President Donald Trump is continuing his deportation efforts at a steady pace despite growing protests against immigration enforcement and is beginning to make progress, according to a new analysis.
In just five months, the US illegal-immigrant population has dropped an estimated 1 million — putting Team Trump on course to foster more than 2 million deportations this year even without (so far) adding to ICE resources,” the New York Post Editorial Board noted on Friday.
“It’s partly the high-profile arrests and expulsions of child molesters and murderers, of course, but also an enormous number of ‘self-deportations’ as illegal migrants realize their odds of staying are dropping fast,” The Post board continued.
“This good news also suggests that Trump’s instincts were sound when he recently called for a slowdown in workplace raids, which anyway don’t seem to be capturing the most recent border-jumpers,” said the op-ed.
“The president absolutely has a duty to make good on his campaign vows, but he’s getting it done already: With so much else on his plate now, best not mess with success.”
Meanwhile, the Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi continues to announce the arrests and prosecutions of the most dangerous illegal aliens throughout the U.S.
A Mexican national and violent member of the Los Zetas cartel was sentenced today to 35 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $792 million for conspiring to manufacture and distribute large quantities of cocaine and marijuana, fully aware that the drugs would be unlawfully imported into the United States, the DOJ said in a Friday press release.
The U.S. Department of State designated Los Zetas—now operating as Cartel del Noreste—as a foreign terrorist organization on February 20, 2025.
According to court documents, Jaime Gonzalez-Duran, also known as Hummer, 49, was personally responsible for importing over 450 kilograms of cocaine and 90,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States, said the DOJ. He engaged in violent acts against rival drug trafficking groups to control drug plazas and trafficking routes, stored and transported weapons, explosives, and ammunition, and bribed law enforcement officers to prevent interference with drug shipments.
Gonzalez-Duran was a founding member of Los Zetas, a drug trafficking organization composed of former Mexican military officers that initially served as the armed militant wing of the Gulf Cartel. He later held the position of regional commander in the Mexican cities of Matamoros, Reynosa, and Miguel Alemán after Los Zetas formed an alliance with the Gulf Cartel known as “The Company,” said the DOJ.
In November 2008, authorities seized a warehouse maintained by Gonzalez-Duran in Reynosa containing 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, and 14 sticks of TNT—arms used to secure control over drug territories and shipments. Additionally, intercepted phone calls from May 2007 revealed Gonzalez-Duran coordinating the transport of nearly $1.5 million in cash from McAllen, Texas, into Mexico, the press release added.
“Jaime Gonzalez-Duran employed violence and intimidation tactics to maintain Los Zetas’ reign over key drug trafficking routes, especially on the U.S.-Mexico border, used to send vast quantities of narcotics into the United States,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Today’s sentence is a forceful reminder to Mexican terrorist organizations that the Department of Justice is committed to bringing to justice those who threaten the well-being and safety of the American people for their own personal gain,” Galeotti added.
Gonzalez-Duran pleaded guilty on Feb. 28 to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine and marijuana for unlawful importation into the United States from Mexico.
The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that leverages the full resources of the Department of Justice to combat illegal immigration, dismantle cartels and other transnational criminal organizations, and safeguard communities from violent criminals, the DOJ release added.
Operation Take Back America coordinates efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhoods to enhance effectiveness, it said.