Washington, D.C. (February 20, 2025) – In the latest episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Victor Davis Hanson, a Hoover Institution fellow, discusses the changes in U.S. immigration policy under President Trump with Mark Krikorian, the Center for Immigration Studies’ executive director. The discussion begins with acknowledging how the political landscape for Trump 2.0 differs greatly from the first Trump administration, giving President Trump maneuvering room to make major immigration policy changes.

Key topics include:

Border Enforcement & Deportation:

• A comparison of President Trump’s 2021 and 2025 immigration policies.
• The wisdom of Trump’s “worst first” deportation strategy.
• Over the last four years the composition of the illegal immigration population has changed to include a larger number of nationalities besides Mexicans. Will this weaken the cohesive lobbying effort to fight deportations?

Birthright Citizenship & Legal Challenges:

• Trump’s executive order addressing birthright citizenship.
• Predictions on the potential Supreme Court battle and legislative efforts.

U.S.-Mexico Relations & Economic Impact:

• Mexico’s shifting stance on immigration.
• Mexican public opinion turns against mass migration.
• Trump’s potential tariff and remittance restrictions as leverage.

Immigration & Fertility Rates:

• Declining U.S. birth rates and state-level trends.
• Can immigration raise the national fertility rate and achieve replacement level?
• Immigration’s impact on native fertility.

In his closing commentary, Mark Krikorian, the podcast host, highlights a new Center report, The Declining Education Level of Newly Arrived Immigrants, which finds a decline in the education level of newly arrived (the past three years) immigrants. The decline, which added greatly to the low-income population, is in stark contrast to the steady improvement in the education level in the years prior to the border surge.