But, Michelle: Barack deported more immigrants than Trump

Michelle Obama says Donald Trump’s immigration policies “keep her up at night.” But if immigration enforcement is a moral crisis, why wasn’t she losing sleep when her own husband deported more immigrants than any president in American history?

Instead of helping the Democrats, this kind of out-of-touch moral posturing only highlights the party’s elite detachment from reality – and it’s costing them working-class voters who live with the consequences of the failed policies they are still defending.

Michelle Obama may lie awake thinking about immigration enforcement. Many of us stay up worrying about what happens when our neighborhoods, wages and public schools are strained by policies designed to win applause, not provide order.

Let’s be clear: no principled American wants cruelty toward immigrants. We understand better than most the pain of displacement and exclusion. But there’s a dangerous sleight of hand in how the immigration debate is being framed. Leaders like Mrs. Obama present a false binary: that we either embrace wide-open borders or risk losing our humanity. That’s dishonest. Sovereignty is not the enemy of compassion – lawlessness is.

It’s easy for political elites to wax poetic about “the marginalized” when they live behind gates, send their children to private schools and enjoy elite-level insulation from the costs of the policies they promote. It’s much harder to admit that mass, unchecked immigration – especially illegal immigration – puts downward pressure on wages, overburdens public services and fuels housing instability. These aren’t abstract concerns. They’re everyday realities for working-class Americans who can’t afford to outsource their safety or livelihood.

And here’s the part that Mrs. Obama ignores: Black Americans are disproportionately affected. A 2008 U.S. Civil Rights Commission report – led by both liberals and conservatives – noted that illegal immigration had “disproportionate, negative effects” on black male employment, particularly among low-skilled workers. While political elites moralize on high-profile podcasts, black men are competing with under-the-table labor in industries that once offered a path to stability. When jobs are lost and wages suppressed, who speaks for them?

This isn’t just an economic issue – it’s a moral one. The left’s immigration rhetoric often carries an air of spiritual sanctimony, as though opposing illegal immigration is an affront to basic decency. But morality, rightly understood, isn’t about feelings – it’s about justice. And justice begins with order. You cannot help others if you’re unwilling to defend the integrity of your own house. A country with no control over who enters, who stays, and who follows the law is not a compassionate society – it’s a collapsing one.

Mrs. Obama speaks of democracy, urging Americans not to take it for granted. Yet public opinion has consistently supported stronger border security and immigration enforcement. According to Gallup, 55 percent of Americans now support reducing immigration levels – the highest number since 2001. A 2025 Pew Research survey found that 51 percent of Americans support deporting at least some undocumented immigrants, and 97 percent support deporting those convicted of violent crimes.

Why, then, do political elites, like Mrs. Obama, ignore that democratic will when it conflicts with their worldview? Is democracy only sacred when it confirms elite preferences?

There’s a deeper hypocrisy here, too – one that cuts to the heart of the modern progressive dilemma. The same voices who warn about immigrant suffering go silent when asked about the suffering of inner-city communities ravaged by crime, fatherlessness, failing schools and economic neglect. They want you to believe that “marginalized” only means one thing: immigrants crossing the border.

But what about the black mother working two jobs, watching her rent skyrocket while the city prioritizes housing for newly arrived migrants? What about the young black boy stuck in a crumbling school system while billions go toward resettlement efforts?

The truth is, we don’t need open borders to be decent. We need courage – courage to say no to policies that feel good but do harm. Courage to affirm that a nation has the right – and duty – to protect its legal processes. And yes, courage to resist being shamed into silence by celebrities, former first ladies, or editorial boards.

America’s strength has never come from ungoverned compassion. It has come from the ability to balance justice with mercy, law with love. When we abandon law in the name of love, we get neither.

Michelle Obama may lose sleep over Donald Trump’s policies. But millions of Americans – many of them black – lose sleep over the erosion of neighborhoods, the fear of job loss and the sense that the country they love is being remade without their consent. That anxiety is not rooted in hatred. It’s rooted in history – of promises made, help denied and priorities misplaced.

Leadership should lose sleep – but not over applause lines or trending hashtags. It should lose sleep over what happens when the people it claims to serve are silenced by moral theatrics and elite detachment.

Compassion without borders isn’t empathy – it’s chaos dressed up as virtue. And working Americans are the ones paying the price.