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Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed.
The ballyhooed raids that began July 14 and were supposed catch thousands of illegal aliens netted less than three dozen, the New York Times reported.
The reason? Such was the publicity that the illegal migrants simply hid until the danger passed.
That’s bad news for President Trump given the latest report from Gallup. When pollsters asked more than 1,500 adults what the most important issue facing the country is, 27 percent said immigration.
Message: If Trump blows it on immigration, he could lose the 2020 election.
Criminals Still at Large
The Times reported that the raids, called Operation Border Resolve and scheduled for June but then postponed, netted just 35 illegals.
ICE was supposed to arrest 2,000 who have final orders of deportation, but alas, widespread publicity apparently foiled the attempt. The illlegal-alien miscreants not only had time to hide but also get assistance from subversive immigration lawyers, who gave advice on escaping the law. Advice also came from the top anti-American subversive in the House of Representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted such advice despite her oath to uphold the laws of the United States. “Remember,” she wrote, “no one can enter your home without a *judicial warrant.*”
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The publicity may have prompted many of those who had been targeted — 2,105 people in more than a dozen cities who had received final deportation orders but had not reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers — to temporarily leave their homes, or to move altogether to evade arrest.
Advance notice of the large-scale operation also gave immigrant advocates time to counsel families about their rights, which include not opening the door or answering questions. On social media, community groups shared detailed information about sightings of ICE agents.
In an interview Monday, Matthew Albence, the acting director of ICE, which is responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting unauthorized immigrants who are already in the United States, acknowledged that the number of apprehensions was low.
“I don’t know of any other population where people are telling them how to avoid arrest as a result of illegal activity,” he said. “It certainly makes it harder for us to effectuate these orders issued.”
“You didn’t hear ICE talking about it before the operation was taking place,” he added.
On the bright side, Albence told the Times that ICE has collared some 899 illegals from May 13 through July 11, most of them criminals.
Problem is, as The New American has reported, illegals are entering the country at about 3,500 per day. The Border Patrol apprehended 104,344 illegals in June, which means that illegals are entering the country more than 200 times faster, based on the figures Albence gave the Times, than ICE can catch them for removal.
By the end of July, the number of illegals who have crossed the border since the beginning of fiscal 2019 will likely surpass 800,000.
Bad News for Trump
Numbers at the border might be one reason, Gallup reported, that 27 percent of 1,525 adults polled from July 1 through July 12 think immigration is the most pressing problem facing the country.
Unsurprisingly, the data mirror the ideological divide between the two major political parties:
Republicans have typically been more likely than Democrats and independents to name immigration as the most important problem, and that is still the case. In the latest survey, 42% of Republicans, 20% of independents and 20% of Democrats mention immigration.
All political groups are more likely to mention immigration now than earlier this year. In March, when a 2019-low 16% of Americans identified immigration as the most important problem, 31% of Republicans, 14% of independents and 6% of Democrats did.
This is the fourth time that immigration has topped all other issues as the most important. The first three were July 2014, July 2018, and November 2018.
As other issues go, behind immigration at 23 percent was “government/poor leadership.” Nothing else, including race, topped seven percent.
During the past 19 years, Gallup reported, just five issues — the economy, unemployment, Iraq, terrorism, and the government — hit 27 percent or higher as the most pressing problem facing the nation.
Typically, survey respondents say the economy is the nation’s biggest problem, and have done so 58 times since 2001. In November 2008, the year Barack Hussein Obama was elected, a record 58 percent of those polled thought the economy was the most important issue.
If this latest poll is correct, and Americans do think immigration is the country’s most important problem, Trump has better do more than talk about it.
