Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin visited San Diego on Earth Day to address the flow of sewage from Mexico&#8217;s Tijuana River across the border into the United States.
Zeldin visited San Diego to meet with local and Mexican officials to discuss the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/us-news/epas-zeldin-demands-end-to-mexican-sewage-flooding-across-border/">flow of sewage</a> from the Mexican river, which has polluted American beaches and even hindered the training of Navy SEALs, some of whom have gotten sick as a result of the pollution.
“There, for decades, has been raw sewage that’s been traveling across the border, and Americans are very concerned with regards to beach closures, degradation of the Tijuana River Valley, and concerns of public health, air quality,” Zeldin <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/us-news/epas-zeldin-demands-end-to-mexican-sewage-flooding-across-border/">charged</a>. The EPA administrator explained that his visit to San Diego is intended to ensure “that the path forward is one of max collaboration and extreme urgency to end a crisis that should have ended a long time ago.”
&#8220;Mexico needs to fulfill their part in cleaning up the contamination that they caused. They cannot view this as a U.S. problem just because their contamination reached U.S. soil,&#8221; Zeldin asserted at a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYVmEzwCqfY">press conference</a> in San Diego. &#8220;They&#8217;re going to have to commit to that final cleanup&#8221; in addition to completing infrastructure projects to prevent future flows of sewage into the United States, the EPA administrator explained.
The EPA administrator, who also toured an international wastewater treatment plant, explained that Mexican officials are willing to collaborate with the United States to fix the crisis.
“It was clear with the way that the Mexican environmental secretary approached the conversation yesterday evening that she wants to have a strong, collaborative relationship,” Zeldin added. “I welcome that collaboration.” Zeldin went on to add that he’d work with Mexican officials to craft a comprehensive solution to end the crisis.
“What’s been communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve the situation,” Zeldin noted.
Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about Zeldin’s visit to the southern border to examine the flow of sewage from Mexico. Leavitt said that “Zeldin met with his Mexican counterpart to discuss steps that Mexico needs to take to ensure the water entering the United States is clean and safe.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
What does the White House have planned for Earth Day? <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> tells <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaryMargOlohan</a>:
&#8220;[President Trump] has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, and we want to do what&#8217;s right for our environment and for our earth.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/nrNinIXu8A">pic.twitter.com/nrNinIXu8A</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1914738540858265921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
She added that President Trump “has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, and we want to do what&#8217;s right for our environment and for our earth.&#8221;

Southern border

EPA’s Lee Zeldin Travels To Border To Hammer Mexican ‘Raw Sewage’ Polluting American Water

Border

California

Lee Zeldin

Mexico

Pollution

Social Issues

U.S.

It&#8217;s Earth Day, and the White House is trying to fix a toxic and smelly environmental issue on the nation&#8217;s southern border.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the Trump administration is urging the Mexican government to do more to stop sewage from flowing across the border and into the United States. She highlighted President Donald Trump&#8217;s desire to &#8220;do what&#8217;s right&#8221; for the environment.
During Tuesday&#8217;s press briefing, Leavitt responded to a question from Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan and discussed the work of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who is in San Diego pushing for the Mexican government to stop the flow of sewage into the United States.
&#8220;Administrator Zeldin met with his Mexican counterpart to discuss steps Mexico needs to take to ensure the water entering the United States is clean and safe, and he&#8217;s holding a press conference in San Diego today with elected officials and local stakeholders on the Tijuana River sewage crisis,&#8221; Leavitt said. &#8220;I would also add from the president himself, he has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, and we want to do what&#8217;s right for our environment and for our earth.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What does the White House have planned for Earth Day? <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> tells <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaryMargOlohan</a>:
&quot;[President Trump] has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, and we want to do what&#39;s right for our environment and for our earth.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/nrNinIXu8A">pic.twitter.com/nrNinIXu8A</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1914738540858265921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Raw sewage from Mexico has traveled into the United States through the Tijuana River Watershed &#8220;for decades,&#8221; according to Zeldin, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/us-news/epas-zeldin-demands-end-to-mexican-sewage-flooding-across-border/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The issue has raised concerns about &#8220;beach closures, degradation of the Tijuana River Valley, and concerns of public health, air quality,&#8221; Zeldin added. Trump&#8217;s EPA administrator met with Mexican Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena to discuss the crisis.
Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/work-starts-to-stop-sewage-flows-into-california-from-mexico/2020/09/02/b8675f3e-ed86-11ea-bd08-1b10132b458f_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed</a> to resolve the Tijuana sewage issue during his first administration, completing a $10.6 million project to prevent millions of gallons of sewage from entering the Tijuana River. Zeldin said on Monday that the crisis &#8220;needs to end.&#8221;
“[T]here’s nowhere more important for me to be tomorrow than on the border in California dealing with this very important public health and environmental crisis,” he added.

Karoline Leavitt

Leavitt Highlights Big Environmental Issue For Trump Admin On Earth Day

Donald Trump

Earth Day

Environment

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Politics

Southern Border

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-VANCE-BORDER

Prison First, Deportation Later: Trump Revives Criminal Penalties For Border Jumpers

Border Crisis

Court

Del Rio

Illegal Immigation

Investigation

Judges

President Trump

Texas

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Nogales border with increased presence of Mexican troops looking for fentanyl and migrants

Trump’s War On Fentanyl Off To A Strong Start

Trump's War On Fentanyl Off To A Strong Start

Drugs

Fentanyl

The Trump administration’s Treasury Department announced today that it is imposing sanctions aimed at wiping out funding for the Sinaloa Cartel, a violent and notorious drug cartel that was recently designated as a foreign terror organization.
“We’ve taken decisive action against the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most notoriously violent criminal and drug trafficking organizations in the world,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an announcement posted to X on Monday. “We leveled sanctions against six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering operation, cutting off financing for these evil people.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
National security is economic security. Today, the <a href="https://twitter.com/USTreasury?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USTreasury</a> Department proudly leveled new sanctions against financiers of the criminal Sinaloa drug cartel, which has flooded our borders with fentanyl and senselessly murdered innocent American citizens. This ends under… <a href="https://t.co/b4uLng8RNN">pic.twitter.com/b4uLng8RNN</a>
— Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecScottBessent/status/1906756180619264450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
“The Sinaloa Cartel has invaded our southern border. They have tortured and murdered countless of our citizens, dedicated law enforcement agents like Kiki Camarena and veterans like Nicholas Quets, who was only 31 years old when he was ruthlessly taken from us,” Bessent went on to charge.
Bessent added that the foreign terror organization is responsible for a “significant amount of the fentanyl and illicit drugs brought into the United States,” adding that those drugs “continue to kill innocent Americans and destroy families every single day.”
“Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise, only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today,” the Treasury Secretary also <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0064">noted</a>.
The Treasury Department spotlighted the specific individuals and organizations hit by the sanctions, also explaining that any of their assets held in institutions in the United States are now required to be frozen and reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The sanctions come just after the Trump administration’s State Department named the Sinaloa Cartel a foreign terror organization, <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20Department%20of%20State,as%20Foreign%20Terrorist%20Organizations%20(FTOs">describing</a> it as “one of the world’s most powerful drug cartels&#8221; and &#8220;one of the largest producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other illicit drugs to the United States.”
“Cartel de Sinaloa has used violence to murder, kidnap, and intimidate civilians, government officials, and journalists,” the State Department added.
Various different agencies in the Trump administration have recently taken action to crack down on the cartels. FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-extradites-top-ms-13-leader-from-mexico-to-face-american-justice">announced</a> earlier this month that the federal law enforcement agency had extradited a leader of the violent criminal gang MS-13 from Mexico.
The administration has also invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the removal of suspected Tren de Aragua members. Multiple left-wing judges, including one who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-who-upheld-block-of-trumps-deportation-flights-is-a-major-dem-donor">donated</a> five figures to Democrats, have ruled against the use of the act to remove the illegal aliens, prompting the Trump administration to call for the Supreme Court to weigh in.

Bessent and Trump

Trump’s Treasury Dept Launches Sanctions Targeting Sinaloa Cartel

Crime

Drug Cartels

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Treasury

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke at an event on Thursday where the United States Coast Guard offloaded a historic seizure of drugs that were headed for America&#8217;s borders.
Speaking at Port Everglades in South Florida, Noem ushered in the offloading of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs that were seized by cutter vessels operating in America&#8217;s coastal waters.
&#8220;Today is a historic day,&#8221; Noem said. &#8220;Here at Port Everglades, over 22.5 tons or 45,000 pounds of cocaine and 50 pounds of marijuana — valued at over a half a billion dollars — are going to be offloaded and taken out of circulation.&#8221;
&#8220;This is an unprecedented seizure of illicit drugs that is the result of 14 different interdictions of drug smuggling vessels off the coasts of Mexico, Central, and South America, by the crews of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone and Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk,&#8221; she continued.
Noem said that the cutters worked with helicopter tactical squadron air crews and various law enforcement agencies located in the Pacific region.
Touting the work of the men and women in the United States Coast Guard, Noem said that the seizures meant that &#8220;fewer families are going to be torn apart by addiction, that fewer lives are going to be lost to overdoses, that communities will be safer and fewer resources will be at the hands of dangerous, violent cartels that seek to do all of us harm.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sec_Noem</a>: &quot;In the first 100 days of President Trump&#39;s administration, he&#39;s already delivered on his campaign promises to make America safe again&#8230; Here at Port Everglades, over 2.5 tons or 45,000 pounds of cocaine and 50 pounds of marijuana, valued at over half a billion… <a href="https://t.co/dnVoRu8XEz">pic.twitter.com/dnVoRu8XEz</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1902742973579685999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

U.S. Coast Guard Offloads Over $500 Million In Illegal Drugs

Kristi Noem Oversees Coast Guard Offloading ‘Historic’ $500+ Million Drug Seizure

Department of Homeland Security

General

Kristi Noem

MixCollage-20-Mar-2025-12-17-PM-5375

Got-Away Traffic Drops Like A Rock At This Notorious Stretch Of The Border

Border Patrol

illegal immigrants

Trump Administration

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Tuesday that the federal law enforcement agency had extradited a man from Mexico who is believed to be a “senior leader” of the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
“The FBI has extradited one of our &#8216;Ten Most Wanted&#8217; from Mexico — one we believe to be a key senior leader of MS-13, Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales,” Patel announced <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1902008572088909884">in a post</a> on X. “He was arrested in Mexico and is being transported within the U.S. as we speak, where he will face American justice.”
“This is a major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America. Thank you to our brave personnel for executing the mission,” Patel said before thanking Mexican officials for their operational support.
The announcement from Patel comes just after the Mexican government <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ms13-gang-member-arrested-mexico-fbi-most-wanted-2046174">announced</a> his arrest in Veracruz on Monday.
The FBI previously noted that Roman-Bardales should be considered “armed and dangerous” and “has been charged with several offenses for his alleged role in ordering numerous acts of violence against civilians and rival gang members, as well as his alleged role in drug distribution and extortion schemes in the United States and El Salvador.
Roman-Bardales was <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/kash-patel-reveals-major-ms-13-arrest-mexico-2046507">hit</a> with a federal arrest warrant by the Eastern District in New York in 2022 and stands accused of conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists; narco-terrorism conspiracy; racketeering conspiracy; and alien smuggling conspiracy.
Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, was <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/">designated</a> a foreign terror organization last month by the Trump administration.
“MS-13 actively recruits, organizes, and spreads violence in several countries, primarily in Central America and North America, including El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States,” the State Department noted. “MS-13 has conducted numerous violent attacks, including assassination and the use of IEDs and drones, against El Salvador government officials and facilities.”
The Trump administration said, “MS-13 uses public displays of violence to intimidate civilian populations to obtain and control territory and manipulate the electoral process in El Salvador.”

Kash Patel

FBI Extradites Top MS-13 Leader From Mexico To Face ‘American Justice’

cartel

kash patel

MS-13 Gang

World

AUSTIN, Texas – Following Donald Trump&#8217;s inauguration, it took his new administration all of an hour to bring the greatest mass migration border crisis in American history to a shuddering halt, with the first full month of apprehension numbers in February hitting <a href="https://x.com/USBPChief/status/1896009220333375909" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the lowest levels in decades</a>. The great mass migration crisis is, <a href="https://cis.org/Bensman/Greatest-Mass-Migration-Border-Crisis-US-History-Over" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in my estimation</a>, over thanks to a simple combination of Trump’s restoration of lawful detentions, rapid expulsions, interior deportations, and an end to releases. RIP to January 2021 — January 2025.
But before anyone moves on from this funeral, however, a different ceremony is necessary, an autopsy for the high purpose of serious national reflection. One for the pantheon of border security ideas and theories the Democratic Party and its academic, pro-migration think tank allies relentlessly sold the American public for years on end as the only means to save the Republic from the unmitigated mass border migration it started as soon as Joe Biden took office.
Now debunked, disgraced, and shot full of holes by what Trump accomplished in an hour on is first day in office, may all of us bury these pseudo-scientific political theories and ideas forevermore in the dung heap of political scams where they belong, and to salt the Earth around them.
<h3>The Scam ‘Senate Bill’</h3>
In retrospect, Democrats used these untested, yet seemingly plausible immigration policy ideas to distract Americans from what they were really doing, which was dismantling the despised policies that actually worked to keep illegal border crossers at bay.
Start with the most emblematic of these bait-and-switch ideas, the “bipartisan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-a-stunt-senate-rejects-border-security-bill-again" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lankford senate bill</a>.” Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris relentlessly sold this piece of legislation to the American public as the only possible panacea to control the border. Trump and Republicans had the bill killed, which set the stage for Harris and many Democrats running for office to promise its resurrection as a central plank of the party’s immigration policy platforms.
Harris, Biden himself, and Democratic Party influencers would chant almost in unison, for instance, that the legislation’s provisions would finally give a President the absent necessary authorities to really crack down on illegal immigration. Under the Biden administration enforcement encounters at the Southern border averaged more than 200,000 a month, and more than 7,000 per day. Remember they would cite how it would even provide more Border Patrol agents and CBP officers to seize more fentanyl and blamed Trump for killing the bill to perpetuate the border crisis for political advantage?
<div id="attachment_745779" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-745779" class="size-large wp-image-745779" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Untitled-design-117-1024x576.jpg" alt="A group of migrants are processed by Border Patrol after crossing the river illegally near the highway on February 4, 2024 outside Eagle Pass, Texas." width="1024" height="576" />(Photo by SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
“I will make sure that it comes to my desk, and I would sign it,” <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/harris-said-shed-sign-the-bipartisan-border-bill-that-trump-stopped-heres-whats-in-it-183310125.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harris told CNN</a> during a typical August 2024 interview about the desperate need for a big piece of legislation like the Lankford bill.
But here’s what we can all now see on naked obvious display with Trump’s border crossings averaging south of 300 per day, on track for an historically low 8,300 per month (all quickly expelled back into Mexico): No legislation providing extra presidential authorities were then, now or in the future ever needed for a president to substantially reduce illegal immigrant crossings. It was all a big fat lie.
Those <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/border-crossings-plunge-90-to-historic-lows-under-trump-crackdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lowest numbers</a> in recorded American history are happening because everything that Trump (or Biden) needed to drive them down was already available in the existing Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA), which required authorities to use them to achieve zero illegal entries. By contrast, the envisioned Lankford bill would have statutorily okayed the releases into the country of 5,000 alien border crossers per day – up 1.8 million per year – before a president could, if she or he felt like it, crack down with expulsions.
And all those new Border Patrol agents? Their real purpose was to process those 5,000 per day for release into the country, not to catch and expel.
Now that Trump’s plan is working magic, the whole “we-must-have-legislation” narrative or something called “comprehensive immigration reform” must never be let out of its crypt.
<h3>Digging Up ‘Root Causes’</h3>
You&#8217;ll have to dig a deep hole in the dung heap of tin foil hat ideas to find one of the most pernicious of the Democratic Party’s immigration theories that Trump’s border has now exposed: the so-called “Root Causes Strategy.” The Biden administration appropriated this idea from European progressive liberals <a href="https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/29/u-s-strategy-for-addressing-the-root-causes-of-migration-in-central-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as its central immigration policy</a> with a <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fact-sheet-strategy-address-the-root-causes-migration-central-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">February 2021 Executive Order</a> that claimed this was the best way to control the U.S. southern border. Biden appointed Vice President Harris to oversee the whole stupid thing.
The theory held that fewer citizens of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador would want to emigrate if the United States invested billions in tax and development money to rebuild those troubled Central American sending countries.
During an April 2021 state visit to Central America, the new border czar laid blame for the already surging illegal crossings on “extensive storm damage because of extreme climate.” And kept going.
“We’re looking at drought in a region where agriculture is one of the most traditionally important bases for their economy,” she explained. “We’re looking at what’s happening in terms of food scarcity as a result of that.”
After billions in U.S. foreign aid, it worked about as well as the idea worked for European liberals who first concocted the bizarre notion in the early 1980s. The most cursory glance at Europe’s experience would have shown it failed miserably there, just as it has here. For example, the European Union-funded policy think tank MIGNEX <a href="https://www.mignex.org/publications/throwing-development-money-migration-problem-it-completely-misguided" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reviewed some 10 studies</a> spanning more than a decade where development aid was invested to reduce Europe-bound emigration from poor countries.
“In its current form, development aid does not seem to be big enough to create the underlying changes that effect migration decisions,” the MIGNEX report concluded, in part. “In cases where we do see a deterrent effect of aid on migration, a noticeable impact would require an unrealistic increase in aid.”
Writing for the International Institute of Social Studies in 2007, social scientist Hein de Haas <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00435.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concluded that</a>, “Besides the limited scope and credibility of such policies, empirical and theoretical evidence strongly suggests that economic and human development increases people’s capabilities and aspirations and therefore tends to coincide with an increase rather than a decrease in emigration.”
We now know the Biden administration dangled the root-causes strategy like a shiny bauble over here, while opening the border over there.
America must now strike this idea dead and bury it deep.
<h3>Simple Causes, Simple Solutions</h3>
Trump’s quick border closure now requires that the American public, lawmakers, students of immigration policy and policy practitioners finally and forever accept that starting and stopping mass migration events was never the complex undertaking that Democrats constantly asserted while keeping the southern border wide open. 
Neither the border nor the “immigration system” were ever “broken” like they always claimed in need of drastic “comprehensive immigration reform.”
<div id="attachment_862069" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-862069" class="size-large wp-image-862069" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194393473-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: Donald Trump is sworn into office by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds the Bible in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson - Pool/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194393473-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194393473-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194393473-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2194393473.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Julia Demaree Nikhinson &#8211; Pool/Getty Images</div>
On Trump&#8217;s inauguration day, supposed emigration-driving climate change, foreign government persecution, gang crime and all the other Democrat-claimed causes of the American border crisis did not – all of a sudden –relent. 
Trump used a few policy tools that past Congresses provided presidents under existing law to address the only real and simple “root cause” of mass migration, which was to dramatically lower the chances that smuggling fee money will buy entry into the United States for a long enough time to pay it back many times over. 
They’re coming in mass when the payoff odds of release-and-stay are high like Biden-Harris mass-release policies made them. They’re staying home when the payoff odds are really low, like Trump just made them with detention, expulsion, and deportation. 
That’s the only idea now proven and left standing for all of America to see and know. The rest of them should be pronounced dead on arrival and then be buried, hopefully forever.
* * *
Todd Bensman is a Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a two-time <a href="https://www.toddbensman.com/awards/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Press Club award winner.</a> He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a 23-year veteran newspaper reporter. He is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Covert-Border-War-Infiltration/dp/1642937258/ref=sr_1_2?crid=BP7S7BH2VBFB&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.O6ZnUZYfSlVsoiHcdjPhFHfMHLUTDwW2ZnKSAJboBbE5kdYf_h7sD08-h6YkTqOaoX3BwNswbUMPbnTbwQYA0OPgQiI3nLoLjosQWsEhFf5KFAPB4F0DTwUsSoJFgmaEF7V1rMQnOPvLvOLapFQ1ESD-D7UVwCNHsSGEs2XzEa9rmO1CLoVV277SrmlPOkJf.15UkCaAoqCyd7hpP16dl7D3_ZWawrd1RcN3D_ZSFo4w&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=todd+bensman&amp;qid=1730314546&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=todd+bensman%2Cstripbooks%2C100&amp;sr=1-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">America’s Covert Border War</a>,” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Overrun-Unleashed-Greatest-Border-History-ebook/dp/B0BS1R9LCP?ref_=ast_author_dp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History</a>.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

U.S./Mexico border

How Trump’s Suddenly Secure Border Forever Debunks Dem Immigration Theories

Biden Administration

Kamala Harris

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday night that President Donald Trump might be willing to meet Canada and Mexico “in the middle” regarding the stand-off on tariffs, illegal immigration, and drugs pouring across the American border. Lutnick also said the Trump administration would make an announcement on Wednesday.
Trump has imposed tariffs on the two countries, which have retaliated with tariffs of their own.
Speaking on Fox Business with Larry Kudlow, Lutnick began, “We talked to Canada and Mexico and said, ‘Look, you gotta close the border and you gotta end this illegal immigration. Enough is enough. If you respect us as your best trading partner, end it. And you’ve gotta end fentanyl.&#8217;”
“And the way we’re gonna describe fentanyl is very simple: autopsies to American deaths,” he declared. “They gotta end. They just gotta end. I don’t want to hear you talk about it; I want Americans to stop being murdered by opioids and fentanyl. And so they did a nice job on the border start, but the fentanyl deaths are just not declining in the way we expected.”
“So what do you think the president’s going to do?” Lutnick asked rhetorically. “He’s gonna come out today angry that Americans are still being killed. Now, both the Mexicans and the Canadians were on the phone with me all day today trying to show that they&#8217;ll do better, and the president’s listening because you know he’s very, very fair, and very reasonable, so I think he’s going to work something out with them. It’s not gonna be a ‘pause,’ none of that ‘pause’ stuff, but I think he’s gonna figure out, you do more and I&#8217;ll meet you in the middle some way.&#8217; And we&#8217;re probably going to be announcing that tomorrow. So somewhere in the middle will likely be the outcome, the president moving with the Canadians and the Mexicans, but not all the way.”
“I think he’s gonna think about USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement); he’s got people in USMCA; people in who are backing the way he set trade up in his first term and those people outside of it,” he explained. “You can’t just say, ‘It’s okay; people can die,” he concluded.
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US-POLITICS-TRUMP-ECONOMY-CLIMATE-ENERGY

Commerce Secretary Lutnick: Trump Might Meet Canada, Mexico ‘In The Middle’

Canada

Department of Commerce

Economy

Executive

Howard Lutnick

Tariffs

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened that Canada would face an even higher tariff after the country responded with a retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods.
Trump&#8217;s 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico &#8211; and increased tariff on China &#8211; went into effect Tuesday morning, and both countries vowed to respond with reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Trump&#8217;s decision to impose tariffs on its neighbors &#8220;is a very dumb thing to do.&#8221;
In a Truth Social post, Trump responded and warned Canada not to respond with its own tariff.
&#8220;Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114105388432604284" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on social media.
Canada immediately imposed a 25% tariff on $30 billion worth of American goods, according to Trudeau. Another $125 billion worth of U.S. products will be hit with a 25% tariff at the end of the month, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/03/04/trudeau-trump-tariffs-canada-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The Canadian prime minister also addressed the American people on Tuesday, saying, &#8220;Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada, or because of consumers in Canada, or both.&#8221;
&#8220;They have chosen to raise costs for American consumers on everyday essential items like groceries and gas, on major purchases like cars and homes and everything in between,&#8221; Trudeau added, arguing that the tariffs would cut off America&#8217;s access to energy and critical minerals.
In a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-proceeds-with-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-and-mexico/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on Monday, the White House said that &#8220;while President Trump gave both Canada and Mexico ample opportunity to curb the dangerous cartel activity and influx of lethal drugs flowing into our country, they have failed to adequately address the situation.&#8221;
&#8220;Both nations’ failure to arrest traffickers, seize drugs, or coordinate with U.S. law enforcement constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to America’s security—demanding IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) action to force accountability and protect American lives.&#8221;
Trudeau dismissed Trump&#8217;s argument that the tariffs were to protect American security, claiming that Trump wants to &#8220;see a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us.&#8221;
&#8220;First of all, that&#8217;s never going to happen. We will never be the fifty-first state,&#8221; Trudeau added.
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Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau

Trade War Intensifies: Trump Vows To Increase Tariff After Canada Reciprocates

Justin Trudeau

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBl1nu_dxXQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> CNBC in an interview Tuesday morning that President Donald Trump&#8217;s tariffs will make trade &#8220;fair,&#8221; arguing that the United States has been &#8220;ripped off&#8221; by other countries.
Trump&#8217;s 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports and 20% on China went into effect on Tuesday, sparking a trade war as all three nations have vowed to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/economy/trade-mexico-canada-china-tariffs-trump-hnk-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">respond</a> with reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods. Asked by CNBC host Joe Kernan about tariffs increasing prices for Americans, Lutnick responded by asking why vehicles sold in the United States are being made in Canada and Mexico.
The Commerce Secretary argued that tariffs would create more jobs in America as car manufacturers would move production to the United States to avoid tariffs. Lutnick agreed with Kernan that car companies would likely take longer than a few months to move all of their production to the United States.
&#8220;I agree with you. They can&#8217;t do it in three months,&#8221; Lutnick said. &#8220;But they can do it in six months, and you&#8217;re going to see jobs created in America, cars [made] in America. You build it here, you don&#8217;t pay any tariff.&#8221;
At least one car company, Honda, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-no-room-for-canada-mexico-to-make-a-deal-tariffs-go-into-effect-tomorrow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> set up plans to produce its next generation Civic hybrid in Indiana instead of Mexico to avoid Trump’s tariffs.
According to Lutnick, the Trump administration will focus on &#8220;renegotiating&#8221; a deal with its trading partners and attempt to &#8220;make the world fair and reciprocal.&#8221;
&#8220;You guys have no idea how bad the deals are that America suffers with,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Everybody charges &#8230; dairy is 250% in Canada. You guys don&#8217;t think about that stuff, but it&#8217;s unbelievable the way we get ripped off around the world. And Donald Trump&#8217;s going to level-set it, make it reciprocal, and make it fair.&#8221;
&#8220;You can&#8217;t kill Americans and get away with it,&#8221; Lutnick added, seemingly referring to Trump&#8217;s strategy to use tariffs to put pressure on China, Canada, and Mexico to prevent drug trafficking into the United States. Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-no-room-for-canada-mexico-to-make-a-deal-tariffs-go-into-effect-tomorrow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters on Monday that there was &#8220;no room left for Mexico or for Canada&#8221; to hash out a deal before the tariffs went into effect overnight. The president <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-trade-4e610130?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> remains unhappy with how Canada and Mexico are addressing drug trafficking after both nations promised to do more to secure their borders with the United States last month.
“And just so you understand, vast amounts of fentanyl have poured into our country from Mexico, and as you know, also from China, where it goes to Mexico and goes to Canada,” Trump said.
During his CNBC interview, Lutnick was emphatic that &#8220;tariffs do not create inflation.&#8221;
&#8220;Printing money creates inflation. You have a balanced budget, there can&#8217;t be inflation,&#8221; he added, acknowledging that tariffs could raise prices for some products.
&#8220;China has the highest tariffs in the world. Everything gets tariffed in China, and they don&#8217;t have inflation, in fact they have deflation,&#8221; Lutnick said. &#8220;India, the second-highest tariffs in the world, they don&#8217;t have inflation. So this concept is just people whining and complaining and not being truthful.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/china/inflation-cpi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trading Economics</a>, China&#8217;s year-over-year inflation rate is sitting at 0.5% as of January, but the communist country&#8217;s persistently low inflation has <a href="https://amro-asia.org/understanding-chinas-low-inflation-challenge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised concerns</a> about potential deflation, which can lead to lower profits for businesses. India&#8217;s <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/india/inflation-cpi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflation</a>, meanwhile, sits at 4.3%, which is higher than the 3% year-over-year inflation rate in the United States.
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Donald Trump, Howard Lutnick

‘We Get Ripped Off Around The World’: Trump Commerce Secretary Says Tariffs Will Make Trade ‘Fair’

China

Trade War

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