WASHINGTON — Even The New York Times now admits it. Legal immigration “fell sharply under Trump policies adopted early this year,” the paper reported Sunday, and the White House was happy to pass the headline along. “NYT: Legal Immigration Fell Sharply Under Trump Policies Adopted Early This Year 👍🏻,” the White House Rapid Response account posted, along with the paper’s chart.
The numbers are striking. According to the Times, the State Department issued just 26,000 immigrant visas, the visas that grant a green card and permanent residence, in February. Before President Trump took office, the average was 52,000 a month. That is half.
The Times reported that the policies, which took effect late last year and early this year, made it all but impossible to immigrate from 91 countries and reduced the number of immigrant visas available in another 61. Immigration from Muslim-majority countries plunged by more than 90 percent, and student and work visas declined too.
This is what an America First immigration system looks like. For decades, Washington let the numbers run on autopilot no matter what it cost American workers, wages or safety. President Trump put the brakes on, starting with the countries that could not or would not vouch for the people they were sending.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller laid out the bigger picture in a White House video this month. The President, he said, “took the most unsecured, dangerous, violent, hellish border in the history of our republic” and turned it into “15 straight months of zero releases.” First the border was sealed. Now legal immigration is being put back on America’s terms, and even the President’s loudest critics have to report it.
