EDITORIAL: ‘Staggering’ progress on our southern border

Despite pandering Democrats touting open borders in hopes of gaining Hispanic support, polls show most Americans believe it would be wise to slow the tide of illegal crossings at our southern border. In that regard, the progress made by President Donald Trump cannot be denied.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced last month that 42,649 people were either apprehended or sought asylum along the country’s border with Mexico in November. That’s a 75 percent drop from May, when the number was more than 144,000, and the sixth consecutive month of decline.

“The Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies have dramatically slowed migration across the southern border,” The Wall Street Journal noted this week. One customs official told the Washington Examiner that the numbers are “staggering in a very positive way.”

It’s worth noting that this improvement has occurred as the U.S. economy is thriving and unemployment is at record lows — conditions that might normally spur an uptick in illegal crossings.

Among the policies that have triggered the decline: Asylum seekers, many from Central America, must wait in Mexico while their cases are adjudicated, and the administration has placed limits on how many cases may be heard each day. Another major deterrent is the increased Mexican federal police presence at the border that came in response to Mr. Trump’s loud complaints about the country’s inaction.

And then there’s the “big, beautiful wall,” now more a symbol of the illegal immigration debate than a solution. While reasonable people can disagree on the wisdom and feasibility of constructing a barrier along the entire 1,954 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border, the Trump administration has proceeded with construction on the project in limited areas.

“It does pose a more significant hurdle than the barbed wire or the 3-foot vehicle barriers it is often replacing,” the Journal reported. While that may give pause to those seeking the path of least resistance, the structure’s primary significance has been to reroute migrants rather than to stop them.

“We are trying to drive that illegal crossing to areas that the Border Patrol can better position Border Patrol officers in,” Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told the newspaper.

Mr. Trump has come under fierce criticism from progressives, and even been called a racist, for his efforts to discourage migrants from entering the country illegally. But the president’s pressure on Mexico and other administration policies have yielded concrete results on an issue that he made a priority during his run for office in 2016. If Mr. Trump can sustain this progress over the coming months, he adds another potential winning campaign plank as the 2020 election approaches.