There has been a remarkable decline in illegal border crossings from Mexico to the United States since Donald Trump took office, according to National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, who appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Monday.
“We attribute that to actually enforcing the law,” Judd said.
It is making big news except in the mainstream press, where the obsession with Russia appears to be continuing.
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The Washington Examiner reported that Judd, in a separate interview with Fox News, said, “There’s a vibe, there’s an energy in the Border Patrol that’s never been there before in 20 years that I’ve been in the patrol.”
Stemming the tide of illegal immigration along the southern border was a large part of Trump’s campaign, and it appears to be paying off.
“As far as the Trump administration’s efforts on immigration, this is something they campaigned heavily on. At six months, where we are on meeting those promises, we are seeing nothing short of miraculous. If you look at the rhetoric that President Trump has given, it has caused a number of illegal border crossings to go down. We have never seen such a drop that we currently have.”—Brandon Judd, president National Border Patrol Council
Under the previous administration, the southern border seemed like a sieve, with people pouring across and heading north. That was then, this is now.
Earlier this year, the Washington Times reported that illegal immigration was “down a stunning 76 percent since President Trump was elected, with the flow of children and families dropping even faster as analysts say the administration’s commitment to enforcing the law has changed the reality along the border.”
In May, the Washington Examiner noted that there had been “a huge crop in arrests along the Southwest border.” The newspaper quoted U.S. Customs and Border Protection asserting that this was “a likely result of president Trump’s aggressive effort to stop illegals from entering the nation and deport those with criminal records.”
There has been trouble along the southern border for many years, with some remote stretches showing a fair amount of activity, keeping the Border Patrol busy.
It was one enforcement effort in December 2010 that led to the infamous gun battle resulting in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. That slaying blew the lid off of an Obama administration scandal surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, a gun smuggling sting that went bad for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Border security is more than just smuggling firearms or even drugs. With international terrorism a constant threat, there have been concerns that terrorists might be able to enter the country illegally through Mexico.
