Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons made it plain on The Will Cain Show on December 8, 2025: the border crisis isn’t an abstract policy failure — it’s a public safety emergency that has real consequences for Americans and for the brave men and women who enforce our laws. Lyons reflected on “another senseless violent act” and said it was time to change course after years of policy that rewarded chaos and punished enforcement.
The most telling number Lyons offered was brutal in its clarity: assaults on ICE officers are up dramatically, more than doubling in some measures, proof that lax border policies and poisonous rhetoric have tangible, violent results. That statistic should make every American pause — when the protectors of our nation are being assaulted at rising rates, the cost of open-door policies is paid in blood and fear.
Lyons didn’t mince words about who has helped restore ICE’s ability to do its job, crediting President Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem with “taking the handcuffs off of ICE” so agents can go after the real villains: violent criminals, gang members, and drug traffickers. Conservatives cheered because law enforcement must be empowered, not demonized, and Lyons’ remarks underscore that restoring authority to officers is not only sensible policy but a moral obligation to protect communities.
He also blasted the reckless rhetoric from some on the left that equates ICE agents with monsters, warning that words have consequences and are driving up attacks on officers. Lyons’ charge that the demonization of enforcement contributes to a dangerous environment for federal agents is an indictment of a political culture that values performative outrage more than public safety.
This moment should be a clarifying one for the country: secure borders and robust enforcement are not partisan talking points — they are the foundation of a functioning nation. Republicans in Washington must back policies that give agents the tools, staffing, and legal backing to do their jobs, and rank-and-file Americans should demand accountability from anyone who treats open borders as a virtue.
Patriots know what’s at stake: families, neighborhoods, and the rule of law. We should stand with the men and women who put themselves between chaos and order, insist on enforcement over excuses, and never forget that a sovereign nation without secure borders is not a nation at all.
