Why do Democrats defend violent, criminal illegal immigrants against Trump raids?

Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles is a member of a violent Haitian street gang with 17 convictions to his name, including multiple drug, weapons, and assault and battery crimes. Ariel Rene Romice-Patino is a Mexican national who was hit with a 62-month prison sentence for sexual exploitation of a child. Cristofer Alexander Ramirez-Oliva is a Honduran convicted for third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

These three dangerous individuals were in the country illegally and finally apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of President Trump’s targeted raids on violent illegal immigrants. Yet, Democrats are decrying the raids, acting like these criminals are the victims. Why?

Somehow, in the warped world of progressive politics, removing predators from our communities is deemed "controversial." Arresting child rapists, gang members, and drug traffickers has become a rallying cry for Democrats who insist these deportations violate "human rights." You’d think protecting law-abiding families—immigrants and citizens alike—would be common sense. But not when the Democrats get involved.

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These raids aren’t targeting hardworking immigrants or struggling parents doing honest labor to build better lives. ICE focused on violent criminals, arresting hundreds across cities like Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago. These are places desperately in need of federal help to keep communities safe. Yet the Democrats running these cities — our so-called leaders — are putting up roadblocks.

Take Chicago, for instance. Mayor Brandon Johnson has doubled down on the city’s sanctuary policies, actively shielding criminal illegal immigrants from deportation. When ICE arrests gang members and sex offenders, Johnson acts as though the federal agents were the bad guys. Seriously? Does he think a child predator deserves a second chance over the safety of actual children? Or is this just pandering to his activist base, who apparently equate "open borders" with "no consequences" for violent crimes?

Meanwhile, Left-wing media outlets from Politico to the Los Angeles Times eagerly spread fearmongering headlines about ICE "raiding schools" and "traumatizing communities." Local news stories warn of kids too scared to go to school because their families think federal agents will show up at recess. This, of course, is nonsense. ICE explicitly targets criminals, not innocent families dropping kids off at kindergarten.

So why do Democrats pedal these lies? The answer is twofold. 

First, by framing all illegal immigrants as innocent victims, Democrats can play the savior. They claim they’re "protecting" these communities from Trump’s "racist" policies, positioning themselves as champions of the oppressed. Never mind that their fearmongering terrifies the very families they pretend to protect. Imagine being an otherwise law-abiding immigrant who hears the lies that ICE is targeting "everyone," all while knowing your neighborhood harbors a gang member ICE could remove. Democrats don’t care about that reality. They care about optics. 

Second, the Radical Left genuinely believes that criminals are victims of systemic oppression. As I explain in my book, "What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities," they refuse to differentiate between hardworking immigrants trying to live the American dream and violent offenders exploiting our broken immigration system. To them, illegal immigrants are a monolithic, protected class. The Left’s ideological blindness leads them to defend even the most despicable criminals because acknowledging their guilt would mean admitting their policies are flawed.

Let’s not forget the other talking point Democrats love: deportations "hurt the economy" or "tear families apart." This is classic Leftist nonsense. Deporting a gang member or a sex offender doesn’t hurt the economy. It helps the economy by making communities safer and more stable for businesses and families. And as for "tearing families apart," let’s be clear: it’s the criminals who jeopardize their families when they commit these crimes — not ICE.

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What’s infuriating is that Democrats don’t even care about the communities they claim to defend. If they did, they’d support getting violent predators out of immigrant neighborhoods. Instead, their policies put everyone — citizens and immigrants — at greater risk. They’d rather block Trump’s efforts than acknowledge that his administration is doing something right.

The truth is, Democrats are more interested in scoring political points than keeping you safe. They’ve abandoned common sense for virtue-signaling, and they’re playing politics with your safety. They’ve decided that pandering to their activist base is more important than protecting law-abiding citizens. And the rest of us — immigrant and native-born alike — pay the price.

This isn’t about being anti-immigrant; it’s about being anti-criminal. No one’s calling for deporting a single mom cleaning homes or picking fruits and vegetables to support her family (the two jobs Democrats always relegate illegal immigrants to). But defending child rapists? That’s indefensible. And if Democrats can’t — or won’t — draw that line, then they’re not fit to lead. Come to think of it, that’s a big reason why Trump won so decisively last November.

Jason Rantz is the author of "What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities," a frequent Fox News guest, and the host of The Jason Rantz Show, which can be heard weekday afternoons on KTTH Seattle. You can subscribe to his podcast here. @jasonrantz