After the economy, illegal immigration ranks highest among voters’ concerns. President Trump has spoken of “mass deportations” of the more than ten million illegal aliens who have flooded our country under Biden-Harris. That’s appealing political rhetoric to the base, but he needs to build policy muscle upon the rhetorical bones.
First, the optics. We’re talking ten million people, and then some. Men, women, children, oldsters, families. Some are the “hardworking people seeking a better life,” as they claim; others are gangsters and terrorists, plus lots in between. Rounding them up and arranging transport of a population equal to Michigan will be no small feat. Prepare for nightmarish images of armed agents descending upon “immigrant” motels and shelters; rounding up families and frog-walking them onto buses, trucks, trains, and planes; and shipping them out. We can expect horrific portrayals of “children in cages” revisited, oldsters with ailments, detention centers portrayed as internment camps, all that. Wouldn’t the anti-Trump media have a field day? Families torn apart! Lives disrupted! Local economies hit hard. And what if their nations of origin refused their re-entry? More ugly media attention.
Candidate Trump needs to present a credible plan to repatriate these people in an orderly, efficient, humane, and politically palatable way. This can be done by arranging deportations in cohorts according to immigrants’ harm and costs to our nation.
We start with the criminal elements: murderers, rapists, drunk drivers, drug-dealers, and professional shoplifters. By legal and administrative means, illegals who have been involved in criminal activity will be prioritized in “grab” lists and subject to arrest and detention. Being flight risks, they must be denied bail, then given a simple choice: be prosecuted, or be deported with the understanding that re-entry will be a mandatory five-year felony. The point is to get bad actors out of the country.
As this roundup begins, we can expect many to migrate (they’re good at that!) to blue-state jurisdictions, where they will undoubtedly wreak havoc. It will be up to voters there to elect officials and enact laws to terminate “sanctuary” policies and comply with a revamped Border Patrol, ICE, and Department of Homeland Security. Jurisdictions that cooperate will enjoy the benefits of reduced crime and welfare costs. Others won’t; they can pay the price in increased government expenditures, higher crime, and the emigration of taxpaying citizens.
As high-cost undesirables are dealt with, we move on to others who sap America’s common weal: illegals who worked with stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers or engaged in public benefits fraud, drunk driving, vehicle accidents, failure to appear or pay fines, and the like.
Logistical realities will also play a major role in who goes, when, and how.
Other cohorts will then be addressed, such as those who accepted public benefits, obtained driver’s licenses, and registered to vote — whether they registered consciously or inadvertently by failing to opt out on some form. Starting immediately, we must instigate a massive public relations campaign informing illegals that voting is a crime and will be a major negative factor in determining their eligibility for legal immigration in the future. Even if they don’t personally vote, their names — drawn from driver’s licenses, EBT registrations, work permits, and other programs — may have ballots mailed to them to be harvested by partisan agents. Thus, as a part of this public information program, illegals must understand that any votes cast in their names can be used against them in future proceedings, and it is in their best interest to cancel out any registrations they may have made, however inadvertently.
Then there is the matter of who enabled and empowered this invasion. When Biden said, “Don’t come!,” hordes of huddled masses swarmed the borders, knowing full well that they could cross. Somebody told them to come; provided phones, meals, and directions to the most advantageous border points; and instructed them on just what sad story would work best. Who gave them those “Biden Let Us In” t-shirts? Non-governmental organizations
A Republican Congress is needed to send to President Trump a bill to defund all reimbursements not only to federal and state agencies but especially to the NGOs that make up the “welfare-industrial complex” — completely and absolutely. These groups, even the “religious” ones, are not the humanitarian organizations they pretend to be, but constitute a lucrative network of well paid administrators and vendors, an adjunct to the Deep State, who make big bucks “serving” the underprivileged.
“Compassionate” leftists and the media will howl, and we can expect heart-wrenching photos and anecdotal reports of families and children starving and suffering in the streets. Our answer is that if the Rockefeller Foundation, Bill Gates, the Ford Foundation, George Soros, and their ilk care this much about their clients, then they can put up their own money — not the taxpayers’. To minimize hardship, and signal our resolve, all budgeted funds currently allocated would be reduced 10% over 10 consecutive months. If funding termination is legislated in January 2025, administratively set up in February, and commenced in March, we can have all support for illegal aliens terminated by January 2025. Funds not so spent can be better allocated to the needs of real Americans.
Some philanthropies and NGOs actually do serve disadvantaged Americans, besides illegals. Such charities will be required to identify their clients by name, date of birth, and Social Security number and given federal IDs to insure that taxpayers’ money is not being improperly diverted. For that matter, we must cancel all Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, work permits, Medicaid, debit and EBT (“food stamp”) cards — everything — that has been issued to illegals. This database can also be used to clean voting rolls and thus curtail fraudulent ballots.
As deportations proceed, we can expect many involved in misdemeanor criminality to try to stay below the radar. In other words, they’ll avoid arrest to keep a lower profile while they hope for a less aggressive administration. This will further reduce crime in illegal-infested jurisdictions.
Loss of benefits will induce many to self-deport, especially if we can eliminate transfer payments to their home countries.
A carefully articulated program of incremental deportations makes good political sense. President Trump needs to hammer home that V.P. Harris utterly failed as “border czarina,” whereas Trump made real progress with stay-in-Mexico and building a border wall — except when stymied by lawfare in the courts. Harris’s lip service to border integrity is too little, too late, and probably insincere. The Republicans need to remind voters of that, and be informed on just how much money is spent on illegal aliens in their home states.
Now, if there is some way we can bill Gates, Soros, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other NGOs for the charter flights returning illegal aliens to their homelands…
Randall Childs served in Vietnam as a Marine rifleman, has driven everything from farm gear to local trucks to taxis to semis, and is now retired from law enforcement.
Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
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