Immigration has become a hot topic in politics today. Not that it hasn’t been a hot topic before, it’s just with the expansion of ICE presence and mass arrests and deportations it is hotter than ever.
Now, I will start off by saying that I don’t like Trump. I think that he is more focused on himself and his legacy than many other items on his agenda. He wants his name on everything like it will make him immortal.
But this has nothing to do with my opinions of his policies and decisions. It’s possible to dislike someone but agree with them politically, and vice versa.
I do like a lot of Trump’s policies and decisions, but I disagree with how he’s implementing them. Let me go over a few.
Immigration
I can say that in a perfect world, no one should have to have a Government’s permission to enter or leave a country. Borders should be open and people free to come and go as they please. But we don’t live in a perfect world. We have many people who wish to come into this country to either do us harm, or to take advantage of any social benefits they might be allowed to receive. Therefore we must have closed borders and fully vet anyone who is looking to come in.
Plus, before 1914, when immigrants came into this country by the thousands through Ellis Island, they came to work and integrate into the American dream. Today, many still come across the border for that very same reason, but many others come here for the social “benefits” they can receive. That is, they are looking for a handout.
So I agree with Trump closing the border, which he has done so effectively.
But on the mass deportations, I think we are spending too much effort with too little result. Yes we should go after the criminals, both legal and illegal, but as far as most of the people here illegally, this is what we should do.
Go After The Employers
It is a criminal act to knowingly employ anyone here illegally. It would be more efficient to go after the employers. If the managers of a company knew that they could be fined, jailed, or both for not properly checking to see if their employees were here legally, they would take better care to only hire legal immigrants.
Less opportunities for work would mean less illegal people here.
Now we need to couple this with making it easier for those wanting to come into this country for work to get in legally. Properly vet people while cutting the red tape. In other words, harder to get into the US illegally, but easier to get in legally.
Reduction In The Size Of Government
In the beginning of Trump’s second term, he brought in Elon Musk and took an obscure department and started calling it “DOGE” (The Department of Government Efficiency.) He couldn’t actually rename it, as only Congress could do that, he simply changed what he was calling it. Much like now calling the Department of Defense the “Department of War.” He doesn’t have the power to rename departments.
DOGE started going into departments and performing mass firings and layoffs, only to be rebuked by the courts and having to re-hire some of the people. With back pay to boot. Not very efficient in my opinion.
I do believe that our Government is too bloated and needs to be streamlined. So as the late, great Leroy Powell would say: “If I was in charge (which I should be)…”
Attrition
In a normal year, the Federal Government loses anywhere from 5% – 7% of its employees through attrition. That includes retirements, voluntary resignments, and disciplinary firings. Let’s take the middle, 6%.
At the beginning of Trump’s second term, the U.S. Government employed approximately 2.31 million workers. This does not include the military. So at 6% attrition, in the beginning of 2026 the Government would have 2.16 million workers.
In the beginning of 2027 – 2.03 million
2028 – 1.9 million
2029 – 1.8 million
So through normal attrition, if we simply had a put in a hiring freeze, at the end of Trump’s term our Federal government would have around 22% fewer employees. No protests, no lawsuits, no court cases.
See why I should be in charge?
War In Iran
Now I agree that Iran is bad. So bad that most of the Arab countries that surround it want regime change as much as we do. Iran makes the area unstable, and these countries want more western influence. Golf courses, hotels, amusement parks, F1 races, MMA matches, etc.
It’s been like this since 1979. I was 25 years old when the Islamic revolution took place and Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Trump ran on the promise of “no new wars”, which came out to be like Bush’s “No new taxes.”
His excuse reason for this war is because of Iran’s nuclear weapons policy, which after we bombed them in June of 2025, Trump declared it was “completely and totally obliterated.” He declared that the strikes had set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by decades.
Well it seems that he was wrong, although he has never admitted it.
So yes, Iran needs to be taken out to the woodshed. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be us to do it. It should be a coalition of Gulf states and possibly other surrounding countries.
We possibly could get them to do this by encouraging more western companies to invest in those states if there were to be regime change in Iran. That and telling them that our support will get less and less until they agree to help. Might work, might not, and we might have to resort to going it alone. But all Trump has accomplished with this war is to drive energy (and most other) prices higher and Iran is still Iran.
Those of you who think trump is great, and those who believe he is terrible, let me know what you think. Let’s see if I agree or disagree with you. Maybe together we can come up with a way to help fix this.
As always, you can reply to this post, or email me at larry@larryinatlanta.com