Trump Admin Needs To Be More Aggressive On Illegal Immigration

Conservatives who supported Donald Trump primarily because of his pledge to conduct large-scale deportations of illegal aliens had a bit of a scare this week.

An illegal alien from Mexico was fatally shot last week by ICE immigration enforcement officers after he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.” Another illegal alien, this one from Colombia, was fatally shot this week after he attempted to flee from ICE agents in his vehicle. Both incidents took place during legal, targeted vehicle stops by agents. These types of stops are relatively routine in ICE’s immigration enforcement mission and have been relatively uncontroversial — until now.

In response to an uproar by the usual suspects on the left and the reliably spineless on the right, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered ICE agents to cease most vehicle stops nationwide on Tuesday. According to multiple sources within ICE who spoke to Fox News and the Daily Wire, agents on the ground were frustrated by the directive, lamenting that it would cause a crash in arrests.

The decision was met with almost immediate backlash on the right, fearing that this represented another instance of the administration caving to the left on immigration after the retreat from Minneapolis earlier this year. The administration almost immediately began to backtrack. Border czar Tom Homan went on Fox News to assure audiences that the order was “a short term pause, a short term review” that would not affect arrest numbers. He also mentioned that ICE agents receive “extensive” vehicle stop training.

But, on Wednesday, the White House told Fox News that President Donald Trump had reversed the order on traffic stops. Trump also posted on Truth Social that:

The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands. The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.

Now, reports have surfaced that DHS will require at least one person on an ICE team to wear a bodycam in order to conduct a traffic stop. Not ideal, but not a great impediment to enforcement in the grand scheme of things.

All’s well that ends well, right?

Well, there’s still the problem of millions, probably tens of millions, of illegal aliens still in this country and the even bigger problem of this administration’s haphazard attempts to deal with that fact. While traffic stops may be one of the most common and effective methods of catching illegal aliens, it’s simply not enough to deal with the sheer number of illegals residing in the country.

Instead of backing down and instead of continuing on with business as usual, the Trump administration needs to take this opportunity to escalate its deportation methods. It needs to begin rounding up illegals en masse by targeting employers of illegal aliens and conducting large-scale raids on known illegal alien neighborhoods. That’s the only way to achieve true mass deportations in a timely manner and fulfill one of Trump’s central campaign promises.

The initial surge of ICE agents in Minneapolis earlier this year was an encouraging sign, but the fatal shootings of two radical anti-ICE activists gave the administration cold feet. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey both talked with Trump, who agreed to a drawdown of ICE’s presence in the city. Walz and Frey’s refusal to cooperate in the actual operation (but they were more than happy to coordinate the retreat) has only encouraged other states and cities to follow their example.

Leftists already try to block every normal enforcement method. Democrat politicians and judges block efforts in the courts and in Congress, sometimes taking the law into their own hands to aid and abet illegal aliens. Radical anti-ICE activists impeded ICE operations and actively aided illegal aliens in evading ICE agents during operations in Minneapolis, as documented by The Federalist’s Breccan Thies.

Instead of crushing the blatant insurrection by Democrats in Minnesota, Trump folded, and he needs to rectify that mistake by doubling down on stronger immigration enforcement.

A few large industries employ millions of illegal aliens. The construction industry employs an estimated 1.6 million illegals, according to the American Business Immigration Coalition, while the hospitality industry (which includes hotels and restaurants) employs another million. Nearly half of America’s agricultural workers are noncitizens without work authorization, according to a 2025 study from KFF.

The Trump administration reportedly restarted workplace raids in 2025, soon after Trump reentered office, but the administration needs to become far more aggressive when taking on these companies. The DOJ should pursue charges and seek maximum punishment for any company that employs illegal aliens. Perhaps the best way to force compliance from businesses is to utilize asset forfeiture against businesses that employ illegal aliens. Asset forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize property suspected of being involved in a crime, in this case, employing an illegal alien. So, if an employer hires illegal aliens, the federal government can seize that business and its assets.

The Trump administration has already begun fining aliens who ignore deportation orders and has ramped up compliance enforcement for businesses, but focusing squarely on the employers of illegal aliens should be the top priority. Employers’ fear of asset forfeiture under a more strict immigration enforcement regime would do much of the heavy lifting — faced with losing their business or dumping their illegal employees, the vast majority of owners will choose the latter.

The Trump administration should also ramp up large-scale raids on residential neighborhoods. This is the best option for high-volume arrests outside of places of employment. Going door-to-door certainly represents a greater danger to agents than stopping a vehicle, since homes are more difficult to navigate for officers and could contain weapons, but the average arrest yield will be much higher. Like most immigrants, illegal aliens tend to concentrate in their own ethnic enclave neighborhoods in urban areas, making the identification and raiding of these areas theoretically straightforward. The president and the officials in his administration just require the will to carry out these types of raids, regardless of the inevitable bad press pushed by the leftist media.

Both of these methods instill fear in illegal aliens, and that’s the point. Physically rounding up the possibly tens of millions of illegals in this country is a herculean task, even when employing the above-mentioned tactics. But employing those aggressive tactics will inspire more aliens to self-deport.

The Trump administration can’t allow its deportation policies to be dictated by the outrage of the left and the propaganda press, or else it will fall far short of its promises to the conservative base. If leftists are going to accuse routine stops of being identical to (insert tired and inaccurate Nazi Germany comparison here), then the only response is to call their bluff and escalate. The administration must grow a spine, dare to be unpopular for a little while, and get down to the nitty-gritty of rolling back the illegal alien tide that has swept over our country for the last five decades. The means by which we’ll save this republic won’t be pretty, but that doesn’t make those methods any less necessary.

Hayden Daniel is a staff editor at The Federalist. He previously worked as an editor at The Daily Wire and as deputy editor/opinion editor at The Daily Caller. He received his B.A. in European History from Washington and Lee University with minors in Philosophy and Classics. Follow him on Twitter at @HaydenWDaniel