Saunders: More wonder if border wall, more agents really needed

Reporters also frequently ask whether building a wall is a smart use of taxpayer dollars given that illegal immigration crossings are down. Ditto for Trump’s plan to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as well as 5,000 Border Patrol agents.

Those are questions even people who want to boost enforcement against illegal immigration have been asking.

The spurt in unauthorized immigration reached a high of 12.2 million in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center. During President Barack Obama’s tenure, the number sagged from 11.3 million in 2009 to 11 million in 2015.

That is, the number of unauthorized immigrants fell even as the president argued for laws that set a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants and signed executive orders that authorized them to live and work in the United States.

After the election, Trump wavered on his pledge to revoke Obama’s executive order that shielded some individuals brought into the U.S. as the minor children of undocumented immigrants. But Trump never stopped pushing for his “big, beautiful” wall or his plans to boost enforcement.

It’s no wonder then that the Border Patrol has apprehended markedly fewer individuals trying to cross the border illegally. By focusing on enforcement beyond the border, the Trump plan reduces the incentive for immigrants to come to the United States without authorization.

“Individuals who once thought that if they could get by the Border Patrol or get smuggled in and not apprehended they were home free, that is no longer the case,” an administration official said. “An individual who crosses the border illegally and gets past the Border Patrol should no longer feel secure that they’re immune from any future enforcement.”

Enforcement is necessary

So does that mean Trump should abandon his pricey plan to hire more staff for ICE and the Border Patrol?

Don’t expect knee-jerk support for the Trump hires from Mark Krikorian, executive director of the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies. When governments decide to hire too many cops too quickly, they sometimes drop their standards, he warned.

An administration official who spoke on background during a Tuesday press call argued that immigration enforcement has been historically understaffed for its oversize job, so the new positions should be filled. Krikorian also sees the value in using new employees to bury a backlog of nearly 1 million cases that developed during years of chronic understaffing.

And the wall itself? Officials note that authorities expanded the border fence in 2006 from 5.2 miles to 63 miles and border apprehensions fell by 83 percent. Krikorian never was a big enthusiast of the fence promise.

“I’m not averse in principle to additional barriers along the border,” he said. “I just don’t necessarily think it’s job one.”

Of course, Krikorian warned, the Trump effect can discourage illegal immigration only as long as the rest of the world believes Trump will ride enforcement hard. Words alone cannot do the trick.