It is widely acknowledged that voters rejected Democratic candidates in November 2024 and embraced Donald Trump and the Republicans because of illegal immigration. Non-existent border security, a flood of 10 million unvetted illegal immigrants (and the associated crime) surged the issue to the top of voter concerns.
In the years since Barack Obama left office, the Democratic Party has increasingly taken its border and immigration policy cues from far-Left advocacy groups that support open borders. These activist groups think the United States has no moral authority to refuse entry to anyone, and that deporting even the worst individuals is immoral and racist.
This world view that dragged Democrat to electoral disaster is on full display in February 2025 “brief” issue by The Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice, attacking the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) for turning criminal illegal immigrants over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Harbor Institute is a front organization of the radical National Day Laborers Organizing Network. It is run by Carlos Perea, a member of the Santa Ana Police Oversight Commission and a leader of last year’s failed initiative to allow non-citizens to vote in Santa Ana city elections.
The Harbor Institute is angry the OCSD “continues to transfer numerous community members from their custody to ICE, especially in comparison to other California counties,” complaining that 228 “community members” were transferred to ICE custody by the Sheriff’s Department.
And who were these “community members”? 228 criminals who had collectively racked up 1,007 booking charges.
12 times in its two-page brief, The Harbor Institute refers to these criminals as “community members.” The word “criminal” is never used.
The crimes most commonly committed by these “community members”:
- Corporal Injury on a Spouse or Cohabitant
- Burglary
- Probation Violation
- DUI – Alcohol or Drugs
- Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Not a Firearm
Other charges against the “community members” handed over to ICE include:
- Possession of methamphamine for sale
- Weapon possession
- Robbery
- Burglary with intent to commit grand larceny
- Attempted robbery
- Smuggling drugs into prison
- Arson
- Receiving stolen property
- Possession of a controlled substance for sale
- Repeated auto theft
- Threatening others with death or bodily harm
- Stalking and terrorizing
Each of these criminals is in the country illegally. Who in their right mind would oppose deporting them, let alone putting criminal illegal immigrants in the custody of the agency charged with dealing with criminal illegal immigrants.
And who in their right mind would whitewash these criminals as “community members”? You almost have to be living in some kind of alternate reality to not only oppose their deportation, but paint them with a sympathetic brush? How contemptuous of their victims – many, if not most, of whom were doubtless illegal immigrants themselves.
Incredibly, the Harbor Institute report contends that when local law enforcement agencies cooperate with ICE, they “risk eroding trust in government agencies.” On the contrary: what erodes that trust is when government agencies fail to do their jobs. The Democrats learned that lesson the hard way last year when they were rejected the border and immigration radicalism foisted on them by activist groups like The Harbor Institute.
Groups like The Harbor Institute claim they want to build power for Latinx – an activist word the vast majority of Hispanics dislike. But the opposite is true – what they seek is power for themselves to impose an ideological worldview that is opposed by the vast majority of Americans – including Hispanic Americans. The determination of Perea and his allies (such as VietRise) to keep these criminal illegal immigrants in the “community” represents the triumph of ideology over reality. It’s a twisted understanding of “social justice” that would allow these criminals to continue preying on the very people about whom groups like The Harbor Institute and VietRise purport to care.
Think about it: who else but a fanatic would saccharinely view violent felons as “community members?” Normal people – including hard-working illegal immigrants – see criminal illegal immigrants as predators and support their deportation. Only a fanatic, living in their private ideological Idaho, oppose deporting criminals who prey on the people these fanatics purport to care about.
This ideologically-driven refusal to distinguish between illegal immigrants who are predators and those here seeking work and advancement – indeed between legal and illegal immigration – isn’t new.
In 2022, VietRise leader Tracy La savaged then-Garden Grove Councilwoman Kim Nguyen – a progressive Democrat who was running for county supervisor – because she supported giving ICE custody “of the most dangerous criminals who are a clear threat to public safety.”
In a through-the-looking-glass fashion, La excoriated removing violent criminals from immigrant communities as “throwing immigrant communities under the bus for political gain.”
READ: Woke Progressives Attack Kim Nguyen In 2nd Supervisor District Race
La is a member of Santa Ana’s Rental Housing Board, and like Perea, and active participant in Santa Ana politics.
On a similar note, last year Perea publicly solicited members of the public to file complaints against Santa Ana police officers who helped clear a pro-Hamas encampment at UC Irvine.
Perea’s action was problematic, not least because as a member of the Police Oversight Commission, he would adjudicate he complaints he solicited.
Clearly, these folks are divorced from the reality inhabited by the vast majority of Americans. Yet, activist groups like The Harbor Institute, VietRise and NDLON continue to wield outsize influence over the policy and political sensibilities of most Democrat leaders. Unless that changes, one of our two major parties is likely destined for an extended sojourn in the wilderness.
