Getting This Right Is the Key to America’s Future
President Donald Trump understands that an essential part of preserving the U.S.’s sovereignty is ensuring that its borders are secure and that citizenship is taken seriously. Due to a dereliction of duty by successive presidents in both parties, however, the president has a gigantic task before him, which is made even more difficult by the machinations of the permanent government class.
The president’s push to get our borders under control is the overall reason behind the recent leadership overhaul at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Nearly half of its 25 field office directors are in the process of being replaced with officials from elsewhere in the Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, ICE leaders in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington—cities that have caused trouble for the administration in its attempts to enforce federal immigration law—are retiring or leaving, causing even more openings.
These changes are part of a larger push to meet the president’s deportation targets, and also the product of what seems to be a disagreement within DHS as to how to proceed with deportations.
It’s been reported that White House border czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons want to focus on deporting criminal aliens, while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and others want more aggressive enforcement across the board to boost deportation numbers. Which strategy is best is a question of prudence and political calculation. Paper-thin clichés from evangelical elites won’t come close to helping answer this question of policy.
Is going the route of something akin to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, an incrementalist congressional bill spearheaded by Professor Hadley Arkes that put pro-abortion Democrats on record of supporting infanticide, the best approach? Or is boosting the level of deportations more a problem of will than of funding or manpower? These are the concerns that animate politics.
On its current pace, the Trump administration will deport 600,000 illegal aliens by the year’s end. This is an uptick in the number of deportations compared to the pace earlier this year; between January and July 2025, ICE deported just 145,000 illegal immigrants.
Overall, DHS announced this week that over two million immigrants have exited the U.S. since Trump started his second stint in the White House. Nearly half a million illegal aliens have been removed from the country, and there have been 1.6 million voluntary self-deportations.
DHS has also been reporting on ongoing daily operations as part of its communications efforts. It recently transported over 100 illegal aliens from Gary, Indiana, to Texas for deportation processing. Additionally, in a recent high-profile ICE sting, agents arrested nine illegal immigrants who were selling counterfeit goods in New York City’s Chinatown.
As ICE raids happen, DHS has ramped up its recruiting efforts, which are aimed at reaching younger generations. This is not only a clear tactic to hire young agents who are fully bought into the president’s agenda, but also a likely method to get the youth vote back on the president’s side.
Though recent polls should not be taken as definitive proof, they do indicate that part of the coalition that helped propel President Trump to victory in 2024 may be losing interest. A recent YouGov/The Economist survey shows President Trump with a net approval rating of -50 points among voters under 30. If polls such as these and others are at all accurate, a downward trajectory among the youth vote has implications for the 2026 midterms.
It’s also a problem that Trump’s heir apparent, Vice President JD Vance, will have to address in some capacity in order to win the 2028 Republican primaries (more performances like the one Vance gave on Wednesday night at a TPUSA event at Ole Miss should help him in this regard). The younger cohort, many of whom listen to edgy podcasts, seems fairly sour on the vice president’s presidential prospects. Perhaps they’re more interested in Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt or another dark horse candidate. Or they may sit out of presidential politics in 2028 altogether. Whatever the case, being able to secure their vote is an important part of expanding the aging coalition that propelled Trump into office this last go-around.
Despite this, there seems to be lots of interest among younger Americans in joining ICE. DHS reported that 175,000 Americans have applied to positions in the federal law enforcement agency, which wants to add only 10,000 agents to a force that’s currently just 6,000 strong.
Unfortunately, as seen in the military, increasing numbers of Americans are in bad physical shape, which is ruling out many applicants. Tom Homan has acknowledged a “high fail rate” in meeting the specified standards. “I mean, if you can’t run a mile and a half, you probably shouldn’t be a federal law enforcement officer,” Homan told Axios. According to reporting in The Atlantic, many new recruits are being described as “athletically allergic,” and are unable to do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes, which are requirements to join ICE.
While there is interest in helping with President Trump’s deportation efforts on the Center and the Right, the Left is also beginning to ramp up its attacks on the president. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have instructed law enforcement officers in their cities not to cooperate with ICE. Top ICE officials have been appearing in court and are facing scrutiny over tactics from the media and Democrats. The notorious anti-Trump New York Attorney General Letitia James recently launched an online portal for submitting photos and videos to monitor ICE operations in the state. The Department of Justice is also looking into Illinois State Representative Margaret Croke, who doxxed ICE’s license plate information in an email sent from her office.
In their deportation efforts, the Trump administration needs to factor in pushback from the Left. They are looking back to their forebears in the New Left as they continue ramping up violent rhetoric and actions. The absence of any vociferous opposition at Trump’s inauguration was a drawback, like when water recedes right before a tsunami wave hits.
The administration should consider the effects of their actions and the potential blowback—not because they need to cower to the Left’s demands but because missteps will make it harder for a long-term, multi-administration effort to finally get control over our borders and make American citizenship great again.
Getting the country back on track will take a series of Republicans in the White House—probably at least three eight-year administrations—who have the savvy and courage to do the difficult work that needs to be done. It will also require having congressional leadership that is on board with these presidents and moves swiftly to enact their agendas, or improve them if need be.
The time for grandstanders, professional officeholders, and “principled” loners who don’t have any positive accomplishments to speak of is over. The crucial work of making the U.S. a fully sovereign nation again is the political fight of our lifetime—and a legacy we’d be proud to hand off to future generations.
