Make Cities Safe Again: Trump accelerates on one of the key points of his campaign

Donald Trump has accelerated in his crusade against crime in the country's big cities. The president is aware that this was one of the key points of the campaign that brought him back to the White House and is tackling it on two fronts: the massive and rapid deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records through ICE and the deployment of the military in those localities where violence has skyrocketed in the face of the impotence or inoperativeness of their leaders, almost always Democrats.

The increased intensity in the fight against criminals has drawn a twofold response. On the one hand, there are many political leaders who have turned their backs on defunding the Police after seeing their poor results and have begun hiring, with greater incentives, new officers to secure their streets and their neighbors.

Trump's numbers encourage cities to follow his example

DC's own mayor, Muriel Bowser, has gotten the City Council to approve new hires and a sizable salary increase of 13% to offer up to $75,000 a year to new recruits, along with a $25,000 onboarding bonus. National Guard Troops patrolling the streets of Washington and the plummeting crimes in one of the world's worst crime-ridden cities have been compelling.

Several cities that became flagships of this movement, such as Minneapolis, especially after the death of George Floyd, have ended up lowering the flag, and are reaping the rewards. Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Denver, which also reversed these policies, continue to register high crime rates, but have seen a pronounced drop in them.

Crime falls in localities where 'Defund the Police' was broken

According to a report from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF), homicides increased in these cities by 54% during the de-funding period and decreased by 40% during the re-funding period.

The federal administration itself has embarked on a hiring spree for new agents with a major recruitment drive for ICE agents that has already received 150,000 applications.

Troop Deployment

However, the incendiary Democratic rhetoric against ICE, has led Donald Trump to implement another avenue to secure the streets: deployment of the military. It was precisely the riots in Los Angeles against ICE raids, spurred by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom and the city's mayor, Karen Bass, that led the president to order for the first time the deployment of the National Guard to protect members of the Immigration agency.

From there, Washington DC was the first location to receive troops for the specific purpose of fighting crime. The results of the test are proving remarkable, something the Democrats themselves have had to acknowledge.

However, other cities targeted by the president for high violent crime, especially Chicago, continue to refuse help from the national executive and accuse Trump, with warmongering language, of trying to occupy territory and persecute citizens. In Portland, where the deployment of military personnel due to Antifa's actions against ICE, the mayor and governor of Oregon have been quick to reject the measure, and even to take it to court.