The Trump Administration's efforts to finally put controls on the illegal immigration crisis made a substantial impact, but many conservatives feel the process is still not moving fast enough. ICE has arrested and deported an estimated 100,000 -150,000 illegals in the past four months. This is a far cry from the President's call for 1 million deportations in 2025.
The true success story has been the southern border - Illegal crossing have plummeted 95% since 2024 and many migrants have chosen to self deport rather than be arrested. Border encounters are currently at 8000 per month, which Border Patrol officials say is the lowest number since records began in the year 2000 and might be the lowest since 1968.
The true scale of self-deportations, however, is not clear. This leaves an estimated 17 million illegals still in the US (probably more given Biden's border blitzkrieg since 2021). A vast majority of these people reside in Democrat run sanctuary states and sanctuary cities where welfare programs are plentiful and protection from federal authorities is assumed. Without state and federal coordination the ability of the White House to achieve 1 million deportations per year is limited.
That said, rumors are swirling that Elon Musk and DOGE are building a "Master Database" to track and remove migrants from the country using correlated data obtained from multiple agencies from the IRS to the Health Department to Social Security and beyond. CNN recently claimed they have multiple sources familiar with the plans, though these sources are not named.
“If they are designing a deportation machine, they will be able to do that,” a former senior IRS employee with knowledge of the plans told CNN.
The database would also make it easier for the Trump Administration to block illegals from access to public housing and other public programs, which would take away incentives and compel migrants to exit the country.
The idea of data tracking for illegals seems to have a number of Democrats worried. Democratic lawmakers have slammed the plan, claiming DOGE is “rapidly, haphazardly, and unlawfully” exploiting Americans’ personal data. But the concept of mass tracking of citizens (rather than illegal migrants) didn't bother Democrats during the pandemic scare. They fought for years to create a database to track the vaccination status of all Americans. Why are they suddenly bothered by the notion of a database to track people that are in the country illegally?
It's obvious that the open border policies of the Biden Administration were at least partially intended to secure a voting majority in the near future; expanding the Democrat base by paying off illegal migrants with government subsidies and eventual amnesty. A number of blue cities and counties have tried to institute voting rights for illegal residents, despite the fact that the media calls immigrant voting a "conspiracy theory". By extension, the mere presence of millions of illegals in blue states adds to their census numbers, which then translates to more seats in Congress.
Remove the illegals efficiently and in large enough numbers and the Democratic Party loses leverage in the House. Is this the reason why activist judges have been obstructing DOGE access to agency data at nearly every turn?
One could make a case for a "slippery slope" if data collected on a meta-scale was used against legal US citizens (as if this has not already been happening); we all saw how Democrats pushed for such a precedent during Covid and the results would have been disastrous had they gotten what they wanted. But it's hard to make a case for similar privacy protections for migrants who have broken the law and are, by every measure, foreign invaders.
