But what is to be done by this tag team? My suggestion is immediately move to imitate what Jumpin' Joe did, but on a miniature scale—a Mini Operation Wetback. Target the mostly blue counties that line the U.S. border with Mexico. The border counties are notorious as Democrat strongholds. A low key but vigorous crackdown in those areas will set the tone for a more widespread crackdown on illegal immigration.
The strategy would to be first remove, as Jumpin' Joe did the recalcitrant DHS officials along the border who are unenthusiastic about immigration law enforcement. This would mean replacing most of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agents-in-Charge (SAC) along the border and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Field Office Directors (FOD) and District Directors (DD). HSI SACs are notorious for their dislike for immigration enforcement, much like HSI's Kevin Abar, who never met an illegal alien he didn’t like.
I have also confirmed that HSI does not plan to cooperate with any increase in deportations through sources on the Southwest Border. Also set for removal should be Mark Morgan, current head of the Border Patrol, who opposes immigration enforcement and the Wall.
USCIS FODs and DDs, long opposed to immigration enforcement, will also do their best to sabotage any enforcement action by ignoring instructions to investigate fraud in benefits applications.
Kelly and Kobach will potentially also have problems with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Port Directors at the land border points of entry for aliens seeking admission. Those Port Directors have long ignored the problem in border counties with Mexican citizens using Border Crossing Cards, a visitor's visa (not a work visa) for Mexicans who live near the border, to daily enter the United States to work here illegally. Port Directors have long been under instructions from Washington to not bother the border crossers who provide cheap and readily available labor to agriculture and the service industry.
A strategy for the border counties would then include deploying U.S. Border Patrol Agents to the area of worksite enforcement, long abandoned by HSI, to target agriculture and the service industry in the border counties. HSI, despite having abandoned worksite enforcement, will scream like a stuck pig.
Those SACs that do complain should be immediately replaced with more enthusiastic managers, perhaps managers from HSI's main rival for budget, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) or the Border Patrol. Remove just a few SACs and the others will learn their lesson. Decimation is a powerful learning tool, as the noble Romans learned.
Port Directors will be less reluctant, they will just want to be certain there is political backing for their actions, as the employers of illegals, mostly rich Democrats on the border, will also squeal like stuck pigs. Kelly and Kobach will need steel and resolve to resist those complaints.
Trump could also order the Department of Health and Human Services to cooperate with identifying illegal aliens and their families on welfare in border counties. These actions combined with instructions to the Border Patrol to emphasis interior enforcement within the border cities like El Paso, Brownsville, and McAllen will have the same psychological effect as did the first Operation Wetback.
But, of course, we don't want a panic about racism to ruin this work, so they should keep this low key, no special name for the operation, just get the word out to DHS managers in all the components that they will be held accountable and need to get to work.
Furthermore, in combination with the Department of Justice (DOJ), California could be targeted; first, demand back hundreds of millions of dollars from the State, counties, and cities in violation of the Federal law that requires States and political subdivisions to comply with immigration detainers or surrender certain Federal funding, including return retroactively of past funds received. Next, target California politicos and bureaucrats that have been aiding illegal aliens to remain in the United States.
President Trump also has a de facto mandatory E-Verify system at his disposal. While E-Verify is voluntary, paying taxes and using Social Security Numbers (SSN) for all employees is not voluntary. The Social Security Administration (SSA) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) together track all employment in the United States unless it is completely under the table and paid in cash.
Most employers of illegal aliens require those illegals to provide a name, date of birth, and SSN as almost no one pays in cash anymore. All use payroll administration systems, such as Automatic Data Processing (ADP), to process and pay, usually by direct deposit, their employees, legal or illegal. President Donald John Trump could order the SSA and IRS to provide real time information about fraudulent or multiple use SSNs in border counties and California. Those individuals, their places of work, and home addresses are readily available for use by DHS components for targeting. See George Will Wrong To Think DHS Would Need A “Network Of Informers” Deport Illegals–Their Addresses Are On The Government Checks!
The panic among illegal aliens would be real and the self-deportation process will begin and soon result in millions of illegal aliens fleeing even limited enforcement.
Kelly and Kobach have an opportunity—Action This Day!
