The Trump administration has a holiday message for illegal immigrants.
In a new video released by the Department of Homeland Security on X, federal officials are inviting anyone who is in the country illegally to head &#8220;home for the holidays&#8221; by self-deporting.
The old-timey-themed black-and-white video opens with the message, &#8220;DHS presents &#8216;Home For The Holidays,&#8221; before flashing the message, &#8220;Use the CBP Home app to head home for the holidays.&#8221; The video then shows smiling illegal immigrants boarding planes, children receiving stuffed animals, and one man flashing a thumbs up to the camera, appearing to show a better alternative to arrest and deportation.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This holiday season, give yourself the gift of home with the CBP Home app. <a href="https://t.co/PGE8ijvuhi">pic.twitter.com/PGE8ijvuhi</a>
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/1993043713883619542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
The Trump administration launched the CBP Home app to encourage illegal immigrants to leave on their own and without fear of arrest by federal authorities who have been aggressively conducting raids across the nation. The Department of Homeland Security foots the bill for anyone who leaves using the app, while also providing a $1,000 &#8220;exit bonus.&#8221;
&#8220;If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home app to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home,&#8221; Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/06/09/dhs-announces-it-will-forgive-failure-depart-fines-illegal-aliens-who-self-deport">statement</a> about the program.
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&#8220;If you don&#8217;t, you will be subjected to fines, arrest, deportation, and will never be allowed to return. If you are in this country illegally, self-deport NOW and preserve your opportunity to potentially return the legal, right way,&#8221; she said.
More than 1.6 million illegal immigrants have self-deported from the United States, while the feds have deported more than half a million others, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/27/dhs-removes-more-half-million-illegal-aliens-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Department of Homeland Security.
President Donald Trump set a goal of deporting one million illegal immigrants per year as part of his historic crackdown.

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Trump Admin Invites Illegal Immigrants To ‘Head Home For The Holidays’ By Self-Deporting

Trump Admin Pushes Illegal Immigrants To Get 'Home For The Holidays' By Self-Deporting

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A group of four illegal immigrants was arrested after one allegedly pointed a laser at a Customs and Border Protection helicopter flying over Portland, Oregon, according to the FBI.
The illegal immigrant accused of pointing the laser targeted the CBP helicopter along with other law enforcement aircraft patrolling the city on Saturday, the <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1972836719822270623" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> said.
&#8220;Come after law enforcement officers and this FBI will put you away,&#8221; FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X in response to the incident.
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The laser attack comes as President Donald <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-authorizing-full-force-of-military-to-protect-ice-from-antifa-domestic-terrorists">Trump</a> deploys troops to Portland to protect the city and any U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities under attack by far-Left Antifa and other domestic terrorists.
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” the president posted on Truth Social Saturday.
“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” he added. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The State of Oregon and City of Portland have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in an attempt to thwart the effort.
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek (D) <a href="https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/GOV/Posts/Post/governor-kotek-and-attorney-general-fight-back-on-president-trumps-abuse-of-power" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argued</a> Sunday that the deployment is unnecessary.
“When the president and I spoke yesterday, I told him in plain language that there is no insurrection or threat to public safety that necessitates military intervention in Portland or any other city in our state,&#8221; Kotek said.
&#8220;Despite this — and all evidence to the contrary — he has chosen to disregard Oregonians’ safety and ability to govern ourselves. This is not necessary. And it is unlawful. And it will make Oregonians less safe,&#8221; she added.
<div id="attachment_978695" style="width: 1960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-978695" class="wp-image-978695 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/G2DFl-WWAAAznn5.jpeg" alt="" width="1950" height="1100" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/G2DFl-WWAAAznn5.jpeg 1950w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/G2DFl-WWAAAznn5-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/G2DFl-WWAAAznn5-1021x576.jpeg 1021w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/G2DFl-WWAAAznn5-768x433.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/G2DFl-WWAAAznn5-1536x866.jpeg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1950px) 100vw, 1950px" />Credit: FBI Portland</div>
The FBI tracked down the illegal immigrant to a nearby home, where they found the three other illegal immigrants, according to the bureau. Immigration and Customs Enforcement later arrested the group.
&#8220;The federal government will not tolerate violence against federal officers, nor will we tolerate assaults on personal, commercial, or government aircraft,&#8221; the FBI said in a statement.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
FBI Portland just took down a residence of a suspect who allegedly targeted CBP officers &#8211; all four individuals located in the house are in the U.S. illegally and now in custody. Come after law enforcement officers and this FBI will put you away. <a href="https://twitter.com/FBIPortland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FBIPortland</a> <a href="https://t.co/qwEJdwzwHQ">https://t.co/qwEJdwzwHQ</a>
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1972836719822270623?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
The FAA <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/lasers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considers</a> pointing lasers at aircraft to be &#8220;a serious threat&#8221; that can &#8220;incapacitate pilots,&#8221; resulting in fines of up to $32,646 per violation.
There were 12,840 laser strikes reported by pilots to the FAA in 2024.

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Four Illegal Immigrants Arrested After Laser Aimed At CBP Helicopter Patrolling Portland

Illegal Immigration

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) raided a Los Angeles residence that the federal law enforcement agency says has been used to harbor Iranian illegal aliens with ties to terrorists.
CBP arrested two unidentified individuals at the home on Friday after a previous operation at the same address resulted in the arrest of seven Iranian nationals, some of whom are on the FBI terror watch list and associated with an Iranian human smuggling network.
“CBP executed a federal search warrant today at a human smuggling hub in Los Angeles tied to national security threats,” Customs and Border Protection said in a post on X on Friday. “Two individuals were arrested during the operation, which was led by CBP’s Special Response Team with support from Border Patrol tactical units and Air and Marine Operations.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨BREAKING🚨
CBP executed a federal search warrant today at a human smuggling hub in Los Angeles tied to national security threats. Two individuals were arrested during the operation, which was led by CBP’s Special Response Team with support from Border Patrol tactical units and… <a href="https://t.co/9bhtCw2iWs">pic.twitter.com/9bhtCw2iWs</a>
— CBP (@CBP) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1938741939890696464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
“The location has been repeatedly used to harbor illegal entrants linked to terrorism,” the federal law enforcement agency added.
The arrests come amid a broader wave of enforcement actions against Iranian illegal aliens in the wake of the United States’ bombing campaign that targeted Iran’s nuclear production sites.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://get.dailywire.com/freedom/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=freedom&amp;utm_content=freedomeditorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/freedom/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=freedom&amp;utm_content=freedomeditorial" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-75638">JULY 4 SALE: Get Six Months Of DW+ Free</a>
Federal authorities arrested <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ice-arrests-100-iranian-nationals-across-us-amid-sleeper-cell-concerns">130 Iranian nationals</a> who were in the United States illegally in the week following the strikes against Iran&#8217;s nuclear facilities, with 670 Iranians currently being held in ICE detention centers.
Among those <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hezbollah-link-among-11-iranians-arrested-by-ice-in-48-hour-sweep">arrested</a> was a man who served as a sniper in the Iranian military, while another Iranian national was identified as a former member of the Iranian military’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That individual, ICE said, was connected to the terror organization Hezbollah.
Federal authorities also arrested an American citizen who is accused of harboring an unlawfully present Iranian national and now faces federal charges after she threatened to “shoot officers in the head” as they conducted the raid.
“We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out — and we are,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland.”

CBP Raid

Feds Raid California Home Harboring Iranian Nationals With Terrorism Ties

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U.S. Border Patrol agents found and shut down a massive tunnel linking Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California, built to unlawfully smuggle narcotics into the United States.
The tunnel spanned nearly 3,000 feet, extending more than 1,000 feet into the United States, with a projected exit point near a warehouse in San Diego, California. It featured a sophisticated ventilation system, electrical wiring, lighting, and a rail track for transporting drugs. In February, the Trump administration designated six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
“As we continue to strengthen the nation’s air, and maritime border security, it’s not surprising that foreign terrorist organizations would resort to underground routes,” <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/san-diego-sector-border-patrol-uncovers-sophisticated-cross-border">said</a> Jeffrey D. Stalnaker, the Acting Chief Patrol Agent of the San Diego Sector. “Disruption of narcotics smuggling tunnels is critical to protecting American lives.”
Federal authorities first discovered the tunnel while it was under construction in April, sending the San Diego Border Patrol Sector Tunnel Team in to investigate the project. Those agents, Border Patrol says, encountered various barricades that “were placed haphazardly by the tunnel workers” in an effort to prevent law enforcement from investigating the passageway into America.
Mexican authorities also investigated the tunnel and discovered the origin point in a residence in Tijuana.
“I’m grateful for the exceptional work of the Tunnel Team agents who placed themselves in danger, as well as the cooperation of our Mexican law enforcement partners,” Stalnaker said.
The tunnel will now be filled with thousands of gallons of concrete to prevent it from being used by drug smugglers. Mexican cartels have carved tunnels into the United States for decades. Nearly 100 tunnels have been discovered and obstructed since 1993 in the San Diego area alone.
The detection of the tunnel comes as the Trump administration has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zero-illegal-aliens-released-into-u-s-in-may-by-customs-and-border-protection?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Zero+Illegal+Aliens+Released+Into+U.S.+In+May+By+Customs+And+Border+Protection">drastically reduced</a> the number of illegal border crossings and placed financial pressure on the cartels. The Treasury Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/treasury-dept-sanctions-five-key-leaders-of-mexican-drug-cartel?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Treasury+Dept+Sanctions+Five+Key+Leaders+Of+Mexican+Drug+Cartel">unveiled sanctions</a> against five leaders of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion on Wednesday. The move came after the federal agency announced sanctions on leaders of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-treasury-dept-launches-sanctions-targeting-sinaloa-cartel">Sinaloa Cartel</a> and the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0146">Cartel del Noreste</a>.

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Secret Tunnel Built To Smuggle Drugs Into U.S. Shut Down By Border Patrol

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A Chinese scholar at the University of Michigan was arrested by the FBI and charged with attempting to smuggle a biological pathogen into the United States that could be used for agricultural terrorism, according to documents unsealed in federal court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said that Michigan scholar Yunqing Jian, along with her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, tried to smuggle a biological pathogen into the United States last July, The Detroit News <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/06/03/chinese-scholar-at-um-tried-to-smuggle-biological-pathogen-into-the-u-s-feds-say/84008953007/">reported</a>. The pathogen, called Fusarium graminearum, causes &#8220;head blight,&#8221; a disease that can wipe out wheat, barley, maize, and rice crops and &#8220;is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year,&#8221; <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/chinese-nationals-charged-conspiracy-and-smuggling-dangerous-biological-pathogen-us">according</a> to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. The pathogen can also cause &#8220;vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.&#8221;
U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. accused the suspects, who include &#8220;a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party,&#8221; of pursuing a &#8220;scheme&#8221; of &#8220;the gravest national security concerns.&#8221;
&#8220;These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme,&#8221; Gorgon said.
FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://x.com/fbidirectorkash/status/1930044884284523001?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q">said</a> the arrest of Jian and Liu &#8220;is a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences&#8230; putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.&#8221;
Jian&#8217;s boyfriend was caught with the pathogen by Customs and Border Protection officers at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
&#8220;When Customs and Border Protection officers questioned Liu, he made false statements to CBP officers about the purpose of his visit to the United States, and his knowledge of the existence of the biological pathogen in his possession,&#8221; an FBI special agent wrote in the criminal filing, according to The Detroit News.
&#8220;Ultimately, Liu admitted to smuggling the pathogen and stated that he brought the pathogen into the United States so that he could conduct research on it at a laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,&#8221; the agent added.
After receiving a doctorate in plant pathogens from China&#8217;s Zhejiang University, Jian was given money through a Chinese foundation funded by the communist government to conduct post-doctoral research on Fusarium graminearum, according to prosecutors. Jian will make her first court appearance on Tuesday afternoon. Both Jian and Liu are charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud.
Jian&#8217;s case marks the second criminal complaint unsealed in the past week involving a Chinese citizen at the University of Michigan. Last Friday, prosecutors unsealed a criminal case against a Chinese student who illegally voted in the 2024 election. The Chinese national, who was in the United States legally, successfully obtained a ballot and cast his vote at an early voting location last October, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/non-citizen-from-china-charged-after-casting-ballot-in-michigan-his-vote-will-still-count">reported</a>. The Chinese student recently fled the country and went back to China, according to the criminal complaint.
Last week, the Trump administration said that is moving to &#8220;<a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/new-visa-policies-put-america-first-not-china/">aggressively revoke</a>&#8221; Chinese student visas, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/01/china-us-students-national-security-threat/">adding</a> that the United States &#8220;will not tolerate the [Chinese Communist Party’s] exploitation of U.S. universities or theft of U.S. research intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition.&#8221;

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Kash Patel Says Chinese Smuggled ‘Dangerous Fungus’ Into U.S. To ‘Target Food Supply’

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When it comes to immigration, President Trump has been absolutely stalwart.
He&#8217;s actually handled immigration so well that it dropped out of the top four or five issues for Americans. It was the number one or number two issue in every poll for Americans during the 2024 election cycle.
Trump was inaugurated and on the same day, everything started to get fixed because he said, we&#8217;re going to enforce the border, don&#8217;t come here.
People stopped coming.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced:
<blockquote>Later this afternoon, President Trump will sign an executive order on law and order and another executive order on sanctuary cities. The first EO will strengthen and unleash America&#8217;s law enforcement to pursue criminals and protect innocent citizens. The second EO is centered around protecting American communities from criminal aliens, and it will direct the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws.</blockquote>
All of that is quite good. He signed three executive orders, including one that instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, to pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures against so-called sanctuary cities.
Here&#8217;s the deal: Local law enforcement cannot be militarized by the federal government under the Posse Comitatus Act to actually enforce federal law. That is not permissible.
However, obstruction of justice, which has been happening in these sanctuary cities, where ICE goes in and you have local law enforcement actively obstructing the effort, declaring they are sanctuary cities and going out of their way to thwart federal law, that is something that the federal government should be cracking down on.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2188-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Another one of these executive orders “aims to bolster legal resources to police officers accused of wrongdoing, and the third seeks to enforce existing laws requiring professional truck drivers to be proficient in English,” according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/28/us/trump-news">The New York Times</a>.
President Trump has also been unleashing ICE to go after illegal immigration wherever they find it in significant numbers.
On Monday, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/28/us/colorado-springs-raid-monday/index.html">CNN</a> reported:
<blockquote>US federal agents early Sunday raided what authorities described as an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs and took into custody more than 100 migrants accused of being in the country illegally, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said.</blockquote>
Jonathan Pullen, the special agent in charge, said, “What was happening inside was significant drug trafficking, prostitution, crimes of violence. We seized a number of guns in there.”
The raid had been planned for months, according to Pullen. “During the surveillance, investigators documented drug trafficking, prostitution and the presence of people suspected to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the international gang MS-13, and the Hells Angels, Pullen said,” CNN added.
This was a very large raid. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in describing the nature of the raid, explained that 170 calls to 911 had been made over the last several years. “Wouldn&#8217;t you think that would&#8217;ve been a red flag? Nothing happened. Guns, shootings, [aggravated] batteries, nothing happened,&#8221; she told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/pam-bondi-offers-new-details-colorado-nightclub-raid-wisconsin-judge-aided-illegal-immigrant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>.
Their work on immigration is the upside of the Trump administration. They&#8217;ve been doing an excellent job, even though courts have been attempting to hamstring them pretty much every step of the way. The Trump administration has been completely thorough. They are doing a good job on all of this, and they&#8217;re being very aggressive in their public-facing about it as well.
According to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/04/28/trump-posters-white-house-arrested-immigrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Axios</a>, “Trump administration officials late Sunday began placing dozens of posters of arrested unauthorized immigrants along the White House driveway. The posters — which read &#8220;ARRESTED&#8221; — specify various crimes linked to the pictured immigrants and have the White House&#8217;s official logo at the bottom.”
These posters were designed to reiterate that the goal here is to deport criminal illegal immigrants.
Immigration is still President Trump&#8217;s most popular issue.
It should be.

Tom Homan Joins White House Press Briefing

Trump Absolutely Stalwart On Immigration

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

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

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced Thursday evening two new picks to help carry out his planned crackdown on illegal immigration and secure the border. 
Trump said Rodney Scott would be the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, and Caleb Vitello would be the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He previously announced that former acting ICE Director Tom Homan would be his &#8220;border czar&#8221; and oversee mass deportation operations. 
Scott, who has almost three decades of experience with Border Patrol, would be back in the same position he held during Trump’s first term. Under Trump, Scott implemented policies like Remain-in-Mexico, where asylum seekers would have to stop in the first available country, and Title 42, a measure to turn back illegal immigrants due to concerns about COVID. 
“As the Chief, he led over 22,000 personnel, and was responsible for securing the International Borders of the U.S. between the official ports of entry,” Trump posted. “After retiring, Rodney has continued to educate politicians and the public about the importance of meaningful Border Security.”
Scott left the position during the Biden administration and later endorsed Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign. 
“President Trump respected the experience of career border security professionals and listened to our advice,” Scott <a href="https://www.bpchiefscott.com/speaking-the-truth-with-facts-and-evidence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in an October letter. “When border security experts explained to President Trump how illegal immigration empowers the cartels to control who and what enters our home, he listened and acted.”
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In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said that Vitello would serve as the acting director of ICE. As ICE&#8217;s assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs, Vitello currently assists with training, equipment, safety, and policy. Previously, he was the chief of staff for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, supervising all daily operations and communications. 
“Caleb’s exceptional leadership, extensive experience, and commitment to ICE’s mission make him an excellent choice to implement my efforts to enhance the safety and security of American communities who have been victimized by illegal alien crime,” Trump posted 
Trump has vowed to secure the border and enact the largest deportation operation in American history, starting with those illegal immigrants with violent criminal histories who have entered the country unlawfully.

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Trump Makes Two Key Picks To Combat Illegal Immigration, Secure The Border

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Three years ago, a 25-year-old Honduran national named Medina Ulloa was stopped by border patrol agents in Texas. He gave them a fake name and lied about being a juvenile. But instead of kicking him out of the country, authorities gave him a &#8220;notice to appear&#8221; for a court date that everyone knew he&#8217;d never actually attend. Then Ulloa was flown to Jacksonville, Florida, where he was taken in by a 46-year-old father of four. Soon afterwards, the immigrant beat the man to death inside his own home.
Last year, Medina Ulloa <a href="https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2023/03/03/immigrant-politicized-by-desantis-in-jacksonville-death-pleads-guilty/69969365007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pleaded</a> guilty to murder and received a 60-year sentence. And during the course of the prosecution that led to that plea deal, we learned a lot of details about what happened. We learned Ulloa had attempted to tamper with evidence, for example. We also learned from home security footage that Medina Ulloa pummeled his victim with a chair before repeatedly stabbing him.
But there was one critical detail that was never explained, even though it&#8217;s maybe the most important one in the entire story: How did Medina Ulloa get to Jacksonville? Did he buy a ticket himself, even though he had no money? Did someone else buy a ticket for him? Or did Medina Ulloa arrive in Jacksonville on one of the Biden administration&#8217;s secret resettlement flights, which take off in the middle of the night and <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/18/biden-secretly-flying-underage-migrants-into-ny-in-dead-of-night/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ferry</a> thousands of illegal aliens from Texas to destinations all over the country — including Jacksonville?
In this case, the victim&#8217;s daughter claimed that Ulloa had indeed arrived on one of these resettlement flights. And she would have reason to know that. Again, her father had allowed this guy into his home, and presumably they talked about how he had arrived in Jacksonville in the first place. But for their part, the Biden-Harris administration has refused to say anything about the arrangement, one way or another. Even when a Republican congressman formally <a href="https://webster.house.gov/2021/11/webster-asks-president-biden-for-information-on-secret-flights-of-illegal-immigrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> the Biden administration to explain exactly what had happened, they didn&#8217;t confirm or deny that they had flown Ulloa into Jacksonville.
Of course, that almost certainly means they did, indeed, put him on one of their many charter jets for illegal aliens. Therefore, when Ulloa committed murder, the DHS knew they were complicit. Their policy had facilitated a brutal killing. And so they decided not to talk about it. That was their solution. The federal government, under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, apparently decided that they&#8217;d rather cover up their role in a homicide, instead of taking action to prevent future homicides from occurring.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1489-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
So it&#8217;s not surprising that those homicides have continued to occur, in similar fashion. As you may have heard, the trial of 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal alien Jose Ibarra got underway this week in Athens, Georgia. Ibarra is accused of murdering Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, near a jogging trail at the University of Georgia back in February. Prosecutors say Ibarra put on a hoodie-style jacket, a black hat, and black disposable gloves, before going off to &#8220;hunt for females&#8221; on the university&#8217;s campus.
What we didn&#8217;t know until yesterday is how exactly Ibarra got to Georgia in the first place. The government certainly didn&#8217;t bother to tell us. But during the trial yesterday, we learned the answer to that question. According to Ibarra&#8217;s roommate, just like Medina Ulloa, he received a taxpayer-funded resettlement flight. In the case of Ibarra, the flight took him from New York City to Georgia.
In other words, the Biden-Harris administration didn&#8217;t just enable the murder of Laken Riley with their lax border policies, they also facilitated the murder. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The roommate of Laken Riley&#39;s killer just testified during his trial that they went to the Roosevelt Hotel together in September 2023 and received a taxpayer funded flight to Georgia.
Your government flew an illegal gang member to Georgia with your money &#8212; where he then… <a href="https://t.co/7plVTnJhy6">pic.twitter.com/7plVTnJhy6</a>
&mdash; Greg Price (@greg_price11) <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1858557291467075725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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If we had a &#8220;Department of Homeland Security&#8221; that actually cared about securing the homeland, we wouldn&#8217;t be hearing about this now, months after the fact (and weeks after the election). We&#8217;d have heard about it back in February.
The government would have acknowledged that they paid the airfare for a murderer. There would have been months of congressional hearings by now. We&#8217;d know every detail about how exactly this brutal killer was ferried throughout the country, at taxpayer expense. Instead, the Biden-Harris administration refused to say a word about this. It fell to a local prosecutor in Georgia to reveal that the federal government was covering this criminal&#8217;s airfare.
This is especially egregious when you consider the DHS knew that Ibarra was a member of one of the most dangerous gangs on the planet. The New York Post and NewsNation have confirmed that, according to DHS sources, Jose Ibarra was a member of &#8220;Tren de Aragua.&#8221; If you&#8217;re keeping track, that&#8217;s the same gang that&#8217;s taken over several apartment complexes in Colorado.
And this is the person they were paying to transport across the United States. It makes you wonder how many of those Colorado gang members were transported, for free, from the southern border.
It also makes you wonder when we can expect criminal trials for the DHS officials who allowed this to happen. They were transporting a criminal that they knew — or should have known — was a member of a violent, transnational criminal organization. How is that any different from offering, say, a member of ISIS a free one-way ticket to Manhattan? At a certain point, you can&#8217;t pretend to be surprised at the natural and foreseeable consequences of government policy. When you facilitate the transportation of dangerous criminals who are members of notoriously brutal gangs, you don&#8217;t get to feign astonishment when they go on to commit brutal crimes.
And it&#8217;s not as if Ibarra wasn&#8217;t sending up red flags left and right, even apart from his gang ties. After the Biden administration let him into the country in September of 2022 (supposedly due to a &#8220;lack of bed space,&#8221; which doesn&#8217;t seem particularly relevant since we don&#8217;t need bed space to deport him), Ibarra somehow arrived in New York City. Once there, local officials put him up in the swanky Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. While there, he had <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/laken-riley-murder-suspect-received-taxpayer-funded-stay-at-roosevelt-hotel-flight-to-georgia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">access</a> to free healthcare, housing, meals and even legal services, to help him prepare his fraudulent asylum application.
But that wasn&#8217;t enough to keep Ibarra out of trouble. In August of 2023, Ibarra was arrested in New York for &#8220;acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17.&#8221; He was also hit with a &#8220;vehicle license violation.&#8221; That&#8217;s according to DHS officials. But the local DA, Alvin Bragg, was too busy prosecuting the leading presidential candidate for an ancient business records violation, so he couldn&#8217;t be bothered to prosecute Ibarra, or give a heads-up to federal immigration authorities. So Ibarra was released quickly without any bond.
Then Ibarra headed to another sanctuary city (thanks to the Biden administration&#8217;s resettlement flight) — Athens-Clarke County, Georgia. On October 27, he was given a citation for shoplifting. Under the Left-wing DA&#8217;s policies, Ibarra wasn&#8217;t arrested for the offense at the time. Instead, he was ordered to appear for a court hearing in December. But Ibarra ignored that hearing, of course, so an arrest warrant was issued on December 20th.
But he was never arrested. For months, he wasn&#8217;t bothered by local authorities or by Biden&#8217;s DHS, despite all of the crimes he committed in this country — and despite an active arrest warrant.
He wasn&#8217;t bothered in any way until February, when he put on his disposable gloves and murdered Laken Riley. And as the prosecutor outlined today, it was a vicious, brutal killing. Riley fought for 18 minutes, up until the point her smartwatch recorded that her heart had stopped:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Prosecutor lays out the horrific manner in which Jose Ibarra brutally murdered Laken Riley
He bashed her skull in repeatedly with a rock after she put up a fight to the very end
There is forensic, digital and video evidence <a href="https://t.co/uXWTd7y66A">pic.twitter.com/uXWTd7y66A</a>
&mdash; Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewHLive/status/1857457714844287435?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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One of the many ways that investigators were able to tie Ibarra to this crime is that, just hours before he killed Riley, he posted photos of himself on Snapchat. In those photos, he was wearing a black Adidas hat, a blue jacket, and a black-and-white shirt.
And then, after the killing, a man wearing the same clothing was captured on a Ring-style camera discarding a blue jacket into a dumpster. And when that jacket was tested, it contained Laken Riley&#8217;s DNA. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨This is horrifying but necessary to watch:
Jose Ibarra — the illegal alien animal who murdered Laken Riley — is seen on surveillance video dumping clothes into a dumpster shortly after Laken’s heart stopped.
We don’t have to live like this.
It’s time to secure our border. <a href="https://t.co/f3fmzprdWS">pic.twitter.com/f3fmzprdWS</a>
&mdash; Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) <a href="https://twitter.com/CortesSteve/status/1857439053081096414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
This country endured a year of rioting over George Floyd, costing billions of dollars and leading to the deaths of several Americans. Police stations and churches were torched, federal courthouses were attacked, small businesses were destroyed. Members of Congress wore &#8220;kente cloth&#8221; and got down on one knee. It was all in service of a lie that Floyd&#8217;s death was the result of systemic injustice, instead of his own decisions — and in particular, his decision to spend his life committing serious crimes, culminating in an attempt to defraud a business while high on enough fentanyl to kill a horse.
The murder of Laken Riley, on the other hand, was the result of systemic injustice. The government provided her killer access to this country, in violation of the law. Then the government gave him free housing, meals and airfare to go wherever he wanted — which is very common, by the way. As House investigators <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/2024/04/30/new-documents-reveal-airports-used-by-secretary-mayorkas-to-fly-hundreds-of-thousands-of-inadmissible-aliens-into-u-s-via-chnv-mass-parole-scheme/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> earlier this year, more than 50 airports have been used by DHS to transport more than 400,000 illegal aliens in this manner since January of last year. More than a million illegals are on the waiting list.
And the government did all of this without putting it up for a vote, or asking whether Americans wanted this to happen — even though, overwhelmingly, they don&#8217;t. And then, after one of these illegal aliens brutally murders a nursing student, the president of the United States finally apologized — but not to the victim, or her family. Instead, he apologized for calling the killer an &#8220;illegal&#8221; during the State of the Union, after mispronouncing Laken Riley&#8217;s name. Here’s that again, to refresh our memories:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 Biden Illigal Immigrants" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FcpvFwNl4A0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
When Biden made that apology, he knew that Riley&#8217;s death could&#8217;ve been prevented several times, in several different cities. His DHS knew that they had assisted the perpetrator of this heinous crime, several times over. But the only apology that Biden could muster was to criminals like Jose Ibarra. He said illegal aliens &#8220;built this county,&#8221; which doesn&#8217;t even begin to make sense. He didn&#8217;t say a word about the role of these secret resettlement flights in causing Laken Riley&#8217;s death, maybe because he was hoping we&#8217;d never find out about it.
But now we have found out about it, thanks to testimony from the killer&#8217;s roommate (who incidentally, is also in the country illegally). This is what the open-borders agenda means in practice. We&#8217;re once again seeing how a policy that&#8217;s supposedly premised on &#8220;compassion&#8221; for illegal immigrants, in reality, translates into brutality and death for American citizens.
That&#8217;s been obvious to most people on the Right for a while. But now it&#8217;s getting hard for anyone to ignore. That&#8217;s why the exit polls showed Kamala Harris losing on the immigration issue, across party lines. The vast majority of Americans recognize at this point that we shouldn&#8217;t be flying these illegal aliens throughout the country in the middle of the night, or any other time of day. We should be flying them out of the country, back to wherever they came from.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
That&#8217;s what the incoming Trump administration is promising to do. And unlike the Biden administration, the new administration isn&#8217;t going to hide these flights. The new border czar is openly promoting them already — and why shouldn&#8217;t he? Enforcing the law is overwhelmingly popular. It&#8217;s what Americans want. When you&#8217;re implementing a policy that&#8217;s actually popular, you don&#8217;t need to do it under the cover of darkness. You can talk about it on cable news, which is exactly what Trump&#8217;s nominees are doing.
This is a change that, as this trial in Georgia demonstrates, can&#8217;t come soon enough. With the killing of Laken Riley, months after the fact, we have discovered that the U.S. government was effectively an accomplice to the murder of an American citizen. They didn&#8217;t just create the conditions that allowed this killing to happen by opening the border. They also facilitated the killing by providing repeated, material support to the murderer. And then they tried to cover it up.
And by the way, six Republican senators <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alejandro-mayorkas-confirmed-homeland-security-secretary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> to confirm the DHS secretary who oversaw all of this. That&#8217;s something to keep in mind as the Trump Cabinet appointments make their way through the Senate. Any senator who voted for Alejandro Mayorkas should explain that vote. And those senators — the ones who are still in office, anyway — should explain what they plan to do, going forward, to dismantle the open-borders agenda, instead of enabling it.
The murder of Laken Riley makes it very clear that this change is long overdue. Once the killer is brought to justice in Georgia, all of his many enablers in the government should also be held to account. That&#8217;s the only way to prevent a murder like this from happening again. And it&#8217;s the only way to ensure that Americans can have any trust in their government going forward. This is the radical reform that Americans voted for. Before the next woman like Laken Riley is killed, we need to enact it.

US-VOTE-POLITICS-TRUMP

Biden’s DHS Enabled A Deadly Criminal And Hoped You Wouldn’t Notice

Biden Administration

Georgia

Laken Riley

Matt Walsh

“Illegals must go,” Tom Homan, the incoming Border Czar, has declared — and he and President-elect Trump mean that literally. Critics have a pat response: It is not physically or financially possible to implement the largest deportation program in our history. But they’re missing a critical tool: the ability of the entire executive branch to create conditions that will help induce self-deportation by many aliens.
Trump and Homan have already indicated that they’re going to focus the Department of Homeland Security’s resources on the worst-of-the-worst, in what we can call a “catch-and-deport” program, in contrast to the “catch-and-release-or-don’t-even-bother-to-catch” program of the past four years. Their top priority is aliens who pose national security threats, as well as the murderers, rapists, burglars, arsonists, thieves, gang members and other criminals that President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas have allowed to freely roam throughout the nation.
But many other illegal aliens can and should be removed by DHS. As a former immigration judge told me, just enforcing the estimated 1.3 million final-removal orders issued by immigration judges that have been piling up at the Department of Homeland Security – sitting there ignored by the current administration – would make a significant dent in the illegal alien population.
Because these are final orders after the aliens have gone through the immigration court system, no advocacy group has any legal basis for suing the new administration to stop the aliens from being picked up and deported.
These final deportation orders are like the “letters of transit” in the classic 1942 movie “Casablanca,” where Peter Lorre says they “cannot be rescinded, not even questioned.” Not only should DHS be enforcing these orders, but to the extent needed, other federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshalls Service, should be immediately directed by the president to help DHS agents to the extent needed.
But the key to overall success is getting rid of the incentives and benefits that keep illegal aliens here. Most of them are here for one reason, and one reason only: economic. The largest proportion of illegal aliens are single, adult males. They are here to earn money that they send to their home countries. The remittances sent to Mexico alone are expected to reach $65 billion by the end of this year, one of the reasons the Mexican government has encouraged, aided, and assisted this illegal immigration.
The Trump administration must use all of the powers of the federal government to make it as difficult as possible for illegal aliens to work, find housing, travel, engage in financial transactions, and otherwise live in the country they have no right to be in, and no right to work and live in.
Here are just a few of the steps that should be taken on January 20, 2025, as soon as Donald Trump is inaugurated:
<ul>
<li> TSA should be told to no longer permit anyone through security who is using an immigration arrest warrant or other documents issued by DHS to illegal aliens, instead of the required government-issued photo ID.</li>
<li>All payments and grants being given to NGOs by DHS and any other government agency like Health and Human Services to transport, house, or otherwise provide any benefits for inadmissible, illegal aliens should be terminated.</li>
<li> All work permits unlawfully issued by DHS to inadmissible illegal aliens should be terminated, and that includes any DACA beneficiaries.</li>
<li> All access to any other government benefits by any executive branch agency should immediately be terminated, including access to Obamacare.</li>
<li> Banking regulators, including Treasury, the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the NCUA, should require all banks and credit unions under their jurisdiction to require any individual opening a bank account to provide proof of citizenship or lawful presence in the U.S., such as a permanent resident alien.</li>
<li> To the extent the president has power over the Federal Reserve system and the FDIC through his appointments, he should ensure that every appointee agrees to impose the same requirement on banks receiving benefits from the system or the FDIC. Financial regulators should ensure that aliens who are unlawfully in the U.S. cannot open bank accounts.</li>
<li> The same rule should be applied to banks for all wire transfers made by those banks for their customers, as well as any other financial entities over which the federal government has jurisdiction. For foreign investors and others who are not present in the U.S., these rules would not apply and would not restrict their ability to invest and hold brokerage or other accounts in American banks.</li>
<li> To the extent the president has authority over home mortgages through his appointments to executive branch agencies like the Federal Housing Administration, he should require a similar rule: no approval of federal mortgage insurance for homes, multi-family apartments, or other facilities unless the owners are verified as U.S. citizens or aliens legally in the country, and they agree not to lease or rent their properties to any individuals without requiring proof of citizenship or legal presence. That also should apply to Section 8 housing assistance provided by HUD to low-income households.</li>
<li> The IRS should not provide tax refunds to aliens unlawfully present in the U.S. That is something the IRS can check through the E-Verify system maintained by DHS. The Social Security Administration should be ordered to engage in the same verification process for anyone applying for a Social Security number or other Taxpayer Identification Number, which is essential to individuals seeking tax refunds. For those who claim this would be too onerous, it would simply be applying the same requirement to federal agencies that the federal government already applies to all employers and all Americans who want to be employed. Job applicants have to provide proof of citizenship and identity as outlined in the federal I-9 “Employment Eligibility Verification form. To the extent that E-Verify does not provide an answer, those agencies could apply the provisions of the I-9 form to determine eligibility.</li>
<li>The Biden administration has refused to enforce the federal law barring employers from hiring illegal aliens; the Justice Department needs to embark on a vigorous, very public, enforcement program against employers. Not only will that punish employers for breaking the law and depriving Americans of jobs, but the publicity from that should help deter many other employers from engaging in such behavior, drying up the ability of illegal aliens to work and earn a living.</li>
</ul>
Many other steps should be taken, but these basic ones would provide a solid start. It has to be an all-government effort, not just an effort by DHS.
These measures, if combined with similar steps by cooperative state governments—such as denying illegal aliens driver’s licenses and car license tags (thus limiting their transportation options) and all other types of permits and licenses—would provide an incentive for aliens to self-deport and stop abusing the generous hospitality of the U.S.
* * *
Hans von Spakovsky is Manager, Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is an authority on a wide range of issues — including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, and immigration.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Texas National Guard Works To Secure Southern Border In El Paso

What Everyone Is Missing In The Argument Over Mass Deportation

Venezuela

Shortly after Donald Trump’s upset election victory in 2016, official State of Texas business brought me to two ICE immigration detention centers in South Texas. I ran an intelligence group for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. What I learned there has informed my beliefs about illegal immigration ever since.
Back then, part of my routine was to help the feds interview apprehended aliens from Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan and collect intelligence about potential Islamic terrorism. The South Texas Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, some one hundred miles from the Mexican border, was always filled to the brim with detainees. 
But to my surprise, for the first time, it was as empty as a football stadium in baseball season. The same was true of ICE’s larger, ever-packed-to-capacity Port Isabel Service Processing Center near Brownsville, Texas.
“Where is everyone?” I asked the ICE intelligence officers, separately, at both facilities.
The same surprising answer went something like this: People throughout Latin America heard Trump on the campaign stump vowing illegal immigration crackdowns, and they decided to stay home rather than risk smuggling money for nothing. If the perceived odds of successfully getting in and staying a long time to earn money is high enough, they’ll come. If the perceived odds are higher that they’ll be blocked and deported, they’re sheltering in place.
It was the first time I’d heard such a thing, although it seemed so obvious.
The number of Border Patrol apprehensions, however, proved it. In November of 2016 there were 63,361 border apprehensions but by March of 2017 that number dropped to <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/apr/25/donald-trump/illegal-immigration-lowest-17-years-trump-said/">12,193</a>, the lowest count in decades.
<div id="attachment_796229" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-796229" class="size-large wp-image-796229" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2157636698-864x576.jpg" alt="JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, CA - JUNE 14: Migrants wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico on June 14, 2024 in Jacumba Hot Springs, California. U.S. President Joe Biden on June 4 unveiled immigration order severely limiting asylum-seeker crossings. (Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2157636698-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2157636698-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2157636698-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2157636698.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images</div>
After interviewing migrants south of the border, some in the U.S. media also noticed. They began to call the link between the candidate&#8217;s rhetoric and deterring impact on migration plans “The Trump Effect.”
Well, act two of The Trump Effect is now in play.
While it’s too early for data to prove it, my recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/un-non-profits-pave-the-way-for-permanent-mass-migration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pre-election interviews</a> with immigrants in deep southern Mexico struck a very familiar chord.
“If after election day [Kamala Harris] is elected, we know that everything is good, then we can enter,” one Ghanaian man told me in Tapachula, Mexico’s downtown plaza. Otherwise, he stated, he would stay put in Mexico for years if necessary. That sentiment was ubiquitous in mid-October. 
“We know that if Donald Trump wins, all the migrants will be kicked out of the United States,” a middle-aged Venezuelan man in the plaza said. “We hope that he doesn’t win.”
But border hawks should not get complacent. The Trump Effect’s sustainability over time is hardly guaranteed.
The first Trump Effect showed that real action must follow campaign rhetoric. It didn’t last, as Liberal groups challenged every one of Trump’s policies and bogged them down in court.
“No president has been sued over his immigration policies as much as Donald Trump,” one November 2019 <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2019/11/05/all-the-presidents-immigration-lawsuits/">Forbes article</a> pointed out.
In 2021, a <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28909/w28909.pdf">National Bureau of Economic Research study</a> concluded that Trump’s rhetoric and policies led to a “large, abrupt decline in apprehensions beginning around January 2017.”
“We would argue this was one of the more important changes in the U.S. immigration space in recent years,” wrote researchers Mark Hoekstra and Sandra Orozco-Aleman of their discovery that political communications by politicians do influence immigrant decisions.
<div id="attachment_829259" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-829259" class="size-large wp-image-829259" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/GettyImages-2181090087-864x576.jpg" alt="AUSTIN, TEXAS - OCTOBER 25: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, walks on stage inside an airplane hanger at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on October 25, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Trump will travel to Traverse City, Michigan, to hold a rally as he continues to visit battleground states ahead of the November 5 election. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/GettyImages-2181090087-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/GettyImages-2181090087-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/GettyImages-2181090087-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/GettyImages-2181090087.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</div>
But they too noticed that The Trump Effect didn’t last long. By May 2017, apprehension rates began to increase and had returned to pre-election trends by the summer of 2018. It just got worse before it got better.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
By late 2018, with litigation and political opposition of every stripe bogging down Trump’s best laid plans, hundreds of thousands of migrants were pouring in and would do so until mid-2019 when the administration came up with some policy innovations enabling major crackdowns –and court decisions that eventually went Trump’s way.
But today, the whole world will be watching for Trump to follow through with a promised mass deportation program, fast removals of every immigrant caught illegally crossing, and the dismantling of Biden-era open border policies.
And once again, aspiring migrants will rely on their many allies inside the United States to bog things down.
The New York Times recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/us/trump-immigration-court-lawsuits.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that battalions of immigration lawyers are preparing to battle Trump in court again.
“We literally have a blueprint of what they are planning to do, and so we had months and months to figure out how to protect people,” Becca Heller, founder of the International Refugee Assistance Project, told the paper. “The Trump team might think they are ready, but so are we.”
Expect some large-scale test charges on Border Patrol between ports of entry and on the U.S.-Mexico bridges before and after Trump’s inauguration.
The hundreds of thousands of immigrants caught downstream by the U.S. election result will be glued to their cell phones and encrypted social media apps, paying close attention to what becomes of those up-trail — those who test the Trump administration’s will to stop and deport them. How Trump handles them will matter greatly.
<div id="attachment_735771" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-735771" class="size-large wp-image-735771" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/GettyImages-1870291573-864x576.jpg" alt="EAGLE PASS, TEXAS - DECEMBER 20: Immigrants wait to be processed at a U.S. Border Patrol transit center after they crossed the border from Mexico on December 20, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. A late-year surge of migrants crossing the U.S.southern border has overwhelmed U.S. immigration officials." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/GettyImages-1870291573-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/GettyImages-1870291573-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/GettyImages-1870291573-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/GettyImages-1870291573.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Credit: Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.</div>
For border hawks and anyone who wants to see an end to four years of unimpeded mass migration, however, there are silver linings in that 2025 is not 2017. For starters, many of the policies that Trump 2.0 will bring back are already court-battle tested, such as Remain in Mexico, which allows the Border Patrol to instantly return border-crossers back to Mexico to await the years of their asylum claim adjudications. 
But mainly, Trump 2.0 is unlikely to have to weather high political heat for closing the border down after the nation saw and felt 11 million apprehensions over the last four years.
Every poll for the last year, plus the overwhelming re-election of Trump on his illegal immigration shutdown plans shows the American public strongly supports them.
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Todd Bensman is a Senior National Security Fellow, 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.
Correction: A previous version stated, &#8220;the courts upheld a Trump 1.0 policy allowing denial of asylum claims by people who passed through a perfectly safe third country&#8230;&#8221; The United States and Mexico do not have a &#8220;safe third country&#8217; agreement.

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