As Trump begins the second year of his second term as president, he is making real progress on the all-important issue of immigration, notwithstanding setbacks in public opinion.

Trump was elected with an implied mandate to carry out mass deportations, but it is becoming clear that the more pliable voters in his coalition are wavering in the face of the onslaught of non-stop negative messaging from the left, much of it misleading and lacking context. While good-faith debate about the wisdom of some ICE tactics can be entertained, the ultimate justice and legality of the mission is not legitimately questioned. Importantly, the Trump administration and federal agents are not to blame for the chaos raging in places where illegal aliens have been permitted to reside without authorization, sometimes for many years. Collectively, these communities constitute a hostile political body aligned against legitimate government law enforcement operations, which they claim are a brutal occupation.

The irony is that these supposed victims of ICE have lived without permission, sometimes for many years, peacefully and for the most part complacently, in a rich and prosperous country that, in many instances, aided and abetted their illegal activities. Captured institutions, especially our mass media, have encouraged these scofflaws in their entitlement by weakly indulging the worst elements of our divided country.

The media ply the public with a constant barrage of stories about the “confusion” and “concern” being felt by many illegals, who have apparently been “blindsided” by the restoration of basic rule of law. The government’s legitimate crackdown has energized an increasingly violent, left-wing resistance over the past year, one which was initially paralyzed by Trump’s historic return to power last January and the DOGE-led investigations and freezing of their funding operations through USAID. But as Democrats have chipped away at enough of these victories through lawfare, they have been empowered and funded again to fan the violent rage of their party’s base.

They do this, in part, to whip up enthusiasm ahead of the midterm elections in November, but also because federal agents stand in the way of their goal of a majority-minority America that they can control. They do not care how much chaos and violence it takes to get there.

That there should be so much dissension swirling around something as simple as enforcing immigration laws, an issue that was once debated politely between the political parties in Congress, where it belongs, is a telling sign that the United States is politically disunited. The insurrectionary violence egged on by Democrats, the criminal acts of obstruction committed not just by immigrants but also professional agitators, and the arbitrary rulings of partisan leftist judges, suggest a deep psychological commitment that is beyond the power of reason to alter.

For some, like the fatally misguided Renee Good, Trump’s crackdown scratches a quasi-religious itch. But many others, who do not take actions as extreme as blocking roads, nevertheless share Good’s distorted views about those who violate our laws and disregard our borders, viewing them simply as victims of America and its laws.

Many have been influenced by years of cultural programming to view politics through no other lens than that of World War II and the Holocaust, which lends itself to a good deal of superficial moral reasoning. Government agents deporting adults who decided consciously to break our laws are likened to the Gestapo because the media shows that they have feelings of sadness and despair when caught. That so many Americans should harbor such powerful and irrational feelings of sympathy for those who are, in no uncertain terms, squatters in our civilization, suggests a profound break from reality on the part of many of citizens.  

Immigration is the inescapable problem, one which is transforming political and cultural life rapidly, and perhaps permanently, while material costs continue to mount. According to a recent report from Texas, state hospitals spent $1 billion on medical care for illegal aliens last year alone. Figures like these are mounting across the country, and while there is plenty of empirical evidence to support their feelings, numbers by themselves do not capture the profound and irrevocable sense among struggling Americans that their country is being irretrievably lost. The difficulties Trump has faced with deportations, particularly in public opinion, may point to insurmountable divisions and obstacles to finding unity. Just what do we mean when we speak of “the people,” after so many years of rapid change?

Despite these formidable challenges, hope is not lost. According to Department of Homeland Security figures, over 620,000 have been deported since last January. A New York Times analysis places the number of interior removals at 230,000, a modest figure from the standpoint of Trump’s lofty goals, but a decent start that is also higher than Obama’s numbers, despite the oft-repeated criticism from some on the right that compares Trump unfavorably to his Democrat rival and forgets that Obama’s number included border turnarounds because he did not have control of it as Trump, by all accounts, does.

The administration also claims nearly 2 million have voluntarily removed themselves, a figure some find dubious, but there is little doubt that the new climate of “fear” and “concern” that the left laments is also having the desired effect of driving many illegal aliens to reconsider their life plans. These trends may be causing the total immigrant population to be decreasing, something that has not occurred since the 1960s. While the left may be gaining an upper hand in the propaganda war, and their militant lunacy continues to spread, Trump is making steady headway against their demographic coup.