“Okay, What Would You Do?”
First, let me say this (and I hope you agree with me) – Our system of immigration and obtaining citizenship is broken. That is the one thing everyone—from the halls of Washington to my town—can and should agree on. With roughly 11 million residents currently living in a state of legal limbo, the failure of this system is no longer a policy debate; it is a national crisis that has been festering for decades.
So, if you’re asking me what the approach of a free, diverse, and democratic country should be in this situation, here is my answer – a roadmap for a system built on integrity rather than intimidation. And (by the way), it’s NOT what we are currently doing!
1. Fix the Foundation: Legislative Overhaul
Congress must stop using immigration as a political football and finally do its job. We need a complete overhaul that provides a smooth, effective, and transparent path to citizenship. The backlog and bureaucratic failures are legion, and until the legal front door is fixed, the back door will continue to be a source of chaos.
2. Honor the Promise: Deport the Dangerous
Trump was elected on a platform to deport those who have violated our trust—specifically “murderers, rapists, and drug dealers”. Most Americans, myself included, support this. As a veteran Marine and a police officer who spent 33 years as a cop, I have no desire to offer hospitality to those who actively harm others.
But how we DO it matters. The correct approach isn’t rocket science:
- Support, Not Suppression: The federal government should provide logistics and support to local and state agencies to identify known criminals and help THEM to arrest and detain them.
- Hand-in-Hand Cooperation: Federal agents should work openly with local police to arrest these individuals, ensuring every case is subject to strict court review.
- The Guardian Model: This is what community-oriented policing looks like — identifiable, accountable, controlled in their use of force, and answerable to the people it serves.
3. Reject the “Bait and Switch”
What we are seeing today is a classic bait and switch that tarnishes the moral character of our nation. While the Washington rhetoric focuses on “dangerous criminals,” the data tell a different story: of the thousands of hard-working residents being targeted, less than 7% actually fall into the category of “dangerous.” What we are seeing is wholesale deportation of thousands each month without due process and fear being instilled in millions of our neighbors.
Instead of a surgical effort to remove threats, we are witnessing masked, unaccountable, chaotic, unsupervised federal agents terrorizing our cities. When agents operate without identifiable uniforms or community controls, it begins to look less like law enforcement and more like a governmental “Ku Klux Klan”—masked figures acting outside the law. This is not the America I served my entire life. And I hope it is not your America either.
The Crux of the Matter: Local police and sheriff’s deputies should not be immigration enforcers—that’s not their job. Their job is to serve and protect everyone in their community. Adding federal financial and logistical support to help our local police remove truly dangerous people is one thing; allowing masked goons to terrorize neighborhoods is another.
A Call for Integrity
Trump, it is time to do what you said you were going to do – go after the “bad guys.”. Fix the system. Deport the murderers, rapists, and the drug dealers. They are not wanted in any of our cities. Use our local police—who actually know these streets and these people and are accountable to them—to handle the criminals. Stop relying on a group of untrained, out of control federal agents who lack the morals and the training to distinguish a neighbor from a threat.
Unless we hold the line now, the trust and support many of us have spent decades building in our local police departments will be permanently forfeited. We must now act together with courage to protect the soul of our democracy.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 