Jason Smith praises Trump's "lethal strike" against alleged drug smugglers

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

On September 2, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military carried out a lethal strike against members of a Venezuelan cartel who were smuggling deadly drugs in a boat that was headed to the United States. 

The strike came just days after the Pentagon deployed warships to the Caribbean to crack down on cartels and stop the flow of this poison into our communities. “There’s more where that came from,” President Trump said when he announced the strike.

Whether it’s going after dangerous cartel members who are fueling crime and flooding our communities with deadly drugs, carrying out the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history, or swiftly restoring order on the U.S. border, President Donald Trump is doing an incredible job fixing the significant damage caused by Washington Democrats and President Joe Biden.

Cartels, human traffickers, and drug smugglers operated unchecked and millions of illegal immigrants streamed into our country when Joe Biden was president. Americans paid the price in the form of drug overdoses, violent crime, and strained resources in our schools and hospitals. Fortunately, those days are over thanks to President Trump.

He is tackling the border crisis at every angle. Law enforcement agencies are working around the clock to get dangerous illegal immigrants off our streets. And once they’re in custody, his administration is moving quickly to get them out of our country through his mass deportation campaign. On top of this, he’s implemented tough policies that have effectively shut down the border. He promised to end the border crisis, and in just a matter of months, he is delivering results that no one can ignore.

Biden and Washington Democrats did everything they could to shield illegal immigrants from arrest. President Trump is taking the exact opposite approach. In June alone, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 30,000 illegals – the most illegals arrested by the agency in at least half a decade. The administration is also cracking down on Sanctuary Cities, which block local law enforcement from working with federal authorities to deport people living here illegally.

President Trump’s mass deportation campaign has been an incredible success. According to Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there have been nearly 200,000 deportations since President Trump took office. These aren’t just numbers on a page – they include violent gang members, drug traffickers, and convicted pedophiles who will no longer threaten our communities. And last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the nation’s illegal immigrant population has plummeted by 1.6 million people since January, with the vast majority of these individuals opting for self-deportation.

Thanks to President Trump’s bold actions, our southern border is effectively closed. In March, the southwest border saw the lowest number of crossings ever, with just 7,180 recorded; to put that into perspective, border agents frequently recorded over 7,000 border crossings per day when Biden was president. President Trump’s effective immigration agenda is discouraging migrants from even considering trying to enter our nation illegally.

Time and again, Biden claimed he didn’t have the tools or authority to singlehandedly end the chaos on the border. If you believe that, then I’ve got an oceanfront property in the Ozarks to sell you.

House Republicans are committed to making sure President Trump has the resources he needs to continue his incredibly effective immigration agenda. The One Big Beautiful Bill, which I helped write and was signed into law in July, included the largest ever one-time investment in border security. But the fight to undo the damage caused by the Left’s open-border agenda isn’t over. I will continue doing everything I can to help President Trump keep our communities safe and our border secure.