The ICEman Cometh

The context in which to view President Trump’s decision to delay by two weeks enforcement raids by ICE is the dramatic plunge in the numbers of deportations during the Trump era. He may have been elected on a campaign to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it. What a drop-off, though, in the actual numbers of deportations from those racked up during President Obama’s time in office.This was encapsulated in a dispatch issued Friday by Axios. “Trump isn’t matching Obama deportation numbers,” is the headline Axios put over its story, by S.W. Kight and Alayna Treene. They report that Axios obtained “new internal” Homeland Security figures showing that this year ICE has deported more immigrants than any fiscal year in the Trump presidency.“Yet,” they disclose, ICE under Mr. Trump “has yet to reach Barack Obama’s early deportation levels. They reckon that the numbers put Mr. Trump’s “deportations in perspective” and shows “the reality behind the anti-immigrant pledges that have come to define his presidency.” We would add that it takes the wind out of the charges the Democrats have been leveling against Mr. Trump.Under President Obama, Axio reports, “total ICE deportations were above 385,000 each year in fiscal years 2009-2011, and hit a high of 409,849 in fiscal 2012. The numbers dropped to below 250,000 in fiscal years 2015 and 2016.” Then, under Mr. Trump, ICE deportations fell to 226,119 in fiscal 2017, then ticked up to over 250,000 in fiscal 2018.” So far this fiscal year, it’s at 282,242.In other words, all the talk about how racist and xenophobic and tyrannical Mr. Trump is turning out to be — not to put too fine a point on it — unsupported in the numbers. When asked Sunday by Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press” about high immigration, Mr. Trump boasted of it: “People are coming up because our economy is so good. They’re pouring up because the economy is so good.”This phenomenon was marked in one of the most famous immigration speeches ever delivered in the Congress — and by, no less, a socialist, Meyer London of New York. “The extraordinary and unprecedented growth of the United States is as much a cause as the effect of immigration,” he said in 1921 during an earlier debate in respect of immigration.For our part, the Sun has been making the point since we emerged as one of the few, if modest, mainstream voices to endorse Mr. Trump for president. “Mr. Trump’s tax cuts and deregulation,” we said then, “are more likely to produce, on a net basis, the economic growth and jobs that are the only humane answer to our immigration ‘problem.’”Not that anyone lacks for work on this head. Mr. Trump’s agreement to a delay in beginning deportations of 2,000 already adjudicated cases is apparently to give Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues time to come to terms with this issue and see if they are prepared to make an agreement. Let’s see if Congress can write better laws than those it once passed and now complains are being enforced.

The ICEman Cometh

The ICEman Cometh

More from the New York Sun

Trump and Mamdani To Parley at Gracie Mansion Ahead of UN General Assembly Meeting

House Democrats Begin To Believe in a ‘Blue Tsunami’ as Senate Polls Show Tight Races in Traditionally Red, Swing States

The Best Place To Get Away From Detroit Is Detroit

New California Law Aims To Prevent Trump Allies From Deploying Guardsmen Into State

Angelina Jolie’s ‘Without Blood’ Fights On, Largely Unseen

Trump Arch To Act as Drone Warehouse, Military Installation

The Human Brain Is Actually Two Separate Organs, Stanford Study Finds

What’s Weird and Wonderful?

More from the New York Sun

Trump and Mamdani To Parley at Gracie Mansion Ahead of UN General Assembly Meeting

House Democrats Begin To Believe in a ‘Blue Tsunami’ as Senate Polls Show Tight Races in Traditionally Red, Swing States

The Best Place To Get Away From Detroit Is Detroit

New California Law Aims To Prevent Trump Allies From Deploying Guardsmen Into State

Angelina Jolie’s ‘Without Blood’ Fights On, Largely Unseen

Trump Arch To Act as Drone Warehouse, Military Installation

The Human Brain Is Actually Two Separate Organs, Stanford Study Finds

What’s Weird and Wonderful?