Trump Saves Lives At the Border

We are a few days late with this, but it bears repeating if you haven’t already seen it: deaths at the U.S.’s Southern border have declined during the Trump administration:

Several Democratic presidential candidates tweeted their outrage. Senator Kamala Harris, tweeted: “Trump says, ‘Go back to where you came from.’ That is inhumane. Children are dying. This is a stain on our moral conscience.” Beto O’Rourke tweeted: “Trump is responsible for these deaths.” Senator Cory Booker, tweeted: “These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s inhumane and immoral immigration policy.”
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But the reality is that deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border decreased after Donald Trump became president, according to data from the United States Border Patrol. During the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years they averaged 291 per year, down from 372 during the Obama/Biden administration and 382 under Bush.

This is due, at least in part, to the fact that there are not as many attempted illegal border crossings as there were under Bush and Obama–another policy success for Trump. The reality is that trekking the length of Mexico and trying to enter the U.S. (or any other country) illegally is risky in a number of ways. The more we can discourage people from making the attempt, the better.

It’s funny, though–I don’t remember a single news story about the larger number of deaths of would-be illegal immigrants during the Obama administration. Do you?

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