53 Million Reasons the US Needs Real Leadership.
In all three presidential campaigns, Trump promised to close the border and deport all illegal aliens.
In 2016, when Trump took office in his first term, official estimates of illegal aliens were about 12.0 million; by the end of Trump’s first term in 2020 the official number was 10.5 million, a 1.5 million decrease under Trump–although many would argue both numbers were actually much higher, especially accounting for overstayed visas and so-called asylum seekers.
By the time Biden was done with his stolen term as president in January 2025, the Current Population Survey put the total foreign-born population at a staggering 53.3 million. The Biden administration claimed to have given many of these foreigners legal status through the app created specifically to fraudulently expedite the asylum process.
Yet statistics show that at least 30 million illegal aliens were living in the United States at the start of 2025 when Trump took office, and an additional 23.3 million foreigners had legal status.
Almost 100% of the 53.3 million foreigners living in the US are non-white, according to the American Community Survey and the US Census data statistics.
During the 2024 presidential campaign Trump repeatedly promised: “On day one, we’ll begin the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of our country.”
At the Republican convention Trump said: “To keep our families safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”
Trump also told Time magazine he would “target 15 to 20 million people” for deportation that he acknowledged are currently in the US illegally.
Trump was largely elected specifically on this issue. So as we approach the middle of Trump's term, it’s fair to say this is a good opportunity to take a look at the numbers and see how effective Trump has been at keeping the campaign promise that got him elected.
Since Jan. 20, 2025 DHS has reported that the Border Patrol has effectively stopped the bleeding with almost zero illegal border crossings. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) HAS reportedly removed roughly 1 million illegal aliens (with an additional 2+ million self-deportations).
ICE and DHS are currently reporting formal ICE removals at roughly 1,250 per day on average over the last few months. That implies a typical week of about 8,000–9,000 ICE removals, or approximately 39,000/month or 468,000/year.
At this rate it would take about 48 years to deport 20 million illegal aliens, or 64 years if the federal government had the will to deport all 30 million that currently live in the US.
To put this in context, the Obama administration reported an average of 410,000 “removals” per year. A large share of those ICE removals were invaders caught by Border Patrol and then processed and removed by ICE, not interior street arrests.
Conversely, Trump’s 468,000 removals per year are almost 100% interior street arrests while Border Patrol has largely contained the border.
So the Trump administration is doing slightly better than Obama, although with much more difficulty, thanks to Biden's flights, buses, free hotel stays, free phones, and applications assisting illegal invaders into the interior.
But what have other American presidents done?
Eisenhower’s famous crackdown on illegal aliens was a short campaign called Operation Wetback in 1954. Then Attorney General Herbert Brownell and INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service - the department now called ICE) Commissioner Joseph Swing, a retired general, ran it. Eisenhower approved it. It was aimed almost entirely at Mexican farmworkers in the Southwest who were in the US illegally.
Officials at the time estimated more than a million illegal Mexican workers were in the country on the eve of Operation Wetback. Most Americans at that time agreed this was a crisis, worthy of emergency action.
But not American farm owners.
In the early 1950s, American farmers wanted to escape paying the rising wages that American citizens were earning in other sectors and began hiring cheap labor from Mexico. Of course this brought a flood of illegal aliens across the border.
Both American citizens and the Mexican government wanted the illegal channel closed.
Operation Wetback started in June of 1954 in California and Arizona, then Texas and farther north.
Operation Wetback was like a military sweep: roadblocks, farm and factory raids, trains stopped, local police involvement. Illegal aliens were bussed, flown, or shipped deep into Mexico so they could not walk back the same day.
These raids were intentionally publicized as publicity was part of the strategy. Officials wanted the aliens to leave on their own before agent enforcement was required.
The INS reported about 1.3 million illegal aliens were deported during Operation Wetback.
The agency guessed many more had fled ahead of the raids.
INS Commissioner Joseph Swing declared the wetback problem over. They had removed all illegal aliens in just a few months. Unfortunately the illegal crossings did not stay gone forever.
What can we conclude from this?
First, this is just one of the problems the nation faces today that exemplifies the deep divide between Heritage Americans and the woke communists on the Left.
Second, we see that no matter how sincere a president's campaign promise may be; no matter how strong public support is for a policy; the reality today is, unless the president is willing to break the law like Biden did by encouraging the invasion, the President of the United States simply does not have the power to keep promises, especially domestically.
The truth is, the US president has relatively little power when it comes to domestic issues. The US Constitution was initially set up as a republic but has deteriorated into a universal representative democracy, or rule by committee. Aristotle, Plato and even our American Founding Fathers describe democracy as a recipe for disaster.
To illustrate the point, let's look at an analogy.
Let's say a group of people (representing the American Congress) are required to bake something (pass a bill) together.
It's one thing if everyone agrees the goal is to bake a cake. It might make sense to debate and compromise over chocolate versus vanilla or how much sugar to add.
But what if half the group wants to bake a cake and the other half desires to make rat poison?
The ingredients cannot be negotiated. There can be no compromise.
But our Congress negotiates and compromises over issues as diametrically opposed as this all the time. Politicians often hide a poison pill inside a bill they disagree with.
If the president is trying to bake a cake, but Congress will not allow him to use flour, by definition the president cannot be successful.
The only answer to this is to do away with the failed experiment of democracy.
One man, with a fatherly love for his people, would not only be able to execute his plan, but would then stand solely responsible for the results.
In the glorious Republic of Rome, the Senate would often elect a strong, capable leader, for a specific set of time, to accomplish a specific set of goals, to whom the Senate would grant all necessary powers.
The Roman Republic called this a dictator, and it was extremely effective at staving off existential threats.
This is the natural order of leadership. Leadership in America, campaign promises, and policy ideas, specifically while ruled by a committee, are an illusion.
Maxx Prax
American Fascist Imperium
Sr Writer
X @maddmaxxXIV