Tennesseans and Americans across the country want to feel safe in their own communities, and there is no better way to ensure that happens than enforcing the rule of law—especially at the southern border. Since returning to office last year, that is exactly what President Trump has accomplished, ending Biden’s border crisis and securing incredible wins for the American people.

Under the last administration, cartel profits soared as criminal organizations exploited our open border to ramp up their trafficking operations. Thanks to President Trump’s strong border enforcement, human-smuggling related transactions fell 62 percent in 2025 compared with the year before, the Treasury Department announced last week. In July, the Department of Homeland Security recorded its 15th straight month of zero illegal aliens released into our country, while border apprehensions were down 96 percent from their peak under Biden.

With the border secure, the administration has focused on apprehending criminal illegal aliens and removing them from our country. This month, an ICE investigation led to the sentencing of a criminal illegal alien from Colombia who stole the identity of a U.S. citizen to gain residency in our country for more than 20 years and vote in multiple elections. The agency also lodged an immigration detainer against a 47-year-old illegal alien from Mexico who committed a hit-and-run against multiple pedestrians in downtown Nashville, leaving two victims in wheelchairs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, meanwhile, recently filed an opening brief in its fight to reinstate human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the criminal illegal alien Democrats championed as a hero after the administration moved to deport him last year.

As of May, the administration had deported close to 900,000 illegal aliens, while 2.2 million chose to leave our country rather than face deportation proceedings. This effort is especially important as our country continues to deal with the consequences of Biden’s open border. Just last week, police in northern Virginia arrested a Salvadoran illegal alien—who was released into our country by the Biden administration in April 2024—for stabbing and murdering a 42-year-old mother on a jogging trail near her home.

The American people want such violent criminals removed from our country. Yet Democrats are continuing to put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens. According to a new report, Democrat legislators across 32 states have introduced more than 240 bills supporting illegal aliens. Among the measures: prohibiting federal law enforcement from wearing masks and protecting themselves from doxxing, banning ICE officers from government property, and preventing the administration from opening new detention facilities.

The reason is simple: Democrats want to abolish ICE. They don’t believe in immigration enforcement. In fact, they don’t believe we should have a border at all. If given the opportunity, they would roll back all of President Trump’s progress and take our country back to the Biden years that saw millions of illegal aliens pouring across our border.

The good news: Republicans are in charge—and there is nothing that will stop us from keeping our border secure, deporting criminals, and enforcing the rule of law.