Comment: Yes, this is from a pro-Trump, right-wing source, but let's hear them out and see if their evidence holds up.
While political infighting has slowed progress, it hasn't stopped the president completely. One of his biggest successes has been in border security, and with that success, we have been able to see how a curb on illegal immigration impacts the country as a whole.
Hold your breath because you are in for a shocker: the liberals were wrong again.
Trump's Immigration Success
So far, the only major change in immigration between Trump and former President Barack Obama is that Trump allows police agencies to do their jobs. The laws themselves are unchanged, yet in six months Trump has ushered unparalleled success in curbing illegal immigration.
As of July, unauthorized border crossings across the country are down by 53 percent. The overall reduction in illegal immigration is probably less than that number, but there is no questioning the fact that the trend is headed in a positive direction for the first time in more than 30 years.
Comment: We couldn't find supporting evidence for this 53% figure, but it is established that by April illegal immigration to the US was at its lowest in 17 years.
While the left decries the inhumanity of ICE crackdowns, California has already reported a 25-percent drop in rape and a 10-percent drop in domestic violence.
Let's say that again. The largest state in the union has enjoyed a 25-percent reduction in rape and a 10-percent reduction in domestic violence when border protection agencies were finally allowed to do their jobs. But, the good news doesn't stop here.
Comment: Not quite. Los Angeles Police Department has reported those figures (25% & 10%) as drops in reported crimes among the city's Hispanic population only. Similar (and even higher) drops in reported crimes among Hispanic populations have been published for other cities across the US.
The mainstream view is that this is because Hispanics (illegals, presumably, not citizens) are frightened of Trump's stance on illegal immigration, so they're not reporting crimes they witness because they risk being booted out of the country by ICE and other enforcement agencies.
But what if these drops are at least partially due to actual crimes - usually committed by the criminally-inclined among Hispanic illegals - dropping because the government is indicating that it is cracking down on illegal immigration? If that is the case, then Trump's policy is working.
A Thriving Sector
Texas is also enjoying large benefits stemming from border security. At the start of 2017, roughly half of all construction workers in the state were undocumented. By mid-summer, that number dropped significantly. What was the result, construction wages have risen by just over 30 percent, and the housing market has instantly snapped back to healthy growth.
Comment: This does appear to be the case, though even 'pro-Trump' Fox News, representative as it is of the globalist neo-liberal ideology, presents this as a negative development; a 30% increase in 'costs' for big business. This has in no way slowed down Texas' housing (and overall) economic boom.
And it's not just Fox; almost every local and mainstream media outlet is painting this as a 'terrible' labor shortage, not-too-subtly suggesting that US citizens are either too lazy to work construction jobs or simply 'unqualified'...
It's an easy concept. When you remove half of a labor pool that is willing to work under their market value and tax free, you undercut wages for the whole industry. When underhanded options are removed, markets self-correct and everyone wins. Construction in Texas is a specific example of a market abnormally affected by immigration, but it helps us analyze the bigger picture.
The National Scale
July saw the best national wage growth in several years. This is the result of the incredibly complicated monster that is our economy, but there is a strong correlation that cannot be ignored.
Comment: Officially, US job growth surged in July, but it's not clear that that translated to significant wage growth. Officially, unemployment is currently at a low not seen since 2001, but if that is truly the case, then wages should be increasing. They don't appear to be, at least not across the board.
A sudden drop in illegal immigration across the country created a number of micro situations like Texas construction, and the result has been a widespread rise in wages for bottom quintile earners. Interestingly enough, tax revenue also rose slightly as a byproduct of wage growth and income reporting.
Now, dissenters will try to credit all of the wage growth to minimum wage increases around the country, but those have been in play for the past two years without achieving what we saw in July. More to the point, overall minimum wage growth was smaller in July than previous months.
This wage growth really is a natural market correction that is possible because, even if only a little, the country is closer to functioning correctly.
Moving Forward
The statistics so far are encouraging to the point of exceeding all expectations. Trump has noticed, and he is willing to double down on his commitment to fix immigration.
Currently, talks are centered around the RAISE act. The parts of it that pertain to legal immigration qualifications will probably be heavily revised, but the plan of action towards illegal immigration is likely to pass a Republican Congress. These changes are expected to drop border crossings by an additional 41 percent, and the current trends suggest that this will have a near magical impact on the American economy, national crime levels and general well-being for the country.
Now that we have finally enforced our own laws, we have tangible data on their effectiveness. We can no longer deny that illegal immigration is actively hurting our people. The left claims that undocumented workers take jobs that no one else wants. We now have proof that this isn't true. They really are stealing jobs by undercutting labor values, and the impact of that dishonesty resonates throughout our economy.
While the majority of immigrants are not violent criminals, they are still disproportionately represented in criminal activity. California gives us unquestionable proof.
It's time to take our heads out of the sand and acknowledge the full depth of this problem so we can resolve it peacefully and efficiently.
Comment: So the answer may be 'yes'; increased border security correlates with fewer crimes and higher wages. At the very least, we have a correlation of the official unemployment rate and the official illegal immigration rate both being at their lowest in 17 years. Which takes us back to just before 9/11, which is curious in itself.
The problem with sorting a signal from the noise is that statisticians, economists, analysts, etc are ideologically-indoctrinated against drawing such conclusions, so even the raw data is likely skewed.
Even the MSM agrees that the US economy has 'perked up' since Trump took office. Will this translate to real wage growth and secure employment in (real) jobs for US citizens? That remains to be seen. The powers ranged against Trump are not above hurting the US economy just to hurt the public's perception of him.