An Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep that took hundreds of illegal alien criminals off the streets of New York City last week sent a clear message that the Trump administration is serious about cracking down on crime.
But the reaction of neighbors sent an even clearer message about how strongly Americans support ridding the country of criminal elements that shouldn’t be here in the first place.
And that’s a message the Democratic Party simply refuses to hear.
According to the New York Post, a weeklong operation by ICE agents swept up 206 illegal aliens in the city, including members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“Throughout this enhanced enforcement operation, we targeted the most dangerous alien offenders in some of the most crime-infested neighborhoods in and around the city of New York,” acting ICE director Todd Lyons said, according to the Post.
And those most endangered by the criminals — neighbors and relatives of neighbors — were cheering.
“This building might not be much to look at, but there are good families living here with children who go to school every day and play in the hallways,” one resident of the Bronx told the Post. “We don’t need people coming from the outside and want to play by their own rules.”
Will the Democratic Party ever recover from the damage it’s doing to itself by defending these men charged with horrific crimes?
The Bronx building was the scene of the arrest of Edimar Alejandra Colmenares Mendoza, a 22-year-old Tren de Aragua member, according to the Post.
“I’m glad they caught her and are sending her back to where she came from. It’s very scary that a person like this should be living in an apartment so close to my mother, who’s in her 80s and helpless,” another man, who visits the building regularly, told the newspaper.
🇺🇸🚨 ICE SWEEPS NYC STREETS CLEAN OF 206 CRIMINAL MIGRANTS IN MASSIVE TAKEDOWN
Federal agents just executed their largest NYC raid in months, removing 206 illegal migrants including hardened gang members, killers, child abusers and drug traffickers that sanctuary policies had… https://t.co/PxZRcBpol8 pic.twitter.com/5EsBYroQ9i
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 16, 2025
Among those arrested in the raid — which also included members of the El Salvadoran-originated MS-13 gang and other criminal groups — 121 have criminal convictions or face charges ranging from murder and sex crimes against children to arson and assault, according to the Post.
They were, to sum it up, exactly the kind of person sane Americans don’t want in their neighborhoods — or their country.
And yet they are exactly the kind of people the Democratic Party appears hell-bent on defending against the Trump administration.
In New York City, the Democratic-run city council is suing its own Democratic mayor for allowing ICE to conduct investigations in New York’s Rikers Island jail, according to Fox News.
In Colorado — which achieved national notoriety during the presidential campaign when Tren de Aragua’s takeover of apartment complexes in the city of Aurora made national headlines — Democratic lawmakers are pushing a state bill to limit local law enforcement cooperation with ICE and other federal agencies, according to the Capitol News Alliance, a news consortium that includes Colorado Public Radio and Rocky Mounty PBS.
And leftier Democrats in Congress are in on the act, too. In February, as the Post reported at the time, New York’s own Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a webinar aimed at giving illegal aliens tips to avoid deportation.
And some are planning a trip to El Salvador to ensure themselves of the welfare of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the supposedly innocent Maryland man deported for his alleged membership in MS-13.
In short, the Democratic Party has decided, for some ungodly reason, that taking the side of foreign criminals who are in the country illegally is a winning formula to get support among sane Americans.
Democratic allies in the federal judiciary are helping, naturally. Democratic allies in the mainstream media are doing their part, too.
The slanted coverage of the Garcia case is an obvious effort to stir contrived leftist outrage. The coverage of the Columbia University Hamas supporter facing deportation is just as breathless — and just as clearly motivated.
(The murder and rape of American citizens by illegal aliens never galvanizes Democrats, the same way the murder and rape of Israelis by Islamic terrorists doesn’t juice them. Their hearts are tugged in one direction only — leftward.)
But the same American public that elected Donald Trump president in November isn’t going to be swayed by sob stories about supposed inhumanities in the deportation of criminals who shouldn’t even be in the country in the first place.
When residents of a liberal city like New York greeted the arrest and deportation of criminal gangbangers with cheers and relief it sent a message that had to horrifiy Democrats.
Instead of the outrage Democrats and their media allies are trying to foment, the ICE activities under Trump are what the country was looking for after four years of Joe Biden’s disastrous duplicity on opening the border.
And that message is being received — loud and clear.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
