For the past four years, America’s lawful gun owners were forced to stand by and watch guns and the right to own them declared the cause of what former President Joe Biden (D) and others in his administration called “gun violence.” As violent criminals were too often allowed to go right back into our neighborhoods (violent crime didn’t really drop, as he and Vice President Kamala Harris (D) claimed), Biden signed executive order after executive order targeting legally owned guns and gun owners. He did this even as his weaponized Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) published several “final rules” targeting law-abiding gun owners and firearms retailers.
As America’s 1st Freedom readers are well aware, the crime problem America faces is “criminal violence,” not “gun violence,” with an emphasis on “criminal.” And there’s little doubt that the Biden administration’s open border policy exacerbated the violent-crime problem.
In fact, not only was the Biden administration’s policy of allowing anyone to enter the country—including violent criminals—a disaster, but the coddling of violent offenders who entered our country illegally by Biden’s bureaucrats and the court system was equally harmful.
On a mandate from voters, President Donald Trump (R) swept into office with a focus on targeting criminals rather than lawful gun owners. Instead of signing an executive order that would make it harder for Americans to purchase guns, Trump chose to tighten the southern border. Since then, his administration has begun deporting many violent offenders.
On January 27, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 956 illegal immigrants nationwide, according to a BBC report. That followed 286 arrests the previous day, 593 arrests the day before that and another 538 arrests the day prior. On the day with 538 arrests, 373 were confirmed to have criminal records in addition to the questions about their immigration status, including a suspected terrorist, four members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and several illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors.
The following day, on January 28, some 25 members of the Tren de Aragua gang were arrested by ICE, as reported by a senior administration official. In total, there were 969 arrests made that day, including a convicted member of MS-13 who ICE apprehended in Dallas.
On January 29, the first multi-agency operation in New York City led to multiple arrests, including that of a suspected leader of Tren de Aragua and others with kidnapping, assault and burglary charges. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined officers on the early-morning raid, which was caught on camera.
Additionally, a day of raids in Boston resulted in the capture of several illegal immigrants with violent criminal backgrounds, including gang members from MS-13, suspected rapists and murderers, as well as a Haitian gang affiliate with 18 convictions in recent years, according to an ICE press release.
Capturing and deporting violent criminals has not only been a success for the Trump administration, but the number of people attempting to cross the southern border has also dropped dramatically.
On January 29, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks posted on X: “In the past seven days, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 4,577 individuals attempting to enter the country illegally, a significant 55% decrease from the previous week’s 10,281 apprehensions. This trend indicates that our enhanced border security measures produce results …”
So, instead of pretending the rights of law-abiding American citizens are the cause of violent-crime rates, as the Biden administration did, the Trump administration is going after actual bad guys to make us safer.
