My readers know that I am not a Trump believer.

I support key planks of candidate Trump’s campaign platform, such as securing our nation’s borders, stemming unlawful entry into the United States, and retreating from multilateral trade deals promoted as “free trade” when in fact they impose a redistributionist socialist regimen on international commerce. But in light of Mr. Trump’s record (for example, support for the Gang of 8’s immigration proposals) I am skeptical of his commitment to them.

Frankly, I suspect that he may speak loudly but end up carrying a lot of self-serving “progressive” (read: leftist, socialist, globalist) baggage, pressed upon him by elitist faction minions in the Congressional leadership, including Republicans and Democrats alike.

Ongoing events may test my skepticism, one way or the other. If President Trump accepts anything like the immigration bills currently reported to be in the works, he will prove me right. If he demands they be revised to give exclusive priority to border security, control and law enforcement measures, he will prove me wrong.

‘Exclusive priority’ means:

postponing measures to grant amnesty to any class of illegal immigrants until after the border security and control measures (BSCM) are fully implemented; or

strictly correlating the implementation of amnesty measures to apportion relief to a certain number of those unlawfully present in the United States, in proportion to the completion of BSCM: commencing with people who can reasonably claim to be here through no fault of their own (those, for example, whose parents brought them into the U.S. as children); and

seeking out and deporting people unlawfully resident in the United States, in numbers targeted to correspond to the progress made in completing the BSCM, i.e., a targeted number of deportations attained for each measured period of progress in implementing the BSCM, with all amnesty relief suspended until the target(s) is(are) reached.

President Trump should make it clear that he will veto any bill that does not prioritize BSCM in some such fashion.

While thus doing all he can to demand effective Congressional legislation, he should cease waiting on Congress when it comes to his faithful execution of our immigration laws, which the Constitution explicitly demands.

This means being faithful to the particular requirements of any given law. But it also means being faithful to the general premises of right and justice that define our law-giving (i.e., sovereign) identity as a people.

People who have entered the United States with their children have broken our laws. But, as the Declaration of Independence plainly states, the people of the United States claim the right of sovereign self-government in light of “the laws of nature and of Nature’s God.” Those laws also govern the bond of obligation by which parents are supposed to care for their children.

Parents beset with problems in their own countries, who sincerely feel driven by that natural obligation of care to come to the United States, are breaking our laws, but God’s natural law may impel them to do so.

Of course, that sense is not simply true of parents found guilty of some serious crime requiring their imprisonment; or those who have left their unaccompanied children to get across our border by their own devices, or those of unscrupulous “coyotes.” Such parents have discarded our laws and “the laws…of nature’s God.”

Our immigration laws aim to serve the common good. That good includes preserving the economic vitality from which the parents just mentioned hope to benefit. We are therefore right to enforce our laws. But our respect for the natural law must also lead us to respect the bond that binds parent to care for their children.

To keep faith with both our immigration laws and God’s law for human nature, we should, therefore, do all that we can to respect the bond it establishes between parents and their children. So, the faithful execution of our immigration laws demands that, as our enforcement efforts proceed, we do what we can to keep families together. Our common sense of natural decency requires it.

This common sense is consistent with our American creed. Keeping faith with our creed is an aspect of the faithful execution of our laws.

The President does not have to wait upon the Congress for legislation authorizing measures consistent with that faithfulness. The supreme law of the land (and of God, as well) requires that he apply such measures as implements the provisions of those laws already extant.

By taking firm executive action on this matter, President Trump clears the way for his firm rejection of any cave-in on border security and immigration by the GOP’s leadership, which has so often proven to be unreliable on these issues. He makes it clear that, just as his administration respects the premise of natural justice America owes to God, he will demand fulfillment of the promise of border control and national security, which America’s elected national leaders owe to the people of the United States.

By thus faithfully executing existing immigration laws, while using his Constitutional power to improve their future content, President Trump will effectively refute the suspicion that, in respect of these matters, he’s not the man his campaign promises led believing voters to think he is.

Why would anyone who truly cares for our nation’s present and future good fail earnestly to entreat God for such an outcome?

Dr. Alan Keyes is a political activist, prolific writer, former diplomat, and the founder of LoyaltoLiberty.com

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.