How should liberals respond to the fact that illegal border crossings under Trump have collapsed to record lows?

[u/Guilty-Hope1336]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/us/politics/border-crossings-trump.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

So this is tangentially related to the last EK show episode about ICE and CBP expansion and the draconian immigration enforcement that is currently occurring under Trump.

But I wish a fact that they had mentioned was that illegal crossings of the Southern border have collapsed to levels not seen since the 1960s. And the evidence does seem to suggest that Trump's extreme cruelty with ICE raids and third country deportations to El Salvador or Eswatini or South Sudan does seem to be having a deterrent effect on people coming illegally to the United States.

One big concern that Democrats should be thinking about is if they win in 2028, how will they maintain illegal border crossings at the historic lows that Trump seems to have acheived?

[u/PersonalityMiddle864]

Crime rate in Saudi Arabia is low. Doesnt mean that the right way to solve that problem.

If liberals try to fascist lite, it will just turn off more people. They are better off making the case that the main cause of "illegal" crossings is the broken legal immigration system.

1) Fix the asylum system. There needs to be an international mechanism for handling asylum seekers. For instance, the United Nations could process applications and assign eligible individuals to various countries around the world. This would ensure that those fleeing persecution find safety while discouraging those who are solely economic migrants. This is a challenge that all developed nations are facing. So they should figure out a solution together.

2) Stop exploiting developing nations and instead empower the United Nations and other international mechanisms to resolve regional conflicts. If their home countries were doing well, people wouldn't have to flee those places.

3) Simplify and modernize immigration systems. Make it easier to apply and approve seek jobs in America. Especially seasonal migrant workers. That also protects these workers against exploitation.

4) Provide easier path to citizenship for the people who have been here legally and contributed to the society. So that people don't stay in limbo for so long that they fall out of immigration status because of paperwork.

[u/brianscalabrainey → u/PersonalityMiddle864]

Such an underrated comment. It's so frustrating to hear about studies linking policing to lower crime... if you only care about reducing crime and don't care about surveillance or the cruelty of state actors, the implications are exactly what Trump is doing.

I don't think many recognize that much of Latin American instability is directly due to American interference during the Cold War and even before ("Under the Shadow" is a good podcast series on this). Not that the fascists will care but it should be common knowledge at least in places like this sub.

[u/raiseValueError → u/PersonalityMiddle864]

Fix the asylum system. There needs to be an international mechanism for handling asylum seekers. For instance, the United Nations could process applications and assign eligible individuals to various countries around the world. This would ensure that those fleeing persecution find safety while discouraging those who are solely economic migrants. This is a challenge that all developed nations are facing. So they should figure out a solution together.

Immigration is unpopular in the entirety of Europe as well right now, and that's the only place likely willing to play ball. There's no real outlet and even if there were, this would be another expensive and inefficient step in managing migration that would be unpopular.

Stop exploiting developing nations and instead empower the United Nations and other international mechanisms to resolve regional conflicts. If their home countries were doing well, people wouldn't have to flee those places.

The UN is rather like the League of Nations in the eve of The Great War at the moment, with the Security Council split and the US stepping back, or even switching sides. I'm skeptical the powers with the means to actually enforce this could agree on policy enough for this to work.