Adults are back on border patrol

OPINION:

Nearly 800 illegals were arrested over the weekend in Florida as part of Operation Tidal Wave, a federal-state-local law enforcement partnership to clear the United States of those who shouldn’t be here, those who are affiliated with violent gangs, those who’ve raped, murdered and assaulted — and again, who shouldn’t be here in the first place.

It’s with heavy sighs of relief that Americans can say the adults are definitely back in charge of border patrol and enforcement.

Gone are the days of tax-paid busing of illegals from the U.S.-Mexico border to points north, east and west, for freebie — umm, tax-paid — stays at hotels and cushy health care entitlements, err, tax-paid.

Viva la border wall!

“Almost 800 aliens including MS-13 gang members, including convicted murderers, rapists, all these people are now off our streets who have otherwise been acting with impunity and terrorizing U.S. communities,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said on Fox News, USA Today reported.

“You are going to be seeing this throughout the country,” she added.

It’s a running theme of this administration.

“Operation Tidal Wave,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press conference on the heels of the 800 arrests. “[It’s] a preview of what is to come around this country.”

From the Department of Homeland Security’s website: “Operation Tidal Wave is a preview or what is to come around the country.”

Heads up, illegals. Get out now while the getting out’s good.

Border czar Tom Homan spoke alongside Leavitt on Monday and said that in his 40 years of experience enforcing immigration laws — 40 years that include service for six presidents — it’s this administration, this White House, this Donald Trump presidency that’s rocking history with the deportations. Record-breaking numbers, he said. And lives are being saved, he said.

“Every president I ever worked for took border patrol seriously,” Homan said in televised remarks. “Even President Obama and President Clinton took some steps [to secure the border]. Joe Biden was the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose. That’s just a fact.”

Enter Team Trump.

“Today, as I’m standing here, we are the most secure border in the history of this nation, and the numbers prove it,” Homan said. “Illegal immigration is down 96 percent. … How many women aren’t being sexually assaulted by cartels? How many women and children aren’t being sex trafficked?”

Good questions.

The questions are particularly good if you happen to be a child who would’ve been sex trafficked — who, under a different administration, under a different president, during a different Biden era, could’ve been sex trafficked — but weren’t. The question then becomes a saving grace. 

So, too, for all Americans concerned about the safety and security of their own children, their own communities, their own homes and families and places of work and leisure.

From DHS: “In less than 100 days, the Trump administration has seen a 317 percent increase in federal/state partner [border control] agreements.”

Also from DHS: “In the first 100 days of the Trump administration, we have arrested over 151,000 illegal aliens and have deported over 135,000. This includes 600 members of Tren De Aragua who have been arrested or deported, as well as thousands of MS-13 and 18th Street Gang members who have fled the country.”

That’s more than Biden did in his last year in office.

Democrats are railing about due process and court-shopping for leftist open-border-loving judges and even sheltering illegals and criminals from deportation. That’s how they’ve chosen to respond to this administration’s law-and-order approach to the border; that’s how they’ve decided to react to the sweeps of thugs and removals of criminals.

But the rest of America — the legal and sane segment of society — say their prayers for the president and his team to stay safe and continue the operations. The rest of America breathes a little bit easier knowing the adults are back in charge.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.