Immigration and Customs Enforcement is doing exactly what voters demanded: hunting down violent criminal aliens that blue-state politicians keep turning loose. In recent days, agents in California arrested Miguel Barrera-Corona, a Mexican national with a jaw-dropping forty-nine prior arrests on his record. We’re not talking parking tickets. We’re talking convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, vehicle theft, criminal threats to terrorize, drunk driving, shoplifting, carrying a loaded gun in public, hiding a firearm in a car, trespassing, property damage, vandalism, petty theft, and even carrying a concealed dagger. That’s the rap sheet you get when a sanctuary state treats handcuffs like a suggestion.

Homeland Security made it plain: this is what happens when local politicians refuse to cooperate with detainers and block information-sharing. A DHS spokesperson said the weekend blitz targeted “drug traffickers, human traffickers, child predators, and sex offenders,” and singled out Barrera-Corona’s forty-nine arrests as the poster child for a failed sanctuary experiment. The message from Washington is equally plain—under President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE has been unleashed to remove “the worst of the worst” before they create more victims.

And it wasn’t just California. ICE teams from coast to coast rolled up a slate of predators who never should have been walking free. Among those taken into custody: Carlos Guzman-Santiago of Mexico, convicted of a second-degree forcible sex offense; Glenda Molina-Sorto of El Salvador, convicted of child abuse along with narcotics sales; Juan Carlos Jimenez of the Dominican Republic, convicted of third-degree sexual assault involving a family member; Jorge Carmona-Martinez of Mexico, convicted of unlawful contact with a minor; Carlos Sipriano Moreno-Pineda of Honduras, convicted of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant; Mauricio Barrios-Satay of Guatemala, convicted of assault causing injury; Benigno Carrillo-Hernandez of Honduras, convicted in a conspiracy to transport illegal aliens; Karen Hernandez-Medrano of Mexico, convicted of alien smuggling; and Miguel Perez-Herrera of Mexico, convicted in a meth-distribution conspiracy topping fifty grams.

Read that again. These aren’t “non-violent first-timers.” These are repeat offenders with victims—women, kids, families—who paid the price for leniency. Sanctuary politicians can preen for cable news, but the communities they represent are the ones absorbing the assaults, the break-ins, and the funerals.

California’s leadership has spent years advertising itself as a magnet for anyone here illegally—then feigns shock when violent offenders treat the state like a revolving door. Meanwhile, the White House is rebuilding a simple formula that works: identify criminal aliens, detain them, coordinate with federal prosecutors when appropriate, and deport them. That’s not complicated. It’s common sense—and it saves lives.

The contrast could not be sharper. On one side, prosecutors and judges who minimize bail, downgrade felonies, and refuse to honor ICE detainers. On the other, a federal strategy that prioritizes public safety over political theater. When a man with forty-nine arrests can stroll the streets of a sanctuary city, the system isn’t broken by accident—it’s broken on purpose. Voters know it, which is why law-and-order policies are surging in support while soft-on-crime talking points crumble under the weight of real human tragedy.

Critics will scream “xenophobia” to drown out the facts. But the facts are stubborn: the people removed in this sweep weren’t targeted for their nationality—they were targeted for their crimes. Americans of every background deserve subways, sidewalks, and schools that aren’t terrorized by predators who should have been behind bars or out of the country long ago.

If California won’t defend its own residents, ICE will. And judging by this latest roundup, the agency is just getting warmed up.