Thread: Amid immigration setbacks, one Trump strategy seems to be working: Fear

Amid immigration setbacks, one Trump strategy seems to be working: Fear

By David Nakamura
April 30 at 6:53 PM

In many ways, President Trump’s attempts to implement his hard-line immigration policies have not gone very well in his first three months. His travel ban aimed at some Muslim-majority countries has been blocked by the courts, his U.S.-Mexico border wall has gone nowhere in Congress, and he has retreated, at least for now, on his vow to target illegal immigrants brought here as children.

But one strategy that seems to be working well is fear. The number of migrants, legal and illegal, crossing into the United States has dropped markedly since Trump took office, while recent declines in the number of deportations have been reversed.

Many experts on both sides of the immigration debate attribute at least part of this shift to the use of sharp, unwelcoming rhetoric by Trump and his aides, as well as the administration’s showy use of enforcement raids and public spotlighting of crimes committed by immigrants. The tactics were aimed at sending a political message to those in the country illegally or those thinking about trying to come.

“The world is getting the message,” Trump said last week during a speech at the National Rifle Association leadership forum in Atlanta. “They know our border is no longer open to illegal immigration, and if they try to break in you’ll be caught and you’ll be returned to your home. You’re not staying any longer. If you keep coming back illegally after deportation, you’ll be arrested and prosecuted and put behind bars. Otherwise it will never end.”

The most vivid evidence that Trump’s tactics have had an effect has come at the southern border with Mexico, where the number of apprehensions made by Customs and Border Patrol agents plummeted from more than 40,000 per month at the end of 2016 to just 12,193 in March, according to federal data.

The beginning of the president’s term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media.

Immigrant rights advocates and restrictionist groups said there is little doubt that the Trump administration’s tough talk has had impact.

“The bottom line is that they have entirely changed the narrative around immigration,” said Doris Meissner, who served as the commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Clinton administration. “The result of that is that, yes, you can call it words and rhetoric, and it certainly is, but it is changing behavior. It is changing the way the United States is viewed around the world, as well as the way we’re talking about and reacting to immigration within the country.”

Experts emphasized that it is still early and that the initial success the administration has had in slashing illegal border crossings could be reversed if it fails to follow through on more aggressive enforcement actions that will require more than just rhetorical bombast.

Many of the other initiatives Trump has called for — including additional detention centers and thousands of new Border Patrol officers and immigration agents — are costly. Others, such as his vow to withhold federal funds from “sanctuary cities” that protect immigrants, are facing legal challenges.

Yet unlike areas such as trade, health care or foreign policy, where Trump has moderated his extreme campaign positions or failed to advance his agenda, the administration has systematically sought to check off the president’s immigration promises.

Most notably, Trump signed an executive order during his first week in office that, among other things, vastly expanded the pool of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants who are deemed priorities for deportation.

Deportations had fallen sharply in the final years of the Obama administration as the former president tightened enforcement guidelines to focus on hardened criminals. But under Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun to ramp up the number of immigrants who are being placed in removal proceedings.

Federal agents arrested 21,362 immigrants, mostly convicted criminals, from January through mid-March, compared with 16,104 during the same period last year, according to federal data. Arrests of immigrants with no criminal records more than doubled, to 5,441 in that period.

“This is the Trump era. Progress is being made daily, and it will continue,” declared Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has begun to reorganize the Justice Department to prosecute more immigration cases. “This will be the administration that fully enforces our nation’s immigration laws.”

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration levels, called Trump’s first few months a “mixed picture,” but he said the administration “has clearly made some progress.”

“The decline at the border is not something that happened on its own — it’s a reaction to concerns Trump is going to restore the enforcement of immigration laws,” Krikorian said. “It won’t last if that fear isn’t realized, but if it is, if Trump follows through, we’re likely to see a sustained reduction in border crossings.”

The question is how successfully the administration can translate the tougher talk into sustainable policies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.093009b47bb2

The fear of deportation and a clear and present threat of deportation based on aggressive deportation actions, no nonsense, rapid deportation, 2 questions, are you a citizen? y or no, do you have valid unexpired documents to be in the US? y or no, if no and no, then out you go. No appeals, no sob stories, just 2 simple questions and if no and no, then you're gone, right then, or as soon as ICE can make the travel and transport arrangements. And the whole family needs to be in there at the same time, so the whole family is deported as a single unit, no child or spouse left behind.

No more new detention centers! Deport them within 24 hours...out they go.

Start deporting the ones here on "temporary status", the Haitain's...the refugees from all over the World...get them out of here.

Off our welfare, food stamps, medical care, out of our housing and off our roads.

Stop this financial DRAIN on the backs of hard working US citizens.

There's some bad news with the budget. I just posted the article. The Continuing Resolution Omnnibus Bill cut Trump's request for additional ICE Agents. He may have gotten the money for the BP Agents for "border security", but zero new funding for more ICE Agents. This wasn't clear late last night based on some statements made by Nancy Pelosi bragging about not giving Trump any money for his "deportation force". So I watched the articles today and found the clarification in a Bloomberg article, that the Democrats cut the money for more ICE Agents as well as the wall.

These Democrats are all on the take with the drug cartels. There is absolutely no other explanation for authorizing another $1 trillion of spending with one of our most important problems being illegal immigration and even with another $1.5 billion for "border security", no money at all to increase the number of ICE agents to process illegal aliens out of the country.

Just wanted to let you all know.

The Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, isn't it about time they started acting like it?

Republicans don't control Congress because we don't control the Senate. To control the Senate you need 60 Senators that stick together, we only have 52 and they don't stick together.

Originally Posted by Judy

Republicans don't control Congress because we don't control the Senate. To control the Senate you need 60 Senators that stick together, we only have 52 and they don't stick together.

Republicans have a majority, which technically means they control it. Play all the word games you want, but there is no excuse for what has become their predictable acquiesce to the Dems. Same goes for the House.

IMO, Trump and the Republicans need to put up more of a fight for the American people. Time for them to buck up and stand their ground!

ryan, boehner, still the same- they follow their leader and it isn't trump.