We need to STOP illegal immigration, but are we just rounding up brown people?

Trump pledged to stop illegal immigration. The goal is to arrest 3,000 criminals a day. But, are we now trying to reach the goal by rounding up brown people?

Over the past 40 years, I’ve considered myself a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent, when I didn’t like any of the candidates all that much.

Basically, I voted for the 1980s… meaning Ronald Reagan, followed by Herbert Walker Bush, but by 1996, I cast my ballot, somewhat regrettably, for Clinton. Then, in 2000, I hesitatingly went for G.W. Bush and stayed with him until 2008, when I thought I’d vote for McCain, until Palin joined the ticket and I decided that they didn’t even deserve to come in second… at the last minute I went for Obama’s hope and change.

Obama was saddled with the financial meltdown and his responses to the foreclosure crisis left a whole lot to be desired. After that, the choice was Trump or Hillary… and here we are.

President Trump is about as polarizing a figure as I can imagine. People either love him or hate him and never the twain shall meet, as they say. Among other things, his campaign promised to rid the country of dangerous, illegal immigrants… but more generally, to stop illegal immigration into this country.

I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad goal to most Americans, although I’m not 100% sure about that in this moment. I don’t think most Americans want anything that’s illegal simply going on willy-nilly, and Trump’s high scores on the border as a polling issue would seem to support that idea.

The question is how to go about it, right?

So, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump’s deportation plans, according to Forbes Magazine on June 9, 2025:

“… Miller’s orders to federal agents to arrest more people without criminal convictions likely sparked the immigration arrests that ignited protests in Los Angeles. The arrests at Home Depot triggered the protests and the escalating response, including Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard.”

“Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?’” the (White House) official recited. (Emphasis added.)

I understand it. If you’re out looking for people here illegally, and you’re in Southern California, you are very likely to find some number of them standing around a given Home Depot, usually in the mornings on most days. I know because I lived in Southern California for 40 years and over those years I’ve hired quite a few of those guys for all sorts of manual and semi-skilled labor reasons.

I know what parking lots at Southern California’s Home Depots look like and I don’t see them as being a terribly productive place to find criminals here illegally. Criminals simply don’t work for the $10 an hour that the Home Depot guys might. Sure, you’ll find some of them are here illegally, but many will have “green cards,” or work permits showing that they are here legally… and ALL of them are simply trying to find work.

And, if we do want to deport everyone that’s here illegally, should those standing in a Home Depot parking lot looking for day-work really be ICE’s top priority? I only ask this because it seems that doing so has caused civil unrest and resistance that can only slow down ICE’s ability to do their jobs.

The Trump administration set a goal of deporting one million illegal immigrants during Trump’s first year in office.

That seemed aggressive at the time, as it’s roughly 3,000 a day, almost every single day. And, when you stop to consider that criminals, assuming we’re still focusing on them, are traditionally harder to locate certainly as compared with anyone hanging out in Home Depot’s parking lot with a sign that reads: Will work for $10 an hour.

The first 100 days…

During the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, ICE fell a bit short of their 3,000 a day goal, but they did arrest 660 a day for a total of 66,000… so I’d say they didn’t do that badly. It seems that ICE’s boss, Stephen Miller, however, was not at all pleased.

“We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day,” Mr. Miller said.

Tom Homan, one of the president’s top immigration officials, has repeatedly parroted that sentiment, saying simply that ICE needs to make more arrests. He didn’t say exactly who should be the priority, which seems weird because you can’t arrest everyone at once, right?

Thus far, the Trump administration has replaced the leadership at ICE three times, so obviously, it’s not an easy job.

Trump pauses ICE investigations for some industries…

It was inevitable that certain industries would be thrown into chaos as a result of the aggressive efforts to deport people. So, the Trump administration recently halted ICE investigations of the agricultural industry, including farmers and meatpackers, plus his restaurants and hotels, according to APNews.

(That was a joke. He didn’t single out his restaurants and hotels, he meant all of them.)

It’s all very confusing to me at this point. We’re going after criminals that are in this country illegally, dangerous individuals, murderers, rapists, child molesters… UNLESS they work in agriculture, meat packing, or for a restaurant or hotel? Those criminals are okay to stay? Shouldn’t that make me a little scared to stay in a hotel. Isn’t that where all the nasty criminals will now be safely working?

And, we all know that the people standing around Home Depot in Southern California aren’t hard-core criminals in any sense of the phrase, to think otherwise is absurd. But, it seems we now have an arbitrary QUOTA to meet: Arrest 3,000 people a day to be deported.

Considering that until now, since the best ICE has been able do is 660 a day, the 3,000 goal may just be improperly set and entirely unrealistic… impossible, in other words. And doesn’t the goal of deporting one million, seem like the sort of number that was chosen because it sounded better than a smaller number.

The sort of number that has no scratch paper behind it, if you know what I mean.

Unless the answer IS to simply round up brown people…

If the only criteria for arrest is brown skin or “criminal appearance,” don’t limit your efforts to Home Depot. I’m absolutely sure that you could pick up way more than 3,000 by having ICE officers in the Dodger Stadium parking lot after a game.

In fact, most of Southern California is positively overflowing with skins in all shades of brown and they congregate all over the place.

So, that’s all I’m questioning.

If the goal is to deport as many criminals as possible, it seems to me that we need a plan that doesn’t get derailed every few days by National Guards, Marines, state and federal courts, and countless protests. Because if those things are going to continue the way they’ve been going lately, there’s no way ICE will be able to maintain their 660 batting average, let alone increase it to 3,000.

Come on guys… we should all understand that simply because Stephen Miller says he wants 3,000 a day arrested, we can’t just make that number by randomly arresting brown people, deporting them without due process, right?

I said… RIGHT?

Mandelman out.