Issue: Immigration

President Trump said yesterday in an interview in Iowa that the federal government will “deescalate a little bit”:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning touted the arrival of his border czar, Tom Homan, on a mission to Minneapolis — as he took personal charge of dealing with the backlash following the second fatal shooting of an American citizen by federal agents in the city.

Then, later Tuesday, he said, “we’re going to deescalate a little bit.”

It is hoped by the administration that Homan’s arrival will led to a reset. Rafael Manual of City Journal says all sides need to turn down the heat and spots a few encouraging signs. An early promising sign is that local and state police are actually arresting protesters who break the law. The latest tweet from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says “we will not participate in unconstitutional arrests of our neighbors or enforce federal immigration law.” That’s okay, Jake. We only want police departments to participate in legal arrests, which under the sanctuary fantasy law they weren’t allowed to do. Of course, unilateral de-escalation won’t work.  

Meanwhile, DHS’s preliminary investigations of the fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretti (here) do not say that Pretti “brandished” his gun, as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. Pretti was shot by two federal agents. A riot outside a hotel where Gregory Bovino was falsely believed to be staying backfired after the rap sheets of illegals the feds were attempting to detain were revealed.

Following in the footsteps of John C. Calhoun: “Let’s Face It—This Is Nullification,” argues National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke of the Minnesota situation. Rich Lowry of National Review also charges nullification. Although neither cites John C. Calhoun, the justifier of slavery and architect of nullification. Hayden Daniel alarmingly suggests at The Federalist that President Trump “has failed his nullification crisis,” and other states will follow Minnesota. Real Clear Politics honcho Tom Bevan and other RCPers debate whether compromise on immigration is even possible. If you consider that the United States must split to resolve the present mess, think again.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley says President Trump should “quit while he’s ahead” on immigration. Riley appears to be a proponent of deportation only for those illegals with criminal records:

It’s also unnecessary, if the goal is to reduce the number of illegal immigrants. By securing the border, Mr. Trump has taken a significant step toward limiting the growth of the illegal population. Over time, it could shrink naturally as the migrants age and pass on with the rest of us. The wiser course for Mr. Trump is to quit while he’s ahead.

Over time, the presence of many illegals living in the U.S. might instead inspire others to come here illegally. The go-to position for politicians who want to play it safe on immigration is to call for “comprehensive immigration reform.” Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York spots the pitfalls:

A third lesson is that when considering a “path to legal status” for “long-term illegal immigrants without criminal records,” Congress will create a set of definitions —”long-term,” and “without criminal records” and “work requirements” can be very, very flexible phrases — that ends up including virtually everybody. 

Even the term “criminal record” is vague, York explains.

“The Unraveling of Tim Walz,” by Emily Jashinsky, at Unherd, suggests that Tim was never going to be able to rise to challenging occasions.

Does They Know Something We Don’t Know? Ms. Must was interested to learn from the promo that Sean Hannity’s show last night would address Iran. Hannity is very close to President Trump, and so … well, just wondering. On the show, Senator Lindsey Graham, another close Trump ally, told Iranian protestors, “help will be on the way. … I’m not gonna say any more.”

“There’s Only One ‘Renewal Democrat’” is the headline of Matthew Continetti’s Wall Street Journal column. “Rahm Emanuel wants his party to stop focusing on ‘resistance’ to Trump. So far he’s getting few takers,” Continetti argues. A snippet:

Yet if there is a renewal wing in the Democratic Party, Mr. Emanuel is its sole inhabitant. He calls for education reform, a social media ban for kids under 16, and even a mandatory retirement age of 75 for federal officials. (If adopted and applied to the presidency, the 66-year-old Mr. Emanuel could serve only one term.) Rather than echo activist demands to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he wants to “end ICE as you know it and you see it today.” Asked if a man can become a woman, Mr. Emanuel said no. Cue the online outrage. …

A paradox emerges: An unpopular, leaderless and extreme Democratic Party is nevertheless politically ascendant. Democrats have low favorability and low party identification. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, the public trusts Republicans over Democrats on e very issue but healthcare, vaccines and looking out for the middle class. Yet Democrats won all 13 nonfederal statewide elections last year. They lead on the congressional generic ballot. They are favored to take the House, and if all goes their way, they could capture the Senate as well.

Preaching renewal in these circumstances is like trying to shout over an air horn.

There is one electoral bright spot for the GOP. President Trump’s favorability is surging among Hispanics, which could dramatically affect the outcome of the midterms. Former World Bank President David Malpass writes that President Trump’s “good question” about interest rates at Davos deserves an answer. The Federal Reserve’s anti-growth assumptions undercut the dollar and hinder affordability, according to Malpass.

Okay, Ms. Must is getting ready to go on a City Journal binge.

Shawn Regan explains in City Journal, “Why Los Angeles Quietly Stopped Repaving Its Streets.” The cause is that federal disability rules have turned routine maintenance into a legal liability. Regan concludes:

If policymakers want more accessible cities, they need rules that reward progress rather than punish imperfect compliance and that make fixing a street less legally risky than ignoring it. Absent that shift, Los Angeles offers a cautionary lesson. When routine upkeep becomes a legal minefield, cities do what any rational actor would do: they stop moving forward—and let the streets crumble beneath them.

Don’t Forget It Is National School Choice Week: “Universal School Choice Works” is the headline on a piece by Nicole Stelle Garnet, who argues that schools around the country are proving this. “In Defense of Inherited Wealth” is an intriguing City Journal article by Matias Ahrensdorf, who says that a fundamental concept of our society is under attack. Taxation is one way to curtail inherited wealth. Ahrensdorf writes:

This cultural and political opposition to inheritance may be increasingly popular, but it is poisonous. Inheritance is how societies compound the achievements of past generations, preserving productive enterprises and building wealth over time. Anti-legacy sentiment risks undermining entrepreneurship, institutional continuity, and the mechanisms historically associated with long-term prosperity. …

At the broader, societal level, inherited wealth, coupled with a sense of duty, creates a civilization’s infrastructure. The wealth that built universities, hospitals, and charities did not appear out of thin air. It was created and passed down by those who believed their obligations extended beyond their lifetimes.

I’m just scraping acquaintance with Pirate Wires, but based on its witty vignettes from Davos, I’ll be on the alert for it from now on:

Trump’s presence elicited a giant “No Kings” sign on a Davos mountaintop (ignore the fact that dozens of countries with actual kings were represented at the forum…)

In summary, when the dust was settled and the Barbie-inspired insults had been exchanged, we learned that Davos remains what it has always been: a prostitute-filled ski resort where the world’s self-appointed managers gather to scold the masses.

Can’t keep away from Minneapolis: We regret that Rep. Ilhan Omar was hit with an unknown spray at a political gathering, and are glad that a suspect is in custody. He is en route to the guillotine—just kidding. We aren’t doing that. Yet.

When Border Czar-against-her-will Kamala Harris issued a half-hearted “don’t come” to illegal immigrants, everybody knew she didn’t mean it. But Kristi Noem is throwing down the gauntlet to potential aliens she thinks might harm the U.S., and you’d better believe she’s not kidding:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem proposed a “full travel ban” Monday on unnamed countries “flooding” the US with dangerous migrants, after a meeting with President Trump.

“I just met with the President,” Noem wrote on X. “I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.

“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom — not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS,” the DHS chief continued. “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”

President Trump must have been pleased by more than Noem’s flattering use of ALL CAPS. He is cracking down on forms of immigration that he believes are iffy:

The sweeping crackdown President Trump declared last week after an Afghan national was accused of shooting two National Guard members is poised to radically curtail immigrants from legally entering and living in the United States, putting up roadblocks unparalleled in recent history.

Within a matter of days, the administration rolled out a series of far-reaching policy changes: pausing all asylum decisions for migrants currently in the United States; reviewing the green cards that allow people from 19 countries, mostly from the Middle East or Africa, to live and work permanently in the United States; reassessing the asylum approvals issued during the Biden administration; indefinitely halting immigration applications filed by Afghan nationals; and barring Afghans from entering the country.

Wild Bunch: The New York Post has an exclusive on the 7,000 illegal aliens with criminal records who were released by the state of New York since President Trump began his second term:

The rap sheets behind the rogue’s gallery include 29 homicides, thousands of assaults and hundreds of burglaries, robberies, drug offenses, weapons offenses and sexual predatory offenses, the Department of Homeland Security revealed Monday.

All of them were protected by state and local sanctuary laws that dramatically restrict how local authorities can communicate with ICE, DHS says. 

Don’t miss the chilling mini profiles of the lucky illegals who are now free to roam the streets. One thing I’ve noticed in sob stories about immigration is that vital details are omitted or appear deliberately confusing. For example, a story about a college student who was deported when she attempted to go back to Honduras to see her family told us she had been in the U.S. since she was eight. What we do not learn is whether she was here legally. But the battle is really between those who are glad that our borders were open and hope it will be too much trouble to send people back, and those who believe that the citizenry has a right to determine immigration policy.

Republicans are sweating a Tennessee congressional race between a West Point graduate and combat veteran (the Republican) and Democrat Aftyn Behn, a former Soros organizer who made no secret of her disdain for Nashville and country music. Glenn Reynolds writes that Aftyn Behn might win:

That makes the race a “canary in the coal mine” for our national politics, says columnist Mark Pulliam.

It shouldn’t be. 

The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn writes about what it would mean if this “AOC of Tennessee” were to win tonight and explores some of her “kookier” ideas. But socialists seem all the rage. I remember that after Zohran Mamdani won the mayor’s race in New York, The Five’s Dana Perino said that there will “soon be a socialist coming to a city near you.” I guess I should not be surprised that socialist D.C. City Council member Janeese Lewis George has thrown her hat in the ring to succeed Mayor Muriel Bowser, who will not seek reelection. The Hill reports:

During her 2020 election against Todd, Lewis George received pushback for previous comments she made in which she supported the idea of defunding law enforcement — an issue that was in the headlines after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white cop in Minneapolis.  

She was given an opportunity to clarify this:

“It wasn’t that we were against police officers, it was Black people saying we don’t want to be murdered,” George told the newspaper. “The notion that we’re just saying we don’t want to be killed and we want to trust our officers does not mean we don’t respect and love our officers and support them.”

Ms. Lewis George is also running on “affordability,” which—what a coincidence—economist Stephen Moore also addressed today with an incisive Townhall column headlined “If Young People Want More Affordability, They Should Get Jobs.” Is socialism confined to one political party? Don’t miss Katherine Mangu-Ward’s “To the Socialists of All Parties” in Reason.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is “facing intensifying scrutiny” “amid talk of war crimes” in the words of the (delighted) New York Times. “Why is Hegseth being attacked for defending Americans?” asks USA TODAY’s conservative-leaning columnist Nicole Russell. “I support the investigation into Pete Hegseth’s orders, but I trust they were lawful,” Russell writes. In an editorial headlined “Shooting the Wounded on Drug Boats?” Wall Street Journal editors say that Congress is correct in seeking the truth about Secretary Hegseth’s alleged Hegseth missile order:

The Pentagon is certainly full of people who might leak a derogatory story because they’d like to see Mr. Hegseth fired. The U.S. campaign against drug boats has also riled civil libertarians and progressives who want to constrain the President’s ability to conduct military action.

But the charge of deliberately killing the defenseless is serious enough to warrant a close look from Congress. That includes Mr. Hegseth giving an account under oath. The Administration so far seems to think it can ride out the story with ritual denunciations of the media.

If Mr. Hegseth is right, then the factual record will support him.

Also in the Wall Street Journal, Matthew Hennessey invoked Secretary Hegseth’s name in writing about President Trump’s nonpareil ability to defy the “Democrat-media cartel”:

Conservatives have known for decades who pays the piper. Democrats call the tune and the media plays it. The choir is singing a new song now. It’s called “Pete Hegseth Will Be Tried at the Hague.” It’s a tricky little ditty that likely required some rehearsal.

Last week, seemingly out of nowhere, a bunch of Democratic officeholders with military or intelligence experience made a video warning members of the military not to follow what they called “unlawful orders.” This was a discussion that no one was having before the video was released. Then, serendipity be blessed, the Washington Post published a scoopy story over the weekend all but accusing Mr. Hegseth of issuing illegal orders to kill helpless, probably surrendering drug runners hanging off the sides of burning boats in the Caribbean.

That isn’t journalism. It’s tee-ball. 

Mr. Heartbeat Away: “The Rapidly Imploding Tim Walz” is the headline on a Powerline post by John Hinderaker. Minnesota Governor Walz is imploding because of a massive fraud scheme, centered on Minnesota’s politically relevant Somali community, that unfolded under Walz’s nose. Fox News columnist Liz Peek chortles:

The massive Somali-orchestrated welfare fraud in Minnesota grew so big, even The New York Times had to cover it.

Sports News: Spiked Online has a recommended interview with Olympic athlete, author, and advocate for women’s sports Sharron Davies, headlined “Why Men in Women’s Sports is the Doping of Our Time.” Davies is pleased with certain changes made by the IOC, but believes that they might not have happened if the games were not being played in Los Angeles, and President Trump’s policies are clear. Running out of room, so I’m reduced to telling you to see what intriguing thing Davies had to say in the aftermath of Lia Thomas.