When newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond.
President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents – less than one-tenth of today's force.
America "was faced with a breakdown in law enforcement on a very large scale," Mr. Brownell (Attorney General) said. "When I say large scale, I mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico [every year] without restraint."
In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner.
General Swing's fast-moving campaign soon secured America's borders – an accomplishment no other president has since equaled. Illegal migration had dropped 95 percent by the late 1950s.
I totally agree, today, America may well not win World War II as we did and we aren’t blocking immigration as we should back in Ike’s time, no brainer.