The hardened criminals must go — and latest raid shows why

Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton debated Wednesday whether California should cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

The next day, as The California Post reported, federal law enforcement arrested several illegal immigrants in Orange County who were allegedly involved in a credit fraud scheme that involved stealing Americans’ private Social Security numbers.

One of those arrested had already been deported from the country — in 1999. 

Another one was deported in 1996.

Yet they made their way back across the border — and they settled into California, where they presumably knew they would find “sanctuary” from the law, thanks to Democrats’ policy of defying the rest of the country on immigration.

At the debate, Becerra went after Hilton for supporting ICE “mercenaries,” then added a racial attack: “You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me,” he said.

There’s no record of Hilton ever saying or doing anything racist. Becerra was out of line.

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After pointing out that Becerra had lost track of thousands of migrant children when he was in charge of refugee resettlement in the Biden administration, Hilton noted that there is an urgent need to remove criminals who have no right to be in California, or in the US.

Hilton noted that even under existing California “sanctuary” law, state and local law enforcement can cooperate with ICE to remove dangerous criminals. 

The problem is that Democrats have demonized ICE for political reasons. So they can’t work with them — by choice.

Becerra had no answer for that, because he does not want to acknowledge that Democrats have let foreign criminals take shelter in California for decades.

But First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli proved Thursday that we need a cooperative relationship with federal immigration enforcement — no matter what the state’s policies are. 

We are all safer — especially immigrant communities — when illegal immigrant criminals are removed, especially those who were already deported.

You can be in favor of legal immigration — as Hilton is — without having to accept illegal immigration as a fact of life.

And no one should have to accept living alongside alleged crooks who run fraud schemes that steal Americans’ identities.

These aren’t actually hard moral choices. There is a clear line between legal and illegal immigration.

What we need are leaders with the political courage to stand up to criminal illegal immigrants.

Whatever your view on immigration policy, the hardened criminals must go.