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The first year of President Trump’s second term is coming to an end, and it’s been a busy one—especially when it comes to immigration. We’ve seen over 600,000 illegal aliens deported since January, and that’s just the start.
On top of deportations by the administration, even more illegal aliens have left the country voluntarily. According to Andrew Arthur with the Center for Immigration Studies: “Anywhere between 1.5 and 1.9 million other aliens have departed from the United States since Donald Trump took office.”
In total, that’s over 2.5 million illegal aliens, out of what the Center for Immigration Studies estimates is roughly 15 million illegal aliens in total. Arthur says it will make a huge difference next year. “It positions the federal government to get a better handle on who is here, to sort out who poses the greatest risk, and to remove them from the country,” he explained.
Arthur also highlighted some reforms to the legal immigration system that the Trump administration and members of the congressional GOP could attempt next year. “There are some fixes that could be made in the asylum system to make it less vulnerable to fraud,” he explained.
Other than that, however, Arthur believes the systems that are in place right now should work just fine—especially when you consider the funding they’ve received from Congress this year.