New illegal immigration numbers reveal Trump’s incredible impact on the border

One of President Donald Trump’s central (and most controversial) campaign promises was to shut down the flow of immigrants illegally crossing into the United States, especially from Mexico. Newly released figures show Trump appears to be making good on his promise.

An analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that from February through May in 2016, 188,000 people were caught attempting to illegally enter the United States from Mexico. During the same period in 2017, only 76,000 were captured or deemed inadmissible, a decline of 59 percent.

In May alone, the number caught in 2017 was less than half (19,967) that recorded in 2016 (55,442), a truly remarkable turnaround considering Trump’s much-talked-about border wall has still yet to be financed by Congress.

“They’ve done more than any administration in the history of the world,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told the Daily Caller.

“So, I’m pretty happy that they’ve done so much in such a short period of time so it would really be difficult for me to criticize them on that issue because there’s no comparison with any other administration as far as how quickly and effectively they’ve approached the problem on many different fronts,” Paxton also said.

In May, Ronald Vitiello, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee the decline is due to Trump’s January executive orders mandating a shift in policy and resources on the border.

"As a result of the executive orders issued by the president, and the implementing policies issued by the secretary, as well as earlier policy changes and the significant investments we have made in border-enforcement personnel, technology, and infrastructure, we are seeing a historic shift in illegal crossings along the southwest border," Vitiello said, according to the Washington Examiner.