Americans across the country have been thrust into another fight over immigration enforcement after a string of high-profile ICE operations and fatal confrontations sparked outrage and a wave of public organizing. Community “observer” groups and protesters have mobilized quickly, with organizers claiming hundreds of thousands engaged online to monitor ICE activity and document encounters. Many on the left are declaring a moral crusade; conservatives should not ignore the scale of this moment or the consequences it will have for public safety and order.
Cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis have seen sizable demonstrations, with college students and activist groups turning out in force to demand an end to deportation sweeps and federal overreach. These protests are loud, well-funded, and media-friendly, and they are being used to push broader political aims that go well beyond narrowly defined immigration policy. Grassroots energy can matter, but it’s important to recognize who is leading these efforts and what agenda they are advancing.
On the ground, the story is more mixed than the platitudes coming from Capitol Hill or cable TV. In parts of South Los Angeles, for example, neighbors—Black and Latino alike—are organizing mutual aid hubs and neighborhood action networks to protect people and stabilize local economies after enforcement spikes disrupted work and services. These are the practical, neighborhood-first responses conservatives should study if we want to offer better solutions than virtue-signaling rallies.
The public’s view of ICE and enforcement is complicated and volatile; national polling this month showed a plurality of Americans disapprove of how ICE operates even as many remain concerned about border security and legal immigration. That contradiction is fertile ground for bad policy driven by emotion rather than the careful reforms America needs—reforms that secure the border, enforce the law, and preserve the rule of law while treating people humanely. Conservatives must offer competence, not just slogans.
At the same time, there’s a real conversation happening inside Black communities about whether this is “their” fight, with social media threads reflecting skepticism, caution, and a refusal by many to be used as props in a campaign that may not deliver benefits to their neighborhoods. That hesitancy is not hostility; it is a weary, hard-headed calculation from people who have been asked to sacrifice time and safety for causes that sometimes leave them behind. National political operatives should stop assuming monolithic loyalties and start listening.
White liberal activists who swoop in with chants, cameras, and hot takes are often celebrated by the media as saviors, but much of what passes for solidarity is performative and short-lived. Real solidarity looks like funding local community centers, supporting parents at work, backing law-and-order reforms that actually reduce crime, and building economic opportunity so that wages and living conditions don’t favor illegal labor. If the left wants to win hearts and minds, it should stop lecturing and start repairing the institutions that matter to working families.
Conservatives should seize this moment to propose a better, clearer alternative: secure the border, overhaul a broken legal-immigration system that incentivizes exploitation, and invest in the communities—Black, Latino, and white—that are most hurt by chaos. That means local empowerment, targeted enforcement against criminals, and practical immigration reforms that reward legal entry and hard work. We should be the party of order, opportunity, and real compassion, not spectacle.
Hardworking Americans of every background deserve leaders who will defend the rule of law while protecting neighborhoods and livelihoods. If conservatives speak plainly about priorities—jobs, safety, and accountable immigration—while offering real help to communities on the ground, we can cut through the noise, expose the performative politics, and win lasting loyalty the way our founders meant: by delivering results.
