On April 26, 2017 ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) posted a self-explanatory news release, “DHS announces launch of new office for victims of illegal immigrant crime, Office built with input from victims impacted by crime” that is illustrative of President Trump’s pro-American mindset and commitment to keeping his immigration campaign promises.

This long overdue approach to immigration stands in stark contrast to the Obama administration that sought to portray illegal aliens, including such aliens who committed serious and often heinous crimes, of being the “victims” while blithely ignoring the true victims, those who either fall victim to the violence of criminal aliens or are members of the families of such victims.

This bogus and morally bankrupt perspective is still a fundamental element of the policies of the leaders of the Democratic Party and is behind the creation of “Sanctuary Cities” whose mayors should be given an MVP Award by ISIS and drug cartels.

America’s immigration laws were enacted to protect national security, public safety, public health and the lives and livelihoods of Americans.

A review of a section of law comprehended within the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S. Code § 1182 – Inadmissible aliens provides clear and unequivocal evidence of how reasonable and vital our immigration laws are to America and Americans.

Therefore it is hard to imagine who could be opposed to the effective and fair enforcement of such fundamental laws.  However, for decades, the enforcement and administration of our immigration laws, under a succession of administrations from both political parties, put the desires of aliens, special interest groups and corporations ahead of Americans.

Consequently, huge numbers of Americans have lost their lives and livelihoods as a direct result of what I have come to refer to as Immigration Failures – By Design.

The artful use of Orwellian language by politicians, pollsters and pundits and the steady drumbeat of propaganda by the mainstream media has, over the past several decades, obfuscated the important distinction between lawful immigrants and illegal aliens.

Proponents of effective immigration law enforcement have come to be vilified as being xenophobes, racists and haters.

Journalists routinely castigate immigration law enforcement proponents by branding them “Anti-Immigrant” while immigration anarchists are glowingly praised as being “Pro-Immigrant.”

Americans have been told that the “immigrants” (illegal aliens) are willing to do the physically demanding work Americans are too lazy to do while America must important foreign workers to do the high-tech jobs Americans are too dumb to do.

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy he made it clear that if elected he would end the immigration madness.

Yet, since his election, President Trump’s immigration policies have been opposed by the leadership of the Democratic Party and even from some members of the Republican Party.

The manifestation of that resistance includes lawsuits and withholding of funds for the construction of the border wall and the hiring of more immigration enforcement personnel.

Nevertheless he continues to try to keep his promises that the enforcement and administration of our immigration laws would prioritize the needs and interests of Americans over aliens and the various globalist corporations and special interest groups who oppose border security and effective immigration law enforcement- no matter the costs to America and Americans.

Consider that just over one year ago, on April 19, 2016, during the final year of the Obama administration, the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security conducted a hearing on the topic:  “The Real Victims of a Reckless and Lawless Immigration Policy: Families and Survivors Speak Out on the Real Cost of This Administration’s Policies.”

Two of the witnesses who testified at that hearing, were Michelle Root and Laura Wilkerson, the mothers of two children who were killed by illegal aliens.

Michelle Root’s poignant and heart-breaking prepared testimony at the hearing was reported on by Breitbart “Mother of Daughter Killed by Illegal: His Bail Was ‘Less Than it Cost to Bury My Baby.’

CNS reported on Laura Wilkerson’s testimony in which she provided horrific details about the torture and murder of her high school student son by Hermilo Vildo Moralez, an illegal alien whom he had befriended.

The title of that article was, “Mother of Teen Murdered by Illegal Immigrant Tells Congress: ‘Do Something – It Is Your Job.’”

Now the Trump administration is attempting to do precisely what Laura Wilkerson so passionately implored Congress to do.

The administration’s multi-pronged strategy would include the construction of a wall along the U.S. /  Mexican border and adding more Border Patrol agents to combat the flood of illegal aliens and narcotics into the United States and by enforcing the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.

For many decades the enforcement of our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States, constituting the third leg of what I have come to refer to as the “Immigration Law Enforcement Tripod” has been all but missing.

This deficiency is being addressed by President Trump and by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

President Trump is seeking the funds to triple the number of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) enforcement personnel and expand the number of immigration judges to help clear the backlog of deportation (removal) cases.  His policies also include ending the lunacy of declaring categories of illegal aliens to be “protected” from removal as was done by the Obama administration.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is hiring more federal prosecutors and tasking them with enforcing criminal violations of our immigration laws such as 8 U.S.C. § 1326 – Reentry After Deportation (Removal).

In April 2015 the United States Sentencing Commission published an Analysis of Illegal Reentry Offenses that reported that in FY 2013 illegal reentry prosecutions accounted for 26% of all federal prosecutions, noting 18,498 such prosecutions were conducted and involved aliens with serious criminal histories as well as aliens who had no prior convictions.

However, the fact that the U.S. Sentencing Commission analysis reported that most of the aliens who were prosecuted for unlawful reentry were apprehended at or near the border illustrates the lack of enforcement of our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.

This provides evidence that resources for  interior enforcement must be greatly increased.

The leadership of the Democratic Party, however, is adamant about not funding the border wall and has resisted efforts to hire an adequate number of ICE agents.  Further complicating this issue is the fact that there are Republicans who are also opposed to some of these essential measures.

It would be difficult to find a better (worse?) example of politicians playing politics with innocent lives and national security.

On a personal level, the actions and statements by Attorney General Session are extremely gratifying for me.  In the early 1980’s I approached then New York Senator Al D’Amato with the proposal that the reentry laws be modified to make unlawful reentry by criminal aliens a crime that would carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.  At the time the reentry laws made no distinction about whether an alien had been convicted of any crimes and the maximum penalty for unlawful reentry was two years in prison.

Senator D’Amato and his staff worked with me, met with a number of my colleagues I introduced to him and his staffers.

We convinced him to draft the legislation and, in an example of serendipity, the chief of investigations for the INS in New York City, Walter Connery, wrote a legislative initiative to enact such legislation and sent it to Senator D’Amato shortly after we had concluded our meetings with the Senator and his staff.

However, we did not know about Walter’s efforts and he knew nothing of our efforts until I mentioned it to him casually during a meeting.

Walter was the former head of Internal Affairs for the NYPD and became the director of the equivalent bureau at INS Headquarters (Office of Professional Responsibility) before he was assigned to head up the Investigations Branch in New York City.  It certainly did not hurt that he was also an attorney.

Senator D’Amato was, ultimately, instrumental in drafting the legislation and getting it enacted.

The Senator also met with President Reagan to implement a program that would come to be known as the “Institutional Hearing Program” I suggested be created.  Under this program deportation hearings would be conducted inside prisons for aliens who had been convicted of committing serious crimes.  This would enable their deportations to be finalized before they were released from custody.

This way they could, immediately upon completion of their jail sentences, be deported from the United States.

That program has been extremely successful but needs more funding.

Solutions to “fix” the immigration system are not that difficult to devise.  All it requires is a sincere desire to actually enforce our immigration laws and imbue the immigration system with real integrity.

Too many of our political “leaders” lack that sincere desire.

This problem also has a simple solution.  Any politician, on any level of government, who is not willing to act in the best interests of America and his/her constituents, must come to understand that elections have consequences – for them.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Underreported: How Building a Border Wall Changed San Diego

Portland and Berkeley: Sanctuary Cities for Leftist Violence

The History of Extreme Vetting of Immigrants

RELATED VIDEO: The Liberal Case for Effective Immigration Law Enforcement

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in FrontPage Magazine.