Kerby Anderson

Steven Camarota concludes that “Illegal Immigration Can be Controlled.” For the last two decades or so, we have been told that immigration is like the weather. It can’t be controlled, so you might as well get used to it. In fact, that was the title of a 2023 New York Times op-ed “Biden Can’t Stop Immigration. Time to Embrace It.”

As even the mainstream press will admit, that turned out to be false. We are not even a full year into the Trump administration, and border encounters are down 93 percent. Apparently, you can control illegal immigration if you are willing to enforce the law.

Now that this country is enforcing the border and deporting criminal aliens, how many have left this country? The answer to that question will surprise just about everyone. He estimates that between January and May of this year, the illegal immigration population declined by one million.

But a small fraction of that have been deported. That means that most of the reduction came from voluntary emigration, or what most of us would call “self-deportation.” You might remember the ridicule that Trump and other candidates received when they suggested that once deportation proceedings began, many illegal immigrants would self-deport.

The actual number suggests that about 750,000 immigrants went home, and about 300,000 have died. Hence, the illegal immigration population declined by about one million.

His article also reminds us that under the Biden administration at least 5 million illegal immigrants were released at the border or flown into the country. And there were more than 2 million “got-aways” at the border who were spotted but not apprehended.

These statistics illustrate that illegal immigration is controllable, and voluntary emigration or self-deportation is taking place and will continue.