By Steve Levy
The shooting weeks ago of a protester by an ICE official has triggered outcry from Democrats and the liberal media, as anticipated, but also from a large number of Republicans
That’s not surprising since the video appears to contradict statements from ICE that the victim had been brandishing a weapon with the intent to slaughter federal agents.
The protestor was interfering with an ICE arrest and appears to have been resisting his own arrest. But the video doesn’t show him having a gun in his hand. In fact, the gun in his holster was removed from his body by an ICE agent when, thereafter, another agent shot him dead with 10 bullets.
But two things can be true at the same time.
There may indeed have been an unjustified shooting, but that doesn’t negate the fact that ICE is totally justified in seeking to remove illegal aliens from Minneapolis and any other jurisdiction throughout the country.
The Democrats and their allies in the media are using this manufactured chaos as an opening to the demand that ICE be disbanded so that immigration enforcement ceases.
Many of us knew this to be the Democratic playbook from the day Joe Biden called for a surge of the American border.
We totally expect Democrats to call for an end of ICE operations that deport anyone but for rapists and murderers.
But we did not expect many scared Republicans to be joining in this chorus. Unfortunately, that is what is happening.
It has led some Republican faithful to be concerned that their elected GOP leaders may be “caving to the mob.”
By acquiescing to Democratic calls to stop deporting anyone not a rapist or murderer, Republicans would sanction the over 10 million illegal aliens who were welcomed in by the Democrats to eventually give them citizenship and the right to vote.
Adopting such a platform would cement America as an open-border society. Illegal immigration is all about messaging. As soon as we signal that you can come here illegally and be able to stay here forever — so long as you don’t murder someone thereafter — we will have reopened the floodgates to over a billion people who want to call America their home.
But that’s what so many weak-kneed Republicans are doing now in an effort to sound reasonable and moderate to the liberal media that hates them.
In a CNN interview, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt called for a compromise that would direct ICE to only seek out criminal illegal aliens and leave the others who came here illegally to stay indefinitely. Said Stitt, “And so, what’s the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don’t think that’s what Americans want.”
Florida congressman Carlos Jimenez made a similarly weak statement to a CNN reporter by claiming, “I have a problem with deporting people …who’ve been here a number of years.“
Other GOP members acquiescing to the Democrats’ call to ignore the millions of non-criminal illegals who surged the border under Biden’s term include:
- Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.): advocated for a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.
- Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas): argued we should not be deporting “your abuelita” (grandmother).
- The California Republican Delegation: Some California Republicans called on the administration to end mass deportation and ignore those who have not committed violent crimes.
Then there are the GOP members supporting legal status for illegals through the Dignity Act, which grants legal status and protections to the undocumented while liberalizing the asylum process. The Republican supporters include:
- Mario Rafael Diaz-Balart (Florida)
- Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania)
- Mike Lawler (New York)
- Dan Newhouse (Washington)
- David Valadao (California)
- Mike Kelly (Pennsylvania)
- Gabe Evans (Colorado)
- Marlin Stutzman (Indiana)
- Don Bacon (Nebraska)
- Young Kim (California)
Even conservative Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) is saying ICE should cut and run from Minneapolis.
Late in Joe Biden’s term, Republican Senator James Lankford worked with Democrats in drafting a putrid bill that would have codified much of Biden’s open border madness by not triggering enforcement until the first 5,000 illegals crossed each day. Thankfully, saner Republicans shot it down.
Lefty pundits such as Rachel Maddow are boasting that the illegal immigration advocates are winning. It’s hard to argue with that when we see so many Republicans starting to bend.
Trump never said that only criminal aliens would be deported. When asked by NBC if his plan was to deport everyone without legal status, Trump responded, “I think you have to do it.”
He wisely noted that criminals would be our priority and that is the tactic that’s been employed by his immigration czar, Tom Homan.
But as Homan notes, as they are rounding up the criminal aliens, others swept up in the process cannot claim immunity from deportation by simply saying they haven’t committed another crime since crossing the border illegally.
It’s not going to be easy to deport the tens of millions that have been purposefully allowed to cross our border by Democratic administrations looking the other way. President Trump is trying his best to reverse this travesty, but even with his aggressive policies, only half a million were deported last year.
Democrats are deliberately gumming up the works, making it increasingly difficult to deport even the criminal illegal aliens among us. By deliberately creating this chaos, they hope to get Republican officeholders to be their “useful idiots” in supporting their efforts to scale back and refrain from deporting anyone who is not a murderer.
Republicans acquiescing to this nonsense will rue the day. They will have handed the Democrats the Holy Grail that they’ve been searching for all these years. That is allowing the millions they brought over the border to stay, only to see them given citizenship and voting rights as soon as the Democrats take control of the federal government once again.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com