The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is successfully undoing the damage caused by former President Joe Biden’s open border policies. But a fatal car crash in Florida suggests more must still be done.
According to the best analysis of Census data by the Center for Immigration Studies, the illegal immigrant population in the United States grew by 5.4 million, from 10 million to 15.4 million, during Biden’s four years in office. This unprecedented surge was completely caused by Biden’s catch-and-release policies at the southern border.
On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump promised to deport “between 15 million and 20 million people” if elected, a fantastic sum every bit as unprecedented as Biden’s illegal immigrant surge. We will not have hard deportation numbers until December, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement issues its annual report. But using the same monthly Census numbers it used to estimate the size of Biden’s illegal immigrant surge, the Center for Immigration Studies now estimates that through July of this year, the illegal immigrant population has already fallen by 1.6 million. Over a full year, that would mean 3 million fewer illegal immigrants, and over four years, it would add up to 12 million fewer illegal immigrants in the country. Extrapolating far out from a short time period of six months is unlikely to be accurate — present trends do not continue indefinitely — but the exodus of people who should not be here is encouraging.
No one except maybe Trump and White House Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller expects the current pace of illegal immigrant departures to continue. And to be clear, the Center for Immigration Studies is not saying the Trump administration has deported 1.6 million people. Many of the illegal immigrants are self-deporting and therefore will not appear in any government data. But self-deportation is even better than forced deportation. No matter how they are leaving, they are leaving, helping Trump deliver on one of the biggest promises of his campaign.
But as much success as Trump has had, he continues to be undermined by Democratic Party officials, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL). They are determined to do everything in their power to help as many illegal immigrants as possible stay in the U.S. That is why so many Democrat-controlled states have not cooperated with federal law enforcement on immigration, used federal tax dollars to provide illegal immigrants with free healthcare, used state tax dollars to send illegal immigrants to college, and issued driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
And it is because of those driver’s licenses that three Floridians died.
Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant who crossed the southern border from Mexico in 2018 before Trump implemented his “Remain in Mexico” policy, was driving a semitruck on the Florida Turnpike north of Palm Beach when he made an illegal U-turn, killing three people in a minivan. Singh was operating the vehicle legally with a commercial driver’s license issued by Newsom’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
Newsom tried to blame the crash on Trump, saying Singh was issued a work permit in 2020. But the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Trump first denied Singh his work permit before a far more lenient Biden administration granted it to him in June 2021. Newsom’s DMV then issued Singh a commercial driver’s license.
“Doesn’t even speak English,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said of the crash. “Sanctuary policies are deadly.”
Sanctuary policies are indeed deadly, especially when they enable illegal immigrants to endanger communities beyond the ones that offer them sanctuary. It is one thing for California, Illinois, and New York to give illegal immigrants amnesty lite in the form of free housing, healthcare, and food. But to give them driver’s licenses, which grant them the privilege of driving in other states, is even worse.
Whether through existing law and regulations or working with Congress, the Trump administration must ensure that illegal immigrants given driver’s licenses in sanctuary states are not allowed to drive in communities that offer them no sanctuary. Immigration is a federal matter. The governor of California should not be allowed to endanger Florida residents with illegal immigrant drivers, even if he is running for president.