Immigration Bits from Dec 17 Presidential Address

President Trump delivered a short (under 20 min) address to the nation last night. Here are the immigration highlights from the transcript:

Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it. ... Our border was open. And because of this, our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people, many who came from prisons and jails, mental institutions and insane asylums. They were drug dealers, gang members and even 11,888 murderers, more than 50 percent of whom killed more than one person. This is what the Biden administration allowed to happen to our country, and it can never be allowed to happen again. ...

For the last four years, the United States was ruled by politicians who fought only for ... illegal aliens ... . They flooded your cities and towns with illegal aliens. ...

Starting on Day 1, I took immediate action to stop the invasion of our southern border. For the past seven months, zero illegal aliens have been allowed into our country, a feat which everyone said was absolutely impossible. Do you remember when Joe Biden said that he needed Congress to pass legislation to help close the border? He was always blaming Congress and everyone else. As it turned out, we didn’t need legislation. We just needed a new president.

We inherited the worst border anywhere in the world, and we quickly turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country. In other words, in a few short months, we went from worst to best. We’re deporting criminals, restoring safety to our most dangerous cities. Just take a look at Washington, D.C. It’s at levels of safety that we’ve never seen before. And they decimated the bloodthirsty foreign drug cartels. We did that all by ourselves, with our people, and we’re so proud of it because they were poisoning and destroying our population. Drugs brought in by ocean and by sea are now down 94 percent. ...

A major factor in driving up housing costs was the colossal border invasion. We have never been invaded. This is the worst thing that, frankly, in my opinion, the worst thing that the Biden administration did to our country is the invasion at the border. The last administration and their allies in Congress brought in millions and millions of migrants and gave them taxpayer-funded housing. While your rent and housing costs skyrocketed. Over 60 percent of growth in the rental market came from foreign migrants. At the same time, illegal aliens stole American jobs and flooded emergency rooms, getting free health care and education paid for by you, the American taxpayer.

They also increased the cost of law enforcement by numbers so high that they are not even to be mentioned.

For the first time in 50 years. We are now seeing reverse migration as migrants go back home, leaving more housing and more jobs for Americans. In the year before my election, all net creation of jobs was going to foreign migrants. Since I took office, 100 percent of all net job creation has gone to American-born citizens. One hundred percent.

In the end, government either serves the productive, patriotic, hardworking American citizen, or it serves those who break the laws, cheat the system, and seek power and profit at the expense of our nation.

Look at Minnesota, where Somalians have taken over the economics of the state and have stolen billions and billions of dollars from Minnesota, and indeed from the United States of America. We’re going to put an end to it. ...

Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure, ...