Michael Ramirez: Defunding Homeland Security 03-18-26

From America's Premier Editorial Cartoonist

SECURING THE HOMELAND

There is no question the Department of Homeland Security under the incompetent leadership of Kristy Noem has a lot of problems and procedures that are in dire need of reform. And granted, we are a country deeply divided in this atmosphere of polarized political theater, but whether you agree with these policies or not, politics used to end at our borders.

This sideshow needs to end. It needs to end before a lot of people get hurt.

Not funding the Department of Homeland Security in the middle of a conflict where terrorists would gladly give up their lives to attack our homeland and kill as many Americans as they can seems reckless.

Should we protect America and Americans from jeopardy in the time of war?

That seems like a pretty easy question to answer... The inability to answer that basic question begs the follow-up… Exactly whose side are you on?

And if you can’t differentiate between legal immigration and illegal immigration or understand the importance of securing our borders, perhaps you’re not smart enough to be in a leadership position.

I am opposed to law enforcement wearing masks, unless they are performing undercover operations where their identity needs to be shielded.

They work for us. We pay their salaries, and we have a right to know who they are and what they are doing. That privilege is enshrined in our Constitution to protect citizens from a tyrannical government.

According to FBI statistics, “there are 750,000 sworn law enforcement personnel in America. Non-sworn, full-time civilian law enforcement exceeds a million people.” And every single one of them work for the American taxpayer. They are civil servants, government employees who enforce the law.

New technology has allowed easier access to private information, but regular law enforcement, civil servants and governmental employees go about their duties exposed every single day.

Raising the penalty for doxing and harassing any government employee, or any private citizen for that matter, should have severe consequences. But in a free society, liberty must always prevail.

I also don’t think we need Border Patrol agents running around armed to the teeth, pretending to be part of a SWAT team… “10-33! Day worker! Landscaper! Tangos at 6 & 7 o’clock.”

A CATO Institute report from November of last year carried the headline, “5% of People Detained by ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions.”

“Data from recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations reveal that less than 14% of individuals arrested had a conviction for a violent crime, while a large number had no criminal convictions at all. The majority of those arrested typically have convictions for nonviolent, often minor, offenses such as traffic violations or immigration infractions.”

The law is the law. If you violate the law, you bear the consequences. But the devil is in the details. With limited resources and a whopping $39 Trillion national debt, you would think that sound judgement and priorities would be exercised over some arbitrary quotas to please your boss.

Again… politics.

It is a shame that the knuckleheads in Congress can’t seem to figure this out. They would rather mask the issues in a smokescreen of politics to score political points.

How sad is it that our so-called leaders can’t seem to perform one of their essential fundamental constitutional duties, Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution (protecting individual liberty Clause 2 & 3) and appropriate funds or simply, pass a budget?

Congress can’t do or won’t do it because they value politics above competence. Okay, maybe I went too far… I implied that at some point they were competent.

I have to be careful because with a name like Ramirez, the next time you hear from me, it may be from Uganda or Rwanda. We pay them and three other countries $32 million to accept deportees and asylum seekers. Hmmm… I wonder if they deport people to Fiji?

Right now, we should be worried about terrorists coming into America. -m

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