Democrats are outraged that the largest illegal mass migration in history – that they unleashed – must now be followed by the largest repatriation in history.  

They insist that they don’t object to removing violent criminals, but that’s a demonstrable lie. The whole point of the Democrats’ sanctuary laws is to protect criminal illegal aliens from being turned over to ICE for deportation. Instead, they release them back into our communities where many have gone on to commit even more heinous crimes.  

Recently, when federal officers served a criminal warrant on a Southern California marijuana farm, activists staged a riot. Officers liberated 12 minors forced to work at this facility. Eight of them were among the 465,000 unaccompanied alien children the Democrats had placed with poorly or un-vetted sponsors under the Biden-Harris Administration. It appears the marijuana farm was employing scores of illegal aliens to undercut their competition in flagrant violation of U.S. labor and immigration laws. 

Let’s start with some simple truths. If we don’t enforce our immigration laws, we have no immigration laws. If we have no immigration laws, we have no border. And if we have no border, we have no country. We’ve gotten a glimpse of what that means as foreign flags are waived by violent mobs setting fires, ransacking businesses, and terrorizing motorists in our sanctuary cities.

What do our immigration laws actually say?

They say clearly and unambiguously that any and every adult who illegally enters our country “shall be detained.” Those are the exact words of the law: “shall be detained.” The Democrats simply ignore it. 

They have a right to challenge their detention through a writ of habeas corpus. If they are charged with a crime, they have the right to trial by jury. But at no time do they have a right to be released into our communities. Under the law, they “shall be detained.”

Unless they’re charged with a crime, they have the right to leave detention any time they want for any country that will admit them. What they don’t have is the right to remain in our country, unless a judge determines otherwise.  

That’s why the administration is expanding detention facilities – because that’s what the law requires if our borders are to mean anything. The Democrats call them “concentration camps” but the detainees are free to leave for home any time they choose. Indeed, that’s their purpose: to provide temporary shelter while transportation is arranged.

Deportation is not a punishment and requires no criminal charges. It is a simple administrative act. Challenging it does not invoke a right to freely enter and stay indefinitely. You either wait here in detention, or in another country that will accept you. Those are your options.

Reportedly, more than a million illegal aliens have already decided to return home, an option for which our government will arrange transportation, a $1,000 stipend to help them resettle, and a right to apply for legal entry. If they wait until encountered by ICE, they will be taken into custody, deported, and forbidden from re-entering.  That is a choice.  

But what about those who, after breaking our immigration laws to enter this country and breaking our labor laws to work here, have broken no other laws? That doesn’t mean there aren’t any victims. For years, American families have struggled as the flood of illegal labor has taken their jobs and suppressed their wages. During Biden’s four years, most new jobs were taken by foreigners and Americans’ real wages declined. Just six months into the Trump administration, most new jobs are taken by Americans and real wages are growing again. That’s not a coincidence.

Supporting this impoverished illegal population cost American taxpayers an estimated $160 billion a year. It flooded classrooms with non-English speaking students, packed emergency rooms with illegals demanding care, and overwhelmed homeless shelters and food banks meant to help Americans. Worst of all, the most violent and dangerous criminal gangs in the world accompanied this population into our country and are now deeply entrenched in the Democrats’ sanctuary cities.

This is why we must enforce our immigration laws to the letter, as this administration is doing. America admits more legal immigrants under our laws than any other nation on the planet and will continue to do so. But that does not give license to millions of foreign nationals to violate those same laws.  

This is the simple truth the Democrats refuse to acknowledge.

— Republican Congressman Tom McClintock represents California’s 5th Congressional District which includes Hughson and part of eastern Stanislaus County.