At least 10 million illegal immigrants currently reside in the United States and the number is growing daily.

In an effort to address this issue, fulfill its congressionally mandated duties, and restore integrity to the immigration system, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent the last few months developing a detailed operation meant to locate, apprehend, and deport illegal immigrants who have been lawfully ordered deported by an immigration judge but refused to leave the country in further defiance of our laws.

Unlike what has been widely reported in the mainstream media, the operation was not targeting persons who had not exhausted all of their lengthy appeals processes and received a final order of deportation. Instead, the operation was humane, it comported with the rule of law and due process, and was similar to an operation carried out by ICE in 2015 under the Obama administration which flew under the radar.

PRESIDENT TRUMP GIVES CONGRESS TWO WEEKS TO WORK ON SOLUTION TO BORDER CRISIS

In short, this operation was exactly what both Democratic and Republican lawmakers envisioned when they enacted our immigration laws. It was a common sense law enforcement operation and approach to an ever-growing problem……but consider this operation now trashed!

As recently reported in the Washington Examiner, Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kevin McAleenan allegedly disclosed the scope, date, and location – law enforcement sensitive information – to the Washington Post just prior to the operation’s start date.

If this is true, then Mr. McAleenan was inexcusably willing to put the public at risk and law enforcement officers in harm’s way in order to further his own agenda, an agenda which has not aligned with that of President Trump from the day he was appointed to his previous position as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Before the “why” question can be answered, you must know who Mr. McAleenan really is.

The American public deserves and should demand more from its public servants.

Mr. McAleenan’s personal beliefs are rooted in liberal policy and philosophy. Not a negative or positive quality, except when you consider he has been charged with carrying out President Trump’s immigration agenda. He has proven his political leanings in his actions, including his campaign contributions.

According to Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mr. McAleenan was an outspoken proponent of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Also, prior to 2010, Mr. McAleenan donated large sums of money (comparatively speaking for a federal employee) to both the Democratic Party as well as Democratic candidates. According to the FEC records I’ve seen, he has never donated to the Republican Party or a Republican candidate.

Again, I will not hold a person’s political leanings against them unless it interferes with job performance or endangers the safety of the general public and the law enforcement officers over whom he has charge. In fact, I consider a number of Democratic politicians my friends. But political affiliation or leanings don’t tell the whole story. Mr. McAleenan’s bio and job performance fill in the rest of the gaps.

At first glance, Mr. McAleenan’s bio as CBP Commissioner looks very impressive. But upon close inspection, you will notice it’s long on titles and job functions but very short on border security accomplishments.

In fact, and especially as it pertains to actual border security, Mr. McAleenan has been an utter failure. Notwithstanding the fact that he was handed the gift of apprehension numbers that were at a 45-year low in April of 2015, Mr. McAleenan failed to implement any policies or operations that would have assisted CBP in keeping the numbers low. Instead, Mr. McAleenan is responsible for the largest immigration crisis the United States has ever seen. His job performance has been completely unacceptable.

Now that we know who he is, we can attempt to answer “why” he would stymie an ICE operation that had the potential to do so much good. By definition, Kevin McAleenan should be considered anti-Trump.

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His actions in office have been detrimental to both border security and President Trump’s expressed mandate to end illegal immigration and the catch-and-release program. And while these two issues alone are enough to warrant a vote of no confidence from his subordinates, it was his willingness to put his own agenda above the safety and security of the general public and law enforcement personnel that made it a slam dunk.

The American public deserves and should demand more from its public servants. Unfortunately, true public servants at the highest level of government seem to be a thing of the past. Until the DHS swamp is drained, we are going to be hard-pressed to realize true border security.

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