A week into President Donald Trump’s second presidency, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramped up its efforts to locate and arrest unauthorized immigrants. These "targeted enforcement operations" have resulted in the arrest of violent gang members and dangerous suspects, but “no one is off the table,” emphasized White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Approximately 3,500 unauthorized immigrants have been arrested since Trump took office.
Many of the president’s first executive orders regarded more stringent immigration standards and stronger immigration enforcement, including enabling ICE to raid formerly “protected areas” that included churches and schools.
Voices on the left focused on the effects of the increased raids in immigrant communities and the publicization of the raids by media personalities. Voices on the right claimed the raids to be legally and morally right, and honed in on the relief of communities after the raids.
The Chicago Sun-Times (Lean Left bias) published an opinion which stated, “By and large, Americans want immigrants who commit violent crimes expelled from the U.S… All too often, though, immigration authorities reach deep into communities to detain and deport random people. There simply aren’t enough ‘criminal aliens’ to produce the gaudy deportation numbers that some politicians like to tout. So they go after folks who commit minor infractions, or get swept up in raids.”
A writer for The Blaze (Right bias) wrote, “We are trillions of dollars in debt. Thousands upon thousands of Americans die from drug overdoses every year. We have rampant poverty in many parts of the U.S., broken families in rural and inner cities, and social degradation across the board. The U.S. government has a duty first and foremost to protect its own citizens. Allowing mass migration exacerbates all those issues and harms U.S. citizens.”
An article in CNN Opinion (Left bias) read, “The administration’s immigration sweeps have a made-for-TV feel, as Trump-aligned media outlets have been allowed to ride along with law enforcement agents in recent days. The actions have a made-for-the-internet feel, too, as officials share photos on social media of deportation flights and border deployments.”
The New York Post Opinion (Right bias) published an article that argued, “Democrats spent four years gaslighting Americans about the suffering they were inflicting and insisted that enforcing the law and closing the borders is fascism. Meanwhile, Trump promised to end the madness and deport the scofflaws terrorizing neighborhoods and draining resources. It’s no wonder, then, that he made massive gains among non-white voters across the country.”
