Flashpoint Immigration, Part I

We’ve likely never had a more permissive environment to take a hard line against illegal immigration, but we shouldn’t assume the road will be easy from here on out.

Laken Riley, 22. Her life mattered.

As I began drafting this essay, an outcome was reached in the trial of Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan national and illegal immigrant who raped and murdered 22-year-old Laken Riley in Georgia earlier this year.

Here’s the moment the verdicts were read aloud in court:

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He was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. I’m struggling with the question of whether the punishment fits the crime, but knowing the reality of capital punishment in America and how many years someone can be on death row before they’re finally put to death, who knows? Maybe this is the best possible outcome. I honestly felt a bit pessimistic about how it would all turn out, given what happened in the Kate Steinle case almost a decade ago now, so it was incredibly refreshing to see our legal system can still deliver results.

Still, none of this feels good. Laken Riley is still dead. Finding Ibarra guilty and punishing him isn’t about getting justice for Riley, not really. It’s about taking an evil man out of circulation, ensuring he never becomes a problem again. Real justice for Riley and other victims of crime at the hands of illegal immigrants can only come from restoring order to immigration and creating a safer society, more than the one which failed Riley. There’s so much work to be done. Ibarra being found guilty is just the opening salvo in a counter-attack, in a war with many hard days still yet to come.

When you discover that Ibarra was, in fact, connected to the notorious Venezuelan transnational gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and Ibarra ending up in Athens, Georgia, where he would go on to rape and murder Riley was aided and abetted by our government every step of the way, you can’t help but seethe with rage. If you don’t, you’re just apathetic. I don’t make the rules.

Never forget that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris think Ibarra was more American than any of us just for showing up and setting foot inside this country. Never forget that they think someone like Ibarra has more to offer than the rest of us. Never forget the media took pains to make it sound like Ibarra was some unfortunate victim of circumstance who otherwise sought only to find the American Dream for himself, if they covered the case at all.

Thankfully, the Regime doesn’t get to win this time. As we take solace in the outcome in Riley’s case, don’t forget about the other victims, including 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was also murdered by a Venezuelan national. There remains so much justice yet to be delivered.

Jocelyn Nungaray

Immigration is on its way to becoming the hottest topic of 2025, possibly of the Trump presidency to come. We’ve likely never had a more permissive environment to take a hard line against illegal immigration, but we shouldn’t assume the road will be easy from here on out. There’s going to be tremendous resistance to the administration’s plans, and, unfortunately, I fear civil war could end up being the outcome. Let’s talk about the challenges we face and what we can expect in the months and years ahead.

But… But… Our Economy Depends On Illegals!

Let’s begin by addressing the economic angle of mass illegal immigration. We’re often told by its proponents that our economy would literally collapse without them.

Here’s a Latino farmer living and working in the U.S. making this argument to Trump prior to the election:

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My response to this Latino farmer? First, he’s a foreigner. He may be a citizen, but you can tell he clearly has a greater kinship with those associated with his ancestral origins than with Americans. This matters because in his mind, his relationship with Americans is entirely transactional If America had nothing tangible to offer him, he would never have chosen to be American. Second, life in America is becoming more expensive even with the surplus of cheap labor. Obviously, that’s not his fault, but it shows the benefits of cheap labor have long since exceeded the point of diminishing returns. Third, Americans will do the hard jobs, but not for feudalistic wages. Remember that automation does a lot of the work already. Fourth, not all agricultural laborers are illegals.

Prices will obviously go up, but let’s quit pretending like illegal immigrants are stemming hyperinflation or that the economy would collapse without them. We literally shut down most of the economy back in 2020 for weeks. The consequences were obviously devastating in many ways, but not only did the economy not collapse, it’s not like we as a country cared much about anyone’s lost businesses, jobs, or wages. If we didn’t care about the impact on the lives of Americans, is there any argument to be made for caring about what happens to illegal migrants?

Unfortunately, the Left is running hard with the narrative that the economy is going to collapse without illegal immigrants. It’s leading to some absurdly comical levels of doom-posting, such as this instant classic:

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Even supposedly more reasonable voices are engaging in economic alarmism:

He’s getting dragged for this but in fact deporting millions of immigrants would make lots of things more expensive and force people to substitute home labor for market transactions. If those people preferred to paint their own house and mow their own lawns, they’d be doing it.

A big problem with these takes is that they’re coming from urbanite professional-class types whose lifestyles involve outsourcing almost every aspect of their lives to others. Their affluence allows them to, but they’re also not the do-it-yourself (DIY) types to being with. Yet America, for good and ill, has always been a DIY nation. Those who say Americans will need to learn how to do hard work again once the illegals are gone believe their urban professional lifestyles are the norm across the country, which they are absolutely not.

Here is an émigré from China who makes precisely the same observation:

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She makes a number of interesting observations, including how labor is even cheaper in other parts of the world, and how maids can be hired for a lot less to do even more work. Either way, the idea that Americans don’t do any of the dirty work themselves is a lie urban progressives propagate to feel better about their own laziness.

Think about it this way: how did Home Depot and Lowe’s become multi-million dollar a year businesses if Americans were so lazy and unwilling to do the hard work themselves? How did Bob Vila become a household name if DIY home improvement wasn’t popular? My own father, who isn’t poor, is still installing toilets himself in his 70s. The idea that Americans won’t mow their own lawns, clean their homes, nor make repairs is entirely projection on the part of the urban progressive. Americans do this stuff every day.

All said, if our economy really does live and die with illegal migrant labor, then it’s a house of cards like the Roman Empire’s slave-based economy anyway and will crumble with the slightest bit of stress applied. Maybe it deserves to.

Denver’s Mayor Threatens Insurrection

Mike Johnston

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston makes an ominous threat against any attempt by the incoming Trump administration to deport illegal immigrants by the masses.

As reported by Denverite:

The mayor also takes heart that the people of Denver — not just the administration — would likely resist a mass deportation effort from federal forces. 

“More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Johnston said. “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right?” You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.”

First, a word about “sanctuary” cities: they’re not illegal, not strictly. State and local governments can choose not to enforce federal immigration laws. It’s stupid not to; just look at it the problems non-enforcement has caused cities like Chicago and New York. However, if state and local authorities elect not to assist in enforcing federal immigration laws, they cannot be made to.

What state and local governments cannot do is obstruct the federal government’s attempts to enforce immigration laws. Since immigration is almost entirely within federal purview, state and local governments can aid, but they cannot actively oppose enforcement efforts. To do so sets up a confrontation between the different levels of governance, one which can only be resolved through violence, implied or otherwise.

But the most irresponsible comment on the part of Mayor Johnston is the reference to Tiananmen Square. In case you’ve forgotten or you’re not old enough to remember, anywhere from a couple hundred to couple thousand died in June 1989 when the Chinese government sent in the military to crush pro-democracy protests taking place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It was an event that shocked the world, though, long-term, it didn’t hurt the Communist regime as much as people predicted it would at the time.

But I digress. For Johnston to evoke Tiananmen Square is highly irresponsible, unless he’s really expecting his police officers and citizenry, women and children included, to lay their lives down in defense of illegal immigrants. If Johnston or any Blue city mayor attempted this, they could very well see dissension among the ranks within the police. Most cops join the force with the understanding they’re there to enforce the law and they most certainly don’t join up thinking, one day, they’re going to have to square off or, God forbid, exchange fire with federal agents or even soldiers over people who legally have no right to be in this country.

At the same time, if there’s anything people in uniform do better than anyone else, it’s follow orders. So who knows? Maybe Denver police will obey their mayor and obstruct efforts by the federal government to enforce immigration law. Then we’re in a game of brinkmanship. The same way President Dwight D. Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 in response to non-compliance by state and local governments to the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, Trump may need to do the same in response to any obstruction efforts by left-wing officials. Then there’s the issue of the military disobedience if they’re ordered to move against police officers and civilians protecting the illegals, which is whole different matter we’ll briefly get into later.

Even if the local police don’t obey the mayor, activists might. They may be joined by more militant groups like Antifa, but as the “Free Palestine” movement has proven, formidable militant groups can be built out of any cause. Millions of Americans sympathize with illegal immigrants and their continued presence in the country, whether illegally or through some legalization program. I can definitely see thousands, if not millions, mobilizing in support of them, especially if some sort of viral moment or effective media campaign is able to generate sympathy for them.

We could see “mostly peaceful” protests supporting “civil rights” for illegals, leading to confrontations with authorities or even other citizens, as we see in nearly every other left-wing protest. It may not change anyone’s minds on the topic of immigration one way or the other, but it’ll definitely change peoples’ minds about the protests themselves. In 2020, the early support the George Floyd protests garnered was quickly squandered when they turned into the most serious bout of civil unrest countrywide since the 1960s. It got so bad, 58% of Americans supported the deployment of active-duty military to help restore order, all while the Regime went to the brink to obstruct President Trump from issuing the order had he elected to.

If these protests reach the level of what we saw in the late-1960s, the president may have no choice but to deploy troops, which is exactly what occurred in the past. This sets the stage for confrontations which could end violently. My assessment is that the Left is looking for just that and are willing to see people killed in the process - as long as it doesn’t happen to them personally - so sympathy can for their movement can be garnered.

Rather than Tiananmen Square, which was an overwhelming military-led crackdown unlikely to happen here, we could be headed for a “Bloody Sunday” incident of our own. The term refers to the January 1972 incident in Northern Ireland where British paratroopers shot and killed 14 Catholics during a demonstration. It was a pivotal moment in The Troubles - it garnered worldwide sympathy for the Irish Republican Army’s cause, but on the flip-side, it also forced the British to dramatically alter its strategy towards prosecuting the conflict. 1972 ended up becoming the most violent years of The Troubles, bringing Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war.

My concern is the possibility of our own “Bloody Sunday” incident. Riled up by someone like Mayor Johnston, hundreds of activists and illegals stage mass demonstrations in a city like Denver, or even across the country, which turn into riots like 2020 or even the 1960s. Eventually, the riots get so out of control, the military is deployed, one things leads to another, and a dozen or more “peaceful protesters” are killed. What happens next?

It’d be too chaotic of a scenario to predict its outcome, especially when it hasn’t occurred yet. But as with all things we discuss, we can see it from here. Like Bloody Sunday, it could be a pivotal moment in American history, maybe the pivotal moment of the current Fourth Turning. It could be the point of no return for the burgeoning internal conflict I keep going on about. It could very well being America to the brink of another civil war.

In a later interview, Johnston doubled down:

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The man is a fanatic. Even if this is all just bluster, he’s putting himself into a corner by saying such things. Either that, or he’s just a bad politician. He’s been in politics since 2009, so Johnston isn’t a newcomer. Or maybe people like me were right all along about the Left courting extremists.

Whatever comes to pass, it’d be a highly dangerous moment for this country. Shame on Mike Johnston for calling on his law enforcement officers and citizens to sacrifice their lives like that. It’s shocking, but not surprising, what a toxic mix of ideology and power can do to a person’s brain.

A test of Johnston’s conviction may be coming soon. Tom Homan, named by President-elect Trump to serve as border “czar” in the new administration, said:

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Money where your mouth is, Mayor.

What’s A Handful Of Apartments Controlled By Gangs, Bigot?

Staying in Colorado which is quickly becoming ground zero in the national immigration debate, let’s revisit the City of Aurora, where the violent transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has taken over a number of apartment buildings. A lot has happened since this story first broke.

CBZ Management, the company in charge of the properties at the center of the dispute, came forward with its own account of events.

The story begins:

We started managing these buildings when new owners acquired the Colorado properties in 2019. At the time, the properties were in poor condition, and our mission was to renovate them, thereby increasing their value. This was an ambitious project that would significantly benefit the people of Aurora while providing returns to the new owners.

We understood this project would take years to yield results and would be both time-consuming and costly, involving comprehensive upgrades to every unit and the overall structure. To manage the project effectively, given our New York-based operations, our representative moved to Colorado with his family.

We also undertook a complete renovation of nearly every unit in the now well-known building you’ve seen in the news. (The images shown depict our newly renovated apartments.)

Everything was progressing smoothly: property values were rising, and vacancy rates were dropping. It was a win-win for both the owners and the city of Aurora.

Then, the gangs arrived...

The part of the story which caught the most attention was how a CBZ Management representative was assaulted during a visit to an apartment [WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT]:

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I haven’t found any information on whether the assailants were arrested or identified. But clearly, these aren’t nice people living in these apartments and they are attempting to impose their own form of order on the property. All you need to do is ask yourself if you’d want to live in an apartment complex where management is bribed, then assaulted for not taking the bribe.

Treat all accounts with skepticism, but nobody has yet to refute CBZ Management’s narrative. The best anyone has been able to manage is that CBZ is trying to distract from its own failures, but still nobody seems to dispute the claims about the criminality in the complexes. More important, at no point did the Aurora authorities, Colorado political leadership, or anyone in the Regime deny the Venezuelan gang TdA wasn’t operating in the area. They just said it wasn’t a big deal. This is what they do - normalize the indefensible.

But surely, this doesn’t mean dangerous transnational gangs have taken over these apartments, yes? Maybe, but as Christopher Rufo discovered, there’s been a concerted effort to bring migrants into places like Denver, an operation sponsored by the very top of America’s power structure:

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All across the country are stories of migrants being sent to take up residence in small cities and towns, many of which are more racially homogeneous than not. Springfield, Ohio was the most notorious example, but there are many others.

Also in Ohio, the town of Lockland is dealing with a massive wave of new arrivals and it’s going about as well as you’d expect:

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Another example:

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Still another:

LOGANSPORT, Indiana — Thousands of migrants from Haiti and dozens of other countries have arrived in this isolated Indiana city of 18,000 in just a few years.

Furious residents say they no longer feel safe in the once-sleepy downtown, and their kids are being muscled out of the schools by new students who don’t know English and need a lot of help.

…

It’s not entirely clear how many migrants have arrived in Logansport — but Cass County Health Department Administrator Serenity Alter told The Post that the surrounding area’s population has surged nearly 30%.

That would put the arriving number of migrants at more than 11,000 — in a county that had just 38,000 people in 2020.

Finally, it’s not like we needed it, but we finally have confirmation that the gunmen seen in the viral video that put Aurora, Colorado into the national spotlight are, in fact, members of the notorious TdA:

(NewsNation) — Two Tren de Aragua gang members tied to a viral video showing armed men at an Aurora, Colorado apartment complex were arrested in New York City this week, law enforcement sources confirmed to NewsNation.

Danyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edilson Pena Angulo, 25 — members of the notorious Venezuelan street gang — were taken into federal custody during a Tuesday night raid, sources told NewsNation.

Both men were in the U.S. illegally, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson said in a statement.

The two Tren de Aragua members were allegedly among the armed men seen in a viral security camera video that garnered international attention. In the video, men can be seen walking up a stairwell carrying weapons at an Aurora apartment complex.

Pena and Aramillo were also suspected of being involved in an Aug. 18 shooting in Aurora.

Both men were charged with two felonies, first-degree burglary and menacing with a firearm, in the Aurora case but hadn’t been arrested until now.

The story goes on to say that nobody knows for sure how and when the men got into the country. Obviously, that’s what happens when the borders are wide open, but if the people in charge were truly serious about national security, that wouldn’t need to be explained to them.

America receives migrants from all over the world, but both in the short and long term, migration from Latin America will be the most threatening.

X account “Don Shift” explains why:

Community level risks — Hispanics and Mexican cartels

Before we talk about demographics, we need to talk about land. Mexican drug cartels often launder money through American agricultural companies. By using cutouts or proxy owners of produce companies drug money is used as investment capitol in these businesses. This means that the land of a large fruit company right next to your rural home could actually be owned by a drug cartel vicariously. Nevermind an illegal marijuana grow in greenhouses. Major growing/packing/shipping companies in your grocery store are in this situation.

And:

Agricultural towns with a high population of Hispanics who are primarily engaged in low-wage agricultural work typically come from a similar background in Mexico or Central/South America. Their families likely lived in a similar state for centuries. Until the late 20th century, this was peonage. In many respects—culturally, politically, and economically—these people are peasants. A peasantry is beholden to their employers and those that can protect them. Without the safety net of police and a welfare state, there is a major danger of the labor class reverting to strong-man rule.

Many of these people have few skills or resources. Spanish, or even native Mexican dialects, may be their only language. They do not have the same tradition of freedom, rugged individualism, and independence that Americans do. In times of hardship, these groups are at the greatest risk of siding with whoever will protect and feed them. Terrorism is another option.

Read it all. There’s no denying the threat posed by mass migration from Latin America and I’m past the point of worrying about being labeled a xenophobe over it. Demographic change is a ticking bomb that gets bigger and bigger with time before it even sets off.

Our problems with immigration don’t compare to that of Europe, who are currently dealing with a literal clash of civilizations between the First and Third Worlds, between a formerly Christian-turned secular civilization and Islamic civilization. Most immigrants who come to America simply seek a better life, don’t view themselves as conquerors as Europe’s Muslim invaders do, and try to keep a low profile.

The problem is that too much is too much. You’re just not going to bring in large numbers of foreigners, most of whom have no incentive to assimilate, and not expect communities to become overwhelmed and upended in the process. Everything that’s been described here is the Great Replacement in action and central to the idea is the belief people are interchangeable (except for the people in charge - they’re irreplaceable!). If you have an aging Midwestern Rust Belt town, just bring in large numbers of younger foreigners and voila! The town is saved.

Anyway, this is all old news. What should be apparent to all is that replacement is occurring. It’s no longer a theory. It’s here, it’s now. The most powerful people in the country, on the planet, are behind it. None of us should fear being called “racist” or “xenophobic” for pointing out what’s become so apparent to all. We should absolutely be more concerned about the fact our women and children are being killed by illegal immigrants, and whatever benefit they supposedly provide isn’t worth the life of a single one of our own.

Time To Call Their Bluff

It now appears Denver Mayor Mike Johnston isn’t really fixing to get arrested. In a follow-up interview, he sounded a more milder tone, insisting that the law will be enforced

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Likewise, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who also stated she was willing to protect her city’s illegals from deportation, is now backtracking, stating that she never intended to suggest she’d get into a stand-off with the federal government. Tough as the far-left often sounds, the fact is, they’re cowed by strength. They really are nothing without the power of the state at their disposal.

Unfortunately, they do remain firmly in control of the state and our institutions, to say nothing of the tremendous amount of damage people like Johnston and Wu have already inflicted. We have not yet begun to fight back.

In the second of this two-parter, we will discuss a potential military involvement to deal with illegal immigration, along with the potential for armed conflict. For now, what are your thoughts on anything discussed here? Do you find the outcome of the Laken Riley case to be just? What do you make of Mayor Johnston’s insurrection threat? Is he a committed ideologue? Or is he just blowing hot air? Do you still believe there’s a more reasonable explanation to what’s happening in Colorado? Or are things exactly as they appear?

Talk about it in the comments section.

Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.

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