As President Donald Trump focuses on border security in his initial actions to counter illegal immigration, a new report shows the unauthorized population increasingly is made up of those who first entered the U.S. legally.

In each year from 2007 to 2014, the report from the Center for Migration Studies finds, more people joined the illegal immigrant population by remaining in the U.S. after their temporary visitor permits expired than by sneaking across the Mexican border.

In 2014, about 4.5 million U.S. residents, or 42 percent of the population of roughly 11 million illegal immigrants, had overstayed their visas, the report says.

Overstays accounted for about two-thirds—66 percent—of those who ended up joining the illegal immigrant population in 2014.

“What’s happened is that popular conception has made it seem that illegal immigration means people coming from the southern border,” Robert Warren, a co-author of the report, said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “One of the reasons we put the report out is that illegal immigration is much more varied and we need to look at different policy options.”

Visa overstays—legal entrants to the U.S. who stay past their allotted time here—long have been the underreported component of illegal immigration.

A report by the Department of Homeland Security found that as of Jan. 4, 2016, a total of 416,500 of the 527,127 overstays in 2015 remained in the U.S. More have left the country since then, the government said.

The Trump administration has referred to visa overstays, but so far has concentrated on fulfilling the president’s campaign promise to build a wall across the southern border.

“There’s this assumption in the Trump administration that the southern border is out of control and people are flooding across it, but we have much better control of the border now than we did in previous decades,” Edward Alden, an immigration and visa policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Whereas this other problem of visa overstays is increasingly becoming out of control.”

‘Shining a Light’

Trump’s revised executive order temporarily banning travel from six terrorism-prone, Muslim-majority countries contains some language related to combating visa overstays.

The president calls for Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to pursue “expedited completion” of a long-promised and delayed system to obtain biometric data—such as fingerprints, facial recognition images, and eye scans—on those leaving the country. Such a system would tell the government who has left the country, and how many who should have departed are still here.

In 2004, the 9/11 Commission recommended the Department of Homeland Security complete an entry and exit system “as soon as possible,” viewing it as an important national security tool because two of the hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, had overstayed their visas.

Foreigners who apply to enter the U.S. on a visa are interviewed and photographed and have their fingerprints taken at a consulate overseas before arriving here. But collecting biometric data on those exiting the country is not as easy.

Plagued by financial and logistical challenges, the government has introduced various pilot projects at some airports and land borders, but has struggled to implement a biometric exit system on a large scale.

Trump’s executive order asks Kelly to provide ongoing reports on the progress of an entry-exit system, but it does not impose a concrete timetable for completion.

“For a long time, administrations didn’t take the visa overstay issue seriously,” Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Hopefully with the White House’s light shining on the issue, we will see more progress on the entry-exit system, but it’s the kind of thing that will take a while. It’s a process, not an event like the border wall is.”

The Center for Immigration Studies, which calls for tougher enforcement of immigration laws, supports construction of the wall.

Shift in Behavior

The report from the Center for Migration Studies, which opposes the border wall, concludes that the biggest reason for the shift since 2007 toward more visa overstays, and fewer border-crossers, is the significant drop in illegal arrivals from Mexico in that time frame.

Mexico is the leading country for both overstays and arrivals across the border, representing about 55 percent of the illegal immigrant population, the study says.

But U.S. border apprehensions of Mexicans has fallen sharply, from 809,000 in 2007 to just 230,000 in fiscal year 2014—a level not seen since 1971, according to the Pew Research Center.

Alden, of the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that the trend toward an increasing percent of visa overstays and fewer border apprehensions of Mexicans shows that the Trump administration should not focus on building a wall — especially at a cost estimated to be as high as $25 billion.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to be spending most of our money fortifying the part of the border under the best control and ignoring visa overstays, which is getting worse,” Alden said.

But Krikorian counters that the Trump administration can have multiple focuses. He says the deterrent force of a wall is important.

“It’s one thing to say we need more of an emphasis on tracking and prosecuting overstays, and it’s a very different thing to say we shouldn’t bother with the border anymore,” Krikorian said, adding:

Yes, it does cost a great deal of money, and yes, for me, it’s not job No. 1 in a policy sense. But in a broader political sense it sends an important signal that the government is actually serious about illegal immigration control.

Trump’s early clampdown and rhetoric on illegal immigration may be having an impact. Roughly 840 people a day were caught illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico last month, according to Customs and Border Protection, a drop of about 39 percent from January.

“If the wall doesn’t go beyond being a symbol, and it just becomes an excuse to avoid doing those other things—like stopping overstays—than we have a problem,” Krikorian said. “I don’t get that sense from this administration.”

Policy Options

Beyond finishing the biometric entry-exit system, experts say there are quicker ways the Trump administration can tackle visa overstays.

In new memos detailing Trump’s interior enforcement policies on immigration, the Department of Homeland Security says it will broaden the scope of those targeted for deportation. Besides convicted criminals, they will include those charged with a crime or accused of a chargeable offense.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Homeland Security Department, already has a team dedicated to pursuing illegal immigrants who overstayed their visas. The Trump administration could use its new deportation priorities to expand the pool of overstays whom immigration officers go after.

“The technology for entry-exit is getting better, so I can understand it’s getting less unrealistic,” said David Inserra, an expert on homeland security at The Heritage Foundation. “But rather than build an expensive list generator telling you who hasn’t left the country, I would rather have more counterterrorism analysts, ICE agents, or any number of things. If you allow ICE agents to do their jobs in a more complete and robust manner, you will inevitably catch more overstays and will encourage less overstays because they see and know they will be removed.”

The government also can take simpler steps to deter visa overstays by emailing reminders to foreigners of their expected departure date, specifying the consequences of not leaving on time.

Many who overstay their visas don’t intend to settle in America, Alden said, and simply don’t know when they have to leave.

“The biometric entry-exit system has been the unreachable holy grail,” Alden said. “But it doesn’t really get at the real problem. The problem is not an identification problem. The question is how do we discourage the act of overstaying a visa in the first place.” (For more from the author of “Trump Faces Challenge of Visa Overstays, the Largest Source of Illegal Immigration” please click HERE)

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President Donald Trump this week threw his support behind a House Republican plan aimed at repealing and replacing Obamacare. While it’s not yet to the liking of everyone in his party, a health care proposal was a key pledge candidate Trump said would be part of his first 100 days in office.

Now, at the halfway mark of this critical period on Friday—the president has moved at a quick pace addressing the bulk of promised executive actions and proposals—such as taking early steps on border security and increased vetting of immigrants and refugees from Middle Eastern countries.

But there are still significant actions left to make and measures that haven’t been proposed in Congress in this crucial 100-day timeline.

The president has championed an “America First” agenda in the first 50 days, said Helen Aguirre Ferre, White House director of media affairs.

“He was very clear in his joint address to Congress, he’s not the president of the world, he’s the president of the United States of America, and he’s really shown it in the first 50 days as far as where his priorities are,” Ferre told The Daily Signal in a Facebook Live interview at the White House Friday.

Here’s a look at Trump’s promises at the halfway point.

Draining the Swamp

Trump promised six measures in the first 100 days to “clean up corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, D.C.”

The first measure on the list is unfulfilled, which is the one that requires the most effort.

Trump has not proposed—or at least hasn’t backed an existing proposal—for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, have backed term limit proposals, but the White House hasn’t thrown its weight behind the proposition yet. A constitutional amendment requires the vote of two-thirds of Congress to pass then must be ratified by three-quarters of the states before becoming law.

Trump’s other measures to clean up Washington only required executive actions, which he moved on.

Trump almost immediately made good on a pledge to impose a hiring freeze on federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition.

The president also signed an executive order requiring that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.

He placed a five-year ban on White House officials from becoming lobbyists after they left government service and a lifetime ban on White House officials from lobbying for a foreign government. However, it would take an act of Congress to prohibit congressional staffers from lobbying.

Protecting American Workers

Trump made seven promises about protecting the jobs of American workers—which was a central focus of his campaign.

He has withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal President Barack Obama entered with 11 countries, but one that was never approved by Congress.

Trump pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. While there hasn’t been an executive order to that effect, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said talks about NAFTA will launch later this year.

Ferre said she doesn’t have a timetable for every item that was part of the campaign’s 100-day plan. But, she said the president will address trade issues. Ferre added:

The president is bullish on trade, he wants to promote trade, but through bilateral trade agreements to make sure that we are getting a better bang for the buck. NAFTA for example, yes, let’s have good, robust trade with Mexico, but let’s make sure that this treaty that was negotiated over 20 years ago is still where it needs to be to address the needs of the American voters in 2017. I don’t know if it will necessarily be within the next 50 days, but the president has been very clear this is one of the trade issues that needs to be addressed. He took out the Pacific trade agreement because it was one that didn’t benefit American workers and really put some other countries at a greater advantage than American workers.

Trump has not yet directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to label China a currency manipulator, and according to a news report, might be less likely to do so. Mnuchin said in late February that the U.S. will continue to use the existing criteria for judging whether China manipulates its currency.

Trump has also promised to lift restrictions on the production of American energy reserves. The White House has put this forward as part of its broader energy goals, but the White House hasn’t passed an executive order or formally backed legislation to this effect. Trump also has not moved to cancel payments to the United Nations climate change programs.

Trump signed an executive order to approve construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. Authorizing Keystone construction was part of his 100-day plan.

On the same day as the two pipeline memorandums, Trump also issued an executive order “expediting environmental reviews and approvals for high priority infrastructure projects.”

In another presidential memorandum, Trump directed departments and agencies to support expanded manufacturing through streamlining permitting reviews and reducing regulations.

Restoring Security and Rule of Law

Trump vowed to “cancel every unconstitutional executive action” by Obama. He hasn’t moved back every Obama executive action yet, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program that shields children of illegal immigrants from deportation.

Trump did nominate 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. During the campaign, Trump pledged to begin the process of replacing Scalia with a constitutionalist.

On Jan. 25, Trump signed a series of executive orders regarding immigration, his signature issue during the campaign. One order called for “immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border, monitored and supported by adequate personnel so as to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism.”

He also signed an order scaling back funding for “sanctuary cities,” the term for municipalities that refuse to cooperate with federal officials in enforcing immigration law.

The most controversial Trump initiative has been suspending immigration from seven Middle Eastern countries that have been designated hotbeds for terrorism. The first executive order, issued on Jan. 27, was struck down by a Washington state U.S. district judge, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

Trump issued a second executive order that identifies only six countries and clarifies other aspects of the first order regarding visas and dual citizenship. On Thursday, Hawaii became the first state to sue over the revised executive order. The Trump administration said it will continue to defend the original executive order.

Legislative Agenda

Trump promised to promote an economic plan to grow the economy by 4 percent per year, adding 25 million new jobs, according to his 100-day plan. That would include an across-the-board tax cut. Under his plan, the middle-class earners would get a 35 percent tax cut, while the number of tax brackets would be reduced from seven to three. Trump proposed lowering the business tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said tax reform is unlikely before the August recess. However, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday he believed Congress could pass a package by the August deadline.

Trump hasn’t yet pushed a formal proposal to allow Americans to deduct child and elderly care from their taxes.

Meanwhile, Trump administration officials seem open to a border adjustment tax to prevent companies from laying off American workers for overseas tax breaks, then selling their products back into the United States. However, the “End Offshoring Act” named in his plan hasn’t been formally proposed.

Trump’s budget blueprint also addressed other legislative proposals included in the 100-day plan, such as rebuilding the military. The fiscal plan calls for a $54 billion hike in military spending, to be paid for by cuts to discretionary spending and foreign aid.

During his address to a joint session of Congress, Trump also talked about his proposal for a $1 trillion infrastructure program to be funded through federal and private sector money.

The Trump campaign also listed the “Restoring Community Safety Act,” as a legislative goal, to boost resources for federal law enforcement. While a bill hasn’t come forward, Trump took actions on two priorities of the proposal in executive actions.

He issued an executive order directing the attorney general to establish a task force on reducing crime and increasing public safety, and issued another executive order to “strengthen enforcement of federal law to thwart transnational criminal organizations” such as gangs, cartels, and racketeers. (For more from the author of “Trump Halfway to First 100 Days” please click HERE)

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Leaks from the White House seem to indicate a bureaucratic push against President Donald Trump and his administration, some government watchdogs have said.

“There is a level of paranoia in the White House, but even paranoids can have real concerns,” Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Daily Signal. “How do you conduct business when you think you’re being spied on, with good reason.”

The combination of former political appointees that converted to civil service positions, and a long-standing bias among federal bureaucrats have led to an attempt to undermine Trump, Flaherty said.

“The degree to which the intelligence apparatus wants to do in Trump is scary,” Flaherty said. “In recent years, intelligence agencies have trended left. Part of that has been Obama appointees. It’s also part of the education background of the people hired there for the last 20 years.”

Opposition to Trump may go beyond the intelligence agencies.

The Environmental Protection Agency, according to Politico, has career employees using an encoded app to communicate about work-related issues to stop Trump EPA employees from “undermining” the agency’s mission. The watchdog group Cause of Action Institute has made a freedom of information request for all of the encrypted communications because the Federal Records Act requires agencies to preserve all records made by employees working on official government business.

“If federal employees are using encrypted apps on their phones to avoid transparency laws, that’s a problem regardless of their political motivations,” Henry Kerner, an assistant vice president at the Cause of Action Institute, told The Daily Signal in an email statement. “The only reason to use these apps, instead of their government email accounts, would be to conceal their discussions from oversight. Federal agencies have a legal obligation to preserve all records made by employees working on official government business. Americans have a right to know if federal employees are using encrypted electronic messages to evade transparency.”

Trump has been criticized for tweeting last weekend that former President Barack Obama “had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory.”

Although there were several news reports of interceptions, and of a potential FISA court order (named for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), Trump didn’t provide evidence from the executive branch agencies that Obama ordered wiretapping.

The White House is asking Congress to review the leaks, which is already investigating Russia’s effort to interfere with the presidential election.

“I think the smartest and most deliberative way to address this situation is to ask the House and Senate intelligence committees who are already in the process of looking into this to look into this and other leaks of classified information that are troubling to our nation’s national security,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday during a press briefing.

Among federal employees, about 95 percent of political contributions went to Democrat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race, according to an analysis by The Hill in October. Some federal workers have been in consultation with departed Obama administration officials to determine how they can push back against the Trump administration’s agenda, The Washington Post reported in January.

“If we believe the liberal media, the bureaucracy is trying to undermine the president who was elected by the people, when [the bureaucrats] weren’t. They are there to serve the president,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told The Daily Signal. “The permanent bureaucracy is pro-bureaucracy. It is not pro-reform.”

The Weekly Standard reported in a recent story that two negative op-eds on the Trump administration were written by White House officials who worked under Ben Rhodes, Obama’s national security spokesman.

Edward Price, a National Security Council spokesman for the Obama White House, transitioned back to the CIA after the election. He wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, published on Feb. 20, that said, “I didn’t think I’d ever leave the CIA. But because of Trump, I quit.” It went on to say, “To be clear, my decision had nothing to do with politics.”

However, the Post followed up with a clarification stating Price contributed a total of $5,000 to Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic Party in 2016.

One Obama White House employee who continued to work briefly for the White House under the Trump administration was Rumana Ahmed. After quitting, she wrote a piece for The Atlantic published Feb. 23, with the headline“I Was a Muslim in Trump’s White House.”

“When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country,” Ahmed wrote. “I lasted eight days.”

This, she wrote, was because “it was an insult walking into this country’s most historic building every day under an administration that is working against and vilifying everything I stand for as an American and as a Muslim.”

The New York Times reported last May in a profile on Rhodes that: “In the front office, [Rhodes’] assistant, Rumana Ahmed, and his deputy, Ned Price, are squeezed behind desks, which face a large television screen, from which CNN blares nonstop.”

In the Times piece, Price particularly talked about Rhodes manipulating media coverage.

Fitton said this shouldn’t be a surprise.

“It’s not credible to believe that Obama supporters would plan to work long term for Donald Trump,” Fitton said. “Were these individuals interested in working for Donald Trump long term, or were they looking for an excuse to ding him?” (For more from the author of “Permanent Federal Bureaucracy Leads Opposition to Trump Agenda” please click HERE)

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