To the Editor:

Why is illegal immigration still illegal, given one American political party’s disdain for enforcement of United States immigration law?

Recall the Congressional majorities enjoyed by President Barack Obama, when his party enacted the Affordable Care Act, and note that Obama also deported  2,700,000 illegal immigrants. Why, one might wonder, did Obama use his fleeting power to deport illegal immigrants, but not to reform immigration law?

No opposition party Congressional votes helped to enact Obamacare. None were needed to enact immigration reform, either. Had he wanted to reform immigration, it is hard to understand why Obama did not do so.

Also recall that in President Joseph Biden’s first two years, while he enjoyed majorities in Congress, when he signed his American Rescue Plan into law, he did not sign immigration into law. Why, given the tremendous number of immigrants that illegally immigrated to the United States during Biden’s term, did Biden not make immigration reform a reality? Had he wanted to reform immigration, why did he not do so?

Now, President Trump is enforcing U.S. immigration law. This is upsetting to many Americans who consider him to be another dictator, like National Socialist  (aka Nazi) Adolf Hitler. Hitler mass murdered Jewish people, but Trump’s daughter converted to become Jewish; Trump and Hitler are as alike as are Obama and Louis Farrakhan: Not very.

Had either Obama or Biden signed Democrats’ desired immigration into law, then Trump would be obligated to enforce Democrats’ reformed immigration law. Is it Trump’s fault that Democrats failed to reform immigration law?

Illegal immigration still illegal, given one American political party’s disdain for enforcement of U.S. immigration law, because that party, the Democrat party, has refused to enact immigration law. 

Edgar V. Tolmie

Altamont

Editor’s note: The last comprehensive immigration reform was passed under Ronald Regan. Two efforts failed under George W. Bush after objections from both the right and the left. Under Barack Obama, the Senate, with strong bipartisan support, passed a measure to toughen border security while providing a path to citizenship for migrants; it was blocked by House Republicans. Under Joseph Biden, a bipartisan committee of senators produced a reform bill that was then blocked by Republicans at Donald Trump’s bidding as he sought re-election.

Since Jan. 20, 2025, according to a New York Times analysis, the Trump administration has deported about 540,000 people, fewer than in either of the last two years of the Biden administration. But Biden-era deportations mostly came at the border whereas Trump’s arrests target people already inside the United States and it is being done more aggressively and with more publicity. So far, the Trump administration has removed about 230,000 immigrants living in the country, already more than the Biden administration did in four years.