You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. That was my message a few weeks ago when I reflected on the continuing wins—meaningful wins—of the Trump administration and how easy it is to miss them amid the fire and epic fury of the war with Iran, now in its fourteenth week.
On that occasion, I was referring in particular to the news that the “adjustment of status” loophole—I’d never heard of it—was being closed by immigration services, and with it the possibility of permanent citizenship for millions of foreign workers, legal and illegal.
Basically, the loophole has allowed foreign workers to remain in the US and “adjust” their visa status to permanent residency, without ever leaving the country.
This has been permissible since the 1950s, but it was only ever supposed to be used in exceptional cases. Instead, it’s become the norm, making it far easier for hordes of foreign workers to become hordes of American citizens—which is how we’ve ended up at this juncture, with a president elected on the promise of the “largest mass-deportation operation in US history.”
“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” said Zach Kahler of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances. This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes.”
As I wrote, the change will now make it harder for low-wage employers to dangle the prospect of legalization in front of the foreign workers they import, and it will also reduce the power of activist judges and bureaucrats, because overseas embassies have much tighter rules for approving permanent visas and they generally can’t be overruled. Temporary migrants who overstay will automatically be barred from applying for a green card for ten years.
The news was greeted with dismay by leftists, who began screaming at the top of their lungs and pissing their pants. Always a good sign, I think. But it was hard to hear that screaming, because right-wingers were also screaming— and pissing their pants. But they were screaming about Iran, Israel, Thomas Massie and Brigitte Macron’s withered penis.
My conclusion wasn’t, obviously, that these victories on the home front somehow cancel out the things Trump has done and is going wrong, or should make us drop our criticism of this policy or that. Ever the moderate, ever the man seeking after the immortal Golden Mean, I simply wanted to suggest perhaps a little perspective is in order before we go ahead and say Donald Trump has abandoned America and MAGA and what we really need is a Dan Bilzerian-Sneako ticket for 2028 to sweep away the Epstein Class and usher in a new golden era of rule by based influencers who have never, EVER taken money from a foreign interest group and never would, inshallah.
Anyway, on that same very reasonable theme, I have some more good news at risk of going ignored. President Trump’s war on H-1B fraud is bearing some very tasty fruit.
The New York Post reports that the bottom of the housing market in Dallas, one of the most over-inflated markets in the US, has completely fallen out—and it’s fallen out because of changes the President has made to the H-1B system, including that headline-grabbing $100,000 fee on new petitions. That measure alone has priced out the staffing firms and mid-tier contractors that made up the vast majority of H-1B applications. Trump has also raised minimum salary thresholds for applications, directed the program to give priority only to the highest-paid workers, and launched a Labor Department initiative called “Project Firewall” to target employers that abuse the system.
I had no idea that, more than San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley or anywhere else in the US apart from New York, Dallas has been ground zero for the H-1B revolution that has transformed so much of US high-tech industry and the areas where it is based. During the Biden Presidency, 32,000 new H-1B approvals were granted for the Dallas area alone.
Those new arrivals, mostly from India, poured into the suburbs—places like Prosper, Frisco and Celina—and caused the population to triple.
Collin and Denton counties became the fastest growing counties in the US with a population of more than a million.
In Frisco (pop. 235,000), Indians went from 6% of residents in the early 2010s to about 20% today.
Since the Trump assault on H-1Bs began, however, there’s been a vicious course correction. Home prices in the some parts of the Dallas area have fallen as much as 9% over the last year, double the decline in the wider region.
Realtors told The New York Post thatdemand from South Asians, in particular, has collapsed. One builder from north Texas who designs houses with special “puja” rooms for Hindu rituals and “spice kitchens” says sales to South Asians have fallen from 70% of his total sales to just 30%. He’s now sat on a backlog of 125 luxury homes under construction.
This is good news for the residents of Dallas, where the median sale price ballooned close to $470,000. But it’s also a powerful illustration of one of the central contentions of the MAGA movement led by Donald Trump. Reversing mass immigration will make life better, not worse, for Americans, and it will get better fast. Few things make life better than being able to afford a home of our own—puja room or no.
