The cornerstone of the Trump administration has been the deportation of illegal immigrants, the closing of the border, and the quelling of legal immigration through various methods. The gameplan has been to get what has been an unmitigated disaster under control. It has been tough sledding, but progress it being made. The administration has been deporting by the plane load and asylum claims are being closely scrutinized in ways they never have been.
All of it has been for the better, filling up the "Make America Great Again" glass about halfway. But there it a little bit of an issue still and that is visas. People in Texas especially know about the issues of overstayed visas and the insane number of issued visas to foreigners. Things are going down though, as visa approvals dropped 11-percent in 2025 compared to 2024.
Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies says there is a good reason for that.
"The reason admissions have gone down is not a change in the law, rather a change in the way the law is being enforced," he says.
Enforcement is the key word. For decades now, we have not really enforced any rules for immigration. We have rolled out the welcome mat and told people to come in without properly vetting them. Now, we have a situation where tens of millions of immigrants are in the country, and we have no idea whom they might be.
"There are all kinds of requirements now being enforced that were not being enforced before," says Krikorian. "So, it is not so much the numbers have gone down, it is that the numbers were inappropriately high to begin with and are now more where they should be."
The recent data from the Washington Post showed no drop in temporary workers for employers, who mostly migrants with temporary H-1B, H-2A, or H-2B visas and work permits. Most of them either come here, leech off our backs, then go home, or stay here illegally. Very few times is there a middle ground.
Enforcing the law is working to an extent now, but that will only be enforced so long as President Trump is on office. If Democrats take hold, they will just reverse anything productive Trump has done on immigration, and we will be right back to allowing incompatible people into our country.
So, while the application of law is good, the only true fix to this situation is changing the law. But that means relying on Congress, which is about as useful as the Kardashians.
"The executive branch can only do so much...the job of Congress is to write the law...which we have not seen a lot of lately, they cannot even fund TSA," Krikorian says.
He adds we need enduring reforms that cannot be reverse in an exchange of power.
Trump is working is best to fill up the "Make America Great Again" glass. But for now, it remains half full and needs Congress to do their jobs to make it full again. Before it is too late.
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