I’ve taken notice of the number of student walkout events in the area protesting ICE. One is planned in Ceres on Feb. 17 at the Walmart Supercenter.
If you’re an anti-Trumper you’ll say it’s great they are exercising their rights to protest. If it’s really important to them – and not just an excuse to get out of school for the day – then they’ll do it on their precious Saturday.
I see it as just more evidence that our schools are failing to properly educate students.
Follow me here.
The media was crickets when President Barack Obama deported two million illegal immigrants in his last term of office. And they didn’t put their cameras in the faces of ICE agents hoping to capture video that would foment hate for Trump.
The media didn’t squawk when Senator Barack Obama said this on Nov. 20, 2014: “We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who chose to use illegal immigrants. We are a generous and welcoming people here in the United States but those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law. We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.”
Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, when president, practically kicked the wall down and let a flood of millions of unskilled and impoverished come in, burdening social services, hospitals, housing and taxpayers.
Under Biden ICE deported 545,000 illegal immigrants and still crickets from the media.
Along comes Trump who in his first term deported 945,000 illegal aliens – far less than Obama.
Now let’s take a look at numbers of asylum seekers. In Obama’s last term in office, 239,000 foreigners applied for asylum while only 35,000 were granted yet there were no charges of lack of compassion! With Biden, millions were allowed in under the guise of asylum. Ask yourself why that was the case. It must have been for immense benefit to the Democratic Party.
So you must ask why the media was stone silent when Obama did virtually the same thing Trump is doing? I submit to you it all comes down to abject hatred of Donald Trump. It’s really inexplicable the way they have dogpiled on him. Is there any free thought any more or is it just dog pack mentality?
Every step of the way it’s been a concerted effort to destroy the man. What real forces are at play here?
When it appeared that ex-Presidnet Trump was headed to a second term, why did the Secret Service slip up so bad in Butler that some goon was able to climb on a nearby roof to take aim at him? Or did they just conveniently decide not to cover the adjacent nearby rooftop which was the perfect assassin’s perch? I’ve long smelled a rat here.
If Trump sneezes, the media and Congressional Democrats take exception to it.
If Trump cured cancer, the media would run with headlines screaming: “Trump failures led to delays in questionable cancer cure.”
Look at how they treat the First Lady. Melania Trump is perhaps the most striking and poised First Lady since Jackie Kennedy, yet she is either ignored or ridiculed. Contrast how the media treats Mrs. Trump versus how the media portrayed Michelle Obama.
Thus kids naturally are being influenced by tainted media coverage and not taught history because they would see nothing has changed with U.S. deportation policy. The difference is the media is doing its damndest to blow up Trump’s efforts and whip people into frenzy. CNN talk heads likening Trump to Hitler only fills skulls full of mush who accept their swill. Therefore they feel it’s their duty to obstruct armed federal agents and get shot in the process. The media can then run with false narratives in their anti-Trump rhetoric.
Trump is no dictator but he is in charge of the executive branch which is charged with enforcing immigration laws that CONGRESS passed. That’s what a leader does – he leads. Immigration is the singular issue that catapulted Trump to a second non-consecutive term!
Is there a lot of human drama being played out because the lawbreakers settled in and got comfortable under Biden? Yeah, just as families of murderers, robbers and rapists are torn apart when their family member is arrested. But if you want to direct your angst to the responsible party, direct it to Biden and Kamala Harris for allowing the unbridled illegal immigration to occur and to the individuals who broke the law by illegally coming in.
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When I was a senior at Oakdale High School, the student body conducted a walk-out in protest of the district letting go of a few teachers for budget reasons. Honestly, it was an excuse to ditch school for the day because we had no concept of real world budget responsibilities with taxpayer funds and cutting expenditures to match revenue. It’s not fun but it’s called being fiscally responsible.
So these kids protesting ICE are going in without all the facts and applying pure emotion. It’s a terrible way to approach public policy among budding voters but that’s how Prop 50 was passed.
No wonder socialism is on the rise.
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The Courier has used the work of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Usually they push out equity stories with left leaning slants.
They forwarded a story regarding the state budget in which I changed the headline to read: “Proposed budget cuts Medi-Cal, CalFresh benefits for illegal aliens.” It ran on page B4 of the Jan. 28, 2026 Courier.
The lead paragraph written by Tim Sheehan read: “Undocumented immigrants in California will bear the brunt of reductions in health care and nutrition programs under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s initial proposal for a 2026-27 state budget unveiled earlier this month.”
The folks at the CVJC wigged out big time when they saw I changed “undocumented immigrants” to “illegal aliens.” Trey Bundy, editor of The Intersection, CVJC’s health equity reporting lab, emailed me to say: “As CVJC adheres to the AP Style rule not to describe people as ‘illegal,’ we’re asking that you remove it from the headline as soon as possible. If it’s helpful, Tim uses the term ‘undocumented immigrants,’ so that would be one option.”
I wasn’t prepared to fight them over a headline on their piece so in silent protest I deleted the entire story from our website.
Strange how President Bill Clinton freely used the term “illegal alien” in his 1995 State of the Union address: “We will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes to better identify illegal aliens in the work force.”
Yet the progressive journalists at Associated Press find it offensive today.
What shall we refer to burglars and robbers – “unauthorized product procurers?”
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I watched most of the gubernatorial debate last week and what I mostly heard was the Democratic candidates – Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa and Betty Yee – was their obsession to stop Trump. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan sounded like the moderate of the bunch, saying the partisan sniping is getting us nowhere.
Steve Hilton, the only GOP candidate present, pointed out that decades of one-party rule has failed to solve the state’s biggest problems of affordability, homelessness, the lack of housing and high taxes that is running businesses away. If anything, they are the cause of what ails Californians.
Noticeably absent were GOP frontrunner Sheriff Chad Bianco, and Democrats Eric Swalwell and Katie “Nasty” Porter. All three cited conflicts.
The San Francisco Chronicle must be worried that there are too many Democrats running expressing concerns that they could split the vote and theoretically cause two Republicans to end up as the top two candidates going forward to the November general election.
Should that happen, California would have its first Republican governor since Arnold left Sacramento on Jan. 3, 2011. Of course, the Democrat controlled Legislature would make sport of obstructing that any GOP governor like they are Trump. It’s too bad there aren’t true statesmen who want to see solution rather than partisan power grabs.
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I was pleased to see Louie Arrollo honored last month with the “Citizen of the Year / Lifetime Achievement Award” given at the Chamber banquet. Frankly it is decades overdue. He has done much for Ceres. From 1963 to 1984 he served as the first Hispanic officer in the Ceres Police Department. Arrollo retired as a police commander in 1984 and was a teacher at Ceres High School from 1984 to 1988 and Dean of Students from 1988 to 2001. He was elected to the Ceres City Council in 1985, elected mayor in 1987 and reelected in 1989. He was reappointed to the City Council in 1998, and ran for mayor again and was elected in 1999.
He is most deserving.
A gentleman who I’ve known for years phoned me and was upset that I didn’t win the “Distinguished Service” award for which I was nominated. Keep in mind that the award is based on community voting so it’s always a wild card as to who wins. Receiving the award were Felipe and Yesenia Martinez of MFH Tattoo Studio who organized the Día de Los Muertos celebration in 2025 and participated in the Christmas parade, Halloween celebration, and city night market.
I was frankly embarrassed to be nominated because for 38 years I have only done my job at the Courier for which I get paid so that should not qualify me for an award. That’s how I see it but I am honored nonetheless.
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
