Despite claims that alleged increased enforcement has led to a decrease or at least a leveling off of illegal immigration, updated numbers from the Pew Hispanic Center show a rise in the illegal alien population from 11.3 million in 2009 to 11.7 million in 2012.
Landowners on the border won’t be surprised. They’ve been sounding alarms in Washington during the past two years that they’ve seen no abatement in illegal crossers on their properties. The new Pew numbers demonstrate that their testimony is not merely anecdotal.
Actions have consequences and the uptick in numbers is largely due to President Obama’s recent executive actions. Immigration enforcement has been eliminated for all but the most violent offenders, policy changes have granted stays of removal for broad classes of illegal aliens while local and state efforts to participate in immigration enforcement have been stymied at every turn by the Obama administration. The net result has been a nationwide sanctuary policy which incentivizes more illegal aliens to come and more to stay.
And while the Administration maintains that it removes nearly 400,000 illegal aliens every year, the new Pew numbers prove they’ve made no dent in the current illegal alien population.
This steady increase should silence calls from amnesty advocates – but will it? The reaction from the open borders lobby will be: See, we can’t stop people from coming to the U.S. so what’s the point in even trying?
Update:
Just as this blog was completed, the New York Times eagerly reported that the rising illegal alien population dashes “…the hopes of some lawmakers that tough enforcement could substantially reduce the numbers of illegal immigrants in the country…”
In reality, the population increase only highlights how effective the Obama Administration has been at dismantling immigration enforcement under the noses of a completely ineffective Congress.