Don’t tell Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), but on April 17, the Department of Justice released detailed evidence demonstrating how Kilmar Armando Abrego García—whom Sen. Van Hollen and his fellow Democrats falsely portrayed as an innocent “Maryland father”—is not only an illegal immigrant but also a violent member of the brutal MS-13 gang. The Department of Homeland Security also provided court documents showing that García’s wife had previously sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, accusing him of assault and other forms of abuse. It's the clearest sign yet that the adults are back in charge of protecting America’s homeland, and that’s great for America’s safety.
This degree of coordination between the DOJ and DHS under Trump’s leadership stands in sharp contrast to the Biden administration, when both agencies worked together to advance the Biden administration’s radical political agenda instead of protecting public safety.
Under the leadership of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s DHS did everything it could to maximize the mass illegal immigration of suspected terrorists and violent criminals who preyed on American citizens.
Secretary Mayorkas stopped construction on Trump’s border wall and kept ICE and Border Patrol from doing their jobs. When the surge in border crossings Biden specifically asked for became a political liability for Democrats, he and Attorney General Merrick Garland coordinated to massively expand Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and create the CHNV program, paroling hundreds of thousands of unvetted migrants into the U.S. interior — complete with an app to streamline the process.
Things weren’t any better at Biden’s DOJ. Garland presided over a DOJ that targeted Catholic parishes, inflated domestic extremism statistics, and labeled concerned parents as potential terrorists. Peaceful pro-life activists were arrested at gunpoint, while left-wing extremists who threatened Supreme Court justices or firebombed crisis pregnancy centers were ignored.
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Garland also appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith under dubious legal authority to imprison Biden’s chief political rival. At the same time, the DOJ’s antitrust division attempted to blame private companies like Visa for the inflation caused by Biden’s federal overspending.
That’s not an exaggeration. When Biden’s big-government stimulus spending helped drive inflation to a 30-year high, the DOJ’s response was to sue Visa for charging merchants roughly 0.23% in debit card transaction fees—about 14 cents on a $60 purchase. The case was an embarrassing attempt to scapegoat a private company for Democrat-induced inflation.
Add it all up, and it becomes clear that Biden’s DOJ and DHS were not focused on public safety, national security, or the rule of law. They were focused on politics.
Now, that’s changing. Trump’s team is showing the country what it looks like when the DOJ and DHS return to their core mission of protecting American citizens.
They’re working together to go after real threats—not parents, not pro-lifers, not credit card companies. But violent gang members, abusers, and foreign nationals who break our laws and endanger our communities.
Restoring credibility and functionality to these agencies after four years of abuse is a significant step in rebuilding trust with the American people.
Real justice means enforcing the law fairly, consistently, and with the goal of public safety. And for the first time in four years, that’s finally happening.
Ken Blackwell is an adviser to the Family Research Council in Washington, DC. He is a former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio and U.S Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
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