Agree or disagree with the policy, the anti-ICE protests created such bad optics for the administration that they undoubtedly had some effect on the midterm election outcome. 

They helped galvanize leftists, offended liberals, and some Independents were repelled by the imagery and were queasy about how "cruel" they seemed. A lot of that had to do with media framing and the effectiveness of the propaganda campaign that created the impression that farm workers were being beaten and shot, families ripped apart, and nice activists just trying to protect Jose and little Jesus were literally under fire every day by cruel ICE agents. 

No matter what the reality was, it worked beautifully, and it is one of several reasons why Democrats won squeaker elections. 

But of course there is a different side to the story, and one that the Trump administration points to and tries to emphasize (unsuccessfully, because the media ignores it for the most part), and that is how radical judges and sanctuary jurisdictions go out of their way to protect dangerous criminals who go on to commit more crimes. Such as trying to hijack airplanes or raping women and children. 

These are not one-off "mistakes" that "happen" when general policies fail in particular instances; they are a consistent, easily preventable pattern. After all, releasing criminals and failing to hand them over to ICE is an explicit choice to keep known criminals in the United States. It's not feeling sorry for the construction worker just trying to get a better life. 

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I know plenty of liberals will SAY something like, "Of course I support deporting criminals; I just want my neighbor Jose to stay here with his family." But that is a cop-out, since that is not the policy being implemented. Siding with the open-borders crowd obviously and necessarily means fighting to keep the criminals here. How do we know that? Because that is what is happening here, and these people vote for the people implementing the policy. 

When you release illegal aliens into the country willy-nilly and refuse to hand over criminals to ICE, you are making a choice. And that choice is to endanger the public to satisfy an ideological position. Jose down the street may have been working at the construction site, and his kids may be friends of yours in school, but the people who just crossed the border, who have been arrested for committing crimes, or who have violated deportation orders or reoffended by reentering the country don't fit those categories at all. 

We need to clarify the distinction. I won't fault the administration's efforts on that point, except in one respect: the fight over immigration raids, mostly unfairly, created so much noise that the larger issue of the "worst of the worst" got lost in it. Democrats won the propaganda war on the issue. 

We did get the Laken Riley Act, but now, in the minority, we need to make the Democrats defend these policies outright, every day and in every way. Every crime committed, every criminal released, and every atrocity must be wrapped around their necks. 

There is no way to defend the hijacker, the rapist, the murderer who entered illegally, was released by liberals, and who keeps harming Americans. 

Make them own it. And as importantly, make the liberals and Independents who are queasy about it in private but who still vote for the policies own it. 

You voted for this. Own it. 

Democrats and radicals made us defend something that LOOKED bad, and buried the stories that really were bad. We need to reverse the game on this. 

It's the only way. We 

 just say, "people will realize the radical policies are bad." That may (or may not) be true in the long run, but not in the short run unless we make it obvious who is to blame. 

We succeeded on the border chaos; we can succeed here, although it will take effort and constant repetition to break through. No single incident will do it, but there is a steady stream of them, and we have to emphasize that this happens daily. 

Things that seem obvious to you and me aren't obvious to people who only half-pay attention to the news. They have other things to worry about and live by vibes. 

Make the vibes look bad for Democrats. They are harming people. Make them pay.