So Illegal Immigration Isn’t Inevitable After All? Who Knew?

By Mark Krikorian on May 29, 2015

[This is the start of a piece by me posted today at National Review.]

Thursday's Washington Post front page featured a story on the decline in illegal immigration. The story itself isn't news (my colleagues did their first report on this phenomenon seven years ago), but the story's dead-tree subhead explains the timing: "Trend alters dynamics of immigration reform, a likely topic for 2016."

A spokesman for the Maryland-based anti-borders group CASA was quoted as saying, "These trends have reshaped the immigration debate right before our eyes."

Translation: "Stop blocking amnesty and increased immigration, you troglodyte Rethuglikans!"

Several observations:

Enforcement works. Not all the money we've spent over the past two decades in beefing up the border has been wasted. We have nearly doubled the number of Border Patrol agents we had a decade ago (though there are still fewer agents in the entire Border Patrol than officers in the NYPD). Technology is improved and fencing, while still inadequate in many places, really does make it harder to sneak in through formerly busy areas.

The Post story quotes a Mexican illegal alien in Baltimore whose uncle wanted to come, too:

Three years ago, her uncle tried to cross the border and join the family in Baltimore, where they remain illegal immigrants. He was stopped three times by the U.S. Border Patrol and jailed for 50 days.

"He doesn't want to try anymore," said Camacho-Perez. "Now, it's really hard."

Read the rest.