By Mike Garcia
America is a nation of laws, but in states like California, we're suffering from a lack of enforcement. Our justice system has been hijacked by left-wing activists, soft-on-crime prosecutors, and judges who are more afraid of the New York Times than of fentanyl traffickers and violent criminals. Nowhere is that collapse more evident than in California.
The once-great city of San Francisco has become an open-air drug market, a magnet for repeat offenders, and a sanctuary for criminal aliens. Crime is rampant. Chaos is routine. And yet, the radical Left continues to double down by abolishing bail, gutting police budgets, and shielding illegal aliens from deportation. They fought every deportation. They blocked every detention facility. They released violent criminals in the name of "equity." They sued ICE for doing its job. It's an intentional effort to undermine the rule of law.
Fortunately, the federal government is saying, "Enough is enough." President Donald J. Trump's announcement to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz as a high-security federal prison is exactly what the country needs. We are facing unprecedented security threats from transnational gangs, drug cartels, and foreign operatives crossing our open borders. Alcatraz provides a secure, federally controlled solution.
DIVE DEEPER: Trump Has Big Plans for Notorious Alcatraz Prison—'This Will Be a Huge Win!’
Alcatraz once housed America's most notorious criminals, including Al Capone and Robert Stroud. It was a fortress of justice, isolated in San Francisco Bay and impossible to escape. In today's world, it's needed more than ever, not just symbolically, but functionally.
California opened its front door to MS-13 gang leaders, transnational drug traffickers, and violent repeat offenders who exploit sanctuary laws to reoffend again and again. Just this past month, in Fresno, California, DEA and its federal, state, and local partners seized 24 pounds of carfentanil disguised as real prescription pills—the largest DEA seizure to date of carfentanil in Northern California.
Alcatraz gives us a federally controlled, secure, and highly visible solution to a national crisis. It removes the worst offenders from our communities and puts them where they belong—under lock and key, in the middle of the bay, right where the people who created this disaster can see it.
Governor Gavin Newsom and the radical Left will whine that reopening Alcatraz is "too expensive"—this from the same crowd that lit $100 billion on fire for a high-speed rail to nowhere. They've forfeited any right to talk about fiscal responsibility. This isn't just a smarter use of funds, but a chance to claw back their failure and build something that protects the American people.
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Alcatraz is no longer a relic. Under President Trump, and thanks to the leadership of Secretary Doug Burgum and Attorney General Pam Bondi, it becomes a symbol of what's coming: justice, accountability, and the end of the radical Left's reign of terror.
To every criminal who thinks our system is weak, think again. To every cartel boss who profited from our open border, your empire ends here. And to every radical judge, DA, and sanctuary mayor, you will no longer shield lawlessness with your robes and rhetoric.
This is what the America First movement is about: restoring strength, common sense, and unapologetic patriotism to a broken system. We don't coddle criminals; we lock them up. We don't defund law enforcement, we empower it. And we don't beg for permission from radical politicians; we act despite them.
Mike Garcia is a first-generation American, former F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot, decorated Navy Combat Veteran, defense industry executive, and former Congressman who represented California’s 27th District
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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