On January 25th, President Donald Trump ordered a crackdown on the illegal immigrant population here in the United States. This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led a series of raids targeting illegals with criminal backgrounds. Inadvertently, this swept up a number of individuals who were not serious criminals. The response across the nation was swift, with protests from immigration activists springing up all around the country. The outrage was evident. But why?
Reading up on this subject, I found an article in The Washington Post very telling. One line reads, "That undocumented immigrants with no criminal records were arrested and could potentially be deported sent a shock wave through immigrant communities nationwide amid concerns that the U.S. government could start going after law-abiding people." The last time I checked, being in this country illegally was a crime. While these individuals may not be serious criminals like murderers, articles like this legitimize the presence of illegal immigrants, which is absolutely wrong.
On a broader note, is it wrong to more strictly enforce immigration laws? Is it wrong to check to see if individuals belong in this country or not? The majority of individuals targeted were criminals that had felonies or other crimes to their names. Those that were also swept up in raids who did not have a previous criminal record but were here illegally should not have expected anything less. Laws exist for a reason: not to be broken, but to be followed and enforced. Do I believe in mass deportations? No, I think that resources would be better spent keeping illegal immigrants out than spending millions investigating the ones already within our borders. But I also believe that anyone who is here illegally should not be surprised and outraged that they are being sent back to their country of origin.
In essence, Trump goes hard on immigration, and everyone goes crazy. Do people not remember that Obama pursued the most aggressive deportation policy than any president before him? This is nothing new. Quite frankly, I disagree with President Trump on many, many things, from several of his cabinet picks to his atrocious foreign policy, but for this, I cannot fault him on.
