I have been looking at all of the great things that President Trump and this administration have done for this country. I hear repeatedly that he is the best president this country has ever had, and I want to see why people can say that. I do my best not to live in the ‘Echo Chamber’ that only repeats back to me what I believe, but to actually look and listen to what is going on. Because the politics of today really matter to me as a Christian, to one who has determined to ‘know only Christ and Him crucified’.
The last time I looked at the Big Beautiful Bill and the tax cuts that it brought to America.
This time I want to look at immigration.
According to historical data from Border Patrol, immigrant encounters at the border are at their lowest since 1970. That is incredible! The crossings dropped from 2.4 million in fiscal year 2023 (CBP/Pew Research) to only 237,538 in fiscal year 2025 (CBP/Pew Research). In May 2025, border patrol reported only 8725 encounters, a 93% drop from the previous May. (CBP)
On Trump’s very first day in office, in January 2025, he signed 10 executive orders related to immigration and border control. These included declaring a national emergency at the southern border, ending the ‘catch and release’ program, a ban on border asylum seeking, reinstating ‘stay in Mexico’, deeming cartels terrorists, ending sensitive locations, suspending the refugee program, and restricting birthright citizenship.
It was a lot, and it seems to have been effective. You can’t look at the data and think that fewer undocumented immigrants are coming across the border. It was a promise Mr. Trump ran on, a political idea that many people voted for, and one promise that it looks like he kept.
I’d like to say, ‘full stop’.
I’d like to, but then we do the deep dive. We look at what each of these things did and where the numbers come from. And remember, I am trying to look at all of these things as they relate to how I should respond as a Christian. How do I know nothing but Christ in light of it all?
The numbers…they are real as far as anyone can tell. Credible sources, the Border Patrol agency and Pew Research, as well as many other researchers, report that border crossings, as of May 2025, are at a 50-year low. Did Trump do that? Partially. In 2023, crossings reached an all-time high, but…
In April 2024, President Biden signed an agreement with Mexico to increase enforcement on the Mexico side of the border. Mexico deployed forces that began to detain immigrants before they ever reached our border. In June 2024, Biden restricted asylum claims. By September 2024, according to CBP releases, immigration had already fallen by 75% from the previous September.
Trump’s executive orders definitely accelerated the slow down, but he cannot take full credit.
What about the orders, specifically?
Expedited removal means no due process, a right given to all people in America, not just citizens, by the Fifth Amendment. Now, expedited removal means fast. It often means that people are deported before they have the opportunity to prove their legal standing. American citizens have been detained. Legal immigrants deported.
ICE had always acted within a sensitive location policy. That meant enforcement procedures did not take place in schools, medical facilities, churches, and the like. Trump’s executive order changed that. A Stanford University study showed a 22% decrease in school attendance after the January raids. People are afraid to go to the doctor, or even the hospital, and churches in Chicago and San Marcos have put guards outside their doors to watch for ICE, while people are worshipping!
We can talk about the constitutionality of some of the other executive orders, including birthright citizenship, and the way he used the emergency declaration to bypass them all. It should be noted that the birthright citizenship order has been blocked by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
However, I want to spend a moment looking at how all of these things have worked out on the ground. At your ‘neighbors’ house. Where children are being detained at bus stops so that their parents are forced to come out and join them to be deported (Ramos, NBC News, and Tippan Eccheveria, Office of Inspector General, Minneapolis). How ICE agents, and yes, often masked, are breaking into homes without the benefit of a search warrant and dragging people out to take them in, without even giving them the opportunity to find or show documentation. (Thao, Minnesota, Forumtogether and the Texas Birthday Party the Texas Tribune)
When Trump took office, there were approximately 39000 people in detention. There are now 68000, a 70% growth in around a year. Where and how are they being detained? What are these places like?
Forty-six people died in ICE custody between January 2025 and March 2026. ICE confirmed that number. It made 2025 the deadliest year for immigration detainees in over two decades. Six of those forty-six had no criminal record and no pending criminal charges. Thirty-six of them died within three months of entering detention.
A bipartisan government watchdog — the Government Accountability Office — found in May 2025 that clear performance goals and measures for detention facility oversight had not been set. ICE’s own inspectors documented violations at Florida’s Krome detention center: people sleeping on floors without bedding, staff failing to ensure people had been offered food, five specific violations in medical care.
90% of ICE detainees are currently housed in facilities operated by either CoreCivic and Geo Groups. These are for profit organizations running facilities with nearly 70000 prople in them.
In late 2025. The administration awarded a $1.3 billion contract — with a $2.7 billion ceiling — to a company called Acquisition Logistics LLC to construct and operate a massive new detention center. A company with no prior experience constructing or operating a detention facility. Their headquarters was listed as a home in central Virginia.
In September 2025, an internal ICE report found the facility had 60 violations of ICE detention standards in just 50 days. Three detainees died there. One death was ruled a homicide by a local medical examiner after guards used force trying to stop a detainee from harming himself.
Eight months after the original contract was awarded, DHS replaced Acquisition Logistics with Amentum Services, Inc., a company that has racked up 112 federal regulatory violations across its various companies, issued as a no-bid, sole-source contract. (Scripps and Public Citizen investigation)
46 people dead in custody. Children being imprisoned. Detainees saying that they are being denied basic medical care, food, or even drinkable water. Too many people in too small a space.
How do I accept this, accept the way this promise was kept, and keep silent…while walking out my faith?
WWJD?
What will you do?
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