Trump

Trump Executive Orders Target Illegal Immigration, Troops Sent to Border

In President Donald Trump’s inaugural address, he announced he would “sign a series of historic executive orders,” adding, “With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense.”

The newly inaugurated president listed the Southern Border as his top priority, saying, “First, I will declare a national emergency at our Southern Border.” Then he listed some actions he would take, including halting all illegal entry into the country, ending “the practice of catch and release,” and sending “troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”

The president made good on this promise, signing a flurry of executive orders related to illegal immigration and sending more troops to the border.

It’s difficult to get a solid count on how many people have entered the country illegally, but the House Committee on Homeland Security released a factsheet, “Startling Stats,” that details U.S. Customs and Border Protection border encounters with undocumented immigrants. The agency reported 3 million encounters from 2017-2020 and 10.8 million from 2021-2024.

Those numbers don’t include those who may cross the border without encountering an agent. The factsheet adds:

  • Roughly 2 million known gotaways have evaded Border Patrol agents since FY 2021.
  • Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows that, as of July 21, 2024, nearly 650,000 criminal illegal aliens were currently on ICE’s Non-Detained Docket (NDD) and roaming free in the interior.
  • Since FY2021, 9,055 pounds of fentanyl were seized between ports of entry by Border Patrol, compared to just 1,604 pounds from FY2017-FY2020.

As far as how many illegal aliens actually live in the U.S., the Center for Migration Studies recently stated, “The total undocumented population increased to about 11.7 million in July 2023, an increase of about 800,000 compared to the previous July.”

But the actual number may be much larger.

A study from three Yale-affiliated researchers, using a different data set, estimated  “there are 22.1 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.”

And that was back in 2018. Undoubtedly, given the influx of undocumented aliens over the last six years, the number is higher today.

So President Trump is acting to deal with this issue. First, he signed an executive order rescinding orders and actions from the Biden administration that opened our borders to illegal immigration, such as an order “to address the causes of immigration” and “manage migration throughout North and Central America.”

Then, he issued a slew of executive orders and actions, including:

Of course all illegal aliens aren’t violent, but some are, and safeguarding the border and following immigration laws already in place is a way to protect citizens and reduce harms.

Related articles and resources:

American Immigration System Loses Contact with Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children

The Border Crisis and the Deafening Silence of Women’s Groups

Burgeoning Border Crisis Spirals Out of Control, Officials Fear ‘Mass Migration Event’

Familial DNA Testing on the Southern Border Shouldn’t Have Ended

Fentanyl Overdoses Rise, Connection to Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigrant Arrested in Murder of Maryland Mom

Illegal Immigrant to Appear in Court for Death of Texas Teen, Illustrates Violent Trend

It’s Compassionate to Oppose Illegal Immigration. Here’s Why.

Laken Riley Murdered After Killer Took Taxpayer-Funded Flight

Laken Riley Act Passes Senate

Talking to Your Kids About Illegal Immigration

U.S. Border Patrol Encounters 239,416 Illegal Immigrants in May, Highest in U.S. History

Violent Gang Takes Advantage of American Immigration Policy

Here’s What Donald Trump’s Reelection Means

Your country, your convictions and your ability to live – unapologetically – by common sense and biological facts, have been given back to you this week. Actually, you took them back, through your vote, your conviction and our democracy.

It is vitally important we all fully appreciate just what this election and inauguration means for our lives, our nation, our children and the truth. Redemption does not come through elections, but renewal can be expressed through them. It is why we fight so dearly for the freedoms we possess as Americans.

After a peaceful transfer of power, cemented by a decisive national election, President Trump got very busy signing a stack of very important executive actions and orders. Some undo a great many harms intentionally inflicted upon each of us and our country by the previous administration, driven by some very pernicious ideologies and beliefs.

We must celebrate:

See below:

One executive administration is waving good-bye to another.

It represents the moment our nation shifted, very intentionally, from dangerous nation-destroying ideologies to common-sense and security. That is a hard truth, but it is true. You know it is.

It is the emblematic waving goodbye to the cover-up and manipulation of what so many of us have been seeing clearly with our own eyes, but were told at every turn, in every way, to ignore it. We were told we were wrong. Not only wrong, but bad. Very bad.

We were called xenophobes, racists, bigots, fascists, homophobes, transphobes, hateful, Nazi-sympathizers, responsible for young people taking their own lives because we “denied” them their newly adopted sexual or gender identity.

These regular accusations left a deep mark on all of us, in our psyche and our soul. Sometimes they came from our own children and family members.

So, what does this week, and the changes it has brought, mean for all of us?

  • Now is the time to once again start living in unapologetic confidence in truth and reality.
  • None of us should ever allow ourselves to be bullied or apologetic for believing male and female are true, biological qualities, the only two options for being human.
  • None of us should ever be pressured into thinking or acting as if “trans” is what some people are.
  • We should no longer give any respect nor credibility to gender ideology, preferred pronouns, and coded language which demand allegiance to things we all know are false.
  • We should never feel shame or apologize for believing in a biblical sexual ethic or in natural marriage as the foundation of the family.
  • We should never feel ashamed for the color of our skin, being bullied into thinking it makes us categorically culpable for serious sins of the past. We are now to be judged on our personal character and our actual treatment of our neighbors and fellow citizens.
  • We should no longer tolerate being tarred as hateful, racist or uncaring because we desire a secure border and a working, legal immigration system.
  • None of us should ever be bullied for our deepest convictions just because some authority tells us it’s mis- or disinformation. We are no longer subject to this kind of manipulation by government or media.
  • We should never apologize for being thankful patriots of this exceptional country.
  • None of us should be persuaded to doubt what we clearly see with our own two eyes.

We are now, as a people and a nation, are done with all of this untruth and manipulation.

We have collectively thrown off its shackles and put our ideological enslavers on notice. This fact is actually the substance of the great feeling of relief so many of us collectively feel, now that this fog of deception and oppression has been cast off.

Some of feel uncomfortable admitting this because our new president is a polarizing figure and we don’t want, as people, to be polarizing. But this feeling of freedom and relief exists because of something bigger happening.

It has two parts.

First, it is the genuine result of so many of us collectively realizing that we have been lied to about so many things that we knew were true. Day in and day out, we were systematically manipulated. By our leaders, by media professionals, by authorities. That is not an accusation. It is a fact.

Slowly, we came to realize we are’t crazy nor malicious for believing there are only two sexes; compassion means secure borders; our convictions are not misinformation; personal character and merit are more important than diversity and inclusion; patriotism is not xenophobic. We were aggressively pressured to not question multiple narratives that we knew to be false and destructive in so many ways.

Second, many Americans realized they were not alone in feeling manipulated and denigrated. They came to see and realize that millions of their fellow Americans – of various political stripes and backgrounds – were also tired of manipulated and being lied to.

They gained tremendous strength from this realization and a movement started.

It was a movement to take back our nation from falsehoods and accusations, to tear down strongholds carefully crafted and brutally enforced. Plenty lost their jobs and reputations for resisting. Many have not yet recovered. But we formed a movement to become, once again, the people we know we must be. The people we were created to be.

These are people who love our God, the truth, humanity and common sense and our nation; its leadership role of hope, prosperity and safety in the world – a city on a hill.

These two men and two women, two young and two old, two foreign and two native, are happily waving adios and hello to significant things. We all know in our hearts, from our own experiences, what those are.

We must joyously wave goodbye and hello as well.

Our job now is to fully recognize and walk in this new freedom and realization. It has been hard fought for. It brings so many of us together and sets us on a hopeful path toward a new future.

Let us continue to strongly and unapologetically resist the manipulations that have been systematically cast upon us, and live under the truth and light of what we know to be right and good.

A better, brighter more peaceful and truthful tomorrow awaits us all if we do.

Carrie Underwood, Donald Trump and a Grace Note on a Historic Day

It’s an old idiom that speech is silver and silence is golden, but not usually for a singer charged with performing before a global audience of countless millions.

Standing in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol yesterday for the 60th inaugural festivities, singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood stepped up to perform “America the Beautiful” following President Donald Trump’s address.

One major problem: the accompaniment never started. 

A technical issue prevented the music from beginning on cue, though a distant strain of it kicked in for a very brief moment before cutting out and never starting again.

Ever the professional, Carrie Underwood waited patiently, smiling and nodding, ready to begin singing just as soon as the music began.

But it never did.

“I can just sing it,” she gracefully told a technician who had come forward to confer with the Country superstar.

By “sing it” she meant a capella.

“You know the words, help me out here,” she then told those gathered before beginning in perfect pitch.

Everyone sang along.

Prior to Monday’s ceremony, Underwood had been criticized for accepting the invitation. “The View’s” Joy Behar accused the singer of normalizing President Trump by showing up to be part of the even. But Underwood was unapologetic, pointing to the unique nature of the moment.

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” she wrote in a statement. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”

Indeed, during President Trump’s inaugural address, the 47th commander-in-chief said, “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be. A peacemaker and a unifier.”

In an especially poignant section of his message, President Trump declared:

Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization. So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred. Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy and disease free.
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.
And it’s the lifeblood of a great nation. And, right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other. There’s no nation like our nation. Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth. No one comes close.
Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted millions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand. If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve.

As a child in Checotah, Oklahoma, Carrie Underwood had her share of big-sized dreams.

“Growing up on a farm with loving parents and our church family defined my values,” Underwood said. “A small town with good people helped form me. I was rooted in something solid before I got to spread my wings.”

A professing Christian, the singer and her husband, former NHL player Mike Fisher, have suggested their faith in Jesus Christ to be the cornerstone of their lives, marriage, and the raising of their children.

Many commentators are suggesting Monday’s technical flub produced one of the more memorable and teachable moments of the Inaugural ceremony.

There will be plenty of times when the metaphorical music doesn’t play in our lives.

We can gripe, groan and grouse.

Or we can just sing – and invite others to join us.

Well done, Carrie Underwood.

Image from Getty.

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

During his inaugural address, President Trump stated, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

The simple declaration of truth brought resounding applause from the audience in the Capitol Rotunda.

Focus on the Family President Jim Daly issued a statement agreeing with Trump’s pronouncement, saying:

In the very first chapter of Genesis, we read that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Any revolution of common sense must include an acknowledgement of this fundamental truth.
While we’re disappointed that it’s even necessary, we’re grateful that on his first day in office, President Donald J. Trump has prioritized this reality by issuing an executive order restating the obvious.

Daly referenced the order signed by Trump later on Inauguration Day: Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government, adding, “We are long overdue in this effort to reestablish the exclusivity of two genders, thereby protecting our children and serving America’s families.”

The order first explains:

Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong.  
Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.  

The directive goes on to state, “Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself,” adding:

Invalidating the true and biological category of “woman” improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.

Indeed. As men who “identify as women” take opportunities from women in education, sports and other arenas, women’s legal rights are trampled. In addition, their privacy and safety are at risk when men who claim to be women enter women’s private spaces, such as restrooms, locker rooms, showers and dressing rooms.

Gender ideology has caused untold damage to individuals and families, as transgender medical interventions cause great harm to the healthy bodies of those suffering from sexual identity confusion.

Young children are regularly sexualized and confused in schools that promote this ideology. And free speech and religious freedom have been assaulted by laws promoted by gender activists and their allies.

Trump stated that his administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

The executive order clearly states what the president articulated in his speech:

It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. …
“Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”

Federal agencies are directed by the order to “enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations,” adding:

Each agency should therefore give the terms “sex”, “male”, “female”, “men”, “women”, “boys” and “girls” the meanings set forth in … this order when interpreting or applying statutes, regulations, or guidance and in all other official agency business, documents, and communications.

The directive forbids federal funds from being “used to promote gender ideology” and it directs agencies to “ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.”

It directs the attorney general “to ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

Activists fighting gender ideology and its harmful effects were quick to applaud the president’s statements and actions. In a post on X, women’s rights activist Riley Gaines noted that Trump was keeping promises made during his campaign.

Dr. Colin M. Wright, an evolutionary biologist who has written widely on the scientific and logical problems with current gender ideology, posted that the new administration’s actions will likely bring opposition. Then he stated, “But when they put reality on trial, it won’t end well for them.”

Gender ideology doesn’t change the truth that there are only two sexes – male and female. We’re grateful for this administration’s return to sanity and common sense.

Related articles and resources:

ADF: Victory for women, girls: Federal court rejects Biden admin redefinition of ‘sex’ in Title IX across country

Biden Becomes Nation’s Most Powerful Trans Activist With Executive Order

Court Rules Against DOE’s Title IX Rewrite, Saving Women’s Sports & Spaces – For Now

Even Hard-Boiled Evolutionists are Standing Strong Against Gender Madness

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

How Science and Faith Can Defeat Gender Ideology – Parts One and Part Two

Transgender Resources

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

What Does it Mean to Be Trans Anyway?

Image from Getty.

A Mother’s Sensibility at the Supreme Court Regarding Pornography

When President Donald Trump nominated now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court back in 2020, much was made of her being a mother to seven children.

Jesse and Amy Barrett, who were married in 1999, are the proud parents to Emma, Vivian, Tess, John Peter, Liam, Juliet, and Benjamin.

Of the six women who have served on the High Court, four have had children: Sandra Day O’Connor (3 sons), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (a son and a daughter), Ketanji Brown Jackson (2 daughters) and Amy Coney Barrett.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by President Obama in 2009, once told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that she has “an occasional tug of regret” over not having children.

“I knew that I wanted to be an independent woman with my own career and (be) successful in whatever I chose to do,’’ she said. “Could I have that and have had children? Many women do. Can you have it all every minute of the day? No.”

But not until Justice Barrett arrived inside the famed Vermont marble court on First Street has there been a mother with young children on the bench – a fact reflected in yesterday’s oral arguments over Texas’ age-verification law for access to pornography sites.

At issue is H.B. 1181, a Texas law requiring websites with “over one-third sexual material harmful to minors” to require users to verify they’re over 18. Users are required to produce official documentation such as government-sponsored I.D.

Pornographers, eager to bait and addict as many people as possible, consider such requirements to be obtrusive. The Free Speech Coalition, which represents those wanting to trade in such filth said the law was vague and “imposes significant burdens on adults’ access to constitutionally protected expression.”

It’s not clear how, but that’s the kind of response you’d expect from pornographers.

As it is now, 18 other states have similar laws aimed to protect children from access to pornography and other harmful material. Critics of the law claim it violates the First Amendment, a position several of the justices, including Barrett, didn’t appear to be buying.

“Do you dispute the societal problems that are created both short-term and long-term from the rampant access to pornography for children?” Justice Kavanaugh asked. Justice Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh have two daughters, Margaret, who is in college, and Liza, who is in high school.

But it was Justice Barrett who personalized the issue and brought it down to the practical and the level where today’s mothers and fathers are living.

On Wednesday, the Justice said, “Kids can get online porn through gaming systems, tablets, phones, computers. Content filtering for all those different devices, I can say from personal experience, is difficult to keep up with.”

Justice Barrett is exactly right. There are mothers and fathers who are forced to lock up remotes, phones, and game consoles as they would firearms in the home.

Texas lawyers shot down claims the age verification “chills” the First Amendment rights of adults.

“Texas seeks to protect kids from some of the most prurient sexual content imaginable. And the means Texas has chosen is appropriate,” the state wrote. “Texas has addressed only websites dedicated to pornography, has allowed them to comply by using common age-verification technology, and has not imposed criminal penalties. Such a modest but important law satisfies any level of scrutiny.”

It should be both encouraging and refreshing to moms and dads to have other moms and dads on the High Court who can appreciate the challenges parents face today. It’s not theoretical – it’s real and it’s practical.

It’s in the best interest of our government to enforce laws that protect our youth from the destructive forces of the pornography industry.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously described “hard-core” pornography or obscenity by saying, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced… [b]ut I know it when I see it.”

When it comes to the dangers of online pornography, we know the risks, we see the awful impact it’s having on children, especially, and we pray the Supreme Court will have the courage and wisdom to uphold Texas’ constitutional age-verification law.

Image credit: Barrett Family