The Anti-Borders Movement is Flailing

By Dale Wilcox

In his first few weeks in office, President Donald Trump has been laser-focused on fulfilling his campaign promise to end America’s illegal immigration crisis, and the anti-borders movement has been flailing in response.

Faced with a historic crisis of his predecessor’s making, Trump has already driven border encounters down 35 percent, launched mass deportations, terminated the corrupt CBP One app, and announced an end to the destructive practice of granting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens, amongst other actions. While most Americans are certainly pleased by these results, the insidious anti-borders movement is doing everything it can to stop it. A bevy of lawsuits have been predictably unleashed by radical organizations such as the ACLU in an attempt to keep America’s borders open. The Immigration Reform Law Institute has been working tirelessly on a variety of fronts to defend the administration against this legal assault, and we are confident the White House stands on solid legal footing with its policies.

In addition to their lawfare, anti-borders activists have taken their campaign against America’s sovereignty to the streets. In Los Angeles, crowds gathered earlier this month chanting “nobody is illegal,” while shutting down a busy freeway in the city. In Austin, Texas, two protesters were arrested after a crowd of anti-deportation activists blocked an intersection in the city.

Such tactics from the anti-borders crowd are expected and not new. Few can forget the start of Trump’s first term when these activists blocked airports, highways, and caused a national scene to protest the president’s travel ban issued on countries known to be hotbeds of terrorism. Ultimately, Trump’s travel ban was upheld as the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the vast powers the law provides the president to restrict migration. Despite the administration’s legal triumph, the protests against the ban were able to garner some public sympathy. This was before the anti-borders industry held power for four years, with the Biden Administration as its enabler. Now, the American people are firmly on the side of the Trump Administration’s efforts to restore the rule of law to the U.S. immigration system.

Trump won a decisive victory in last year’s presidential election based on his promises to end America’s illegal immigration crisis following four years of his predecessor’s lawlessness. Polls have repeatedly demonstrated broad support for the administration’s efforts, and as a result, the anti-borders movement stands weak and discredited, a shell of what it was during the president’s first term. Simply put, the anti-borders movement does not have the juice it once did. Their street protests lack the energy they once had, their legislative opposition can’t seem to find a message, and their legal theories are being discredited. Nothing seems to be working for the anti-borders movement, not even a good celebrity cry.

Shortly after the president started executing on his mandate to remove illegal aliens from the country, a video went viral of actress Selena Gomez in tears over the deportations.

“I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry,” Gomez said on her Instagram account. “All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I wish I could do something but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything, I promise.”

If Gomez considers criminal illegal aliens “her people,” that says more about her than anyone in the Trump Administration. Contrast Gomez’ meltdown with the tears of Allyson Phillips, the mother of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old woman who was brutally murdered last year by an illegal alien in Georgia. At the signing ceremony of the bill that bears her late daughter’s name, an emotional Phillips thanked the president for taking steps to ensure what happened to her daughter does not happen again.

“We also want to thank President Trump, for the promises he made to us. He said he would secure our borders and that he would never forget about Laken, and he hasn’t,” she said.

The dichotomy between an out-of-touch celebrity’s waterworks over immigration law being enforced and the genuine tears of a devastated mother who lost her daughter because it wasn’t says everything. The anti-borders movement demands special treatment for a specific class of lawbreakers they and their funders are sympathetic to, while the Trump Administration is laser-focused on enforcing the law across the board, so no family must again go through what Laken Riley’s family has been through.

Ultimately, the anti-borders movement will continue to find new ways to denigrate the rule of law in our immigration system, but after four years in power, they have never been weaker. The Trump Administration is on its way to reversing the damage of the last four years, and its opposition has become increasingly desperate and unstable.

Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.