If ICE Is Hamstrung, Hold on to Your Wallets

Betsy McCaughey
Wed, 11 Feb 2026 12:10:15 -0800
Opinion

A new Harvard/Harris public opinion poll shows two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That spells trouble for taxpayers and everyone who wants safe neighborhoods.

A majority of Americans voted for President Donald Trump to enforce immigration laws. The poll, done just after the shooting of anti-ICE activist Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, indicates how Democratic political rhetoric and misleading media reports are causing most Americans to change their minds. Democrats in Congress are trying to hold back ICE funds.

If this growing movement to hamstring ICE and let recent illegals stay here succeeds, hold on to your wallet. Either the criminal migrants roving the streets will rob you, or you'll have to empty your wallet yourself to pay for the welfare benefits illegals consume.
Updated: Wed Feb 11, 2026

A new Harvard/Harris public opinion poll shows two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That spells trouble for taxpayers and everyone who wants safe neighborhoods.

A majority of Americans voted for President Donald Trump to enforce immigration laws. The poll, done just after the shooting of anti-ICE activist Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, indicates how Democratic political rhetoric and misleading media reports are causing most Americans to change their minds. Democrats in Congress are trying to hold back ICE funds.

If this growing movement to hamstring ICE and let recent illegals stay here succeeds, hold on to your wallet. Either the criminal migrants roving the streets will rob you, or you'll have to empty your wallet yourself to pay for the welfare benefits illegals consume.

Last week, New York City cops nabbed four gun-toting criminals ages 18 to 20 who had just robbed a couple on West 47th Street. Of course, because of New York's pro-criminal laws, a judge let them back out on the street within hours. Here's what's key: Three of the thugs already were wanted on ICE detainers.

If politicians would let ICE do its job and remove these criminals, we'd be a lot safer.

New York data show illegals commit crimes three times as often as legal residents.

Politicians demanding that ICE leave their states are stabbing the public in the back. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ordered state law enforcement to dissolve any partnerships with ICE. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is calling for the agency's abolition. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is telling ICE to "go home."

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced legislation to limit local police cooperation with ICE, which she calls "a rogue federal agency that's been unleashed on the American streets for the sole purpose of creating chaos, carnage and fear." Nonsense.

The tragic deaths in Minnesota need to be investigated, and ICE training procedures need to be adapted to the new reality of subversive agitators like the Chinese Communist Party-linked People's Forum egging on crowds to obstruct ICE agents. They are not trained on how to handle this manufactured obstruction.

But ICE's core mission is vital. Violent crime surged during former President Joe Biden's four years — at the same time that the U.S. experienced an unprecedented influx of illegal aliens. Over 60% of those arrested by ICE in the last year have pending criminal charges or convictions, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons testified to Congress on Tuesday.

If ICE is allowed to do its job, our streets will be safer, and the nation's generous welfare benefits can be spent on needy Americans.

An estimated 61% of households headed by an illegal used federal welfare benefits in 2024, including SNAP, Medicaid, federally supported health centers, substance abuse treatment programs, mental health services and Head Start.

Illegals are not eligible for these things under federal law, and Trump cracked down on their use when he took office in 2025. But many blue states, including California, Connecticut and New York, then shifted the cost on to state taxpayers.

Lamont blamed Trump's "harsh cuts" for increased state spending in Connecticut, without actually spelling out that the money is going for illegals.

Unless ICE deports a large number of those who entered the country unlawfully, overstayed visas or were paroled during the Biden presidency, these migrants will cost America $1.5 trillion over their lifetimes. Immigrants ages 18 to 24 without a high school diploma cost taxpayers the most, each consuming an average of $332,000 in lifetime welfare and health benefits, according to the Manhattan Institute.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani couldn't care less. He just announced that the roughly 31,000 migrants depending on the city's shelter system can stay an unlimited time at an estimated cost of $270 per day per family. Former Mayor Eric Adams had imposed a 60-day limit to save taxpayers' money, but Mamdani is throwing that limit to the wind.

On Friday, Mamdani barred ICE from accessing records of who uses public benefits, saying, "No New Yorker should be afraid to apply for city services like child care because they are an immigrant."

Mamdani urged generosity "for the stranger among us." Soaring rhetoric, to be sure. But soon the mayor will have to deal with the reality of a $12 billion budget hole and ask what sacrifices other New Yorkers should have to endure to provide child care for illegals.

In 2023, Adams warned that the influx of illegals "would destroy New York City." New York cannot take care of an unlimited number of "strangers among us."

Mamdani needs to put aside the fairytale rhetoric and work out an arrangement with his texting buddy — Trump — to enable ICE to do its job safely.

In Gotham and across the nation, ICE is needed. Don't fall for the manufactured hysteria.