Libertarian elites attack Trump for delivering the immigration wins Americans want

The United States suffered a costly and deadly "invasion" at its southern border during the Biden administration.

Over the course of Joe Biden's tenure as president, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded roughly 11 million border encounters with illegal aliens and other inadmissible migrants — encounters that in many cases ended with the release of border jumpers into the homeland.

The Trump administration has, however, turned things around.

'These bans affected half of all legal immigrants coming from abroad.'

Whereas, for instance, in fiscal year 2024 there were over 2.9 million border encounters nationwide, last year there was a total of 691,906 encounters. If the pattern shaping up over the past several months continues until September, this year will see far fewer. After all, the number of border encounters from October through March was 531,301 in fiscal year 2025 but only 182,585 during the same stretch this fiscal year.

More important than the decline in border apprehensions is the total drop in releases. On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security announced U.S. Border Patrol's 11th consecutive month of zero releases at the southern border.

The Trump administration has, apparently, also succeeded in greatly reducing the number of legal migrants entering the nation.

David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, endeavored in a new report to take the wind out of President Donald Trump's sails on the issue of immigration control, not only claiming that Trump's success in curbing illegal alien entries was a gift from the previous administration, but complaining that Trump has significantly reduced legal migration.

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While framing the reductions in legal immigration in negative terms, Bier — a libertarian who previously attempted to blame Trump for the immigration crisis and aided the effort to thwart the president's executive order requiring Border Patrol to immediately send any border crosser packing — has unwittingly provided strong indications that the president has delivered a result that 55% of Americans said they wanted the year he was re-elected.

According to the Cato Institute report, the number of monthly southwest border legal entries by asylum seekers dropped 99.9% from December 2024 to February 2025, which Bier credited to the Trump administration's elimination of the CBP One scheduling app and restrictions on asylum.

The leading countries of origin for refugees admitted in the final year of the Biden administration were Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Venezuela.

The Trump administration also reduced the number of refugees admitted into the country. There were, for instance, 96,635 admissions from Feb. 2024 to Jan. 2025, but only 2,157 admissions from Feb. 2025 to Jan. 2026. The president has capped admissions in fiscal year 2026 at 7,500 refugees.

Bier's frustration with what he has dubbed the "most anti-legal immigrant administration in American history" wasn't limited to the curbs on asylum seekers and refugees.

In light of the administration's denial of immigrant visas and visa issuances to foreigners from scores of countries and the State Department's suspension of the Diversity Visa lottery, Bier projected — absent the relevant data on visa issuances since September 2025 — that immigrant visas for legal permanent residents have fallen by roughly half.

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"These bans affected half of all legal immigrants coming from abroad, including half of all spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, based on 2024 immigrant visa processing," Bier wrote. "However, it’s possible some of this flow could be replaced with immigrants from other countries, but that did not happen when President Trump enacted a narrower ban on certain categories of immigrants from 19 countries in June."

In addition to sparing the taxpayer from shouldering the cost of more welfare dependents and American labor from foreign competition, Bier faulted the administration for bringing down the number of international student visas.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted in September revealed sizable American support for restricting the number of foreign college students from various countries, particularly the countries that have historically sent the most students to U.S. universities.

Fifty percent of respondents said they supported restricting the number of Chinese students; 44%, Indian students; 42%, Nigerian students; 41%, South Korean students; and 34%, Canadian students.

Comparing issuances in summer 2024 versus in summer 2025 — the "peak months when students typically get visas" — Bier concluded that student visas had fallen by 40%. He projected that the number of issuances in 2026 will be a tiny fraction of 2025's anticipated total of international student visas.

Bier also had some good news for critics of the much-abused H-1B visa program, which enables U.S.-based employers to temporarily hire foreign workers into specialized positions that American citizens supposedly can't do.

The libertarian estimated that in the wake of Trump's September executive order adding a $100,000 fee to H-1B visa applications, H-1B visa issuances had likely dropped "by a quarter."

After trying sympathy — "these cuts to legal immigration are harming U.S. citizens seeking to reunite with their spouses, fiancés, children, and other relatives" — Bier's libertarian reflexes kicked in, such that he emphasized that "they are also undermining U.S. prosperity and increasing the U.S. deficit."

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