"An Inconvenient Truth"
 
As you know, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump went to Dayton and El Paso yesterday, where they met with the victims of the mass shootings and their families, as well as first responders and local leaders.  There were many photos of people greeting the president and thanking him for his support.
 
Sadly, many progressives could not put politics aside for just one day to allow families to grieve with the president.  There were vocal demonstrations in both cities, with many protestors blaming the president's rhetoric for the atrocities.
 
But to the surprise of National Public Radio, one person who is not blaming President Trump is Tito Anchondo, whose brother, Andre, and sister-in-law, Jordan, were killed shielding their two-month-old son. 
 
Tito told NPR that while he was concerned by some of the president's rhetoric, "I think people are misconstruing President Trump's ideas.  My brother was very supportive of Trump."
 
Something else that is likely being misconstrued is the motivation of the El Paso shooter.  Serious journalists are beginning to take a closer look at the manifesto he left behind, and they are coming to a very different conclusion from the media's initial knee-jerk reaction.
 
For starters, he named the manifesto "An Inconvenient Truth," after Al Gore's famous film.  He was obsessed with population control, and parroted much of the left's anti-corporatist, climate change rhetoric.  You can read more here and here.
 
 
 
What Voters Want
 
There has been a lot of talk lately about "white supremacy" as it relates to the immigration debate.  This is a deliberate smear designed to silence those who have legitimate concerns about open borders and the strain it creates on our social safety net. 
 
Everyone concedes that our current immigration system is broken and desperately in need of reform.  But the advocates of liberal immigration policies would do well to reconsider their rhetoric.  The latest Harvard/Harris poll finds that nearly 70% of middle-class voters oppose open borders and increased immigration. 
 
Hard-working Americans do not deserve to be smeared as bigots for merely supporting commonsense immigration policies.
 
 
 
Enforcing The Law
 
Yesterday, federal officials carried out "the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in our nation's history."  Seven food processing plants in Mississippi were raided by nearly 600 ICE agents.  In total, they detained almost 680 illegal immigrants.
 
The operation was the result of a year-long criminal investigation overseen by U.S. Attorney D. Michael Hurst, Jr., of the Southern District of Mississippi.  In a statement, Hurst said:
 
"The execution of federal search warrants today was simply about enforcing the rule of law in our state and throughout our great country. . .  We are a nation of laws, and we will remain so by continuing to enforce our laws and ensuring that justice is done."
 
Predictably, many open borders advocates condemned the raids, some even going so far as to call them "an act of terror."  But nothing could be further from the truth.  As the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency explained:
 
"These laws help protect jobs for U.S. citizens and lawful U.S. residents, eliminate unfair competitive advantages for companies that unlawfully hire an illegal workforce, and strengthen public safety and national security.
 
"Unauthorized workers often use stolen identities of legal U.S. workers, which can profoundly damage for years the identity-theft victim's credit, medical records and other aspects of their everyday life. . .
 
"Worksite enforcement investigations often involve additional criminal activity, such as alien smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, document fraud, worker exploitation and/or substandard wage and working conditions."
 
 
 
Iranian Deception
 
As you know, Iran has seized three oil tankers in recent weeks as they were traveling through the Strait of Hormuz and in the Persian Gulf.  In at least one case, Iran claimed the tanker was in its territorial waters when it was commandeered by forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
 
Yesterday, the Trump Administration warned that the Iranians appear to be jamming GPS systems in order to intentionally lead vessels off course.  U.S. officials also warned that some ships have "reported spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be U.S. or coalition warships."
 
In related news, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that the Jewish state was assisting coalition forces in Operation Sentinel to help protect international shipping in the region.  Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami blasted Israel's cooperation as "highly provocative."
 
But what is truly "provocative" are Iran's deceptive tactics.  Iran seems intent on provoking a confrontation.  Tehran is also demonstrating yet again the true nature of the Iranian regime and why it cannot be trusted.