The Democrats’ campaign against America’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement is an attack on the rule of law and the process of self-government.

At the heart of this struggle is an uncomfortable reality for the Democrats: Americans voted for a President and a Congress which were clear about dealing with illegal immigration.

Eliminating illegal immigration was the No. 1 issue in many polls during the 2024 elections (curbing inflation was the other leading contender in some polls). The party which advocated controlling the border and deporting people who entered the country illegally won a decisive victory. 

President Trump carried all seven of the so-called swing states and received 2.4 million more votes than the Democrat incumbent vice president. Similarly, Republicans were entrusted with majorities in both chambers of Congress.

ICE agents are government employees carrying out the laws which Congress has passed. They are implementing the instructions of the duly-elected chief executive, who is constitutionally charged with implementing said laws.

The Democratic Party is acting in the tradition of so-called nullification first made famous by South Carolina in the tariff struggle of 1832. 

The state determined that existing federal tariffs were not constitutional — and therefore nullified — in South Carolina. President Jackson threatened to call out the army and South Carolina backed down.

The next great effort at illegally interposing local values against the federal government was the slave state secession of 1860-1861. This led to the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in American history.

In 1957, as segregation began to collapse under the weight of federal law, Governor Faubus of Arkansas tried to illegally block school integration in his state. In response, President Eisenhower sent in 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division and federalized the Arkansas National Guard.

Similarly, in 1962 and 1963, President Kennedy sent federal troops into Democrat-run Alabama and Mississippi to enforce desegregation of the states’ universities.

In each case — from 1832 to the present — elected Democrats sought to block the enforcement of federal law. The recent attacks on ICE agents and processes are the latest examples in a long tradition of Democrats seeking to illegally block the federal government from implementing the will of the people.

Consider the amazing threat by the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to the men and women of ICE and their families:

“This is America. This is not the Soviet Union. We’re not behind the Iron Curtain. This is not the 1930s. And every single [ICE agent], no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will, of course, be identified.”

Mr. Jeffries must know that identifying some ICE agents puts them and their families at risk of being killed by drug cartels and other illegal groups. 

It is a vicious and unforgivable threat by the leading House Democratic leader against federal employees serving the lawful orders of their government.

Consider the radicalism of the former Democratic vice presidential candidate, Governor Walz, at a recent commencement speech: 

“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”

Imagine working as a federal law enforcement agent for our constitutional system — which operates under President Lincoln’s rule of “government of the people, for the people and by the people” — and having leading Democrats describe you as agents of the Nazi dictatorship.

The front-runner for mayor of New York City, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, promised to go even further. His platform states he “will ensure our immigrant New Yorkers are protected by strengthening our sanctuary city apparatus: getting ICE out of all City facilities and ending any cooperation.”

In the world of the Democratic Party, attacking law enforcement and favoring criminals somehow protects citizens. 

Some Democratic elected officials have been engaged in what author and fellow Fox News contributor Joe Concha calls “arrest pornography.” They say their base wants even more violent and direct attacks on law enforcement. Axios reported that some Democrat activists want elected Democrats to force bloodshed to stop the deportation of illegal immigrants.

All the Democratic rhetoric is having an impact in the real world. Attacks on ICE agents are up 700 percent from a year ago. A shooter in the Rio Grande Valley tried to ambush and kill American Border Patrol agents.

We need to make it clear: Attacks on federal officers who are enforcing American law are attacks on the rule of law itself.

The same Democrats who wanted to defund police and favored riots now want to defund and attack federal immigration and border officers.

This is a simple question of enforcing the laws or breaking the laws — supporting law enforcement or supporting criminals.

For most Americans, the choice is clear — and the Democrats are on the wrong side.