Freshman GOP lawmaker rallies behind Trump’s rapid illegal immigration crackdown: ‘No time to waste’

GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh is praising President Trump’s swift actions on illegal immigration in the first days of his presidency and told Fox News Digital that the president has “learned a lot from 2017” and that he expects more of the same in the future.

“President Trump campaigned on this and he’s delivering it for the American people,” the freshman congressman told Fox News Digital in an interview. “If you look at the polling, even Democrats are in favor of deportations of illegal immigrants. So right now, he’s deporting the most dangerous illegal immigrants and you’re starting to see the raids and it’s quite a sight to see because for too long, the Biden administration, they prioritized illegal immigrants over American citizens.”

“They treated American citizens as second-class citizens and President Trump is about America first. So these deportation raids, it’s happened so fast and that’s exactly his style of leadership. He knows he has no time to waste and delivering the results for the American people as they already voted for these policies back on November 5th. So far, so good.”

Hamadeh told Fox News Digital that Trump “learned a lot from 2017” and this time around knows “exactly what to do” to get his agenda accomplished. 

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Fox News Digital spoke to GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh about President Trump’s first few days in office (Fox News Digital/Getty)

Republicans recently successfully pushed the Laken Riley Act through Congress, with 48 Democrat votes, which Hamadeh told Fox News Digital should have been a unanimous vote and doesn’t necessarily mean Democrats are embracing Trump’s agenda. 

“It’s kind of funny because many of the Democrats actually voted against the Laken Riley Act when it was in Congress last session, but now they’re supporting it because they see electorally that it’s beneficial to them.”

“So no we always have to be cognizant of that. A lot of these Democrats don’t have any principles that they’re standing on. They just saw that they got shellacked in the end in the election, November 5th. So they’re trying to moderate themselves or appear to be moderate. But honestly it should have gotten unanimous support.”

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Arizona Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh with Kayla Mueller’s parents on Jan. 3, 2025. (Kayla Mueller Family)

Hamadeh said Laken Riley’s murder at the hands of an illegal immigrant was a “tragedy” that was “totally preventable” by the Biden administration who “opened the floodgates to millions of illegal immigrants.”

Going forward, House Republicans will have to navigate a razor-thin majority in the House and be in lockstep in order to push through Trump’s agenda which Hamadeh said he is optimistic will happen. 

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This photo shows migrants at the southern border encountered in Arizona. (U.S. Border Patrol)

“I see my colleagues all the time and everybody understands that President Trump delivered the victory for many of them and that’s what’s different about this time around versus 2017,” Hamadeh explained. “Now, a lot of Republicans, you know, they’re on the same page, leadership’s on the same page. We’re all working together, no matter if you’re moderate, no matter if you’re MAGA, it’s a testament to see how Speaker Mike Johnson won his speakership on the first vote versus what happened two years ago, and it’s something to be seen. It’s really beautiful out here.”

Hamadeh continued, “It’s been a lot easier for me being a freshman congressman to see us all united, unlike how it used to be in the past. But these executive orders have been fantastic. Every Republican is all in favor of them. You know, I’m especially happy about the designation of the drug cartels as a foreign terrorist organization and Arizona is as well, because we understand we have to go to war against these cartels. So just seeing the action that President Trump is doing so fast and his team is doing so fast is a testament to his leadership style and something that Congress must emulate and must back him up.”