Memo to Trump: Stop negotiating and ramp up deportations

The America First movement and its realignment of the Republican Party around common-sense governance hangs in the balance. The organized left — politicians, media, and militia-style street actors — has now gone public with an alliance with lukewarm, establishment Republicans, especially in the U.S. Senate.

Their goal is obvious: Preserve the gains of mass illegal and legal immigration by shutting down deportations at any meaningful scale.

This coordinated campaign has now expanded into a political operation designed to force Donald Trump and his team into a public humiliation ritual.

The left wants that outcome because its political future depends on it. Establishment Republicans want it to protect their corporate donors’ access to cheap labor and, to some extent, to keep their standing with the New York Times cocktail-party set and similar elite networks.

To advance those aims, this alliance has seized on the shooting of Alex Pretti by United States Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis. Reports describe Pretti as part of an online group involved in doxxing, harassment, and physical obstruction of immigration enforcement operations. Officers shot him after he interfered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations while armed and carrying two extra 21-round extended magazines.

News reports also indicate Pretti physically engaged federal law enforcement in a separate incident a week before his fatal encounter. If those reports hold — the FBI is investigating — they reinforce the threat posed by anti-ICE activists willing to escalate from propaganda to physical obstruction and violence.

The left’s framing collapses under the publicly available evidence. Our team of seasoned, independent law enforcement experts at the Oversight Project released an analysis clearing Border Patrol in the shooting based on that record. We expect the announced federal investigation to reach the same conclusion and to focus on the illegal conduct that led to Pretti’s death.

Our team also uncovered Signal chat messages that shed light on the riots in Minneapolis and appear to include Pretti.

First, those chats bolster federal warnings that violence against immigration enforcement has taken on the characteristics of domestic terrorism. One agitator urged fellow rioters to don “suicide vests.” That language speaks for itself.

Second, we located what may be Pretti’s final Signal messages. They show an active participant in a militarized, organized group engaged in unlawful activity, including doxxing and obstruction. That record shreds the propaganda portraying Pretti as a peaceful observer rather than someone who joined a broader effort to disrupt federal law enforcement and died as a result.

This coordinated campaign has now expanded into a political operation designed to force Donald Trump and his team into a public humiliation ritual.

At first, the president offered token separation from the actions of his own officials — either as a cautious gesture or a fig leaf meant to highlight the opposition’s radicalism. He pulled back some federal presence in Minneapolis, and some reports indicate officials were told to narrow operations temporarily to a limited subset of illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes in addition to immigration violations.

Establishment Republicans have moved in parallel. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) has launched a major amnesty push, announced — predictably — in the New York Times. Senate Democrats caused a partial government shutdown over ICE funding and say they won’t relent unless Republicans accept permanent de facto amnesty by crippling enforcement. They want new barriers, including judicial warrants for each operation, even for millions who have already exhausted years of due process they did not deserve in the first place.

That plan relies on narrative, not facts.

ICE received a considerable funding boost in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The funding bill headed for passage this week funds the rest of the DHS, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responding to a major storm affecting large swaths of the country. Democrats and some Senate Republicans won’t let facts interfere with a useful storyline, and the corporate left-wing media will amplify it.

RELATED: The left is at war in Minnesota. America is watching football.

Blaze Media Illustration

The squeeze continues. They want Trump trapped in a corner. Under pressure in the streets and in the press — and on Capitol Hill — Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to negotiate some sort of settlement with local and state authorities.

The response came fast. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and Gov. Tim Walz (D) made clear they would not change anything material about how their governments shield illegal aliens. They won’t even allow ICE into jails to pick up criminal illegal aliens. They understand their leverage against this White House: friendly media and weak Republicans. They plan to keep playing that hand instead of bargaining with Homan.

That leaves one prudent course for the president: Deport more illegal aliens.

The country decided this question through law when it barred illegal entry and unlawful presence in the first place. Voters decided it again in 2024 when Trump campaigned on the largest deportation operation in American history. That mandate matters more than any cable-news frenzy.

This fight won’t stay confined to Minneapolis. It forms part of a coordinated attempt by people who never supported Trump to cut his knees out from under him — through intimidation, propaganda, and political sabotage. He should treat them as adversaries, not good-faith partners. He can break out of this trap by enforcing the mandate.