Thank Heaven, ICE continues to do its job, despite Democrat outrage!

 

Leftist Rags Decry ICE Arresting Illegals at Airports

Emmy Griffin patriotpost.us 8-4-26

While The Gray Lady and WaPo are upset about it, the uptick in arrests of illegal aliens boarding domestic flights is a coup for the Trump administration.

Both The New York Times and The Washington Post are hyperventilating because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are arresting illegal aliens at airports, which they claim is a newfangled alliance between the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and ICE.

ICE agents arresting illegal aliens at airports is not a new phenomenon, but the current level of arrests is.

According to the Times and WaPo, the individuals who are being arrested as they attempt to board domestic flights have either overstayed their visas, are in the process of renewing their visas, or recently married an American citizen and have not yet established permanent residency. Of course, the left-leaning agitprops neglected to mention that a significant number of these arrestees have criminal records and/or are a threat to national security.

Criminals and potential terrorists don’t garner Leftmedia sympathy; it’s the au pair or the honeymooning newlyweds who get attention. This helps spread the long-running leftist narrative: Visa enforcement should be handled not with the heavy hand of ICE but with kid gloves.

For leftists, “people with expired visas” are not lawbreakers. Cesar Vargas, New York’s first illegal immigrant attorney, said in 2018 that arresting someone who has overstayed their visa is like arresting someone for a parking ticket: It’s a civil offense, not a criminal one, so it shouldn’t be treated as a crime worthy of police intervention. Interestingly, Vargas married an American citizen and is no longer “undocumented.”

Had visa enforcement been strictly policed, several of the 9/11 hijackers would never have boarded those planes. Evoking the 9/11 Islamist attack is inconsequential to leftists, however, because they want to harp on today’s narrative of oppressors vs. oppressed. Therefore, they sniff out immigration lawyers who can attest that the shift by ICE and TSA under the Trump administration is much more intense than they have experienced.

The New York Times elaborated:

Shannon Shepherd, an immigration lawyer who is vice chair for the Chicago chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said she and other lawyers were revising longstanding advice about domestic air travel.

“Before, I was saying, ‘As long as you have an ID, you can travel domestically,’” Ms. Shepherd said. “Now I am turning around and saying, ‘If you are in the process of changing status, avoid any travel.’”

This likely means that the Biden administration was not arresting people for traveling with an expired visa, not that the immigration laws are new. “This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

Reading between the lines, this shift marks something much more interesting.

First, it means that Border Patrol has staunched the flow of illegal aliens crossing the border. President Donald Trump did this without Congress having to enact any more laws. Remember when Joe Biden’s administration claimed that it couldn’t close the border because it didn’t have the authority and because the U.S. didn’t have the right laws in place?

Second, it means that ICE’s boots-on-the-ground measures have been successful — notwithstanding the violent and angry protests by leftists in blue states like Minnesota.

Third, it means that ICE is fine-tuning its efforts. There have been an immense number of self-deportations, and those being detained now are likely the holdouts.

Despite pushback from anti-ICE protesters across the country, the Trump administration’s deportation efforts have been a roaring success, even if that narrative won’t get splashed across the front pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post. Their griping is a victory flag for the American people.

 

Borders mean absolutely nothing to illegal alien invaders! A Nation's immigration laws, rules and regulations mean absolutely nothing to illegal alien invaders.

 

ICE faults Biden-era policies for third illegal entry by man convicted in Marine's 2017 killing

Does deportation work? A man convicted in the death of a 21-year-old Marine was removed from the country twice before and retruned anyway, only to go and kill a U.S, Marine.

By Ashe Short justthenews.com 8-3-26

An illegal immigrant who was deported twice and on his third illegal entry, was convicted of an automotive offense that killed a U.S. Marine is in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and heading toward a third deportation.

Martin Martinez-Ballinas, 38, a Mexican national, has entered the U.S. illegally on three separate occasions. He is now in ICE custody after being held in federal prison at Fort Dix, New Jersey, ICE reported.

“Martinez-Ballinas repeatedly and flagrantly disregarded the laws of the United States and faces deportation for the third time,” Enforcement and Removal Operations Newark Acting Field Office Director Arthur J. Wilson, Jr. said in a statement. 

"A complete lack of respect for human life and our legal system": ICE says

“His conviction for an automotive offense that resulted in the tragic loss of a U.S. Marine in 2017 demonstrates a complete lack of respect for human life and our legal system. Anyone who believes violations of U.S. immigration law are trivial or inconsequential should take note: Federal offenses carry serious consequences, and we will continue to enforce the law to protect our communities and honor those who serve our nation.”

In 2017, Martinez-Ballinas was convicted of a hit-and-run in Maryland that took the life of 21-year-old U.S. Marine James Ray Walden III, The New York Post reported. Walden’s father told “The Will Cain Show” on Fox News that Martinez-Ballinas was driving without a license or insurance when he crossed into oncoming traffic and struck the young Marine’s motorcycle head on.

“My son was 21 years old. He was just starting his life,” Walden said. “He was in the Marine Corps. He worked for intel. He worked for the National Security Agency as a crypto analyst, basically Jimmy Spide with a computer.”

Revolving door of illegal entry on Biden's watch

After serving three years for the death of Walden’s son, Martinez-Ballinas was deported in 2020, but was caught attempting to illegally re-enter the U.S. the following year. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for unlawful entry.

Martinez-Ballinas was again deported in October 2022, but again re-entered the U.S. in 2023, the Department of Justice reported at the time. For that offense, he was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release. He is now in ICE custody pending deportation. ICE blamed the Biden administration for Martinez-Ballinas’ third illegal crossing.

As part of its border enforcement priorities, the Trump administration started Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative to remove illegal immigrants and end cartels and transnational crime organizations. Most recently, the Southern District of Texas charged 263 people, including 227 illegal immigrants, with immigration and border security crimes between July 24 and 30, the DOJ said in a press release.

Not an isolated incident

In Sioux City, Iowa, Democratic Republic of the Congo native Lopez Munongo Makengo, age 36, was convicted of unlawful possession of identification documents and unlawful use of those documents. Makengo had previously won the Diversity Visa lottery, a program that allows up to 55,000 permanent resident green cards be made available annually via random selection. People from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. can enter the lottery and receive a Diversity Visa. Makengo, however, was found to have lied on his application to the lottery, failing to disclose that he had a child even though he swore under oath that his statements on the application were true. Makengo faces up to 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and up to 3 years supervised release following imprisonment. Makengo’s case is also part of Operation Take Back America.

 

Afterall, many illegal aliens residing in the USA are visa overstays.

 

US finalizes visa bond program aimed at reducing overstays

The permanent rule follows a pilot program launched in 2025.

By Nicholas Ballasy justthenews.com 8-1-26

The Trump administration is making permanent a visa bond requirement that could compel certain foreign visitors to put down thousands of dollars before entering the United States.

Under a State Department rule taking effect Aug. 3, consular officers will have the authority to require applicants from 50 countries, most of them in Africa, to post refundable bonds of as much as $20,000 when applying for B-1 business or B-2 tourist visas. The policy is intended to discourage travelers from remaining in the United States after their visas expire.

The permanent rule follows a pilot program launched in 2025. It raises the maximum bond amount from $15,000 to $20,000 and eliminates the previous $5,000 minimum bond option, Reuters reported.

Administration officials have argued that the bond requirement is an effective way to reduce visa overstays and strengthen immigration enforcement. Critics, however, contend the policy could make it prohibitively expensive for many legitimate travelers, particularly those seeking to visit family members, attend business meetings, or travel for tourism.

The visa bond is refundable if travelers comply with the terms of their visas and depart the United States as required. 

 

Take note America - the final paragraph says it all.

 

DSA Mission: Destroy the Republic

By Brian Mark Weber patriotpost.us 8-1-26

Eliminate the U.S. Senate, replace the Supreme Court, abolish ICE, shut down prisons, and turn ownership of corporations over to the government.

A nationwide movement is changing the dynamics of American politics. At the local, state, and national level, self-avowed socialists are winning races on radical platforms that would have disqualified them even five years ago.

Zohran Mamdani rose to prominence in New York City, winning the mayoral race in 2025 by promising to freeze rents, provide free childcare, and operate government-run grocery stores. He lashed out at capitalism, private property, and, of course, Donald Trump. It was a winning strategy, and now other socialists are riding the red wave.

As proud card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America, these upstart communists aren’t holding back. Rather than disguising their extremism, they boast about tearing down America’s political, legal, and cultural institutions.

To show just how audacious they are, DSA cochair Megan Romer recently admitted that the long-term plan is to eliminate the U.S. Senate, replace the Supreme Court, abolish ICE and give illegal aliens amnesty, keep America’s borders open, shut down prisons, turn ownership of corporations over to the government, and shutter the Pentagon. In other words, they want to burn it all down.

DSA defenders mock the supposed Red Scare emanating from the Right. Yet as Charles C.W. Cooke writes at National Review, “There is virtue in calling things by their names, and the appropriate name for the Democratic Socialists of America is ‘red.’ They are communists. They are Jacobins. They are wreckers and despoilers and iconoclasts, who, if left unchecked, would wipe the United States from the face of this earth. To be ‘scared’ by such figures is not only rational, it is imperative.”

Similarly, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned, “The barbarians are inside the gate — and Democrats are WELCOMING them in. Communism is no longer a far fetched threat. It is here on our SHORES.”

Another DSA plan is to give Congress the power to elect the president and choose members of the judiciary. “It’s important to understand how radical this is, essentially blowing up the Constitution’s separation of powers,” explains The Wall Street Journal editorial board. “Letting Congress choose the President means adopting the parliamentary system that prevails in Britain. It would essentially remove the presidential veto power that the Founders designed as a check on the legislative passions of the day. Ditto for ending an independent judiciary, which is a check against legislative and executive violation of individual rights. Third World dictators seek to make the judiciary subservient to the ruling party for this reason, as they did in Venezuela, and as Mexico’s Morena party is now attempting to do.”

As for abolishing the Senate, there’s only one reason why the DSA wants this branch of government gone: power. “The left loathes the Senate because it is also a restraint on temporary majorities,” adds the Journal. “The Senate’s design, with two Members from each state, gives an equal voice to small and large states. This prevents dominance by California, New York and Texas. And it buttresses the federalist principles at the core of the Constitution’s design, which preserves certain powers to the states as a check on Washington, D.C.‘s commandments.”

These aren’t new ideas. Socialists have tried for more than a century to abolish our system of checks and balances and replace it with a unicameral legislature or remove other obstacles limiting political power. More than a century ago, President Woodrow Wilson strongly criticized the Constitution and its checks and balances as outdated for a modern, industrial nation. He was just as wrong then as the socialists who draw inspiration from him are today.

No matter the time or the spokesperson, the goal is always unfettered power. Sure, getting anything passed through Congress is a complex and frustrating process, but giving powerful politicians the ability to pass legislation with bare majorities is why democracies die out as quickly as they’re born. It also paves the way for authoritarian regimes that crush any opposition.

That’s the future envisioned by current DSA members such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Mamdani. Add dozens more to the list who are winning elections at all levels and drumming up support across the nation.

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey writes, “The DSA and its candidates are not just an incremental iteration of the Bernie Bros; they are a radical and revolutionary party whose agenda and platform can only be implemented by force. The US Constitution and the federalist system have too many safeguards against radical change, which leaves only force and revolution for these changes.”

The sudden appeal of socialism isn’t hard to figure out. Educators either can’t or don’t articulate why our system has generated more freedom and prosperity than any nation on Earth for more than two centuries. Beyond that, a generation of young people is being lured by slick TikTok marketing that promises a panacea if they only give up their freedom and power to the likes of Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez. And the Republican Party, despite its promises, hasn’t offered sufficient solutions for issues that ail us.

Heading into the fall elections, Americans are naturally feeling unsettled about the failure of the political class to address so-called kitchen-table issues. But turning to socialism would turn these challenges into a nightmare that would dismantle the very institutions that have sustained us for 250 years.