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Mass Immigration: Gaslighting the Public
In her first monthly column, Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell, President of Counterpoint Institute, examines how mass immigration and elite manipulation undermine national sovereignty—and how President Trump’s border policies offer a decisive alternative.
It’s not the “Summer of Love” in the U.S.A.
Angry, screaming “anti-ICE” (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) rioters in Los Angeles destroy and loot private businesses; they hurl rocks, bottles, and cinder blocks at police; they set highway patrol cars on fire; they smash police department windows and burn the American flag while waving the Mexican flag; they shut down traffic on major highways.
LA Police Chief Jim McDonald warns that police are “overwhelmed” with thousands of often violent protestors, saying “there is no limit to what they are doing to our officers.” In San Francisco similar “violent and destructive behavior” injured at least two.
Manipulating Minds: How the Left Distorts Reality on Immigration
But California far-Left politicians Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass insist protests are “largely quiet and … calm.” Global mainstream media calls the riots “mostly peaceful gatherings.” Gaslighting –telling people that what they see isn’t real –is a common Marxist technique used by both American and European Leftist elite. It is also directly opposed to what U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance described in Munich as the shared European-American principles of citizen-led, law-based, democratic societies.
Instead, U.S. President Donald Trump is blamed for generating “chaos” by using presidential authority (under Title 10, U.S. Code) to deploy the National Guard and Marine Corps to protect California, when Governor Newsom would not. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in late June that Trump’s deployment of troops (without notifying Governor Newsom) was lawful.
So, what is the truth?
For four years, former President Joe Biden strategically destroyed the physical and legal borders of the United States, encouraging around 20 million aliens to enter the U.S. illegally –most of whom are unvetted and in locations unknown— constituting the largest human and sex trafficking scheme in history. At the same time, drugs flowed across U.S. borders in record numbers and fentanyl-related deaths became the number one killer of Americans ages 18 to 45.
Border Security Is Possible: The Truth Behind Trump’s Success
But in his first 100 days, President Trump reduced illegal border crossings nationwide by 93% (something Biden swore could not be done). U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) “encounters” with illegal crossings fell dramatically – from almost 250,000 per month in April 2024 to only 29,000 in April 2025.
How could President Trump do this? By using presidential authority given to him under the Immigration and Nationality Act and the U.S. Constitution (Article II), something Biden had firmly refused to do. President Trump’s promise to secure U.S. borders and deport illegal aliens was a major campaign issue, one which over 77 million Americans elected him to do. Hispanic Americans also favor border security—42% support building physical structures like a border wall or fence along the U.S. southern border (a 12 point increase from December 2021), 38% support sending all illegal immigrants back to their country of origin (a 10 point increase), and 64% support the president’s authority to shut U.S. borders against mass immigration.
Contrary to popular Leftist narratives, securing the borders of a sovereign nation is possible: As soon as taking office, Trump increased physical infrastructure (like restarting construction on the border wall), reinstated border security policies (like “Remain in Mexico”), shut down Biden’s underhanded policies that increased illegal or inadmissible aliens (like the CBP One™ App and taxpayer-funded benefits), and simply allowed federal agents to do their jobs by ending “Catch and Release.” Biden’s “Catch and Release” policy obligated U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to release into the U.S. the vast majority of illegal or “inadmissible” aliens (with no legal documents or authority to enter).
The Hidden Dangers of Open Borders: Crime, Terrorism, and Foreign Threats
One critical fact rarely discussed by media: Under Biden, potential saboteurs, spies, terrorists, and criminals flooded the U.S. in record numbers. Biden failed to protect U.S. citizens, like murdered nursing student Laken Riley, and gave foreign adversaries an open door to the United States.
And now, the Trump administration is fighting back.
In Trump’s first 100 days ICE arrested over 66,000 illegal immigrants and deported the vast majority. Three out of four arrests (75%) were criminals, including violent gang members and those convicted or charged with sex offense, murder, and assault.
Today, Americans are safer, but these are the people that Newsom, Bass, and anti-ICE rioters want to protect.
Under Joe Biden, ICE reported the release of over 647,000 illegal aliens with criminal histories into the U.S. –including homicide, assault, sexual assault and burglary. During Biden’s first three years (2020-2023) total violent crime in the U.S. increased by 41%, “by far the largest percentage increase over any three-year period on record, more than doubling the previous record.” The surge in violent crime happened at the same time a massive flood of illegal aliens entered the U.S. in numbers approximately the size of the state of Florida.
Are all immigrants a threat? Of course not, but sovereign nations have legal, safe, and sane immigration processes to keep criminals and lawlessness out. It is the duty of elected leaders to use them: under the first Trump administration, which also had stringent border security policies, violent crime decreased by 17%.
Arresting and deporting “the worst first” – the most dangerous criminal aliens – is the focus of ICE under the Trump administration. And there are hundreds of thousands of “the worst,” including terrorism-linked “Special Interest Aliens” (SIAs). These have traveling patterns connected to countries related to terrorism –where terrorism has occurred or where the state sponsors terrorism. Examples are Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and the Muslim-majority former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
SIAs may also have specific security information regarding them as a potential threat, like those on the U.S. terror watchlist. Under Biden, illegal aliens on the terror watchlist increased by roughly 2,700%. And these are only the ones USBP knows about.
Another potential threat: approximately 200,000 illegal Chinese nationals entered the U.S. under Biden, noted by former Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) officials to be a “new and imminent” danger. The vast majority are widely reported by eyewitnesses to be military-aged males. Concerning, considering that China’s “whole of government campaign” against the U.S. includes causing “real world harm” by targeting American citizens and communities.
The Sovereignty Revival: Citizens Across the West Say Enough
The truth is simple: mass, unchecked immigration makes it easier for foreign adversaries and terrorist organizations to send operatives into target countries. Without President Trump’s decisive actions, America could head down the path of Europe where terrorist attacks doubled to 67 attacks last year, including by the Islamic State and Hamas, killing 25 people.
According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), an increase of terrorist attacks in the West were most remarkable in Europe, especially in Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany. Germany is Europe’s worst ranked nation at 27/100 on the index. Germany earned the strongest “deterioration in score” of the past 10 years – since Chancellor Angela Merkle’s words “Wir schaffen das” (We can do it) signalled that the doors of Europe were open. Ten of Europe’s 2024 terror-related deaths occurred in Germany.
Moreover the violence and chaos of France’s banlieues, and the relinquishment of state sovereignty to ‘no-go zones’ in Germany and Sweden (where police are afraid to enter) and to Islamic Sharia councils in the UK, question the legitimacy of European rule of law.
Food for thought: Hungary, who continues to refuse the European Union’s mass immigration mandates, ranks a perfect GTI score of 100.
The destruction by mass unchecked immigration is evident. Yet, Leftist leaders continue to push “open borders” beyond the bounds of common sense, serving misguided demographic ideologies instead of their own citizens, twisting law to their own political advantage, demanding that citizens serve the will of the government, and not the other way around.
But evidence shows the ultimate strength of voters (on both sides of the Atlantic) who embrace shared historical and political roots of rule of law and a government “by the people, for the people.” Consider how the tide is changing: Trump’s landslide election in November 2024, the June 2025 election of Polish president Karol Nawrocki, the significant increase in support for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Fidesz’s longtime conservative majority in Hungary, and the list goes on.
Citizens are demanding secure borders and that their voices be heard. Ultimately, for the gaslighting liberal Left, it will be their political demise.
