DOES AMERICA HAVE THE RESOLVE TO DEPORT ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSERS? The United States experienced a mass incursion of illegal border crossers in the years 2021 to 2025. Estimates vary, but in that period, at least 9 million people entered the U.S. illegally. Rather than turn them back, former President Joe Biden allowed most to stay, with little or no vetting. Administration officials denied that there was a problem, periodically declaring the border “closed” when in fact 200,000 to 300,000 people were crossing illegally each month. When officials conceded that there was a problem, Democrats argued that only sweeping immigration legislation would solve it.
Of course, all that changed with the election of President Donald Trump. Without any new legislation, the new administration cut border incursions to nearly zero. But the question remained: What about the 9 million or more who had recently entered the U.S. illegally? Would the Trump administration allow them to remain in the country?
That is the question at the heart of the current rebellion against federal authority in Minneapolis. Yes, some Trump administration officials have explained that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol personnel are simply going after “the worst of the worst.” Indeed, they have arrested a lot of people who entered the U.S. illegally and then committed crimes, some of them horrendous crimes. They have also discovered people who entered illegally after having committed crimes in their home countries. Perhaps some progressive activists would disagree, but a large majority of people support the deportation of those illegal border crossers.
But what about the illegal border crossers who have not committed any additional crimes since entering the U.S.? Many polls have shown that majorities support deporting them, too.
A New York Times-Siena poll in September 2025 found that 54% strongly or somewhat support “deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally back to their home countries.” A Harvard-Harris poll in December 2025 asked the question two ways. It found that 80% support “deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes,” while 54% support “deporting all immigrants who are here illegally.” Going back to January 2025, an Ipsos-Axios poll found that 66% supported “deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally.”
The question was made urgent by the mad influx of the Biden years. Illegal border crossers moved into U.S. cities, straining resources, budgets, and communities’ ability to deal with them, both financially and socially. The flood of migrants also raised fundamental questions of justice: Should people who enter the U.S. illegally be given legal status? All of them? And what about people who went through the time-consuming process to come to the U.S. legally?
There are immigration activists in this country who would answer the questions: Yes, yes, and too bad. They are tirelessly working to liberalize every immigration law they can. Any administration that seeks to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants must contend with them.
Beyond that, though, there is the practical difficulty of deporting people. Once someone is in the U.S., even if they have no legal right to be in the country, it can still be very difficult to deport them. And if they have teams of lawyers, advocates, and street activists on their side, it can be harder still.
Speaking about Minneapolis, the writer Mickey Kaus said, “The local protesters do not want the illegals deported, period. Even if the ICE force was incredibly well trained, wore white gloves, and followed Waldorf-Astoria rules of etiquette, if they are effective, local dissenters will press forward with resistance until it produces confrontations and some violence. That’s the way it worked in the antiwar movement I was a part of.”
That is certainly the way it is working in Minneapolis. The question for immigration activists is whether they can set off similar struggles around the country. On Meet the Press Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blamed sanctuary jurisdictions, in which Democratic local and state governments forbid local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, for a lot of the problems in Minneapolis. “What we see all over the country, save a few sanctuary cities like Minneapolis, is we see cooperation and support,” Blanche said. “We deport 10 times the number of illegal aliens out of Texas than we do out of Minneapolis. Why do we hear nothing out of Texas about any of the same problems that we have in Minneapolis? I’ll tell you why. Because in Texas, we have the cooperation and support of local law enforcement so that we can do these operations safely, keeping U.S. citizens and others protected and safe. That is not what we have in Minneapolis.”
One key question now is: Can the forces resisting federal law enforcement in Minneapolis nationalize the struggle? Boosted by the furor over immigration enforcement personnel’s killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, plus the agency’s general reputation for heavy-handedness, the resistance has made huge progress. Trump is now hearing voices from his own side telling him to tone ICE down.
Still, keep in mind the activists’ goal: They don’t want ICE to deport illegal immigrants in a safe, smooth, and efficient way. They want to stop the deportations. And after the mass illegal crossings of the Biden years, that is the compelling issue: Will the U.S. end up allowing the illegal crossers to stay? Doing so will create an enormous incentive for future illegal crossers. And then, what is to stop another mass incursion the next time a Democratic president, under pressure from his party’s activist groups, opens the border again?