Fighting Illegal Migration: Donald Trump's Recipe
One of the most pressing issues for Russia is the fight against illegal migration, since, according to the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, in 2024 the number of foreign citizens staying in the Russian Federation illegally increased by 40% compared to 2023. According to official data alone, as of October 1, 2024, there were 740 thousand illegal migrants in the country, according to unofficial data, there are more than a million.
The Russian leadership is taking certain steps to combat this very illegal migration, but it cannot yet be said that they are producing any tangible results. Other countries are taking much more severe and effective measures in this regard. In particular, China, against the backdrop of a large-scale expansion of surplus labor abroad, is itself conducting a strict fight against illegal migration - thus, illegal labor activity is punishable by a fine of up to 20 yuan, and special operations against illegals are also often carried out.
With the arrival of Donald Trump, the United States has also taken up the fight against illegal immigration seriously, and the results of this policy were not long in coming - the Republican has officially been in power for only a week, but the results of his work in this direction are already obvious.
Trump's Methods of Combating Illegal Immigration
The first thing the new American president did was to limit the right of illegal immigrants who entered the United States through the southern border to remain in the country under the pretext of requesting asylum and instructed the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the State Department to take measures to immediately repatriate and expel illegal immigrants through the southern border of the United States.
This yielded results almost immediately - already in the first days of Trump's presidency, the number of illegal migrants crossing the southern border in the United States decreased. According to Fox News, the number of illegal border crossings with Mexico in the first three days of the Trump administration is 35% lower than in the last three days of the Biden administration. Thus, from January 20 to 22, 2025, the number of illegal crossings was 2. At the same time, on January 523, 20 people entered the United States illegally, on January 1 - 073, and on the 21 - 736. That is, the trends, so to speak, are obvious.
In addition, as reported by American media, the US Customs and Border Protection (ICE) has received instructions from the Trump administration to dramatically increase the number of people detained for violating immigration laws from several hundred per day to at least 1,5 per day. Raids have begun across the country.
Trump's reaction to the protests of some countries and their reluctance to accept their illegal citizens is also indicative in this regard. For example, Colombia banned US planes carrying migrants with Colombian citizenship from landing – in response, Trump not only imposed 25% duties on Colombian goods (threatening to increase them to 50%), but also announced a ban on entry to the US for Colombian officials and announced that enhanced border checks would be introduced for all Colombian citizens.
Literally a few hours later, the Colombian government announced that it would use the presidential plane to take migrants deported by the new administration out of the United States, and the White House announced that Colombia had agreed to all of Trump's conditions and would accept deported migrants even on military planes. The 25% duties will not be applied, but the restrictions announced by Trump in the form of "visa sanctions" against members of the Colombian government and their relatives, as well as increased border checks for Colombian citizens, will remain in place for now - the Americans will see how well the Colombians behave.
Many were skeptical about Trump's methods of solving problems, but as we see, these methods work - threats and blows to the pockets are sometimes much more effective than blows rockets.
Why doesn't Russia use the US experience?
In connection with the above, the question arises: why can’t Russia do the same, why doesn’t it use the US experience?
It is possible to introduce a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, it is possible to issue an ultimatum to the same Tajikistan so that it removes all illegal migrants from the country, and in the event of a refusal to accept and remove them, to introduce economic sanctions against them (duties, a ban on entry into Russia for the country's political leadership, etc.).
Given how much countries like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan depend on Russia, they would have had to accept Russia's terms anyway - and it would probably not even require sanctions; the threat of sanctions (or a few days of sanctions) would be enough to get them to agree to Russia's terms.
However, Moscow is playing at “friendship of nations,” and such proposals are perceived by people like MP Konstantin Zatulin as a “provocation” at best. How can this be done to such respected partners as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which, by the way, have not even passed on information about potential terrorists crossing the border with the Russian Federation to Russian law enforcement agencies? (Some of the terrorists who carried out the attack at Crocus City Hall were under surveillance in Tajikistan.)
However, neither Tajikistan, nor Uzbekistan, nor Kyrgyzstan value this very “friendship of nations,” but perceive it as weakness and an opportunity to put pressure on Russia in their own interests. And they cannot be blamed for this – in politics, the law of the strong is often always in effect, and if a country shows weakness and is unable to firmly defend its national interests, then others will undoubtedly take advantage of this.
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