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Well, there certainly is a new sheriff in town. President Donald J. Trump promised to put border security and immigration enforcement at the top of the list and allow our law enforcement to do their jobs. Over the weekend, immigration enforcement agents rounded up hundreds of illegals across the country (via Reuters):

Reports of immigration sweeps this week sparked concern among immigration advocates and families, coming on the heels of President Donald Trump's executive order barring refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations. That order is currently on hold.

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The enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas, said David Marin, director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Only five of 161 people arrested in Southern California would not have been enforcement priorities under the Obama administration, he said.

The agency did not release a total number of detainees. The Atlanta office, which covers three states, arrested 200 people, Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the office, said. The 161 arrests in the Los Angeles area were made in a region that included seven highly populated counties, Marin said.

Marin called the five-day operation an "enforcement surge."

Of course, this is going to drive liberals mad. Some in the GOP are reeling over the recent infiltration of their town hall events by angry protesters. Should they fear the immigration issue could be used to further incite the Left? Maybe. But at the moment, its not going to morph into anything that will endanger Republicans politically. Right now, the Left has zero strategy to defeat the Trump agenda. Anyone can walk into a street and whine. How do you transform that into a vote?

On immigration, its not an intense voter issue. Donald Trump made some harsh remarks about illegal immigrants, but there was no Hispanic voter surge on Election Day. Megan McArdle at Bloomberg wrote about this problem, while aptly noting another issue liberals tend to overreach on concerning voter turnout projections: gun control. Right now, the Left is just making speeches about how great immigrants arethats not going to work:

Of course there are spillover benefits to immigration, but they are somewhat nebulous compared to the direct benefit to the would-be migrants. Its easy to explain how immigrants benefit from an open door. Explanations of how the rest of us benefit tend to rely on the trivial or on abstract economic arguments that most people dont find particularly intuitive or convincing. Those arguments look even more suspicious because they are generally made by the one group that visibly does benefit from a lot of low-skilled immigration, which provides the nannies, lawn-care, and food services that high-skilled professionals rely on to allow them to work longer hours.

There is one other group of people who strongly benefit, of course: recent migrants who have relatives they would like to join them. The most recent data indicate that thats perhaps 6 percent of eligible voters. Oh, perhaps we should add some percentage for their native-born children who might care a great deal about getting their grandparents, aunts and uncles the boon of U.S. residence. But then we should probably subtract something, too, for the naturalized citizens who dont care to have the entire extended family moving onto their doorstop. More importantly, we have to account for the fact that naturalized citizens vote at significantly lower rates than the native born.

Other people may favor immigration, but its not necessarily an issue theyre willing to vote on. In other words, Democrats may have large numbers of people polling vaguely in favor of high immigration levels, but relatively low levels of voter intensity for their position.

Trump promised border security and a return to enforcing federal immigration laws. Hes delivering on those promises. The GOP should remain on alert concerning these town hall protests, but they shouldnt over exaggerate the threat.

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ICYMI: Immigration Enforcement Agents Rounded Up Hundreds Of Illegal Immigrants - Townhall