ACLU Confirms the Left’s Goal of a More Dangerous, Borderless America  

December 1, 2022

By Brian Lonergan

One of the necessary skills of far-left politicians and activists in the information age is that they must hide their true intentions and agendas from the public at all times. Failure to do so would reveal their extremism and threaten their hold on power at the highest levels of government.

Even someone as detached from reality as Joe Biden knows this, and he has mastered that technique over his five-decade career in politics. That’s why you will never hear the Biden White House admit they intentionally caused a humanitarian disaster at the border to create a permanent underclass that will dutifully vote for their party. Instead, they will tell you they are acting out of a superior level of compassion while also strongly supporting law enforcement. Anyone who opposes their policies must be a xenophobic bigot who also clearly hates children.

Still, not everyone in the anti-borders lobby practices such message discipline. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the progressive movement’s fiercest attack dogs, committed a Freudian slip recently and revealed a little too much truth about the Left’s actual immigration game plan.

In its new report titled “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 20 Years On: A Blueprint for Civil Liberties Reform,” the ACLU painted its vision for the future of American immigration and law enforcement policy. It is disturbing to anyone who values a society with laws designed to make their communities safe and prosperous.

While it is certainly fair to debate some of DHS’s excesses, the ACLU attacks it for merely attempting to enforce the laws passed by the people’s representatives in Congress. Operation Endgame, started a year after the creation of DHS in 2002, is described in the report as—gasp!—“a plan to deport every deportable immigrant by 2012.” The obvious inference is that those deserving of deportation should instead remain here indefinitely.

The ACLU specifically targets Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency tasked with enforcing immigration law in the nation’s interior and apprehending those subject to deportation. Rather than acknowledging that ICE performs an important role in law enforcement, the ACLU portrays it as a government-backed terrorist group.

“Millions of people across the nation have lived in heightened fear of encountering ICE agents in their communities, knowing it could lead to deportation or the deportation of loved ones and the separation of families,” the report said.

Do we really want a society where people have no fear of breaking our laws? What would that look like if it were applied more broadly? Imagine the most lawless areas of cities like San Francisco and Chicago, only exponentially worse.

Most sanctuary cities prohibit cooperation with ICE. If there is a fear in the illegal alien community that talking to local police will get them deported, it was likely put there by the rhetoric of sanctuary mayors who peddle fear and encourage law-breaking to enhance their own political power.

One of the ACLU’s goals in its jihad against ICE is the elimination of the 287(g) program, where local law enforcement work with the agency to hold and then transfer custody of criminal aliens to ICE for deportation. The termination of 287(g) agreements by woke sheriffs has put far too many violent alien criminals back into communities, and crime rates often rise in jurisdictions that remove the agreements. Illegal aliens in America have far more to fear from sex offenders and gang members released by sanctuary policies than from working with police.

To make matters worse, the ACLU advocates for closing the majority of immigration detention centers, which would result in tens of thousands of aliens to be released into communities throughout the nation. Among that population are convicted criminals or those with open cases against them. How many people would be victims of violent crimes as a result of such a reckless action?

Throughout its website, the ACLU recites its mantra “No matter by whom, no matter where—if our rights come under attack, we are here and ready to fight back.” Apparently that refers to the rights of illegal aliens and not American citizens, who would be victimized by higher crime rates, overcrowding, lower wages and economic drain as a result of the ACLU’s radical immigration goals.

Credit the ACLU for at least being transparent about its agenda, but its agenda would be pure poison for America. The once-exalted, now hyper-partisan group should return to its roots of defending unpopular speech and stop swinging a wrecking ball at our communities.

Brian Lonergan is director of communications at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration. 

Also published at American Greatness, December 1, 2022.