As America’s problems with illegal immigration have dramatically worsened over the last four years, there are increasing calls for a mass deportation program as a needed remedy. Despite heavy criticism from the same people who have either caused or defended our current status quo, mass deportation is exactly what our current predicament requires.
If mass deportation sounds like an extreme measure, it is necessary because we are facing an extreme and unprecedented crisis. Thanks to the Biden administration’s surrender of our southern border and refusal to enforce our immigration laws, more than 10 million people have illegally entered the country since 2021. Since that time, we have seen our cities overwhelmed, treasuries pillaged and innocent people killed by those who should never have been allowed to be here. The usual blue-ribbon studies and long-winded Senate debates on the topic won’t do. Something actually needs to be done, and done on a scale to match the problem.
One can already hear the pushback from the anti-borders lobby, which includes activists, immigration lawyers, sanctuary mayors and radical members of Congress. They will describe frightening scenarios of jack-booted federal immigration agents ripping migrant children from their mothers and loading them on to cattle cars headed for Mexico. In addition to being patently absurd, this is more self-serving hysteria meant to distract people from the depth of the problem.
Before implementing a deportation program, the federal government must get serious about securing our borders. The flooding bathroom cannot be fixed until the water has been turned off. At that point, America’s leaders need to address the most severe issues first, and they involve illegal aliens who commit violent crimes.
In 2020 the U.S. Department of Justice released data which showed that 94% of all confirmed people who entered illegally in DOJ custody were unlawfully present in the country. Of the nearly 30,000 known or suspected in custody, more than 61% were unauthorized with orders of removal. More than half had committed drug offenses, and almost 5,000 individuals had committed fraud, weapons offenses, racketeering, sex offenses or offenses including kidnapping, murder, larceny, terrorism, extortion and rape.
Keep in mind these are pre-Biden 2020 numbers. The current numbers are likely much worse, but those numbers are not known. Why? In an obvious face-saving move, Joe Biden’s Justice Department has not released updated data in almost four years. Regardless, if we are looking for a group of people here illegally to remove, the first ones should be those who have committed felonies, are currently incarcerated, and getting free food, shelter and medical care courtesy of American taxpayers.
Other obvious targets for removal should be the bloodthirsty foreign gangs that have set up shop in U.S. cities. It has been widely reported how the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has taken over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, and terrorized other migrants living there. The gang has been observed conducting similar behavior in New York, Chicago, El Paso and elsewhere. The men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are up to the challenge of taking on these gang members and removing them from the country. They only lack the political leadership to send them into the fight.
Another tactic would be for the federal government to take measures against woke district attorneys who are abusing their offices to enable criminal illegal aliens to remain in the country. Earlier this year the Immigration Reform Law Institute investigated Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and discovered he is reducing criminal charges against people here illegally to shield them from deportation.
District attorneys in other cities are acting similarly, using their offices to help immigration violators evade the law. The criminal justice system is supposed to treat everyone equally under the law, not show favoritism to certain groups based upon the current prosector’s political leanings. If these local jurisdictions are made to enforce the law uniformly, more people here illegally would be deported based upon their criminal activity.
Since the largest magnet causing foreign nationals to cross our borders illegally is the promise of employment, much can be done to reduce that magnet’s power. A good start would be for the federal government to make E-Verify mandatory for all employers. The employee verification system would be able to identify those here illegally, and another step would be to crack down harshly on employers hiring illegals. With such a system in place, many migrants would self-deport and those outside the border might reconsider making the trek to America only to find no job prospects.
Despite efforts to paint mass deportation as a draconian move, a recent poll found that 54% of Americans are in favor of such a program. That support for mass deportation comes not from xenophobia, but from citizens weary of seeing their country deteriorate while politicians ignore their pleas for order. It’s past time our leaders listened to Americans for a change and acted in their interests.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
