President Trump Reduced Legal Immigration. He Did Not Reduce Illegal Immigration

Alex NowrastehPresident Trump entered the White House with the goal of reducing legal immigration by63 percent. Trump was wildly successful in reducing legal immigration. By November 2020, the Trump administration reduced the number of green cards issued to people abroad by at least 418,453 and the number of non ‐​immigrant visas by at least 11,178,668 during his first term through November 2020. President Trump also entered the White House with the goal of eliminating illegal immigration but Trump oversaw a virtual collapse in interior immigration enforcement and the stabilization of the illegal immig rant population. Thus, Trump succeeded in reduce legal immigration and failed to eliminate illegal immigration.Figure 1  shows the monthly number of green cards issued to immigrants outside of the United States. In most years, about half of all green cards are issued to immigrants who already reside in the United States on another visa. Thus, the number of green cards issued to immigrants abroad is a better metric of the annual inflow of lawful permanent residents than the total number issues. Trump cut the average number of monthly green cards issued by 18.2 percent relative to Obama’s second term, but that average monthly decline hides the virtual end of legal immigration from April 2020 onward.In response to the recession and the COVID-19 outbreak, President Trump virtually ended the issuance of green cards to people abroad. In the last 6  months of the 2020 fiscal...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs