Nearly every conservative I have spoken to is outraged by recent ICE activities and they feel betrayed. We were told they would concentrate on criminals and those with current deportation orders. We all want enforceable immigration policies but cannot ignore how deeply imbedded many immigrants have become in American society. We all struggle with the same question, " Where do we draw the lines?" So many questions to deal with, I know many of these people spent thousands of dollars to come here and our government did make them feel safe in coming. We hvae to assume some responsibility for that. I am looking for that hero to come along and write a policy we can all live with.
When people talk about deporting criminals, I wonder why you would do that. If someone has engaged in crimes more serious than simply being undocumented, they should be arrested, charged, prosecuted and jailed right here in the United States. They can be deported after that. But just to deport criminals? There is no assurance that they will face justice.
Different circles and all that, but the conservatives I talk to are quite happy with ICE. They see Trump doing exactly what he promised to do. If anything they are irritated that Trump’s massive deportation plan is getting delayed by activist judges.
How irritating is to love the constitution.
is a fundamental right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It protects people against arbitrary government decisions and ensures fairness in legal matters. Both citizens and non-citizens in the U.S. have the right to due process - a chance to defend their rights and to have a fair hearing.
Now, this principle faces a critical test. On April 7, 2025, the Supreme Court deliberated
on whether non-citizens have the right to any form of legal process before being removed to foreign countries. Although the justices differed on the specifics of the process, they unanimously reaffirmed that the fundamental right to due process extends to everyone in America, regardless of their legal status.
Even the Supreme Court, with many of Trump’s appointees, told Trump and republicans like that to pound sand.
The conservatives I know, who are almost all immigrants themselves, many of them having benefited from prior amnesties after outright fraud or bogus amnesty claims, are totally on board with what ICE is doing. Even the ones whose businesses depend on the supply of cheap and questionably legal workers.
May they be on the wrong side of the bomb shelter door.
Who is saying that? After so many Hispanic Americans voted for Trump, I asked serious questions as to why they would do that.
The answers are long and detailed. The short version is- the leopard will not eat my face. I will be safe because- I am here legally, I have money, I have social status, I am a loyal Trumper, or Trump was talking about this other Hispanic group. I am clearly not a member of that group.
The head of Latinas For Trump did realize that the leopard will eat her face last month or so. She issued a statement.
I agreee with Zoobi . When DOGE started slashing funding and shutting down programs under claims of fraud, any sane and reasonable person would know it was terrible and should be stopped immediately. When one of my friends asked for opinions, a MAGAt she has known since childhood proudly proclaimed what a great job DOGE was doing and look at the fraud they had stopped and the money they had saved us.When I asked for any evidence, the MAGAt linked to an article about USAID in Haiti. The title of the article said the program had “failed” in Haiti. Not only did the artilce not provide any evidence of that claim, I quoted a sentence where the author admitted that he could not back up his claim with evidence. I also pointed out that the article did not even attempt to address USAID operations in any country other than Haiti. Since this was a friend’s post, I was polite and reasonable. The MAGAt was routinely rude, clearly had no critical thinking skills, and could not provide any evidence. Eventually, the friend asked us both to just drop it. So, I let it drop. Later, the MAGAt brought it up again. She said ‘You wanted evidence? Here it is!’ she then posted screenshots of Musk’s X feed. They were just long lists of Musk bragging about how much money he had saved taxpayers. There was no proof how much any of the program actually cost, no proof he was responsible for shutting them down, and no proof of any fraud.
Why would ICE be any different? ‘Trump says they are bad people. Therefore, they are bad people!’ ‘If we get all the Haitians out of the country, they will no longer eat our cats and dogs!’ I actually saw a post on Facebook "If you did not enter this country through due process, you do not deserve due process when we kick you out.’
The issue is so big that it is impossible to process, once the critical mass of an issue reaches this stage a new plan needs to be developed. In the past it has always been amnesty programs and it will likely have to be this same solution again but the basic problem of unchecked immigration has got to be solved
Please define “unchecked immigration”. Are people coming in without going through any legal process? Yes. Are some people here legally through temporary means deciding to stay after their visas expire? yes. Do we have “unchecked immigration”? I doubt that very much. Is anything Trump has done an effective way of decreasing the amount of people living in this country without legal documents? I doubt that very much as well.
Trump has stirred up hatred and bigotry of various kinds. We currently have masked and anonymous ICE agents grabbing people off the streets. This is not a solution. This is not Constitutional. These are quite literally Gestapo tactics.
Why?
This is not a gotcha or a question asked in bad faith. Even if I agreed that there is currently unchecked immigration (I don’t agree with that, but we can discuss it at another time), what specific problems have you encountered as a result?
A Related Point-
For the past few years, I have worked in a virtual call center helping callers apply for or renew state benefits. We used to handle SNAP (foodstamps), CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Pennsylvania) and Medicaid (state medical assistance. Medicare is federal assistance and we never handled that).. Due to budget cut backs in Trump’s second term, we no longer handle SNAP. So, the following is from several years of experience-
If applying for yourself only, you must provide a valid Social Secuity Number to apply. You do not need to be a citizen to get an SSN. You do need to be here legally and able to provide the government with documents proving that you are. If the head of your household does not a valid SSN, you might be able to apply. We cannot help you in the call center. We can refer you to Statewide. They might be able to help you. You might be able to apply by filling out a paper application.
People who are not here legally with the proper documents to prove it may be eligible for emergency medical assistance only. Even if they are found eligible, applying involves giving various government agencies the information that you are not here legally. You then need to give them a lot of other information about yourself. Odds are good you will be deported once your medical condition permits it.
So, all the MAGA claims that “illegals” are getting benefits? They are lies. You need an SSN to get those benefits. You cannot get a valid SSN if you can not prove you are here legally. Without access to foodstamps, Haitian refugees (who are actually here legally) have had to resort to eating people’s cats and dogs.
This is the fundamental problem with all these things. A lot of people simply refuse to understand that these problems are difficult to solve. Simplistic solutions won’t work, and more complicated solutions will sometimes fail, because this is hard.
Declaring a “failure” in Haiti to be proof of “fraud and corruption” is of a kind with this. They seem to think that just trying to solve a problem means you must always succeed at solving it.
These guys probably expect their favorite sports team to win every game, too.
I’ve noticed among my conservative acquaintances that they are largely rule followers. Or claim to be until they need an exception on something. But I think this accounts for a lot of it - they are simply offended by the idea of rules not being followed, which they see as a black-and-white proposition.
I asked one once, “Suppose somebody managed to pass a Constitutional amendment requiring all citizens to strangle a kitten on alternate Tuesdays. Would you comply with it?”
The person hesitated before answering, which was all I needed to know.
The thing is, even the author of the article admitted that he had no evidence proving USAID had actually failed in Haiti.
From a MAGA perspective, all of USAID was a failure. The purpose of USAID was to provide food and medical care to people who had no money and no political power. Since these people could not do anything for us, the program was a waste and a failure.
Trump repeatedly sided with Putin because Putin controls an entire country and can do things for him. Zelenskyy is the democratically elected leader of a country fighting off Putins invasion. After backing out of various treaties and other obligations, Trump told Zelenskyy that the US might help if he signed over mineral rights.
Why should Trumpers be upset that ICE is grabbing people off the street and transporting them to other countries without due process? The leopard will not eat my face. What could any of those people do for me?
We can only do that if they committed those crimes while in the US - a big part of the right wing narrative on immigration is that there’s a significant number of gang members coming into the country illegally who already have extensive criminal backgrounds in their home countries, and the idea is to catch and deport them before they commit crimes in the US.
I just love when Conservatives put on their “disagreement face”, then proceed to reap the benefits of the very thing they claim to disagree with. It is nice and safe for them, and too many non-conservatives still think this surface-level crap actually means anything in the long run.
Link to the classic short movie from 1998: A Day Without A Mexican The Original short
The expanded movie from 2004 was panned by critics as having a tone like that of a preachy after-school special, not recommended; but, I do think that in light of what is going on, some people do need the metaphorical pounding into their heads method.
Just a reminder to all of those saying that immigrants should “wait their turn in line”, or “go through the process”: There is no line, and there is no process. If a hardworking Mexican wants to come to the US to pick produce in order to support his family, and in the process help all of us have cheap groceries, the only way to do that is to come undocumented, and then maybe, if you’re lucky, eventually get an amnesty. If you don’t like people coming here without going through the process, then we need to actually create a process.
Agree 100%. My point is some of these people have convinced themselves it’s more about following rules, arbitrary or not. That doesn’t rule out their being delusional, illogical and racist too. But on the surface, a few people I know would be outraged by someone pulling the tag off a mattress and not being immediately tackled by a SWAT team.