Immigration War Turns Violent
Rioting Against ICE
Joe Guzzardi,
Posted Sat, Jul 19, 2025 at 7:57 am ET
If only Congress had heeded U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan's (D-Texas) immigration recommendations, the ugliness and anxiety that now center on Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not have happened. Instead of an illegal immigrant population of 15-20 million post-Joe Biden, Jordan's improvements would have dramatically lowered the total—not to zero, but to a manageable number in the country's major cities.
Immigration laws have gone unenforced for 60 years, and Congress's only immigration action during that period has been to pass amnesties or sign bills that facilitate and encourage more foreign nationals to enter the U.S. with or without authorization.
The six decades of immigration expansion included, but were not limited to, the comprehensive Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986, which legalized aliens who had unlawfully resided in the U.S. since January 1, 1982, granted amnesties to Nicaraguans and other Central Americans, welcomed more refugees and asylees, increased American job-killing H-1B visas, and expanded the list of nations that qualify for Temporary Protected Status. A subversion of immigration law also added DACA and Optional Practical Training—employment programs that were never congressionally approved. Therefore, when an enforcement advocate like Donald Trump arrives in the White House and surrounds himself with like-minded enforcement allies, pushback from well-funded ideologues is inevitable.
https://patch.com/district-columbia/washingtondc/immigration-war-turns-violent
