How to Solve the Immigration Crisis

The American people elected Donald Trump to solve the illegal immigration crisis. If he wants to succeed, the president should push for congressional action that would complement his executive moves—and he should do so soon.

To be sure, Trump has already taken important steps to close the southern border, such as directing immigration officials to hold, rather than release, illegal aliens after apprehension. That’s a common-sense policy that makes foreigners think twice before sneaking into America. As a result, border crossings have plummeted to lows not seen this century. In the San Diego area, border patrol agents are making between 30 and 40 arrests per day—down from 1,200 this time last year. 

But for immigration hardliners, the pace of deportations has been disappointing, especially given the enormous scale of illegal immigration under President Joe Biden. Trump, in the first six weeks of his second administration, removed 661 aliens per day on average, according to government data collected by TRAC, a nonpartisan group. That would be an 11 percent decrease compared to the final year of the Biden administration. If those numbers are accurate, then the president is projected to remove only about a million people in his second term, assuming deportations don’t ramp up—a measly one-fifteenth of America’s population of illegal aliens. And according to TRAC, the pace of deportations hasn’t increased in recent weeks. It’s slowed down.

The president isn’t entirely to blame for the apparent decline in removals, and indeed, Trump’s success in sealing the border is one major reason deportations may have slowed since 2024. It’s easier to turn away illegal aliens at the border than to find those already in the country’s interior.

But another, more fundamental reason that Trump’s deportation program remains inadequate is this: On immigration, as on other issues, Trump’s second term has featured a blizzard of executive actions but has lacked a robust legislative agenda. To increase the pace of deportations, incentivize self-deportations, disincentivize new entries, avoid judicial injunctions, and ensure that these immigration wins aren’t easily reversed by a future Democratic president, the White House needs Congress to do its job: pass laws.

The passivity of Congress has been a conspicuous feature of Trump’s second term, and one that may be to the president’s liking. Since his inauguration in January, Trump has sought to create the sense of an energetic unitary executive capable of restoring American greatness through acts of personal will. But on immigration, maintaining this impression has been challenging, and Trump has projected strength by pursuing high-profile deportations. 

Last month, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to mass-deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a brutal Venezuelan gang whose “activities” Wikipedia lists as murder, human-trafficking, forced prostitution, and kidnappings-for-ransom, among other nefarious crimes. While sending suspected gang members to El Salvador’s most notorious mega-prison, as Trump has done, is ethically dubious, illegal aliens are surely getting the right message: Leave our country or risk a one-way trip to a place much worse than whence you came. Given the difficulties of forcibly removing millions of illegal aliens from America’s interior, such a spur may be necessary.

Other splashy deportations will likely prove less effective, and they seem harder to justify on America-First principles. Most notably, the administration is targeting foreign-born university students who have protested against Israel, revoking their visas on grounds that, by fomenting anti-semitism, they undermine U.S. foreign policy interests. Unlike the Tren de Aragua deportations, this policy is unlikely to help solve America’s illegal immigration problem.

Nevertheless, even the shock-and-awe deportations of alleged gang members won’t cut it, not after 5.4 million illegal aliens entered the country under Biden. To locate and deport millions of foreign interlopers, the White House needs Congress to step up.

Perhaps the most consequential action that Congress can take is also the most straightforward: fund Trump’s deportation program. Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies told me in an interview that Trump already has the authority to crack down on illegal immigration but that his administration needs additional resources that only Congress can provide. “Really, what they need is cash,” Arthur explained. “And I can even quantify it for you. They need $185 billion in cash.” He said the money is needed to hire additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and attorneys, build more detention space, and fix the problem of under-funded immigration courts.

Congress could also find creative ways to help Trump fulfill a key promise from the 2016 election. “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall,” Trump announced in June 2015, apparently to the surprise of his own campaign team. Congress could tax remittances to Mexico—the second-largest recipient of such monies after India—and use the funds to defray the cost of building a wall.

Additionally, it could pass a law clarifying the scope of the 14th Amendment, whose citizenship clause has been misinterpreted as guaranteeing birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens. Trump signed an executive order ending the absurdity of universal birthright citizenship, but federal judges blocked the move and the Supreme Court will likely adjudicate it. Trump’s order will stand a better chance of passing judicial muster if Congress codifies the legal interpretation it offered.

Congress might also consider mandating that all American businesses use E-Verify, a program that lets employers check the eligibility of workers and applicants. Mitt Romney, when he ran for president in 2012, floated a nation-wide E-Verify mandate to incentivize self-deportation, but the policy has fallen out of favor because of pushback by business interests. Some experts argue that Trump could implement E-Verify through executive action, but a mandate may carry more legitimacy and attract broader compliance if Congress makes it law. Arthur told me, “If you have a mandatory E-Verify program, it’s game over for illegal immigration in the United States.”

Republicans in Congress who intend to help solve the illegal immigration crisis had better act fast. The GOP may lose the House, if not also the Senate, in 2026—and it might not again control both the White House and Congress for many years. 

Of course, the Democrats would try to stymie efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. But roll call votes for the Laken Riley Act, the only major bill that the current Congress has passed, point to cracks in the party over immigration. The law requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal aliens who may have committed theft and other crimes, and 12 Democrats in the Senate and 46 in the House supported it over objections from human rights organizations.

Clearly, many Democrats understand that the issue of illegal immigration plays poorly for them. Republicans should seize the advantage—and the fleeting opportunity to give the American homeland back to the American people.