Progress on the legislative front remains largely at a standstill, but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t getting done. President Trump has been meeting with the leaders of various nations this week and this story from the Washington Examiner makes me wonder whether any of his one-on-one chats included the subject of deportation. In the spring of 2016 there were nearly two dozen countries that were refusing to take back their criminal illegal aliens when ICE caught them here and we wanted to deport them. At this point that number is down to twelve, so clearly some of them have gotten the message.

The Trump administration has bolstered its campaign to deport criminal illegal immigrants by getting countries to stop blocking the transfers and take them back, according to key Homeland Security officials.

Led by its success in getting Iraq to shift gears, the administration is looking to cut the number of “recalcitrant nations” even further as it speeds up the arrest of illegal immigrants and visa overstayers who have criminal records.

“It is big news. It shows that some of these countries see that they can’t get away with stiff arming us anymore, that there will be consequences,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.

The situation with Iraq was a bit more complicated since they needed to come off of the travel ban list, but a combination of sticks and carrots seem to have worked with the others who are now taking their criminal illegal aliens back off of our hands. Of the dozen that are left, a few may be tricky, but some of them should be fairly easy calls if Trump is losing patience and wants to do away with the carrot portion of the proceedings.

The remaining “recalcitrant countries” (as they are called) include China, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan. China is obviously a bit of a tightrope to walk considering how deeply we’re currently wrapped up with them on the North Korea situation, but Hong Kong very much wants to remain in our good graces. And Bermuda? How much of their tourism trade comes from us? A quick word from the State Department regarding travel there would likely have them reconsidering their position if they suddenly faced the possibility of vacation traffic in that direction becoming more difficult.

The rest of them each have their own complications, but they all need things from us. Two of the biggest are foreign aid and our willingness to continue issuing visas to their own citizens. The latter is a big ticket item because if they won’t take back their people who come here and break the law we are under zero obligation to keep issuing more permission slips. And, as I said, they need us far more than we need them in most of those cases.

There’s a ways left to go, but it looks like the needle is moving in the right direction. Tracking down and arresting criminal illegal aliens here in the United States is the first step, but shipping them out is equally important. Countries that don’t wish to cooperate must be made aware that there will be a significant price to pay and they’re not dealing with Barack Obama anymore. Get onboard with the plan deal with the fallout.