ROOKE: DHS Should Use Age-Old Parenting Tactic While Conducting Deportations


Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images

Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
May 04, 2026 2:41 PM ET

Public opinion polls consistently show overwhelming support for deporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. This is one of the most popular aspects of immigration enforcement.

Seventy-five percent of registered voters support deporting criminal illegal immigrants, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll released in April. This support was bipartisan, with 73 percent of Independents and 63 percent of Democrats approving of these deportations. Additionally, the survey found that 55 percent of respondents favored “deporting all immigrants who are here illegally.”

Lomez
@L0m3z
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Dems who now want to moderate on culture war issues still refuse to acknowledge how popular immigration enforcement is. Deporting criminals is a 75/25 issue with >60% approval among Dems. Deportations of all illegals remains >50% issue.

Immigration is still a huge winner.

Matthew Yglesias
@mattyglesias

Replying to @mattyglesias

The best available evidence that I am familiar with says that in pure electoral terms the most potent things for Democrats to moderate on are affirmative action, teacher pay, gender/kids stuff, fossil fuels, and harsher punishment for property crime.

https://nytimes.com/2026/03/16/opini...-moderate.html

11:27 AM · May 3, 2026

So why then did the Trump administration soften its public stance on deportations? Well, of course (and this was essentially confirmed by new U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin), the decision to tamper with the administration’s deportation efforts was a reaction to the bad press from the enforcement efforts in Minnesota. Still, the numbers don’t align with the move, and it’s not going to stop the radical left from assaulting immigration officers, like what happened Saturday in New York City.

The DHS announced Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted an operation to arrest a criminal illegal immigrant from Nigeria with a violent rap sheet. Wilson Okeke has previous arrests for assault and criminal drug possession, according to DHS.

Homeland Security
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Last night, @ICEgovconducted a targeted enforcement operation in Brooklyn that resulted in the arrest of Chidozie Wilson Okeke, a criminal illegal alien from Nigeria with previous arrests for ASSAULT AND CRIMINAL DRUG POSSESSION.

During his arrest, Okeke refused to comply with

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TMZ
@TMZ

ICE agents dragged a man out of a hospital in New York City Saturday night ... all while chaos broke out in the streets outside due to a mob of livid protesters.

http://FreedomNews.TV



https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/20510...ilson-okeke%2F

8:06 PM · May 3, 2026

Okeke reportedly refused to comply with ICE officers and allegedly punched and elbowed the agents during the arrest. Once he was subdued, Okeke requested medical assistance, which ICE complied with, taking him to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He continued to resist officers during his medical evaluation, but eventually was cleared by the hospital.

However, while Okeke was being evaluated inside, DHS said: “A significant crowd of anti-ICE agitators gathered at the hospital and became violent.”

“The protestors damaged several ICE vehicles and assaulted ICE officers, resulting in minor injuries to the officers. Assaulting law enforcement is a felony and crime,” DHS stated. “Officers from the New York Police Department responded to the scene and arrested several rioters.”

The arrest was hardly quiet, despite Mullins promising in his Senate confirmation hearing (and almost every media hit since) that ICE won’t be the lead news story every single day. The videos of left-wing rioters attacking ICE after Okeke’s arrest even made their way to TMZ.



Every parent worth their salt could have told DHS that this would be the unavoidable outcome. Once you give in to the whims of chaos, it will always control you.

When a toddler threatens to scream and cry while out to dinner, it’s easier to throw a phone or tablet at them to stop the chaos. However, all you are teaching them is that they’ll get their way if they make a big enough scene. Now, every time you are out in public, and they don’t get what they want, they will resort to the behavior that gets them the reward. Children need structure and clearly defined rules. If you allow them to be disruptive, you’ve relinquished your control and ability to take care of the family.

This is as true in parenting as it is in governing.

The moment the Trump administration told radicals that it would be rewarding their violent behavior by retreating from Minnesota and demoting former U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, the left won. The lesson became that if they are violent and chaotic enough the Trump administration will capitulate.

Mass deportations, or just deporting violent criminals, fly in the face of the left’s immigration policies.

They cannot afford to lose control of this lever of power and will lash out like a toddler who was told “no” at every opportunity. They are organized and well-funded. They coordinate and stalk ICE agents preparing to mobilize anywhere in the country. Believing in the idea that the Trump administration would be able to conduct quiet, story-free arrests is, at best, naive and, at worst, incompetent.

Republicans still have a hard time understanding that they actually have to govern when voters give them control. And sometimes governing requires doing the hard things regardless of what the media says. The American people aren’t a fan of the media stories, that much is true.

However, they are even less a fan of their 6th-grade daughters being lured to an underpass, sexually assaulted, tied up, strangled, and their bodies dumped in a shallow creek under a bridge. They want to be able to let their children ride their bikes on neighborhood sidewalks without a drunk Guatemalan veering off the road, killing them. Americans are screaming for this to end, which is reflected in the polling.

The U.S. is collapsing domestically. It’s expensive to live. The roads are crumbling. The American Dream is pushing farther and farther away for every generation. The school systems are abysmal.

Corporations control our healthcare, food, and financial security. Our communities are changing overnight because illegal and legal immigrants are gaining access without our permission.
While there is no one-size-fits-all fix for everything that ails us, ridding our country of violent, criminal, illegal immigrants is the perfect way to start.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/05/04/r...-wilson-okeke/