President-elect Trump’s confirmation last month of his plan to deploy military assets for immigration enforcement sparked a constitutional debate. Legal scholars and commentators quickly declared such action forbidden by long-standing prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. But this conventional wisdom misreads both the letter and spirit of American law. A careful examination of a pair of longstanding statutes reveals military support for immigration enforcement is permissible.

The issue hinges on two 19th century laws: the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and the Insurrection Act of 1807. When properly understood, both allow the President to use active-duty military forces to support the deportation of illegal immigrants.

Posse Comitatus: A Firewall Between the Military and Law Enforcement
Since our nation’s founding, Americans have been wary of standing armies and their role in civilian affairs. Concerns about military involvement in domestic law enforcement dates back to colonial experiences under British rule, particularly the quartering of British troops in civilian homes and their use to enforce British law. This experience was so troubling that it influenced several key elements of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The Third Amendment, ratified in 1791, explicitly prohibits American soldiers from occupying private homes inside the county during peacetime. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, informed by a distrust of a large military force employed against its citizenry, codified the separation of military and civilian law enforcement. This act established a firewall between military force and civilian law enforcement.

The term “posse comitatus,” Latin for “power of the country,” dates back to the medieval England tradition of local sheriffs organizing citizens to assist in maintaining public order. A form of this practice made its way to the American Old West: sheriffs called for volunteers – “a posse” of the county – to chase down bandits. This power allowed sheriffs to deputize civilians to temporarily suppress lawlessness and maintain order.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 derives its name from this practice with a crucial distinction: it specifically prohibits the military from acting as this civilian force. The law’s architects recognized that using soldiers instead of citizens for domestic law enforcement would fundamentally alter the relationship between military power and civil society. They sought to ensure that federal troops were kept out of local law enforcement.

Yet this legislative barrier against using military force for domestic law enforcement is not absolute. Congress regularly makes exceptions, allowing military support to civilian law enforcement for actions such as protecting federal property, conducting domestic counterterror operations, engaging in counterdrug efforts. In cases related to immigration enforcement, courts have ruled the Posse Comitatus Act only prohibits direct military involvement in law enforcement actions such as detaining citizens. Support activities, from transportation to surveillance, remain legal. This distinction between direct enforcement and support operations provides the legal basis for President-elect Trump’s proposed use of military assets in his planned deportation program.

Military Assets Against Illegal Immigration Today: U.S. Troops at the Southwest Border
The military currently provides support for immigration enforcement. Today, roughly 4,000 service members assist Customs and Border Protection along the southwest border. They operate surveillance aircraft, transport Border Patrol personnel, and maintain vehicles. These activities fall within the established legal framework for military support of immigration operations.

The incoming administration has the potential to significantly expand this support role. Military aircraft could transport detainees, military installations could provide temporary housing facilities, and military personnel could assist with administrative and logistical tasks. None of these activities would violate Posse Comitatus because they do not involve direct law enforcement actions.

The Insurrection Act: A Broad Authority for Military Force
But what about using military forces to support law enforcement and enforce the law? This is where the Insurrection Act becomes crucial.

The Insurrection Act, a composite of laws enacted between 1792 and 1807, represents a significant exception to the traditional separation of military and civilian law enforcement in the United States. The act grants presidents extraordinary power to deploy federal troops on American soil—a power that is typically forbidden but also vitally important to the success of federalism.

The act’s broad language, largely unchanged since the Civil War, allows presidents to deploy troops whenever they believe domestic unrest, rebellion, or resistance to federal law makes normal enforcement impossible. This extensive authority is rooted in Congress’s constitutional power to call forth the militia to “execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions,” as described in the Constitution. The act effectively creates a presidential override of the prohibitions against using military forces for domestic law enforcement. What was initially conceived as an emergency power for a young nation now stands as a powerful tool for President-elect Trump, who might see state resistance to federal immigration enforcement as justification for military deployment.

Illegal Immigrant Safe Havens: Local Government Resistance to Federal Law
Some jurisdictions have already declared their intention to resist federal immigration enforcement. Six states have already publicly announced plans to resist President-elect Trump’s plan to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants. Under the Insurrection Act, such resistance justifies the use of military force.

The deployment of military forces by a president inside the United States to enforce the law when local governments refuse to do so is not unprecedented. This happened several times during the Civil Rights era, most famously when President Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act to send the 101st Airborne to Little Rock in 1957 when state officials obstructed federal desegregation orders. Nearly seven decades later, the principle remains unchanged: local authorities cannot nullify federal law. If they attempt to do so, the President has authority to direct military power to enforce it. Invocation of the Insurrection Act in such an instance would permit American troops to detain undocumented immigrants inside the United States.

The Constitution provides remedies when state and local authorities obstruct federal law enforcement. The incoming administration has legal authority to use military assets to support immigration enforcement. Those who claim otherwise misunderstand both the law and its historical context.

Patrick O’Malley is an attorney in New York and Maryland, a former Assistant District Attorney in Queens County, NY, and a retired U.S. Army Reserve Judge Adjutant General officer who taught National Security Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Joe Buccino is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and the CEO of Vantage + Vox.

Trump returns to the White House. The GOP has majorities in the Senate and House. Now what?

It’s time to make America great again. To fix what “they” broke. To flip the narrative, so that government works for us – not the other way around. Yet, where to begin?

Inflation. Cleaning-up the Justice Department – including directives targeting parents attending school board meetings, “pro-lifers,” and Catholics who like Latin Mass. The hostages held by Hamas, and Israel’s fight with Hamas and other terror groups. Men playing women’s sports. The Ukrainian-Russian war. Securing the border and doing something about our many million illegal immigrants. Closing down the failed Department of Education. Unleashing American energy – oil, natural gas, and nuclear. Holding higher education accountable. Protecting American farmland from the Chinese. Dealing with the insanity of the United Nations. Rebuilding our military and refocusing it on national security. Stopping “climate crisis” madness. Making America healthy. Fighting anti-Semitism. Combating violent crime in our cities.

The Biden/Harris administration and its counterparts in many cities and states leave behind a mess. They have misused and abused the powers of government.

For those more focused on governing than campaigning, the bigger thrill is not Election Night celebrations but undoing harmful policies and enacting good ones. Now the heavy lifting starts.

A smart, effective roadmap has to be a marriage of MAGA and conservative political priorities with “kitchen-table” issues. In short, prioritize the legislative agenda around the coalition that helped Republicans win Pennsylvania and other swing states.

With a narrow House majority and the inevitable Chuck Schumer-led filibusters in the Senate, this kind of focus will be critical to pushing issues over the finish line. Plus, these policies – and the legislators supporting them – must withstand the inevitable resistance from special interests and the legacy media, many already beginning their assault against the Trump agenda. All the more reason to maintain the diverse but fragile coalition that prevailed on November 5.

Trying to do everything at once, however, will drain resources and confuse the public, leaving Republicans vulnerable to obstruction from Democrats and their allies. Unifying priorities, effective messages, and well-executed legislative plans are essential to making progress and improving the lives of Americans. Success will offer opportunities to grow public support – and to accomplish even more. And yes, to win future elections, too.

What unites MAGA, conservative Republicans, first-time voters in rural Pennsylvania, and black and Hispanic voters in Philadelphia, Reading, and elsewhere who supported Trump for the first time? The “kitchen-table issues” that the GOP talked about. The practical things that matter to those of us focused on reality, rather than trying to advance an ideology or seek “revenge.”

Priority one must be fighting inflation – making life more affordable. As Ronald Reagan explained: “Inflation is the cruelest tax.” It eats away at every paycheck, every week, every day.

This will take time, but the reversal begins with a few vital steps. Start by clawing back the unspent billions allocated for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (how Orwellian a name!).

Next, the United States must be energy-independent. This lowers the cost of everything. Permits for drilling must be approved so that American oil and natural gas can be unleashed to lower prices, raise our quality of life, and improve national security. Additionally, the holds on oil and gas leases must be lifted. Lastly, we should allow Pennsylvanians – and our friends in Ohio and West Virginia – to sell liquified natural gas to our European allies. We will make money and create jobs, while helping Germany, France, Poland and others get out from under Vladimir Putin’s thumb.

Be prepared to implement as many of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s DOGE recommendations as possible. We must not only stop the growth and reduce the power of the federal government; we must also eliminate wasteful spending, regulations, and even whole agencies that make it harder for businesses to operate.

Next, secure our borders and address the illegal immigration crisis. Most of these people are being entirely subsidized by taxpayers. Start with the known criminals, then move on to those who have no jobs or host family here. We need to restore our borders and respect for the law – and stop encouraging people to sneak in, live for free, and falsely claim “amnesty.”

Next, peace. Work to get our hostages home and to stabilize the firefights around the world that drain our resources, divert our energies, and pull American service members into wars. Support Israel in its effort to rescue the hostages and eliminate terrorists, their masterminds, and their funders. Work to bring the Ukraine-Russia war to an end.

Make life more affordable and strengthen our economy. Secure our border and protect Americans and those respecting the rule of law. Strengthen our resolve with allies, support our military, and build peace through strength.

These are the goals and promises that unified the Trump coalition and won the election. From here, they can move on to other worthy and important goals – everything from school choice to tax reform, from the mess at the UN to protecting American farmland and rooting out the waste and inefficiencies of our bureaucracies and agencies.

But first, focus on kitchen-table issues that unite voters. Show voters that you’ve listened. Prove that you share their priorities. Gain their trust, grow the cause, and go on from there. It’s an approach that makes sense not just politically but more importantly, for the good of the nation.

The incoming Trump administration is reportedly devising a plan to remove illegal migrants from the United States, even if their home countries refuse to accept them.

Illegal migrants that have been ordered deported by an immigration judge, but hail from a country that refuses to take them back, may be sent to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Grenada, Panama or possibly elsewhere once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, according to NBC News. Such a plan, which has yet to be confirmed by the transition team, could prove to be a game-changer in the president-elect’s promised goal of conducting the largest deportation initiative in U.S. history.

It’s not immediately clear if these illegal migrants would be allowed to remain and work in the countries in which they are deported, or what type of pressure Trump officials are applying to these host governments. A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Foreign governments that refuse to take back deportees have long frustrated federal immigration authorities in multiple administrations. In lieu of remaining in detention indefinitely, many of these individuals may simply be released back into the U.S., even if an immigration judge has ordered them to be removed.

Under the Biden administration, federal immigration authorities and major cities across the country experienced an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis. Management of this crisis was made more difficult when Venezuela, the second-highest source of illegal immigration into the U.S., stopped accepting deportation flights in February.

Nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country under Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist authoritarian who has overseen rampant inflation, economic turmoil and political repression. Trump is reportedly being pushed to make a deal with Maduro’s government, which would involve them accepting deportees again in exchange for an easing of U.S. sanctions, but it’s not clear if the incoming president is receptive to such an idea.

In the past, the Chinese and Cuban governments have also proven uncooperative with deportation flights from the U.S. However, both countries have begun accepting more flights from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) once again.

During Trump’s first White House term, he secured safe third country agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which were intended to keep asylum seekers at bay by forcing them to seek refuge in those countries first before applying in the U.S. However, the Biden administration suspended those deals immediately upon entering office — part of a massive unraveling of Trump-era immigration policies by President Joe Biden that helped spark the current southern border crisis.

Trump plans to enter office and begin to not only conduct the largest deportation program ever witnessed in U.S. history, but he has also vowed to resume border wall construction, end birthright citizenship for those born to illegal migrant parents, restart the travel ban and bring back the Remain in Mexico program — which kept asylum seekers waiting in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated in immigration court.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

There are over 660,000 illegal migrants already convicted of felonies or facing charges who have come across the southern border and been released into the U.S., according to newly released federal data provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some are in jail – on the taxpayers’ tab, of course – having been nabbed for committing more crimes once they got here, but many are walking free, spreading their criminality across the nation.

Over 58,000 of these known criminals have come to New York City alone, including 1,000 known members of South American gangs, like Tren de Aragua, that are making city-operated shelters into their headquarters.

Local sanctuary city rules protect these criminals from being deported. It’s time to end the sanctuary-for-migrants madness and start offering safety and sanctuary to the country’s legal residents.

Many people hear the word “sanctuary” and take it to mean offering hospitality to the needy. No. Sanctuary specifically means barring local law enforcement from notifying ICE when an illegal is arrested. It shields wrongdoers from being deported after their first offense, allowing them to commit more crimes.

New York Police Department crime stats show that in Manhattan’s Midtown North, known for Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the theatre district, robberies are up 90%, and felony assaults jumped 73% over a year ago. Cops say 75% of arrests in midtown Manhattan for robberies, assaults and other crimes are migrants.

How did this happen? Migrants are no longer vetted at the border. The numbers are too large, and President Joe Biden has scaled back detention facilities, forcing border personnel to release almost everyone into the U.S. immediately rather than hold them while background checks are done.

Biden also slapped new rules on ICE, limiting what types of felons can be removed once their criminal past is discovered. Not all felonies are disqualifying. New rules also bar ICE from removing illegals with serious mental illness, according to a 2024 report from the General Accounting Office.

President-elect Donald Trump warned repeatedly that some countries are “emptying their prisons. They’re emptying their mental institutions.” Biden’s rules welcomed them all.

During the last election, the far left and their media allies insisted, in the words of The New York Times, “there is no migrant crime surge,” adding that “immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.” It was a big lie.

That false claim is still being made – in Axios, for example.

Here are the facts. Before 2020, the evidence is mixed whether illegals committed more crimes. The left cites a small Texas study that purports to show that U.S. citizens were more likely to be convicted of felonies than illegals. But the data are old, limited to one state and predate the huge influx of migrants under Biden.

On the other side, research by the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that illegals were far more likely to commit a crime landing them in prison than legal residents: twice as likely in New York and California, three times as likely in New Jersey, and five times as likely in Arizona.

Whatever the facts before Biden became president, migrants pose a risk now because they are no longer vetted.

The sheer number of criminal migrants released into New York City – 58,000 – should shake up migrant-pandering politicians to act. Sanctuary city rules granting migrants protection from removal when they commit more crimes is crazy.

Mayor Eric Adams has frequently called for sanctuary rules to be changed. But he also repeatedly claims there is little he can do because the lunatic majority on the City Council is anti-police and soft on crime.

He could have pushed his own Charter Revision Commission to put repeal of sanctuary protections on the ballot last month. He failed to.

Adams should stop dithering and call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to impose an emergency suspension of sanctuary protection by executive order. That would allow ICE to begin deporting known criminals off Gotham’s streets with the NYPD’s assistance.

Everyone – except the criminals – will be safer.

A permanent change will require New York City voters to actually turn out at the polls next November and elect a City Council that wants to protect them, not criminals.

In the last New York City municipal election, only 7.2% turned out for the primary; for the general election, 12.8%. The soft-on-crime leftists won. If New Yorkers want a safe city, they need to vote for it.

Voters in other cities should also mobilize. The Los Angeles City Council voted recently to adopt sanctuary rules. What are they thinking, turning the City of Angels into the city of criminals?

Do not be fooled by the word “sanctuary.” Americans are hospitable people, but imported criminals are not welcome.

Victor Avila, a retired ICE supervisory special agent, and Elizabeth Farah of WND are here to reveal the truth you won’t hear elsewhere: America’s security and sovereignty are being deliberately undermined.

The crisis at the border isn’t just about illegal immigration. It’s about systemic failures that enable human trafficking, exploit children, and allow sanctuary cities to defy federal laws, shielding criminals instead of protecting citizens.

These aren’t accidents; they’re choices that endanger us all. Demand accountability, insist on justice, and join the fight to restore law and order. The time to act is now.

WATCH:

Here are the links to watch The Elizabeth Farah Show on other platforms:

Elizabeth Farah on X
WND on X
WND on Rumble
WND on YouTube
WND on Facebook

From a moral, economic and legal perspective, the reality of sanctuary cities must be resisted. One has only to refer to the chart below to understand the unsustainability of open borders. In every functional way, sanctuary cities work hand in hand with the cartels that have pushed at least 8 million border jumpers into our country. Biden has pushed another 2-to-3 million on us through various other means. At the heart of the sanctuary city (SC) issue are three competing concepts:

A. Self-declared sanctuary cities claim a higher moral ground in asserting that all have the right to the American dream and that elected officials have the right to force action on Americans without a vote.

B. Such cities force their citizens to pay for illegals through higher taxes and reduced services, not only in the cities and states they reside in but across America. The federal government and its funded and controlled NGOs have become the bagmen of the cartels, dispensing billions with few, if any, controls.

C. SCs operate in a legal no man’s land that looks like they conspire to actively, not passively, evade federal law on multiple levels.

There are specific federal statutes that require state and local officials to aid federal immigration authorities; Section 1373(a) of Title 8 of the U.S. Code states state and local governments can’t ban officials from sending or receiving information regarding immigration or citizenship status of people to the Department of Homeland Security.

The underlying safe harbor SCs rely on to avoid being prosecuted for either harboring a fugitive or obstructing justice is the cities’ false claim that they are passively resisting; this is the lie that should allow the Trump Justice Department to pierce this bit of legerdemain. There are too many documented cases of judges who have walked illegals out the backdoor of their courtroom or jailers, with ICE agents in the lobby, allowing prisoners to disappear into the night to believe for one moment that the resistance is passive.

In some cases, city councils and state officials have tried to make this conduct appear legal under the auspices of home rule. No matter how you look at it, all these various officials have blood on their hands as they facilitate a state of lawlessness within their jurisdictions. All the other nonsense with zero bail and redefining down what a felony is just more of the same. At the end of the day, you either support law and order or you support anarchy. Sanctuary cities support anarchy.

One of the arguments made by SCs is that since they don’t collect immigration status for people they arrest, then it cannot be held against them if they don’t comply with federal law. The idea of willful ignorance or “I see nothing” seems to be the motto of too many blue cities. As one local politician said to me, “Heck, if I don’t keep immigration status records, I can’t be blamed by the Feds.” He actually thought that was quite clever; I was just so amazed that he did not understand the ramifications of what he was implying!

Another excuse you will hear is that under federalism and the 10th Amendment, state and local governments cannot be compelled to enforce federal law without compensation. In essence, they claim they can nullify federal law – false! The last time I looked, the government was sending unfunded mandates to states by the truckload, another specious excuse that does not hold water. States receive enormous funding for everything you can think of as long as they comply with federal mandates. Somehow, SCs seem to believe they have a carve-out that insulates them from the usual norms.

Why do sanctuary cities invite millions of illegal aliens who require an average of $65,000 each for annual support in some jurisdictions? Is this a mandate from their citizens? Research shows that when citizens find out that illegal immigrants are eating out of their rice bowl, their attitudes change remarkably fast. The usual answer, the politically correct answer, is “compassion.” One thing I’ve never associated with government is compassion.

Following the monthly Department of Labor jobs reports, it becomes clear that government hiring started in earnest with Joe Biden’s inauguration and hasn’t slowed since; this hiring binge is across the board at the federal, state, and local level. But wait, there’s more. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million non-government employees are carrying out the care, feeding, education, housing, medical care, smokes, snacks, legal and even laundry of illegals. No one knows because it is not tracked. But tens of thousands of hotel employees, food kitchens, legal aid providers, translators and many more have created a massive industry that supports this craziness. Please don’t kid yourself; most do it for the money and don’t want their gig to end!

When you talk about government power, the No. 1 metric is the number of mouths beholden to one or more government officials that derive their power from their headcount. When did you last hear of mass government or private contractor layoffs? For all intents and purposes, it never happens.

Historians will look back and view the sanctuary city era as another aberration that was supposed to “signal” to anyone watching that compassion trumps logic. The American public has been taken on a ride costing hundreds of billions of dollars to date and has seen our cities turned into cesspools of violence and lawlessness. I hope the Trump administration will use the power of the Justice Department to hasten its demise and send a clear message that the rule of law and sanity is returning to our country.

PALM BEACH, Florida – Chad Chronister, the Tampa-area sheriff nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, bowed out of consideration Tuesday evening after pressure from conservatives for his arrest of a Christian pastor during lockdowns amid the COVID pandemic.

The sheriff of Hillsbourough County said on X: “To have been nominated by President-Elect @realDonaldTrump to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is the honor of a lifetime. Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration.

“There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling. I sincerely appreciate the nomination, outpouring of support by the American people, and look forward to continuing my service as Sheriff of Hillsborough County.”

To have been nominated by President-Elect @realDonaldTrump to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is the honor of a lifetime. Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully… pic.twitter.com/bvNF8m9Bh4

— Chad Chronister (@ChadChronister) December 3, 2024

On Saturday, Trump nominated Chronister, saying he would work with his attorney general pick, Pam Bondi, “to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border.”

As reported Sunday, in March 2020, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office released a press statement revealing that they had arrested local Tampa Bay church pastor Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne on two second-degree misdemeanors for unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules. In a post on X from the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, the group called out Chronister’s decision to arrest Howard-Browne, leading Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie to respond as well.

“I’m going to call ‘em like I see ‘em. Trump’s nominee for head of DEA should be disqualified for ordering the arrest a pastor who defied COVID lockdowns,” Massie wrote on X.

I’m going to call ‘em like I see ‘em. Trump’s nominee for head of DEA should be disqualified for ordering the arrest a pastor who defied COVID lockdowns. https://t.co/pHSmGr81Tz

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 1, 2024

Conservative podcasters the Hodge Twins and journalist Mike Cernovich also called out Trump’s choice on X, highlighting Chronister’s COVID-19 stances at the time of the incident.

This guy can’t be the DEA leader @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/OsKOlFmhA0

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) December 1, 2024

Trump’s choice for DEA discriminated against unvaccinated law enforcement officers under his command. pic.twitter.com/xCEiZWYQyX

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) December 1, 2024

Media personality John Cardillo wrote on X that he had deleted his original post praising the Florida Sheriff after remembering that he is a “COVIDian Sheriff who arrested a pastor during services because ‘COVID’ to be prosecuted by Andrew Warren, the Soros funded prosecutor DeSantis removed from Office.”

Deleted my post supporting Chronister as Trump’s DEA Adminitrator pick.

I completely forgot that Chronister is COVIDian Sheriff who arrested a pastor during services because “COVID” to be prosecuted by Andrew Warren, the Soros funded prosecutor DeSantis removed from Office.

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 1, 2024

While Chronister had taken to social media to publicly thank Trump for the nomination and stated that he is “deeply humbled by this opportunity to serve our nation,” podcaster Tim Pool instead called for him to serve prison time.

Let’s revisit this after he serves prison time for conspiracy against rights for arresting a pastor during covid lockdowns https://t.co/Fl4JLCBIzO

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) December 1, 2024

At the time of Howard-Browne’s arrest, Chronister stated that while faith is important and authorities “would never impede on someone’s ability to lean on their religious beliefs as a means of comfort,” those practicing their beliefs must do so “safely.”

“His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger,” Chronister said. “The River at Tampa Bay has an advantage over most places of worship, because they have access to technology that allows them to live stream their services over the internet and broadcast television for the more than 4,000 members to watch from the safety of their homes.”

Is the news we hear every day actually broadcasting messages from God? The answer is an absolute yes! Find out how!

In addition to the local pastor’s arrest, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office released 164 inmates in March 2020 to help slow the spread of COVID-19 at the county jail.

“We want to protect our employees here. We want to protect the remainder of the jail population. We also feel these low-level, non-violent offenders will be better served at home with their families,” Chronister said at the time.

However, only a day after their release, one of the inmates, 26-year-old Joseph Edwards Williams, was arrested again on charges of second-degree murder in connection to a homicide along with charges of felony firearm possession, heroin possession and resisting arrest.

“There is no question Joseph Williams took advantage of this health emergency to commit crimes while he was out of jail awaiting resolution of a low-level, non-violent offense,” Chronister said after the incident. “As a result, I call on the State Attorney to prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”

Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews

‘COVIDian sheriff’: Conservatives slam Trump’s DEA pick over what he did during pandemic

Local governments can call themselves sanctuaries and say they won’t allow a federal program to deport illegal aliens within their boundaries.

But it’s likely nothing more than talk.

Denver’s mayor recently claimed not only his police but 50,000 residents would line up to prevent the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump from deporting illegal aliens found in the city.

He rashly said he’d go to jail over the issue, and Trump’s new border czar, Tom Homan, said that’s where the mayor would be sent if he persisted.

Now there’s another precedent that affirms the incoming administration’s authority to run such a program.

A report at the Center Square describes how a three-judge panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an attempt in Seattle by local officials to rein in deportation programs.

There, officials had ordered companies not to service airplanes being used for deportation during Trump’s first administration.

The result is a ruling that the federal government can deport foreign nationals inside the U.S. illegally even over the objection of local authorities.

The report cited the ruling from Judge Daniel Bress, with judges Michael Hawkins and Richard Clinton concurring.

It was a 2019 executive order from King County Executive Dow Constantine that told county officials to ban fixed base operators on a county airfield near Seattle from servicing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flights used to deport illegal foreign nationals, the report said.

The Trump administration at that time sued, citing the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and other law.

The district judge ruled against Seattle, as has the appeals court now.

The ruling said the federal government had Article III standing to bring the action, and the injuries from the ban were traceable to the local officials’ political agenda.

The local order, in fact, violated the intergovernmental immunity doctrine because it “improperly regulated the way in which the federal government transported noncitizen detainees by preventing ICE from using private FBO contractors at Boeing Field, and on its face discriminated against the United States by singling out the federal government and its contractors for unfavorable treatment,” the report said the court found.

The Trump transition team and congressional Republicans have promised an unprecedented immigration crackdown, which could also include a novel approach to combating drug cartels.

President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration platform includes a number of hardline measures, such as resuming construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall, reviving the Remain in Mexico program for asylum seekers, conducting the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and a number of other hawkish proposals. Trump allies and upcoming administration officials have also called on the U.S. to officially designate key drug cartels as terrorist organizations, which would open more resources to combating the crime syndicates that have long sowed chaos at the southern border.

“The drug cartels are waging war on America — and it’s now time for America to wage war on the cartels,” then-candidate Trump said in December 2023, and declared that his plan to fight the cartels included designating them as foreign terrorist organizations.

“Millions and millions of families and people are being destroyed,” he continued. “When I am back in the White House, the drug kingpins and vicious traffickers will never sleep soundly again.”

Nearly a year after that announcement was made, Trump is now due to return to the White House for a non-consecutive second term, bringing his proposal for cartels far closer to reality.

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tom Homan — who Trump recently tapped to serve as his immigration czar — declared that he’d like to see cartels be given the terrorist designation, having said in a news interview in November that they have “killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined.”

A foreign terrorist organization (FTO) designation by the State Department — which has so far been mostly applied to Islamic terrorist groups that pose a significant threat to American security — would trigger U.S. authorization to freeze financial assets, prohibit entry into the country and prosecute members for supporting terrorism. The proposal itself is not new, as it’s been championed by border hawks over the years.

“What we need to do is make sure that legally we are approaching cartels as the dangerous organizations that they are, and I think an FTO designation is appropriate,” Texas Rep. Chip Roy said to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Roy was an early proponent in the House of Representatives for this action, having introduced legislation in 2019 that called on then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to designate cartels as terrorists. The Texas lawmaker introduced a bill in 2023 that called for the Gulf Cartel, Cartel Del Noreste, Cartel de Sinaloa, and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion to be given the FTO designation.

While the incoming Trump administration appears to be fully on board with this approach, it remains to be seen if it can be done. Trump himself explicitly called for drug cartels to be labeled as terrorists in November 2019 — largely in reaction to the massacre of American Mormons living south of the border by drug lords earlier that month — but those plans never came to fruition in his first term.

The Mexican government has also long opposed the idea of FTO designation for drug cartels, believing the approach to largely be an affront to their national sovereignty.

In a statement to the DCNF, Todd Bensman, who serves as a senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, said he doesn’t “outright oppose the idea” of an FTO designation, but noted that a cartel organization can employ tens of thousands of individuals. For this reason, careful scope would be needed so U.S. officials are not overwhelmed as they carry out their counterterrorism mission.

Roy argued that a specific FTO designation isn’t completely necessary, but some sort of formal action is needed in order to fully take on the threat of these drug cartels.

“We can get hung up with words and designations and whatever,” the Texas lawmaker said. “Alright, if you want to come up with a special designation that’s the equivalent, then so be it.”

“But the bottom line is that we need to designate them as the dangers that they are and then be able to take action with the full tools at our disposal,” Roy continued. “We need to explore every action necessary to stop them.”

On Election Day, Republicans won control of not only the White House and the Senate, but also maintained their majority in the House of Representatives, which will allow the Trump administration to more freely foment its agenda to control illegal immigration and tackle crime emanating south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Roy urged lawmakers to get behind the White House to push these goals over the finish line.

“What we need is the executive branch to act and we need the legislature to give the executive branch the tools necessary to act,” Roy said. “We can’t blink. We need to move now.”

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson compared Democratic mayors blocking President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations to South Carolina’s 1832 nullification crisis Tuesday on his podcast.

Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston vowed Thursday that he would refuse to support Trump’s mass deportation operation, asserting that he would have the backing of the city’s police and residents. On “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” the host called out Johnston and suggested that Trump should withhold federal funds from the city if it refused to comply.

“That’s insurrection. That is exactly what South Carolina did in 1832,” Hanson said. “Think about that — ‘Donald Trump is a mass murdering Mao Zedong type of government, and all of these people are dissidents.’ The irony is that the only way that the city of Denver can feed and house these immigrants is to get federal funds. All he should do is, any jurisdiction, there’s 600,000 of them, who says we’re going to nullify, just like our Confederate ancestors, we’re going to nullify federal law because we are morally superior to the federal government. So we’re going to not enforce federal immigration law.”

“He should say, ‘Everybody has a choice. If that’s your choice, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Johnson, I admire your integrity and your courage. Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re not going to get one penny of federal funds to house your immigrants, and if you continue to do it each week, we’re going to have another federal program you’re not going to get. Because you don’t like the federal government! You don’t expect it,’” Hanson added. “So you’re not going to get federal highway funds the next week, federal education. Just keep going and tell me when you want to stop.”

Hanson went on to state that the left failed to address voters’ concerns, as a majority consistently polled that their top issues were the economy, inflation and immigration.

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“They had no constituency, nothing for the transgender excesses. They had nothing for the open border. They had nothing for Afghanistan or the Chinese balloon type of foreign policy. They have no support for the critical legal theory, critical racial theory, DEI, nothing. So they don’t get that. This mayor is an insurrectionist. It’s very funny because they say they were out against insurrectionists. They are the party of insurrection,” Hanson continued.

“We saw that with Senator [Bob] Casey. He finally threw in the towel. But even when it was mathematically impossible that the recount could get him elected, he was still trying to fix ballots. Only in pre-selected counties, though, jurisdictions that were blue. In other words, he didn’t care about ballots that he might that have might have to be fixed according to his interpretation of how to work the law if they resulted in [David] McCormick ballots.”

Throughout Trump’s campaign, the former president vowed to shut down the border and deport the millions of illegal immigrants who have entered under the Biden-Harris administration. On Nov. 11, Trump announced former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan as his new “border czar.”

Following Johnston’s promise to resist mass deportation efforts, Homan warned that the Democratic mayor could “go to jail” if he obstructed Trump’s efforts.

“All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S. and he would see he’s breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail, because there is a statute, it’s Title 896 United States Code 1324 (iii),” Homan said Monday.

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As a congressional staffer, Kash Patel helped expose FBI misconduct. Now, he’s President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Christopher Wray as the bureau’s director.

In another major announcement of house cleaning, Trump announced Saturday on Truth Social that the former Pentagon senior official, influential congressional staffer, White House aide and former terrorism prosecutor, would be his nominee to run the FBI, which has been besieged by scandal and whistleblowers in recent years.

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Trump’s post said. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”

The president-elect noted the role Patel played in exposing misconduct by the FBI regarding the Russia investigation.

“He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump added. “Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Kash has also tried over 60 jury trials.”

“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI,” Trump continued.

BREAKING: President Trump nominates Kash Patel as FBI Director pic.twitter.com/LHu2odgxkY

— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) December 1, 2024

Last year, Patel’s book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” was published that detailed his critique of federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the FBI.

During the first Trump administration, Patel was the chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

Before that, Patel was the deputy assistant to the president and the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

While at the NSC, he helped oversee Trump policies that included eliminating the Islamic State terrorist group, as well as Al Qaeda leadership such as al-Baghdadi and Qasem al-Rimi.

Patel also was the principal deputy to the former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, who oversaw the operations of 17 intelligence community agencies.

Before going to the White House, Patel was senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, under then-Chairiman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and oversaw the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential–election.

He also played a key role in the Nunes memo that showed the FBI relied on partisan “politically motivated or questionable sources” to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The two and a half year investigation into whether Trump conspired with the Russian government to win the 2016 election was prompted by information fed to the FBI from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and Democrat operatives. The House panel and later special counsel Robert Mueller concluded there was no evidence that Trump conspired with Russians.

If confirmed, Patel would return to law enforcement, which is what he did before his time on Capitol Hill when he was a terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department.

While at the Justice Department, Patel was also the liaison officer to Joint Special Operations Command, to conduct collaborative targeting operations against high value terrorism targets.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

This is a message for President Donald Trump, Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan and the entire Trump Homeland Security team.

I know you already have your plan. And I’m sure it’s brilliant. But two heads are better than one, and I have some creative ideas to add to the mix.

First, I’m on record on my TV and radio shows supporting and pushing for the world’s largest mass deportation. I’m 110% “all in.” We must send packing the 20 million-plus illegal alien invaders President Joe Biden, Border Czar Kamala Harris and DHS Chief Alejandro Mayorkas welcomed in.

We have no choice.

This is the “Great Replacement Plan” to change the voting demographic of America. This is the “Cloward-Piven” plan to overwhelm the system, collapse the economy and turn us into a socialist welfare state. America will never recover unless we send these 20 million-plus illegal invaders packing.

But I’m also on record saying it won’t be easy.

Finding, rounding up and deporting 20 million-plus people in a big country is no easy feat. To the contrary, it could be one of the most complicated feats in world history.

The radical, communist-infiltrated Democrat Party will not go quietly. There will be mass protests – and they will almost certainly turn violent (like BLM).

And remember, the left has an army of 20 million-plus illegal aliens – many of them violent criminals, gangbangers and military-age males sent to America to destroy our country from within.

Here is my solution.

Take some of it, or all of it, but it’s creative and worth a review. It is meant to counteract the issues above.

First, President Trump must announce on Day 1 of his presidency the end of welfare, food stamps, free health care and all other government handouts for illegal aliens.

The point is, it’s difficult and expensive to round up 20 million illegal aliens. And it takes a tremendous number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But by ending all forms of welfare, food stamps and government handouts, many millions of illegals will choose to voluntarily leave (i.e., self-deport). Not all, but enough to make our job a lot easier.

This is how we attack the “low-hanging fruit” first. Millions of these illegal invaders came for the free government handouts. Take them away and they will self-deport. Mission accomplished. And it didn’t cost us a dime in manpower.

Secondly, to solve the issue of the need for more ICE agents, President Trump should immediately terminate the $80 billion in the budget for 80,000 new IRS agents. Then convert all that money and manpower to 80,000 new ICE agents. Now we’ll have enough agents to deport millions of illegal invaders. Problem solved.

Third, ask all cities and states to declare who is officially a “sanctuary city or state.” Democratic politicians will be proud to brag about how they will resist. Now we know all the traitors who need to be rounded up and arrested for treason and insurrection.

We also have the list to cut off all federal funding. Now give them an ultimatum. Either they comply with federal law, or their city or state loses all federal funding. Simple.

Fourth, I would apply the “low-hanging fruit theory” to start this mass deportation. If a building were on fire and innocent victims needed rescue, but some apartments were occupied by drug-dealing gangbangers who were threatening to shoot at firemen, would the firemen evacuate everyone or only the good people who wanted to be evacuated? Of course, you’d pick the innocent victims who want to be rescued.

We should start this mass deportation only in red cities and red states that openly invite us in, and welcome ICE raids. In other words, start with the good guys.

RED-STATE AMERICA.

Let blue Democratic crapholes rot. Let all the rats run to blue cities, in blue states. Watch them drown in a sea of violent crime, drugs, theft, homelessness and massive debt from welfare. Let’s clean out the red cities and states – the portion of America who welcomes our help.

Worry about the rest of blue-state America later – after blue sanctuary cities and states implode.

My plan serves as the model for how it can be done. We can safely deport millions just from red cities and states – with minimal trouble. It will go quickly and smoothly. Now we have proof it works. And proof that quality of life is better. Crime will be down, schools safer, budgets dramatically lowered, taxes cut.

And my plan makes blue cities and states cry “Uncle.” Without federal funding, and with exploding budgets and exploding crime, let’s see how long they remain “sanctuary cities.”

If nothing else, millions of Americans will move from blue cities and states to red cities and states. Just in time for the 2030 census — giving the GOP dozens of new electoral votes.

Speaking of the census, President Trump and the GOP Congress must pass a law preventing illegal aliens from being counted in the census. That will cut even more funding to blue cities and states, and make the electoral map even redder.

Finally, no one ever learns a lesson unless the guilty parties are severely punished. At this point, with proof of success in red states, if Democratic politicians and government bureaucrats still refuse to cooperate with this mass deportation, then this is the real insurrection.

Indict them, arrest them and charge them with dereliction of duty, abandonment of their citizens, insurrection and treason. Fly them to Guantanamo for mass trials. If convicted, sentence them to hard time.

After we make examples of the first round of traitors, I’m betting the rest will see things differently. The remaining Democratic politicians will see the light and choose to cooperate with ICE.

This plan is how we “MAKE MASS DEPORTATION GREAT AGAIN.”

(THE BLAZE) – A top New York state Democrat came up with a bizarre strategy to try to oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration plans.

State Rep. Liz Krueger wants liberal northeastern states to band together, deny the federal government taxes from their residents, and then secede in order to join Canada. The plot was documented by Politico. “It’s not unreasonable to think outside of the box,” said Krueger.

The state of New York sends about $361.8 billion in taxes to the federal government a year, which comprises about 6.5% of the budget, according to Fox News.

Former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director and incoming “border czar” Tom Homan said Wednesday on Fox News that he would not be intimidated by those seeking to harm him, following bomb threats and “swatting” calls directed at President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.

Incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed Wednesday that several of Trump’s cabinet picks and their families are facing threats of violence since the announcement of their appointments to the former president’s second administration. On “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” Homan said he hadn’t taken the threats seriously until realizing that others were now facing danger, noting his attitude has lately been “if you want something, come get some.”

“Well, first of all, I appreciate what Nicole just said, but I’ll be honest with you. I have not taken this serious up to this point. Now that I know what’s happened [the] last 24 hours, I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this when I was the ICE director, in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, the death threats continued. Even after I retired as the ICE director, I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family,” Homan said.

“What doesn’t help is all the negative press around the president and people he’s putting in his cabinet. Me, I’m not in the cabinet, but, I’ve read numerous hit pieces on me,” Homan added. “You know, ‘I’m a racist and, I’m the father of family separation,’ all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there that will take advantage. I thought we’re beyond that, [now the] elections over that we’re going to get beyond that … But I was with the attitude lately that if you want something, come get some. Because I’ve been through this many, many times.”

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The Fox News host went on to question the former ICE director about whether he would play a role in ending the threats directed at both Republicans and Democrats following Inauguration Day.

“Well, I think the first role is not to be intimidated. I’m not going to be intimidated by these people. They’re not going to silence me. Look, I’m going to do this job. I want to do this job because it’s an issue of national security,” Homan said. “So you’re not going to shut me up. I’m not going away, and I’m going to do this job and I’m going to continue talking to [the] American people [about] why it needs to be done.”

Since being nominated as Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Homan has faced backlash from corporate media and Democrats over his push to fulfill Trump’s mass deportation plan. However, despite Democratic mayors claiming they would refuse to aid in Trump’s operation, Homan warned them Tuesday evening on Fox News to “get the hell out the way” or they could face legal repercussions.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

In June, Victor Martinez-Hernandez was charged with the murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five in Maryland. Police in Oklahoma tracked the accused repeat offender down with a sample of his DNA recovered from a Los Angeles home invasion in which a nine-year-old girl and her mother were assaulted. Police say he came to the U.S. illegally to escape prosecution for at least one other murder in his native El Salvador in December 2022.

“That should never have been allowed to happen,” said Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, referring to the numerous missed red flags the case presented. His office apprehended Hernandez in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Like the member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua sentenced to life in prison last week for the murder of Laken Riley in Georgia, Hernandez’s case is shining a light on the federal government’s failure to properly vet and keep track of lawless migrants.

These gaps have led to broad claims that illegal immigrants have less involvement with the criminal justice system than native-born Americans. A review of the available data, however, shows that the criminal records of millions of migrants – the ones President-elect Trump vows to prioritize for deportation – remain unknown due to illegal crossings, lax enforcement, and lax data collection by federal and “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

In addition, an analysis of the available statistics by RealClearInvestigations suggests that the crime rate of noncitizens is vastly understated. A separate RCI analysis based on estimates developed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) suggests that crime by illegal aliens who entered the U.S. by July 21, 2024 cost the country some $166.5 billion. These criminals disproportionately entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.

The problem begins with incomplete initial vetting by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The criminal histories of migrants from far-flung countries with often shoddy record-keeping are somewhat hard to determine. It is also impractical to hold each person until they have passed a rigorous background check. As a result, ICE routinely releases many illegals into the country on their own recognizance and then discovers afterward that many had criminal records in their home countries.

In response to a request from Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, ICE reported this summer that it has released  7.4 million such “non-detained” noncitizens into the U.S. during the last four decades or so. ICE reports that these include 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories –  435,719 individuals with criminal convictions in their home countries and another 226,847 with pending criminal charges. These precise figures, however, do not say whether the crimes of the latter group were committed in the accused’s home country or the U.S.

In the July 21 letter to Rep. Gonzales, ICE reported that 13,099 of these non-detained individuals have convictions for homicide, with 1,845 facing criminal homicide charges. Another 9,461 have convictions for sex offenses (not including assault or commercialized sex), and 2,659 face pending charges. The convictions include other crimes such as assault (62,231), robbery (10,031), sexual assault (15,811), weapons offenses (13,423), and dangerous drugs (56,533).

These figures are only suggestive of the extent of crime because they only list the most serious crime committed by each individual. A murderer, for example, who also committed a sex offense, is only counted as a murderer. It does not include the fact that millions of migrants are violating the law because of their presence in the U.S. It also does not account for the lawbreaking involved in working without proper authorization or the widespread use of stolen Social Security numbers to secure employment.

The 662,566 convicted and likely criminals make up 9% of the 7.4 million released noncitizens.

The statistics miss much of the relationship between crime and illegal aliens. Noncitizens in the “national docket data” either surrendered to border agents or were apprehended at the border. Those who avoid surrender likely have reasons to evade authorities, such as a criminal background. But there are others who avoided being caught and won’t be in these numbers. That group includes “gotaways” – individuals observed crossing the U.S. border illegally but not apprehended or turned back. With up to 38% of border agents shifted from monitoring to processing duties and 30% of surveillance cameras not functioning, millions more likely entered the U.S. undetected, potentially including the most dangerous individuals.

The Customs and Border Protection Agency estimates that some two million such “gotaways” have entered the country since 2021.

The data on migrants who have been processed also understates the problem. Criminals rarely commit just one crime. For example, from 1990 to 2002, in the 75 most populous U.S. counties, 70% of those convicted of a violent felony had a prior arrest, and 56% had a prior criminal conviction. In 2023 in Washington, D.C., the average homicide suspect had been arrested 11 times before committing a homicide. Data for 30 states shows that 60.1% of criminals released from prison in 2005 had been arrested again within two years, and 73.5% had been arrested within four years. The ICE data set provides a single entry for each individual.

Most violent crimes don’t result in an arrest, so looking at arrests or convictions in these other countries will underestimate whether illegal aliens are criminals. Across all U.S. cities in 2022, only 35.2% of violent crimes resulted in an arrest. While 50.6% of murders resulted in an arrest, just 24.1% of rapes produced an arrest, 22.7% of robberies, and 39.9% of aggravated assaults.

As the Laken Riley and Rachel Morin murder cases make clear, it is difficult to calculate all the victimization costs of crime to families and society.

Using tools developed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), RCI did estimate what is likely the bare minimum economic costs of illegal alien crime. It arrived at its estimated cost to victims in dollar terms by assuming that each of the 662,566 “non-detained” noncitizen offenders on ICE’s list committed just once in the U.S. the crime for which they have been previously accused.

ICE presented Rep. Gonzales with numbers on 42 different types of crime, but the NIJ only calculated the cost to victims for eight types of crime. Professor Mark Cohen at Vanderbilt University, who co-authored the original NIJ report, updated the list with 15 of the crime categories reported by ICE: murder, sexual assault, sexual offenses, robbery, assault, arson, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, weapon offenses, drugs, fraud, liquor offenses, gambling, and stolen property. Cohen’s updated numbers provide estimates for the damage from child abuse, drunk driving, and vandalism, but ICE did not collect numbers on those crimes.

NIJ’s estimated losses from crime victimization include: medical care/ambulances, mental health care, police/fire service costs, social/victim services, property loss/damage, reduced productivity (at work, home, and school), and nonmonetary losses (fear, pain, suffering, and lost quality of life).

Murders account for almost $153.8 billion of the $166.5 billion in estimated criminal victimization costs (a breakdown of the costs of crime for each type of crime is available here). Another $6 billion involves sexual assaults/offenses, and an additional $5.2 billion comes from sexual assaults and sexual offenses.

Half of the crimes these non-detained individuals commit don’t have cost estimates. These crimes include kidnapping, embezzlement, extortion, smuggling, traffic offenses, and weapon offenses.

These criminal illegal aliens entered the U.S. under multiple administrations, but the size of the problem was likely larger under the Biden administration. That isn’t just because so many more illegal aliens were entering the country. Under the Trump administration’s remain-in-Mexico policy, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) performed background checks on immigrants. That included contacting immigrants’ countries of origin.

ICE agents cannot access the same databases to check on the immigrants, and they don’t contact the immigrant’s home country. Plus, the massive inflow of immigrants has overwhelmed the system. The Deputy Director for ICE blames the “enormous workload”  agents face, so they haven’t been able to do even the limited background checks they are doing. There are so many coming in that the government can’t house these immigrants until their backgrounds are properly checked.

ICE has been processing criminals as they enter the country, but without identifying them as criminals. So, under the Biden administration, they have simply been released into the country. Now, they are walking freely in the United States, and no one knows where they are.

As bad as these numbers are, the reality may be even worse. The Biden-Harris administration is accused of presenting the border crisis so that it does not look as bad as it is. In mid-September, retired San Diego Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitk testified how the Biden administration ordered him not to publicize the arrests of illegal border crossers who they identified as having terrorist ties.

The American Immigration Council, which strongly opposes President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation policies, estimates that it could cost $88 billion to deport one million illegal immigrants. But if we accept its estimate and ignore the various government benefits that these individuals might be receiving, ICE’s number of 662,556 illegal criminal immigrants implies a cost of $58.3 billion to remove them – just over one-third of the conservative estimate given here of the cost of the crimes by these criminals.

The estimate of over $160 billion in costs from criminal illegal aliens is very likely an underestimate of the true costs. It assumes the average criminal coming into the country commits only one offense similar to what he committed in his home country. We are also not counting the costs of half of criminal illegal aliens.

Tuesday’s historic ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon is a diplomatic milestone. Trump hasn’t even formally taken office yet but the world is taking note, his influence on the international stage is palpable.

Canada and Mexico are coming to the table to work to settle the border crisis after Trump announced tariffs and his new border czar Tom Homan issued a strong warning. Also, Trump announced more great picks that will Make America Healthy Again.

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for as we head into Thanksgiving on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan, Tuesday on Fox News, called out Democratic mayors who have labeled President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation “cruel,” and he warned of the repercussions they could face if they attempt to block the plan.

Following Trump’s election win, the former president announced Homan as his new “border czar,” saying that the former ICE director would “be in charge of all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.” On “The Ingraham Angle,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham played a clip of Democratic Tucson Mayor Regina Romero stating that she is “unwavering” in her commitment to “protecting and serving Tucsonans,” calling the deportation plans “cruel and immoral.”

“Well, first of all, what’s cruel about it? We have a massive illegal immigration flow on the border, historic flows that overwhelm the Border Patrol, sex trafficking up 600%, 250,000 dead Americans from Fentanyl. We got a record number of known suspected terrorists and people on the terrorist watch lists crossing the border,” Homan said. “We got children dying on the border every day. We got women being sexually assaulted by the cartels every day. Someone’s going to die on the border tonight. Women are being raped on the border tonight.”

“So what’s cruel about securing that border and saving lives, first of all? But I’ll give her the same warning I’m giving the rest of the sanctuary city mayors and the governors. You can not help us. That’s fine. You should get the hell out of the way. We’re going to do the job,” Homan added.

Homan went on to say that Trump has promised Americans that his first priorities will address public and national security threats, warning Democratic officials not to get in the way of the federal government.

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“President Trump has said public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority right out of the gate. I can’t believe there’s any elected official that doesn’t want public safety threats out of their communities. Their number one responsibility is protecting the communities. So if they’re not going to do it, we’ll do it for them,” Homan said. “You can not help, but don’t impede us and don’t not knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from ICE, because that is a felony.”

“We got one hell of an attorney general coming in, Pam Bondi. I think she will read that statute the same way I do it. I’m not a lawyer, but I can read. We’re going to have consequences of people who violate the law and try to prevent us from doing our job,” Homan said.

In addition to Romero’s warning to Trump, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston vowed Thursday to resist the president’s plans, claiming that the city’s police and residents will push back. Others, like the Los Angeles City Council, approved an ordinance on Nov. 19 declaring the city a “sanctuary city,” preventing the use of local resources for immigration enforcement and prohibiting city agencies from sharing information to federal authorities about illegal immigrants.

Despite the pushback, Trump confirmed on Nov. 18 that he plans to declare a national emergency, using military assets to assist in his deportation operation.

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Trump’s border czar Tom Homan issues a warning: “DON’T CROSS THAT LINE!… It’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal illegal immigrants from immigration authorities. DON’T TEST US!” pic.twitter.com/B8OcnI6LCt

— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) November 26, 2024