Upholding law and order should be the central point of focus for every American and our government.
As it is, we have seen violence and disorder become a prominent issue in our nation for too long. In the political sense, we’ve recently seen issues become heightened with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, fatal shooting of multiple lawmakers in Minnesota and the attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump.
In a civil sense, it is getting a bit less dire; as the Council on Criminal Justice has reported that from January to June of this year, issues like “residential burglaries,” “larcenies” and “shoplifting” have decreased. That same report finds that from 30 cities that were sampled for the report, “crime was 17% lower,” there were “327 fewer homicides,” robbery fell by 20% and there were 10% fewer aggravated assaults.
Despite the fact that we are seeing crime in our nation decrease, it doesn’t mean that it is simply going to disappear completely. To think about this in another way, you don’t stop taking antibiotics just because your symptoms lessen when you’re sick with a bacterial infection. In both ways, stopping just because you’ve seen some sort of progress would be reckless and increase potential complications.
Arguably, a significant part of why we’re seeing a decline in numbers across these 30 major cities is because the current administration is taking action.
For instance, after the National Guard was deployed into the District of Columbia, the BBC reported that violent crime fell 23%, 1,007 offenders were arrested and property crimes fell by nearly one quarter.
It was measures that the White House took, like hiring additional prosecutors or hiring additional United States Park Police officers, that assisted in solving concerns in our nation’s capital.
In another aspect of law and order, it also fully relates to our borders. For people like myself who live in a border state, and even others who don’t, securing our borders was a major issue determining how people voted in the 2024 election.
Another way of saying this is that Americans were concerned about our national security in that election. However, some senators like Alex Padilla don’t seem to agree. Instead, some like Padilla, are more focused elsewhere.
In a segment on CNN, Padilla commented specifically on the actions that federal agents are taking. He stated, “what if I was outside of Home Depot, because I like to do some work around the house, not dressed in a suit, would I be a target of ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] enforcement under Tom Homan? Probably.”
While Padilla does make a reasonable point about how certain law enforcement measures like racial profiling can be problematic and racist, his overexaggeration on the issue of illegal immigration enforcement should be clarified, primarily so he cannot be accused of being racist, himself.
What Padilla’s statements do urge is that we need to focus more on the facts rather than hypotheticals.
As it stands at the time of my writing this article, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website states that it has made 6,703 arrests from October 2024 to September 2025 for “Individuals with Criminal Convictions.” Amongst those arrests include individuals who have been convicted for crimes like: “Assault, Battery [and] Domestic Violence,” “Homicide,” “Manslaughter” and “Illegal Weapons Possession, Transport [and] Trafficking.”
Additionally, ICE statistics support that in Trump’s first 100 days in office, roughly 65,000 illegal immigrants were removed following their arrest on U.S. soil. Since Trump took office, we have seen unlawful crossings reach historic lows; fewer individuals are attempting to cross the border illegally.
ICE also reports that, as of July 22, 2025, “70% of ICE’s arrests have been of illegal aliens convicted or charged with crimes.” Amongst some of those individuals were people like one Mexican national who had convictions on “grand theft, burglary, and tampering with a vehicle, in Los Angeles, CA,” and another individual from Guatemala whose “criminal history includes a conviction for hit and run in Salisbury, MD.”
On the White House’s website, it adds that just this past August alone, total apprehensions amounted to “6,300 illegal aliens at the Southwest border in August — a year-over-year decrease of 90%.” Additionally, an executive order that Trump signed has also sought to incentivize legal immigration through the establishment of “The Gold Card,” which is a measure that is described to “facilitate the entry of aliens who have demonstrated their ability and desire to advance the interests of the United States by voluntarily providing a significant financial gift to the Nation.”
In addition to all of this, we cannot lose sight of the fact that illegal entry into the United States is a crime. Illegal entry disenfranchises legal immigrants who put so much time, effort, resources, funds and trust in our immigration system so that they can become citizens.
Aside from this, we also must be mindful of our national security. Especially with circumstances where this year alone, CBP has had to take 665,985 actions. The House Judiciary Committee has also found in 2024 that the Biden-Harris Administration admitted “at least 99 potential terrorists” into the United States.
The bottom line is that we shouldn’t fool around in keeping our country safe. We should be wanting more protection. Whether that comes from lower age limits so we can train more ICE agents, or offering financial incentives for people to become agents, we should be backing law enforcement, law and order and especially the laws of our land.
We want immigrants. But we need to respect the system. You can disagree by all means, but we must uphold the law.
Michael Duke, GSB ‘26, is a business administration major from Scottsdale, Arizona.
