There is a reason I left Los Angeles.
As long as I can recall living in LA, every time you would drive past a Home Depot or a similar store, there would be a crowd of illegal immigrants who were waiting for work.
You do feel bad for these people. Many of them have crossed the border in an attempt to seek work and send remittances back home, and many of them are also on welfare. It turns out that an enormous number of people who come across the border end up engaging in things that leech off of the taxpayer dime; they end up as a net cost to the taxpayer. They take part in the public education system if they have kids who they bring across the border; they end up using medical services.
But the issue is this: It’s not about whether these people are nice or mean, whether they are good or bad.
They have broken the law. They crossed the border illegally. And that is just the ones who otherwise are law-abiding.
And then there are a bunch of people who are not otherwise law-abiding. There are many people in Southern California or occupying jails in Southern California who committed crimes in addition to illegal immigration. 
Federal law says you are not allowed to cross the American border without your papers, and that if you overstay your visa, even if you come across the border legally with a visa, then you are also here illegally and you ought to be deported.
Enforcing that law should not be controversial. There is a reason countries have borders, but the United States, for as long as I can recall, simply did not enforce the law properly. That was particularly true under Joe Biden.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2213?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
When Donald Trump came into office in 2016, he pledged to do something about illegal immigration. And he did. The rate of border crossing plummeted dramatically during Donald Trump&#8217;s first term.
Then Joe Biden came in and opened the border wide to the tune of at least 10 million people crossing the border, either by claiming asylum falsely or by simply crossing illegally between ports of entry or by overstaying visas.
Donald Trump has now come into office for the second time, pledging to stop illegal immigration. He has already successfully closed the southern border. And now he is activating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to implement the law; to find people who are in the interior of the country illegally and to remove them.
This should not be controversial. Just because elected officials haven&#8217;t enforced the law properly for decades, it does not mean that enforcing the law now should be controversial.
Late last week, there were some immigration enforcement operations that happened in Southern California. According to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/los-angeles-protests-national-guard-015b5bd3">The Wall Street Journal</a>:
<blockquote>The first demonstrations began Friday in Los Angeles, when residents reacted to federal agents engaged in what appeared to be an immigration enforcement operation. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said that some 800 protesters surrounded and breached a federal law-enforcement building in Los Angeles. 
Protests continued throughout the weekend, with a particularly tense standoff occurring Sunday evening in downtown Los Angeles. California Highway Patrol officers used flash-bang stun grenades and tactical positioning to push protesters off Highway 101. Demonstrators threw tree branches, scooters and fireworks from a freeway overpass onto police vehicles, and some protesters set fire to at least five Waymo driverless taxis.  </blockquote>
The Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/california-protesters-clash-with-federal-agents-for-a-second-day-e23066bb?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAhBtQDc_BPowgGspZYa2AEmKvp6M2nag8T46Lb2x4X7Gc8-Je8Q2abS0t-7WtE%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68473754&amp;gaa_sig=VbjeylgUtsk49Bwgg6nfs-yUFWEjXNCJBw_t63GPSyAC4ZOqP7mtiFvhYHZmn2lacqcNop981VLhH2Qn1iO2ow%3D%3D">added</a>:
<blockquote>Protesters also gathered outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles Saturday night and were pushed back by law enforcement using tear gas and flash bangs, according to local news footage. Los Angeles police declared an unlawful assembly in the area and detained multiple people.</blockquote>
Things got incredibly fraught. That is not a giant shock. What is amazing, however, is that people believe the United States is so lawless that when federal agents show up to arrest people for being in the country illegally, we end up with hundreds of protesters, many of whom end up assaulting police officers, ICE agents, participating in acts of criminality, rioting, and burning things.
L.A. has become an incredibly lawless place. It&#8217;s one of the reasons my family and I moved during the BLM riots, in which the city of Los Angeles essentially told the cops to stand down and allow people to riot and destroy whatever they could, burning cop cars along the way.
We lived in a fairly decent area of L.A., and I could hear the helicopters above our home and gunshots. I can promise you, in the aftermath of what&#8217;s going on right now, there will be many people who look at California and say, “Why in the hell am I paying exorbitant taxes in order to live in a place that allowed every area around L.A. to burn just a few months ago, and now is allowing parts of L.A. to burn in order to protect people who came to the country illegally in the first place?”
It&#8217;s total insanity. This is essentially what my new book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Scavengers-Story-America-Critics/dp/1668097885">Lions and Scavengers</a>,” is about. There are two groups of people in the United States and across the West: people who wish to build institutions and create successful operating systems, and then people who wish to tear them down.
You look at the protesters and you see many of them flying Mexican flags as well as Palestinian flags (and it&#8217;s a good indicator that you&#8217;re on the wrong side of any protests if you&#8217;re the one flying a Palestinian flag). These protesters were roaming around suggesting they need to be in the United States while flying the Mexican flag.
That&#8217;s an amazing thing because they&#8217;re not saying Mexico and the United States are in solidarity. Precisely the opposite. They are saying they came to the United States as a quasi-invading force and they&#8217;ve come here as refugees from Mexico, and therefore left Mexico for a reason.
This would be the equivalent of Cuban migrants attempting to escape Cuba, who then fly the Cuban flag while attempting to stop ICE officers. It would be bizarre. 
Cubans coming to the United States from Cuba generally don&#8217;t fly the flag of the country that oppressed them and forced them to leave. If they are flying that flag it’s to overthrow the government of Cuba.
But in LA, you have a bunch of people flying Mexican flags, not because they wish to change the government of Mexico, or because they believe in the solidarity between the United States and Mexico, but because many of them believe that this entire area is Aztalan: It doesn&#8217;t belong to the American people or the American government.
The Left thinks all of this is okay. When you have the government of Los Angeles not doing enough to shut all of this down, it demonstrates the Democrats&#8217; priorities.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
There&#8217;s a long heritage for all of this in the Democratic Party, going back to Barack Obama winking and nodding at the Ferguson riots of 2014. We&#8217;ve had a dozen years of this kind of garbage and yet Democrats still don&#8217;t seem to get it. They are defending the rioters and the protesters and the people who are engaging in violence.
If anyone actually wonders why President Trump is president — this is why.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-IMMIGRATION

Illegal Immigration, Lawlessness, And The Left’s America

Ben Shapiro

California

Gavin Newsom

illegal immigrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Karen Bass

Los Angeles

Opinion

Riots

Southern Border

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice has secured the return of alleged human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and will prosecute and imprison him in the United States, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a press conference Friday.
“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi told reporters. “This is what American justice looks like,” Bondi said. The attorney general went on to thank various other agencies that aided in the Justice Department’s investigation, as well as El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
“On May 21st, a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment, charging Abrego Garcia with alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling,” Bondi said. “Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant, and they agreed to return him to our country. We&#8217;re grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges.”
Abrego Garcia became a cause célèbre after his deportation, with Democrat politicians and members of the mainstream media dubbing him a “Maryland man” and insisting that he had been incorrectly deported. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen (D) even flew to El Salvador to visit the illegal alien, despite mounting evidence that he had been engaged in transnational criminal activity.
Now, Bondi says, there is no longer any doubt that Abrego Garcia was a criminal.
“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” she said, noting that he made over 100 trips back and forth from the United States to smuggle violent gang members and terrorists, as well as “thousands of illegal aliens.”
“This is especially disturbing, because Abrego Garcia is also alleged to have transported minor children,” Bondi said. “The defendant traded the innocence of minor children for profit.”
The attorney general then revealed “even more disturbing facts the grand jury uncovered,” including that Abrego Garcia worked with the smuggling ring “responsible for the death of more than 50 migrants in 2021” following a tractor-trailer accident in Mexico.
Bondi also revealed that co-conspirators allege Abrego Garcia “abused undocumented alien females” and &#8220;solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor.”
The grand jury investigation also revealed that Abrego Garcia used SUVs with false bottoms to smuggle firearms and narcotics into the country.
“These facts demonstrate Abrego Garcia is a danger to our community,” Bondi said.
The Supreme Court ruled after Abrego Garcia’s deportation in March that the United States had to “facilitate” the illegal alien’s return to the country despite him being a Salvadoran national. Now that he’s been returned, Bondi said, he will be charged and imprisoned in the United States. The attorney general says she suspects Abrego Garcia will be returned to El Salvador “upon completion of the sentence.”
In April, authorities began investigating a 2022 traffic stop in which Abrego Garcia was pulled over, but not detained. Asked by a reporter on Friday what changed between that traffic stop and today, Bondi had a simple answer.
“What has changed is that Donald Trump is now president of the United States, and our borders are now secure.”

Bondi Says US DOJ Has Sued New York Over Immigration Case

Bondi Reveals ‘Disturbing Facts’ About Dem Darling Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Human Trafficking Scheme

Department of Justice

Human Trafficking

Illegal Immigation

Pam Bondi

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)

Lee Zeldin

Mexico

Politics

Social Issues

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-VANCE-BORDER

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

Border Crisis

Court

Del Rio

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

A new Republican House bill would prevent illegal aliens from ever attaining citizenship, creating a new deterrent to illegal immigration into the United States.
The legislation, called the “No Citizenship for Alien Invaders Act,” was proposed by Representative Cory Mills (R-FL) and seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to state that “no alien who enters the United States unlawfully shall be eligible for naturalization.”
“Under the Biden administration, we saw more than 10 million encounters at our borders, a crisis exacerbated by reckless catch-and-release policies that allowed criminals who broke our laws to remain in the United States,” Mills <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/27/us-news/house-gop-bill-would-bar-illegal-entrants-to-us-from-ever-getting-citizenship/">charged</a>. “President Trump has made it clear that anyone that tries to unlawfully undermine, exploit, or bypass our immigration system is a criminal.”
The legislation is also being co-sponsored by Reps. Josh Breechen (R-OK), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and Andy Harris (R-MD). The Republicans say they hope to get the legislation to the president&#8217;s desk by Memorial Day.
“America is a nation of laws, and if we allow those laws to be subverted by illegal aliens who have no constitutional right to be here in the first place, then we will cease to be a nation,” Breechen stated.
The new legislation is the latest move from House Republicans to attempt to deter migrants from illegally entering the United States. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) proposed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-congressman-to-introduce-bill-limiting-birthright-citizenship-bolster-trump-executive-order">legislation</a> in January that would end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens, a move that the Congressman said would end “birth tourism.”
“It’s going to have a huge impact on our immigration system because it’s going to close loopholes that exploit birthright citizenship, and discourage illegal immigration and end the misuse of this really, this completely misinterpreted privilege,” Babin also said when he announced his legislation.
That bill came just after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that also sought to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens. That order has since been embroiled in a legal battle.
Illegal border crossings have plummeted during the first months of the new Trump administration, with Vice President JD Vance visiting the southern border earlier this month to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-does-victory-lap-at-border-all-it-took-was-a-new-president">celebrate</a> a “98 percent reduction of border crossings.”

Rep. Cory Mills

New Bill Would Bar Illegal Aliens From Ever Becoming American Citizens

Border

border security

Deportations

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Trump Administration

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

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

Border Patrol

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

The Pentagon has deployed roughly 3,000 active duty troops to bolster security at the southern border of the United States.
A Stryker Brigade Combat Team, including its Stryker vehicles, is set to arrive at the southern border in “the coming weeks,” according to the Defense Department. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the troops to the border to “to reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” a Defense spokesman said.
“[T]heir deployment underscores the Department&#8217;s unwavering dedication to working alongside the Department of Homeland Security to secure our southern border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States under President Trump&#8217;s leadership,” Defense spokesman Sean Parnell said in a <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4086539/dod-statement-on-deployment-of-stryker-brigade-combat-team-to-help-secure-our-s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>.
Hegseth approved the order directing the Stryker team to the border on Friday, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/03/01/hegseth-border-troops-mexico-stryker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>. The Stryker team will be bolstered by troops that specialize in engineering, intelligence, and public affairs.
The Trump administration has taken a more aggressive stance toward policing immigration at the southern border and combatting the influence of drug cartels on the Mexican side. In a January 31 phone call between Hegseth and Mexican officials, the Defense secretary warned that the United States may take unilateral military action to deal with the cartels unless the Mexican government cracks down on the criminal organizations, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-mexico-drug-cartel-tariff-hegseth-military-action-5f507ab0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a>.
Mexican officials interpreted the phone call as a warning that the United States military might start operating on Mexican soil to combat the drug cartels, a move that Mexican officials have said would undermine Mexican sovereignty.
“We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border,” Hegseth said in a Saturday post on social media.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border. <a href="https://t.co/5bzvEQ8qPu">https://t.co/5bzvEQ8qPu</a>
&mdash; Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1895918496569328056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted since President Donald Trump took office in January. Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/invasion-of-our-country-is-over-u-s-records-record-low-number-of-illegal-entries-in-february" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrated</a> some of the most recent numbers on social media over the weekend.
“The month of February, my first full month in Office, had the LOWEST number of Illegal Immigrants trying to enter our Country in History – BY FAR!” Trump said. “There were only 8,326 apprehensions of Illegals by Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico Border, all of whom were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary, prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.”
“This means that very few people came – The Invasion of our Country is OVER,” he added. “In comparison, under Joe Biden, there were 300,000 Illegals crossing in one month, and virtually ALL of them were released into our Country.”

Pete Hegseth

Hegseth Orders 3,000 Troops To U.S. Southern Border: ‘Dead Serious’

Department of Defense

U.S.

United States

President Donald Trump revealed on Saturday that the United States experienced by far the lowest number of illegal alien encounters at the border in history — a major victory for the new administration.
&#8220;The month of February, my first full month in Office, had the LOWEST number of Illegal Immigrants trying to enter our Country in History – BY FAR!&#8221; Trump posted on social media. &#8220;There were only 8,326 apprehensions of Illegals by Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico Border, all of whom were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary, prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.&#8221;
&#8220;This means that very few people came – The Invasion of our Country is OVER,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In comparison, under Joe Biden, there were 300,000 Illegals crossing in one month, and virtually ALL of them were released into our Country.&#8221;
He added that the border was closed to all illegal aliens and that anyone who dares to illegally enter will &#8220;face significant criminal penalties and immediate deportation.&#8221;
To put the numbers in perspective, there were times during Joe Biden&#8217;s presidency where there were 8,000-11,000 illegal aliens coming into the country on a single day.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a subsequent statement that the administration would have &#8220;100% operational control&#8221; of the border, something that would likely be a first in American history.
&#8220;As directed by President Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of a Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) and General Support Aviation Battalion to reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States, a priority for the President,&#8221; Hegseth said.
He added, &#8220;These forces will arrive in the coming weeks and their deployment underscores the Department&#8217;s unwavering dedication to working alongside the Department of Homeland Security to secure our southern border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States under President Trump&#8217;s leadership.&#8221;
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem added in a statement that America&#8217;s message to the world was simple: &#8220;Do not come to our country illegally.&#8221;
&#8220;If you do, we will find you, arrest you, and send you back,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Thank you President @realDonaldTrump for your strong leadership and to our brave @CBP officers and agents for keeping America safe. We’re just getting started.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
February was the lowest month in recorded history for encounters at our border. The world is hearing our message: do not come to our country illegally. If you do, we will find you, arrest you, and send you back.
Thank you President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> for your strong leadership and… <a href="https://t.co/m6OMiG32Dm">pic.twitter.com/m6OMiG32Dm</a>
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/1895919691236790333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2025</a></blockquote>

Texas Land Commissioner Buckingham Highlights Border Wall Construction At Site Offered To Incoming Trump Administration For Deportation Facilities

‘Invasion Of Our Country Is Over’: U.S. Sees Record Low Number Of Illegal Entries In February

There was a time in my life when I lived in the shadow of terror — not just as a distant observer, but as someone who felt its grip firsthand. I was born into a world where radical Islam was not just a belief system, but a way of life — a force that dictated what I could wear, how I could think, who I could marry, and whether I lived or died. I have seen the face of oppression up close. I have felt the cold breath of death whispering lies of hopelessness into my soul.
And yet, by God’s grace, I escaped. I ran from that life and stepped onto foreign soil, hoping to leave the nightmare behind. But the nightmare was not confined to one land, it has followed me. It has followed us all.
I came to America believing I had reached a place of true freedom — a nation that stood tall in the face of tyranny. Today, however, the more I watch, the more I realize America is sleeping.
I see the same signs I saw growing up. I recognize the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/radical-islams-long-game-of-propaganda-in-the-west-is-over-because-of-trump">rhetoric</a>, the infiltration, and the subtle shift in public sentiment that paves the way for radical ideologies to take root. America needs to wake up.
<h3>Telltale Signs Of Radical Infiltration</h3>
I spent years brainwashed by radical Islam — a system that taught me to see the world through the lens of hatred, victimhood, and power. And now, I see the same toxic poison seeping into the West.
The warning signs are clear:
<ul>
<li>Weaponized victimhood: Radical groups manipulate emotions to justify violence. They claim oppression while seeking to destroy the very system that offers them refuge.</li>
<li>The rise of anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric: This is no accident. College campuses, media outlets, and even political leaders amplify messages that erode national unity and biblical truth.</li>
<li>Propaganda disguised as tolerance: What begins as an appeal for “understanding” slowly turns into a demand for compliance.</li>
</ul>
This is not speculation. I have witnessed this same strategy destroy nations. I have watched entire governments bow down to ideologies that despise them, only to be consumed by the very monster they tried to appease.
<h3>Why The Resistance To Border Security?</h3>
Why is there such a backlash against strengthening America’s borders? The answer is simple: When light is shined into darkness, the enemy panics.
In the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2028&amp;version=NIV">book of Acts</a>, the Bible shares a story about the Apostle Paul becoming shipwrecked on the island of Malta. When Paul gathers wood and builds a fire, a hidden viper lunges and bites his hand. The fire exposed what had been hidden — a deadly, silent enemy, slithering beneath the surface. This is exactly what is happening today.
When leadership enforces stricter immigration policies, the vipers slither out, <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/voices/hamas-mask-slips-evil-exposed-with-israeli-hostage-returns.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealing their true colors</a>. When corruption is called out, the ones who benefit from it are the loudest in their opposition.
For too long, our enemies have gleefully watched America, knowing we were too distracted, too divided, too passive to see what was happening right in front of us. The moment we begin to take action, however, they cry out in rage.
Make no mistake: they are afraid because they know their time is running out.
<h3>The Cost Of Weak Immigration Policies</h3>
I know what it’s like to be a desperate immigrant seeking freedom. I also know what it’s like to live in a nation destroyed by lawlessness.
America’s weak and lawless immigration policies have:
<ul>
<li>Allowed radical jihadists to walk freely into our cities</li>
<li>Enabled human trafficking and child exploitation at unprecedented levels</li>
<li>Weakened national identity, making Americans question national patriotism</li>
<li>Provided sanctuary for those who seek to destroy us from within</li>
</ul>
This is not about hate. This is not about closing doors to the needy. This is about preserving a nation that was built on biblical values and protecting the people who call it home. If we do not act now, we may not recognize America in 10 years.
<h3>What Must Be Done?</h3>
Many Americans do not recognize the warning signs because they have never lived under a radical regime. America cannot afford to remain blind any longer. It is time for stronger border security. It is not racist or unloving to protect our home.
It is also time for American Christians to take a stand. This is not just a political battle; it is spiritual warfare. It&#8217;s time for the Church to wake up. Yes, Christians are called to love the foreigner, but we are also called to protect our borders and to stand for righteousness, even when the world calls us intolerant. We are called to expose darkness, not coexist with it.
As the Apostle Paul <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%205&amp;version=NIV">wrote</a>, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” This is our moment. The fire has been lit. The vipers are being exposed.
The battle for America’s soul is not over. The question is: Will we fight? Or will we simply go back to sleep?
* * *
Işik Abla is the President and CEO of <a href="http://isikabla.com/">Işik Abla Ministries</a> (IAM). Abla was born in Turkey and raised as a Muslim. She eventually fled to America. Işık Abla Ministries leverages the power of TV and radio broadcasting, social media, and innovation to preach the Gospel in Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Indonesian, and English.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-ANNIVERSARY

America Can’t Ignore The Warning Signs Of Radicalization

America Can't Ignore The Warning Signs Of Radicalization

Christians

Church

Islam

Radical Islam

Illegal border crossing at the southern border of the United States “plummeted” in January, falling precipitously as President Donald Trump returned to office in what the White House is calling &#8220;the Trump Effect.&#8221;
Apprehensions of illegal border crossings into the United States dropped 36 percent last month, falling to 61,465, new data from Customs and Border Patrol indicates. The figure, which includes 29,116 apprehensions on the border and another 32,349 at ports of entry, is the lowest since May 2020, when the COVID response virtually shut down the southern border as new restrictions had been implemented.
The rate dropped particularly rapidly after Trump assumed office on January 20, the White House pointed out in a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/illegal-border-crossings-plummeted-in-january/">press release</a> on Tuesday.
“From Jan. 21 through Jan. 31, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85% from the same period in 2024, according to data obtained by ABC News. In the 11 days after Jan. 20, migrants apprehended at ports of entry declined by 93%.”
The data marks a stark contrast with the Biden administration, which had an average of 141,710 in the month of January, with the Trump administration calling those crossings “the result of dangerous policies that ferried illegal aliens directly into our communities, where they were allowed to stay indefinitely.”
The drop in illegal border crossings comes as the Trump administration has taken a range of different actions to disincentivize illegal immigration, most notably by enforcing federal immigration law within the interior of the country and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ice-arrests-11000-illegal-aliens-in-first-18-days-of-trump-administration">deporting</a> illegal aliens.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
From drug traffickers in Baltimore to cartel members in Houston, ICE is deporting criminals illegal aliens across the country.<a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaryMargOlohan</a> and I reported for <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a> on some of the worst offenders captured this Sunday. 🧵 <a href="https://t.co/jDlZOJmx3C">pic.twitter.com/jDlZOJmx3C</a>
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpencerLndqst/status/1884629928341119380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
The administration has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/united-states-begins-flying-illegal-aliens-to-guantanamo-bay">transported criminal illegal aliens</a> to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, with preparations underway for the facility to hold up to 30,000 detainees.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-even-think-about-it-kristi-noem-issues-harsh-warning-to-illegal-immigrants-coming-to-u-s?topStoryPosition=undefined">announced</a> that the federal agency would launch “a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US.”
“Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world. If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it. Let me be clear. If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down,” Noem said in a video accompanying the announcement. “Criminals are not welcome in the United States. For too long, weak leadership has left our borders wide open, flooding our communities with drugs, human trafficking, and violent criminals.”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-even-think-about-it-kristi-noem-issues-harsh-warning-to-illegal-immigrants-coming-to-u-s">&#8216;Don&#8217;t Even Think About It&#8217;: Kristi Noem Issues Harsh &#8216;Warning&#8217; To Illegal Immigrants Coming To U.S.</a>

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