Illegal Immigration Is Going Down? Actually, It’s Not

July 11, 2024

By Dale Wilcox

Weeks after the Biden Administration issued an executive order on border policy, the White House is taking a victory lap, claiming it has solved a crisis of its own making.

Last month, the administration took executive action to close the border once a threshold of 2,500 illegal crossings a day is reached, while at the same time carving out broad exceptions for illegal alien children. Border statistics for the month of June did indeed show a significant drop in illegal crossings, down to 84,000, a number that is still way too high.

The White House celebrated this new marker on social media, claiming that they have delivered “real results” when it comes to reducing illegal immigration. However, the true measure of success when it comes to reducing illegal immigration is lowering not the number of illegal border crossings, but the number of illegal aliens present in the U.S.

Since the Biden Administration assumed office in January 2021, more than 10 million illegal aliens have entered the country, and there is nothing to suggest the administration has any interest in reducing that staggering number. To the contrary, the executive branch appears much more focused on resettlement for illegal aliens than deportation.

According to a recent study from the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, nearly 99 percent of illegal aliens are living freely in the U.S., unmonitored by the Department of Homeland Security. The administration has also been flying previously deported illegal aliens back into the U.S., according to a report earlier this month from The Washington Free Beacon. Despite rhetorical shifts, it’s clear the Biden Administration has not at all deviated from its plans to use illegal immigration to reshape the U.S. Any reduction in illegal crossings is nullified by the administration’s continued efforts to resettle large numbers of illegal aliens into the country at the expense of American taxpayers.

While we don’t know for sure just how many illegal aliens currently live in the U.S., the number is likely around 30-40 million people. The presence of this many people in the country illegally has always been at the heart of our immigration crisis, more so than anything that occurs at the border. This is not to downplay the significance of border security, nor to argue that reducing illegal crossings is not important. They are. But, the only long-term solution to immigration lawlessness is mass deportations.

Even the most liberal politicians are willing to offer lip service in favor of border security, but the true test of whether someone is willing to do what’s necessary to restore America’s sovereignty is if they are willing to demand the removal of the tens of millions of people who have violated our laws and entered our country illegally. On this matter, the Biden Administration has continued to go in the wrong direction.

On its very first day in office, the administration submitted a legislative proposal to Congress which would grant amnesty to all illegal aliens living in the country through a pathway to citizenship. While this proposal never came close to becoming law, the White House has abused its authority by creating a series of executive amnesties for foreign nationals, many of whom are in the country illegally.

Most notably, the administration unveiled a DACA-style amnesty for illegal alien spouses of American citizens, allowing them to obtain green cards, work permits, and ultimately a pathway to citizenship. This program is ripe for abuse, and experts have warned that it will lead to an explosion of marriage fraud. There is also the recently announced extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for foreign nationals from Yemen, creating a “temporary” amnesty for thousands of Yemeni nationals. Additionally, the administration also took action last month to allow 100,000 illegal migrants to enter the white-collar workforce, further shafting American workers already struggling under difficult economic conditions. This is to say nothing of the ways the White House has spent the past three years abusing its parole authority to import countless illegal aliens into the country.

Artificially reducing illegal border crossings to provide political cover for a series of executive amnesties is the latest cynical move by this administration in its attempt to deceive Americans about the economic, cultural, and national security threats posed by illegal immigration. If the tens of millions of illegal aliens living in the U.S. are allowed to remain here, and also rewarded with giveaways and pathways to citizenship, while illegal border crossings decline, that means illegal immigration is still increasing, not decreasing.

The only way to reduce illegal immigration is to begin the process of removing the countless number of foreign nationals in the country illegally. Instead, this administration continues to do the opposite.

Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.

Also published at AMAC, July 11, 2024.