Why We Need Mass Deportations

There is a lot of confusion today about a simple question: “What is an American?” Debate abounds over what it means to be an American—more specifically, an American citizen. Prior to the 1960s, Americans largely saw themselves as descendants of pioneers and settlers, conquerors of a vast wilderness. In the decades since, that heritage has been reframed. Now we are taught that our ancestors were colonizers, purveyors of genocide, or—at best—immigrants themselves. The founding myth of our country has shifted from Plymouth Rock and the Declaration of Independence to Ellis Island and the poem etched on the Statue of Liberty.

Does anyone who steps foot on American soil become just as American as those whose ancestors arrived in the New World a century before the War for Independence? Should anyone born in this country, even to parents here illegally, be granted citizenship? Is every human being on Earth a potential American? Some of the same voices who cry “racism” at any concern about newly minted Americans influencing national policy also look down on people like me, Sen. Brian Lenney, or Idaho GOP chair Dorothy Moon simply because we were not born in Idaho.

During debate over an immigration bill last session, Rep. Heather Scott asked a pointed question. Following testimony from an immigration attorney who opposed House Bill 335—which would have made it illegal to aid and abet illegal aliens who continue to break the law—Scott asked: “Is there a difference between an immigrant and an illegal alien?”

The testifier did not seem to have an answer, yet it’s perhaps the most important question in this discussion. What are the differences between a citizen, a tourist, a guest worker, an immigrant, and an illegal alien?

Over at the Idaho Capital Sun, Laura Guido interviewed another immigration lawyer who expressed concern about record-high deportations this year. He linked deportations of illegal aliens with the broader picture of everyone who wants to come to America for any reason:

Christensen said he’s also been receiving calls from people who are in the country lawfully, but who fear that may be revoked. His office has additionally seen an increased scrutiny and slower processing of green card applications.

“I think there is an assault on immigration at all levels,” Christensen said.

Is everyone who comes to America an immigrant? The word conjures up images of Ellis Island—the poor and downtrodden from the four corners of the earth arriving with the desire to become Americans. But is that what’s happening today? Many people come not to assimilate into our culture, but simply to work and send money back home. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” added a small tax on remittances—the money guest workers send to their families abroad. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico denounced the plan, since a large portion of her nation’s economy depends on those remittances. Indian pundits have also expressed concern about how this tax will affect money sent by H-1B visa holders.

Yet all those discussions concern people here legally—as workers, students, tourists, or refugees. We still need a serious discussion about ensuring that our immigration policy puts America first. But what about those who are here entirely illegally, having overstayed visas or crossed the border without being caught?

Idaho’s elected leaders have been promoting their work to enforce immigration laws. As I was writing this Thursday afternoon, Gov. Brad Little issued a press release highlighting the deportation of three dangerous criminal aliens under his cooperative agreement with ICE. The day before, Secretary of State Phil McGrane announced the arrest of two people for election fraud, one of whom attempted to vote despite not being a citizen.

Deporting illegal aliens has become a partisan issue. Democrats are tripping over themselves to oppose deportations, whether it’s Congresswoman Delia Ramirez of Texas calling for defunding ICE, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attempting to block deportation operations in her city, or Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugin helping a criminal escape arrest in her own courtroom. Meanwhile, Republicans like Little are proudly touting their cooperation with the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

It’s a winning issue for Republicans. A recent poll found that 58% of respondents approved of Trump’s plan to deport all illegal aliens, a higher number than his personal approval rating. A newer poll showed that even a slim majority of Hispanics support mass deportations.

Why is deporting those here illegally so important? Aren’t they just here for a better life, aside from the few who commit violent crimes? And besides, don’t they do the jobs Americans won’t do?

It’s interesting how people justify criminal acts. If I robbed a bank, stole a car, or assaulted someone, I would be rightly taken to jail, tried, and sentenced to prison, or probation at the very least. Nobody would complain that I was being separated from my family or should be pardoned because I pay taxes. Yet those are the same arguments we often hear in support of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Entering our country illegally or overstaying a visa are crimes. If the United States does not enforce the law equally, without regard for persons, we make a mockery of our heritage and our Constitution.

Democrats complain that ICE is bypassing due process by deporting illegal aliens. In doing so, they again erase the distinction between citizen and alien, legal and illegal. For someone here illegally, deportation is the process, and sending them back to their home country—the place where they have legal citizenship—is not punishment. It’s simply setting things right.

But it’s worse than simple lawbreaking. Contained in the phrase “illegal immigration” are some horrific crimes. One of the most impactful explanations I’ve heard came from Paige Willey, who served in the first Trump administration. She described how unaccompanied minors were trafficked by Biden administration officials from the border to farms and meatpacking plants in America’s heartland to work as slaves, or worse:

It seems impossible that such a thing could happen in America, yet by the early 2020s it had become routine. Consider the recent story about an ICE raid at a marijuana farm in California where numerous unaccompanied minors were found working the fields. Gov. Gavin Newsom and leftist pundits initially tried to defend the operation as nothing more than picking strawberries. The narrative promoted by those who want to dilute the meaning of American citizenship (as well as businesses dependent on cheap foreign labor) conceals an incredibly dark reality.

And it’s not just obvious cases like child trafficking or violent crimes that affect society. More people means higher home prices, more traffic, and longer waits at the emergency room. Several travelers to Los Angeles have reported on social media in recent weeks that traffic is noticeably better since ICE began its high-profile raids. I can’t confirm the accuracy of those claims, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Media outlets have repeated for decades that 11 million illegal aliens live in the United States. That number is almost certainly far higher, especially after four years of Joe Biden’s open border. High-profile deportation efforts can reverse the perception that it’s worthwhile to come or stay here illegally, encouraging self-deportation. Customs and Border Protection has even repurposed a Biden-era mobile app—originally used to enter the country illegally—to facilitate departures.

Perhaps the biggest way illegal immigration has affected our society is through the census. The most important effect of the census is in allocating representatives and electoral votes to each state. In 1929, Congress capped the number of representatives at 435, redistributed every ten years based on each state’s share of the national population. Every state is guaranteed at least one representative.

The Electoral College, which casts its ballots for president based on how each state votes, has 535 electors: two for each state’s senators, one for each state’s representatives, and three for Washington, D.C. That means Idaho, with our two senators and two representatives, casts four electoral votes.

You can see where this is going. If a state has a surplus of people who are not citizens; who are not legally allowed to vote or participate in civil society, but are counted in the census, that state will have more power in Congress and in presidential elections than it should. Some point out that the Constitution calls for the enumeration of all “persons” living in a state, which could be interpreted to include illegal aliens. But remember: they shouldn’t be here in the first place. Their very presence violates the law.

This is not the first time our country has grappled with this question. One of the debates during the Philadelphia Convention that produced our Constitution was whether to count slaves in the census. You’ve surely heard of the Three-Fifths Compromise, but many people today have a backwards understanding of its intent. It was representatives of the southern slave states who wanted slaves fully counted to increase their power in Congress and in presidential elections, while northerners rightly countered that if slaves could not vote or participate in civil society, they should not be counted for apportionment.

In reading a biography of John Quincy Adams this summer, I was struck by how often he lamented the perfidy of the Three-Fifths Compromise. He believed it gave slave states far too much power over the affairs of the country. He blamed it for events such as the election of southerner Andrew Jackson to two terms as president, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, and the so-called “gag rule” that prevented him from bringing antislavery petitions to the House floor—all consequences of counting slaves in the census.

Counting illegal aliens in the census serves the same purpose as counting slaves: it amplifies the political power of certain states using people who are otherwise unable to participate in our civic traditions. The Center for Immigration Studies issued a report just before last November’s election claiming that the balance of power has been significantly shifted by the presence of illegal aliens in blue states such as California. According to their numbers, Idaho should have received a third congressional district (and a fifth electoral vote) after 2020, but the number of illegal aliens in California prevented that from happening.

We cannot let the Democratic Party get away with naked theft of political power. Last month, Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo cosponsored a bill to stop counting illegal aliens in the census. Just this week, President Trump instructed the Department of Commerce to prepare for a new census, five years earlier than expected:

The Constitution requires a census to be taken “within” every ten years—it doesn’t say we have to wait for 2030.

If Congress and the president can work together to make this happen, it will shift the balance of power in America. The Democratic Party has gone all-in on its coalition of the fringes—a loose alliance of identity groups whose only unifying thread is a desire to unseat white Americans from society. Importing countless illegal immigrants was a central part of that strategy, both to create new Democratic voters and to shift power to solid blue states.

Mass deportations are the path to making America great again. A majority of Americans want to see the law enforced rather than ignored for the sake of Democratic political power or big business’s desire for cheap labor. The committee debate I referenced earlier was on House Bill 335, presented by Rep. Dale Hawkins and drafted with former Trump advisor Theo Wold. The bill would have penalized organizations that aided and abetted illegal immigration.

Consider the countless “charities” that receive federal funding for settling refugees, who may also be assisting the movement of illegal aliens throughout the country. Consider who is providing them with transportation, falsified documentation, and places to work. Consider who is hiring illegal aliens in Idaho.

Yet opposition to the bill came from a strange coalition: immigration lawyers, representatives from the ACLU, the Catholic Church, the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, and even Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford testified against it. In the end, the committee voted 10-5 to table the bill, with seven Republicans and three Democrats uniting against it.

I recognize that getting policy right can be difficult. Some of the issues brought up by the sheriff and the lawyers might well be legitimate. If so, then let’s get it right next year. There must be appropriate sanctions for any person or organization that knowingly helps illegal aliens break our laws.

I included this idea in my resolution to the Idaho GOP State Central Committee earlier this summer. It is now the official position of the Idaho Republican Party that:

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Idaho Republican Party urges all state and local law enforcement agencies to pursue and enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE to strengthen immigration enforcement at the local level, and for legislation compelling such cooperation where possible;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Idaho Republican Party calls for annual reporting by the appropriate state agencies on the number of illegal aliens currently incarcerated in state and local facilities, as well as the estimated number of school-aged children unlawfully present in the state who are enrolled in public schools, and for legislation requiring such reports;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Idaho Republican Party strongly condemns any business or employer that knowingly hires illegal aliens, and supports penalties for those who do so in violation of state or federal law;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Idaho Republican Party strongly opposes any effort or measure to grant legal status, work permits, or driver’s licenses to any person here illegally;

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Idaho Republican Party urges all elected Republican officials to stand firm against pressure from special interests and to uphold the rule of law by advancing these reforms.

We will continue to hear excuses why we cannot take these additional steps in Idaho, but we must press on and get the job done. Back in 1986, analysts estimated up to 5 million people were in our country illegally. President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which allowed nearly 3 million illegal aliens to remain in the country and receive legal status.

The IRCA was meant to be a grand bargain to solve the illegal immigration problem for good: amnesty now, enforcement later. But later never came. Millions, perhaps even tens of millions, of illegal aliens have entered our country in the four decades since Reagan’s amnesty. Despite years of political leaders in both parties talking about enforcement and even building a wall on the southern border, nobody took the problem seriously until Donald Trump came down the escalator.

And I think he is serious now. The One Big Beautiful Bill gives ICE a larger budget than many countries, and despite a few mixed signals, the Trump administration appears committed to removing everyone who is not here legally. The president has even begun working on undoing birthright citizenship, which also undermines the idea of the American citizen. The purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to ensure that newly freed slaves were counted as citizens, with all the privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution. During debates over the amendment, sponsors assured everyone that it would obviously not apply to foreign travelers or diplomats. It’s clear that it was never meant to grant citizenship to any child born on American soil to noncitizen parents, whether they are lawful visitors like tourists or students, or to a mother who happened to cross the border just before giving birth.

We have to get serious in Idaho too. I applaud Gov. Little and others who are working to ensure that illegal aliens cannot continue breaking the law. But I think we can do even more. We face serious resistance from the Big Ag lobbyists who can’t let go of the servile system they currently have. Local law enforcement agencies must do everything in their power to ensure illegal aliens are handed over to ICE for deportation.

In addition to the provisions of the resolution above, I would still like to see E-Verify made mandatory. Debate at the summer meeting showed that many Republicans oppose the idea from various perspectives. Perhaps a federal mandate would be the way to go—after all, it’s federal law at stake here.

Even E-Verify can only check the data that exists. A recent New York Times article, which presented ICE raids as a terrible thing, nevertheless noted that illegal aliens had committed identity theft that left a nursing student in Missouri without access to her student loans and a disabled man in Texas without his medication. This is why the federal government must consolidate the uncounted blobs of data spread across dozens or even hundreds of federal agencies. Untangling this web requires time, energy, and—most of all—political will. Idaho can help by ensuring its own records are accurate, which is one of the provisions of the resolution.

We live in confusing times. What does it mean to be an American? What is the difference between a citizen and an alien, or between someone here legally and someone here illegally? We will have time to sort out those questions, but right now our first priority is ensuring that those who are clearly here illegally go back to where they belong. America is not the common property of all mankind. The Trump administration is off to a great start. Let’s do what we can here in Idaho.

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