The Inconvenient Truth at the Center of the Immigration Debate
Despite Trump’s concession in yesterday’s 60 Minutes interview that his administration’s handling of immigration was “too tough,” his elevation of the anti-immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as his chief of staff suggests that this trend will continue.
- [ From the November 2026 issue: The babies left behind in America ] In reality, the United States’ inability to promptly remove those who lack a legal basis to remain in the country has been the driving force behind every major surge in illegal immigration since the Obama administration.
- As a result, more than 80 percent of people who claimed asylum at the border from 2014 to 2019 were released into the country, yet immigration judges ultimately granted asylum in less than a fifth of these cases.
- At the time, advocacy groups persuaded senior officials and key members of Congress to focus on the root causes of illegal immigration—such as violence, corruption, and political instability in other countries—instead of tackling the incentives in the asylum system that encouraged migrants to come here.
Yet on the left, the ACLU and other immigration advocates continue to argue that enforcement at the border, including restrictions on asylum eligibility, do not prevent or deter illegal immigration; they simply create pent-up demand and encourage migrants to attempt more dangerous routes.
- I have been working on border and immigration policy for more than 20 years, serving in senior roles at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security as well as Senate staff.
- Immigration advocates who deplore the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics have an obligation to propose realistic, constructive alternatives.
- Again and again, the loudest and most extreme voices have set the immigration agenda for each party, to the detriment of the country.
- I have seen, up close, surges in illegal immigration under both Democratic and Republican presidents.
- But the ACLU instead recycles arguments that immigration advocates have made for decades.
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