by Chris Russo – President, Texans for Strong Borders
On Tuesday, Donald Trump sent shockwaves through a stunned legacy media as state after state was called for him. By the end of the night, he had secured a victory in every single swing state, a larger electoral advantage than his victory in 2016, and even the popular vote, a feat that had not been accomplished by a GOP nominee since George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in 2004. With this victory comes perhaps the best opportunity and a popular mandate for a host of policy areas, first among which is border security.
Under the Biden Administration, as many as 20 million illegal and ineligible aliens have entered the United States through our porous borders and hundreds of thousands have been flown into the United States under abuses of executive humanitarian parole authority. The effects of this invasion at our border will not be fully realized for years to come, and the incoming administration has the fight of a lifetime on its hands if it is to reverse these effects and enact policies that will prevent future Open Borders administrations from recreating this disaster in the future.
Donald Trump must not delay in this opportunity, and patriots who care about securing the future of this nation must not simply rest on their laurels. Make no mistake: the powers that be in Washington will not allow the flow of cheap labor to stop without a fight.
In 2017, during his first term, Trump made the fatal error of following the advice of Republican establishment insiders to focus on tax cuts and repealing Obamacare during the first year of his administration. This time around, all other issues must be shelved until the border is secure and legislation is passed to secure America’s borders going forward.
This fight has several dimensions. First, the Trump administration must staff the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with personnel who are not only experienced and loyal, but absolutely committed and steadfast in carrying out President Trump’s promise of “the largest deportation operation in American history” A great start would be to place figures like Tom Homan (former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Mark Morgan (former commissioner of Customs and Border Protection) in prominent positions. Both of these men have dedicated their lives since Trump’s last departure in Washington to sounding the alarm bells about the Biden-Harris Administration’s intentional destruction of our border security and immigration apparatus. Both of these men have testified before Congress and state legislators on a plethora of policy measures, and both have been allies in our fight to secure our borders and put Americans first.
Next, the Trump administration must be ready to systematically dismantle the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal executive actions on day one and enact executive reforms to bridge the gap until comprehensive policy can be enacted. President Trump has already announced via a recent video that he plans to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens going forward. He should also immediately end Catch and Release, end the Biden-Harris humanitarian parole programs, reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (better known as Remain in Mexico), and enter into Third Safe Country agreements to significantly reduce the amount of bogus asylum claims at our southern border.
On the legislative front, Trump and his team should aggressively pursue the passage of legislation similar to H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year but was stalled by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the U.S. Senate. He cannot settle for a Grand Bargain amnesty-for-security plan favored by many of the more moderates in the Senate, including Majority Leader candidates John Cornyn and John Thune.
The backlash to any substantive attempt to secure our border will be enormous. On day one, the legacy media will attempt to frame deportation and detention efforts as inhumane, like they did during his first administration with their charge of Trump “putting kids in cages” due to his family separation plan mandated by the Flores Settlement (which would be solved by the passage of legislation like H.R. 2). In order to counter this backlash, patriots must constantly be in contact with their legislators encouraging them to remain steadfast in delivering this mandate.
This is not a fight that will last one administration, and there will most assuredly be setbacks, but the American People have delivered a mandate for President Trump to secure our border, and he must deliver, starting day one.