehow was, itself, illegal.

Thus, DACA remains in effect for now, protecting more than 600,000 illegal immigrants from deportation. A much larger group, the so-called Dreamers who differ from the DACA population because they didn’t come forward pursuant to the DACA program, remains unprotected.

This aspect of the illegal immigration issue has dominated the news. It has thus helped obscure the strides made by the Trump administration in enforcing our immigration laws. John Fonte spells out these strides in an article for “American Greatness.”

Fonte writes:

Trump’s first year saw an increase by 25 percent in interior enforcement which had plunged to a ten year low in Obama’s last year.

Under new leadership, ICE is going into sanctuary jurisdictions. Acting Director Holman said “If he [Jerry Brown] thinks ICE is going away we are not… “as matter of fact we are going to increase our enforcement presence in California.” In December and January ICE conducted raids in California, New York, Chicago, and New Jersey arresting criminal aliens, In New Jersey, 80 percent of these illegal immigrants had prior felony convictions. These crimes included: sexual assault, kidnapping, the production and distribution of cocaine, theft, and child pornography.

(Emphasis added)

The Trump administration has also cracked down on the vicious gang MS-13:

ICE conducted Operation Raging Bull from September to November 2017 and arrested hundreds of MS-13 gang members in “secessionist,” excuse me, I mean “sanctuary jurisdictions.” Their crimes include murder, kidnapping, sex-trafficking, drug-trafficking, assassinations, extortion, and blackmail.

The Justice Department, under Jeff Sessions, is also playing a significant role. For one thing, it is re-examining the policy of “Administrative Closure” which many considered a “back-door” amnesty by the Obama administration. Fonte explains:

There are 350, 000 cases that have been closed “administratively,” simply at the discretion of the federal government. To be clear, these are illegal aliens that could be subject to deportation for various offenses. In addition, the regular backlog now stands at around 658, 000 cases. Put the two together and there are at least a million possible problematic cases of aliens living in the United States. Attorney General Sessions is reviewing this whole process to examine categories that might be re-opened as well as adding DOJ judges to speed these cases along.

In addition, the Trump administration, unlike its predecessor, is performing significant vetting of applicants for K-1 fiance visas. Recall that the woman involved in the mass murder terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California was admitted to America under the K-1 fiancé visa.

The K-1 process is supposed to involve an initial review of the petition followed by a face to face interview with an official of USCIS, if the initial review does not result in a denial. But the interview was often skipped during the Obama administration. According to Fonte:

During Obama’s last year in office, 90.5 percent of these petitions were approved [at the first stage\. During the first year of President Trump, with more serious vetting, the approval rate fell to 66.2 percent. Step two is the interview of the alien fiancé by a U.S. State Department consular official overseas. This step was 99 percent approved under Obama. Under Trump, the denial rate increased by 20 percent.

In other words, there has been a lot of fraud and poor vetting in the K-1 visa process which is now being cleaned up by the Trump administration.

How has the left responded to President Trump’s efforts to enforce the immigration laws? Exactly as one would suspect. The same is true of many libertarians. As Fonte concludes:

It is important to note that almost all of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement measures have been fought tooth and nail by progressives, by some libertarians and “conservatives,” and by elements of the administrative state, particularly an increasingly lawless judiciary. Never doubt for a moment that on this issue progressives and many libertarians are allies and that both of them are major adversaries of immigration law enforcement and, thus, of democratic sovereignty.

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