Say what you want about the excesses that have accompanied President Trump’s immigration crackdown, the core policy of shutting down illegal border crossings and rooting out criminal elements from the nation’s prisons and jails has been remarkably effective in reversing the Biden administration’s toothless enforcement policies during his four feckless years in office. Biden allowed anywhere between 6 and 11 million new illegal immigrants to enter the United States during his tenure, a policy that constituted either incompetence or something more sinister: an attempt to placate pro-amnesty forces inside his party, in theory to woo back disaffected Hispanic voters. Either way, it was a miserable failure. Inflation was bad, but not bad enough to doom the Democrats in 2024. For the first time in generations, immigration was the “wedge” issue that swung a presidential election; even Hispanics defected to the GOP in truly record numbers. Trump has let immigration policy swing too far right, placating the MAGA movement’s desire for a mass deportation program. But make no mistake, the bipartisan consensus on deporting “bad hombres” will endure.