Americans Voted to Deport Illegal Aliens
These are the policies Trump promised to implement during his campaign. Yet moderate Republicans are now criticizing him for the success of his deportation efforts.
One of the key messages of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign was a pledge for “Mass Deportation Now.” It was a popular slogan at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his speech accepting the GOP nomination, Trump said, “To keep our families safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”
In June 2024, at a campaign event in Racine, Wisconsin, Trump promised, “We’re going to have the largest deportation … We have no choice.”
Trump’s deportation promises had strong support among Americans, according to a June 2024 CBS News poll. The results showed that 62% of Americans supported a “New National Program to Deport All Undocumented Immigrants.”
After campaigning heavily on illegal immigration, Trump won a historic landslide in the 2024 election. He captured 312 electoral votes in 30 states, including all seven battleground states. It was also the first time since 2004 that a Republican presidential candidate had won the popular vote.
The 2024 election results showed substantial public support for Trump’s pledge to begin “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” Since his second inauguration, Trump has worked aggressively to fulfill that promise.
From January 20, 2025, through May 2026, the Trump administration removed more than three million illegal aliens from the country. This included more than two million who self-deported and 900,000 who were deported by the administration. Another 900,000 illegal aliens were arrested.
This represented a massive policy change from President Joe Biden’s administration, which allowed approximately six million illegal aliens to enter the country during his term. Under Biden, the southern border was wide open, but Trump has since stopped the flow of illegal aliens into the country.
These are the policies Trump promised to implement during his campaign. Yet moderate Republicans are now criticizing him for the success of his deportation efforts. Karl Rove, the Republican strategist and commentator, said Trump’s policies had “created a new problem.” He criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of illegal aliens in “major cities.” But ICE needs to be operating in Democratic-led “sanctuary cities,” which have become magnets for illegal aliens.
Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) also blasted Trump for “immigration enforcement efforts” that she said “have gone too far.” She claimed that “In July, 50 percent of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record.” Of course, Salazar is mistaken, as everyone who illegally entered the country committed a crime.
She is sponsoring legislation that would “legalize and import perhaps 17 million migrants” and provide “cheap labor to many employers.” This is precisely the kind of policy the American people rejected in the 2024 election. It reflects the Democratic Party’s approach, not the Republican Party platform. Nevertheless, 17 Republican House members co-sponsored her bill, rejecting the will of the American people as expressed in the last election.
That criticism allegedly led to a rumored change in Department of Homeland Security policies. On Saturday night, it was reported that DHS had ordered ICE officers to limit their arrests to violent illegal migrants.
By early Sunday morning, DHS had dismissed the rumor, posting: “No one is off the table. We will continue to arrest…all illegal aliens that come into our path. Anyone in our country illegally will be arrested and deported…ICE has initiated a nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary cities where our brave officers will be targeting criminal illegal aliens—many released from jails by sanctuary politicians—including murderers, rapists, child predators, and gang members.”
Despite pressure from the business community, the media, Democrats, moderate Republicans, and Hispanic activists, the Trump administration needs to stand firm in its efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the country. It has the support of the American people and is the right thing to do.
Opponents of Trump’s policies are on the wrong side of popular opinion and the wrong side of the law. Sadly, some left-wing opponents of ICE are going beyond protest and engaging in violence.
Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, there have been 647 assaults against ICE officers, an increase of 1,700% from the same period under the Biden administration. According to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, these repeated attacks are caused by “vicious lies being spread by sanctuary politicians and their foot soldiers who are involved in anti-ICE riots and other acts of violence.” He claimed that left-wing agitators are “putting the needs of illegal aliens ahead of the safety of American citizens.”
ICE officers have been labeled “modern-day Gestapo” by opponents of immigration enforcement. For trying to do their jobs, these officers have been targeted for assault and subjected to unprecedented violence.
In the midterm elections, Republicans should stand behind the president’s deportation policies, which are producing benefits in several areas. One is the nationwide decline in violent crime. As noted by DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis, “Crime has fallen to record lows under the Trump Administration, including murders on pace to drop to the lowest level in 126 years. It’s no surprise that this drop in crime coincides with deportations of dangerous criminal illegal aliens. It is common sense. When you remove criminals from the country, crime rates fall.”
The reduction in the illegal-alien population through arrests and self-deportations is also one factor, along with declining birth rates, behind falling public-school enrollment nationwide. That creates more room for native-born children and allows limited resources to be focused on citizens rather than illegal immigrants.
For example, Chicago Public Schools saw its student population decrease by 11,537 for the new school year. That decline should ease concerns about crowded classrooms and give remaining students greater access to teachers and educational facilities.
It’s for these reasons — and more — Republican candidates have a duty to get behind the administration’s deportation policies once and for all. The time is now.
