Op-ed: President Trump promised mass deportations. Here’s how it will help Americans

President Trump promised Americans that he would launch the largest deportation operation in American history, and that operation has begun. Last week, officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took to the streets over two busy days, arresting more than 1,000 aliens, mostly criminals, who are now on the path to removal.  

Among the targets were murderers, sex offenders, and a Haitian gang member with 17 convictions, whose arrest in Boston went viral as a Fox News camera recorded him defiantly cursing Trump and thanking former president Obama “for everything he did for me.” This guy also should have thanked Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who has promoted sanctuary policies, spent extravagantly on hotel rooms and other services for new arrivals, and vowed to resist federal deportation actions.

It’s no coincidence that many of the places where ICE took action were notorious sanctuary jurisdictions, including New York City, Newark, NJ, San Francisco, Chicago and Utah. These policies result in the release of criminal aliens, forcing ICE to arrest their targets (and other illegal aliens found with them) in the community. The message was unmistakable – under Trump, criminal aliens can be released and run, but they can’t hide forever. They will no longer be protected by federal inaction. There was a message for sanctuaries too. As ICE teams were fanning out, federal prosecutors got a memo reminding them that sanctuary policies often violate federal law, and to be alert to situations of egregious obstruction of enforcement. 

In response, migrant advocacy groups have mobilized, hosting know-your-rights trainings for illegal aliens and press conferences to denounce the ICE actions.  Some have set up crowd-sourced apps to track ICE sightings and possible “raid” locations. Administrators at a Chicago public elementary school rushed to alert news media that their staff had prevented ICE from entering (to arrest a child, they assumed) only to learn later that it was actually the Secret Service investigating personal security concerns for a VIP.

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[Read the rest at FoxNews.com]