Last month President Trump announced plans for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin enforcement actions, or raids, throughout ten U.S. cities in order to enforce deportation orders. Following pleas from Congressional Democrats the President suspended the actions for two weeks in order to give Congress a chance to act. Of course, Congress has done nothing but bloviate. On Friday the President confirmed that the raids are back on and scheduled to begin this Sunday. As well they should be. The raids are both legal and necessary, yet they have already been misrepresented by opponents and such acts will almost certainly be repeated.
To be clear, these raids are not targeting people at random. They are specifically designed to target illegal aliens with final deportation orders already issued against them. That is, illegal immigrants who have had their due process and have been issued final deportation orders by a federal judge. And they are perfectly legal. Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests the Executive branch with not only the legal right, but the legal duty to enforce the laws duly passed by Congress. The President must take this action.
Not only are the raids perfectly legal, they are also desperately necessary. Nationally, we are stuck in a vicious, self-destructive and never-ending cycle. Be it through illegal border crossings or false claims of asylum, countless immigrants cross our border daily. They are incentivized by the promises of sanctuary cities, U.S. taxpayer funded healthcare, and protection from lawful removal.
When, after being afforded due process and a fair hearing, and being ordered removed, they remain. Such is the case with the targets of the impending raids. Some brought children with them and now claim that this is the only home the children have ever known. Some had children while here illegally and dubiously argue that birthright citizenship of the child should morally entitle the parent to stay. This leads to the never ending ‘DREAMer’s” situation. “What do we do with the people already here?” And, thus, the cycle continues.
The Democratic primary has only served to exacerbate this problem. All of the candidates in the recent Democratic debates incentivized illegal immigration in one form or another. From the promising of free health care to the decriminalization of illegal border crossing to the protection from deportation, the presidential contenders each sent loud and alarming signals to would be illegals and illegal aliens already here that the continued surge of illegal immigration is welcomed. And the cycle continues.
Entice illegals to come. Incentivize them to stay. Frantically argue against removal. Then call removal immoral because they have been here however long. Cycle along and cycle along. At some point in a self-destructive cycle it becomes a necessity of survival to break the cycle. The broad national and international attention of the raids will provide a much needed deterrence to illegal immigration and, if only one step in a hundred-mile march, a much needed first step.
Additionally, the coming raids, coupled with current border crisis brought on by the aforementioned, may compel Congress to finally act on our illegal immigrant problem. Friday saw the Democrat led House Oversight and Reform Committee hold a fiery hearing on conditions at the necessary border detention facilities. In an exchange clearly not anticipated by Representatives Alexandria Cortez and Chuy Garcia, former acting director of ICE, Thomas Homan, decimated the Democratic lawmakers following their attempts to racialize the crisis.
When Garcia charged “How could you have possibly allowed this under your watch? Do you not care? Is it because they don’t look like children that are around you?” Homan angrily fired back, “Your comments are disgusting…I've served my country 34 years and yes, I held a five-year-old boy in my arms…for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love of my country and for children, that's why this whole thing needs to be fixed.” But more importantly and impactful was Homan’s earlier statement, “This isn’t about enforcing the law. If anyone on this panel doesn’t like what’s going on, then change the law. You’re the legislature. We’re the executive branch. Don’t blame the men and women in uniform doing the best they can. It’s outrageous. This is political theater at its best.” Actually confronting and challenging the legislature to legislate. What a terrific concept.
Friday’s hearing may only be political theater, and an entertaining one at that, but add to it the gravity of the upcoming ICE raids, and Congress could actually be compelled to fix our broken immigration system.
Finally, though the raids are perfectly legal and ultimately necessary, they are undoubtedly going to be misrepresented by the left. The same Congresspeople and media that pushed the Russia collusion hoax, Kavanaugh hoax, Jussie Smollett hoax, and Covington Catholic hoax, all in one year, will surely try and spin these needed ICE raids as something they are not. Countless doctored videos such as with Covington Catholic will arise. Media outlets will change or even hide the truth about the raids just as NBC News did during the Justice Kavanaugh hearings. From a party establishment that constantly conflates illegal and legal immigration what else can be expected other than a concerted campaign of misrepresentation on the raids.
The ICE raids are not illegal. The warrants have already been adjudicated by a federal judge. And more importantly, they are a necessary step in fixing our illegal immigration and border crises and breaking the self-destructive cycle we are stuck in.