Every nation on earth has borders. Every serious country enforces them, and every functioning society depends on respect for the men and women tasked with upholding its laws.
Yet in today’s America, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are treated as villains for doing precisely what Congress and the American people have empowered them to do. They wear the badge. They follow court orders. They enforce federal law. And for that, they are harassed, demonized, and in some cities even hunted.
This is madness. There is no serious disagreement in this country about legal immigration. Americans are among the most welcoming people on earth. We believe in opportunity. We believe in merit. We believe in lawful pathways for those who want to build a better life here. Immigrants have built this nation and continue to strengthen it.
What should be equally clear is that illegal immigration is not a virtue. It is a violation of the law. And no society can survive if its laws are optional.
You cannot have a nation where crossing the border illegally is excused, while the officers enforcing the law are condemned. You cannot preach “no one is above the law” while insisting that immigration law does not count. That double standard erodes the very concept of justice.
ICE agents are not politicians. They do not write the statutes. They do not set quotas. They do not craft asylum policy. They execute the law passed by Congress and signed by presidents of both parties. When they arrest someone with a final deportation order, they are not acting on ideology. They are carrying out a court’s decision.
Attacking them for that is like blaming a police officer for enforcing a warrant or a marshal for serving a subpoena. It is not activism. It is an assault on the rule of law.
The rhetoric coming from activist groups and political leaders has real consequences. When ICE is labeled “terrorists,” when enforcement is framed as “violence,” when mobs are encouraged to “shut down” operations, it creates an environment where federal officers become targets. That is not dissent. That is incitement.
And it does nothing to fix the broken system.
America does need immigration reform. We need faster legal pathways. We need a system that works for workers, families, and employers. We need clarity, efficiency, and humanity. But reform cannot be built on the premise that laws should be ignored in the meantime.
No country reforms its borders by surrendering them. There is a moral distinction between compassion and chaos. Compassion says we should treat every person with dignity. Chaos says no one has to follow the rules. The first strengthens a nation. The second dissolves it.
Legal immigrants play by the rules. They wait. They file paperwork. They pay fees. They learn the language. They take the oath. They do everything we ask of them. What message do we send when we reward those who bypass the process and punish those who enforce it?
That is not fairness. That is institutionalized disrespect for both law and citizenship.
Supporting ICE does not mean opposing immigration. It means believing that sovereignty matters. It means understanding that borders define a nation’s responsibilities and its rights. It means affirming that enforcement and reform are not enemies. They are partners.
We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can welcome newcomers and enforce our laws. We can build a better system without tearing down the people who keep the current one functioning.
Respect for federal law enforcement is not a partisan position. It is a civic one.
If America is to remain a nation of laws and not merely a place on a map, we must say this clearly and without apology:
Legal immigration deserves universal support. Illegal immigration deserves universal condemnation. And the men and women of ICE deserve our respect, not our scorn.
A country that cannot defend its borders cannot defend anything else.
Gabriel Boxer is the CEO of Guru Marketing and a former candidate for New York State Senate.