Andrew Rice

The Center Square

The second Trump administration has been largely defined by strict immigration enforcement and net zero illegal border crossings. Amid the enforcement, legal policy analysts are divided over whether federal or state governments should control immigration and border security.

The U.S. The Department of Homeland Security reported fewer than 500,000 border encounters so far in 2025 compared to more than two million per year in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

A panel of lawyers spoke at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention on Friday about whether state governments were granted sovereignty to control immigration and naturalization by founding documents, like the U.S. Constitution.

Gene Hamilton, president of the America First Policy Institute, said the Un

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