The State of Immigration Enforcement . . . but what are President Trump's plans to reform the whole immigration system? 
Dear John, Tuesday night, Pres. Trump ran through a long list of his border and interior enforcement accomplishments. Taken together, those accomplishments are solid and encouraging. Real progress has been made. And yet, the President said little about the massive immigration bill his son-in-law Jared Kushner has been drafting for the past year. The most important immigration news is not where we've been, or even where we are, but rather where we are going. (More on that below. ) I felt hopeful about his future direction on immigration by what he did NOT say. He did NOT claim we had a worker shortage, as he had in a recent interview with Laura Ingraham. He did NOT state he wanted to increase legal immigration to the greatest numbers ever, as he had said at last year's State of the Union speech. NumbersUSA's deputy director Chris Chmielenski gives highlights and analysis of the President's SOTU immigration remarks in this blog. About making progress in enforcing legal immigration, Pres. Trump had a lot to report:
NumbersUSA's president was quoted in USA Today: "Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, gave the president generally high marks for meeting his promises on immigration. 'A lot of this is effort,' he said. 'If the courts stopped you, that's not necessarily your fault.'" President Trump emphasized the critical importance of preventing sanctuary cities from releasing criminal aliens back on the streets by relating horrifying stories. Just three weeks ago, an illegal alien raped and murdered a 92-year-old woman in New York City. This criminal alien had earlier been arrested by New York City police for assaulting his own father with a ceramic mug. ICE had asked the police to turn him over to them upon his release. But New York is a sanctuary city, so police ignored the detainer request and released him back onto the streets on November 27. Less than two months later, he killed. As the President said on Tuesday night, "The United States of America should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not criminal aliens." As I wrote above, Pres. Trump said little about his future immigration plans in the State of the Union speech, but his new immigration fact sheet did make one hopeful promise:
The contents of the Trump-Kushner plan haven't been released yet, but early word is that it will eliminate chain migration, stop the visa lottery, crack down on sanctuary cities, and introduce some kind of merit-based visa system. Whether the forthcoming plan will cut the overall level of immigration, as it must if it's to be a genuine help to the American worker, is not yet known. Also, will it include E-Verify? Supported by the vast majority of Americans of every party, every ethnic group, every income and education level, E-Verify is the one tool that will control and reverse illegal immigration. One would hope that is the first thing that would be in the bill. Of course, not one reform will occur without Congress passing it.
NumbersUSA and our vast army of citizen activists PUSH CONGRESS to do the right thing. And we PUSH BACK when Congress tries to betray American workers by increasing immigration and eliminating worker protections. It's sad that the United States Congress can't be trusted just to do the right thing for the people who sent them to Washington. But they cannot. Only citizen power can make Congress comply. Only NumbersUSA and our millions of followers can FORCE Congress to ignore big business and enact immigration reforms that help Americans. President Trump is not enough. Our champions in Congress are not enough (there aren't enough of them). Sympathetic commentators on cable TV and radio are not enough. American voters have to speak up, and in huge numbers, if we want immigration to ever be reformed to the interest of Americans. NumbersUSA Action donations are FAR below budget right now. The Action fund pays for our Action Board, which directs millions of phone calls, faxes and e-mails to our members' own lawmakers. It's severely depleted after years of constant activity. We cannot do this alone. NumbersUSA Action gets no money from public foundations. No one who needs a tax deduction can give to Action. Because Action is our more political arm, it is not tax-deductible. Only the patriotic hearts of patriotic Americans can get us ready to fight the fights coming up. John, will you be one of those people this month? We NEED you.
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