Common sense on illegal immigration.

Former president Donald Trump is pledging to deport millions of illegal aliens if he is elected. That sounds great to a whole lot of voters.

The simple fact is illegal immigration has long ago quit being a border state issue. There are few places in the country in which the negative fiscal and social consequences of having allowed 10+ million unvetted, mostly poor, mostly uneducated, and often criminally inclined people into the country aren’t being felt.

So, Trump’s pledge to begin deporting them is getting a sympathetic hearing in many quarters. Polling suggests that upward of 70 percent of Americans are in favor of mass deportation of illegal migrants.

But missing from Trump’s pledge is any detail as to how such a mass deportation might happen. We’re talking something north of 10 million people. Rounding up and deporting that many human beings presents logistical and political challenges on a cosmic scale.

One such challenge is the optics of it all. The images of armed federal officers descending upon “immigrant communities” and forcibly putting “good people who just want a better life” into vans and busses to be shipped out of the country will not play well. The Trump-hating media will have a field day.

The inevitable video of a frightened and crying little girl clutching her stuffed animal as she is stared down upon by a rifle wielding ICE officer will tear at the hearts of even the hardest of secure border hardliners.

But that doesn’t mean that we can or should avoid the clear necessity of drastically reducing the population of people living in the United States illegally. No nation that wishes to call itself sovereign can live with what is going on now.

So, let’s be smart about it. Start with rounding up gang bangers and criminals. That roundup won’t evoke much sympathy (except from the lefty-loon ‘defund the police’ crowd).

But forcibly gathering millions of non-criminals and deporting them is a logistical nightmare. Fortunately, there’s self-deportation. Those millions came in one by one, and they can leave one by one. And there’s a very simple and legal way to bring that about.

Cut off the goodies.

No more free cell phones. No more EBT debit cards for free groceries. No more driver licenses. No more free housing in hotels.

Also, to further weaken the magnet that is attracting so many illegal migrants, put real teeth in the enforcement of existing laws regarding employment eligibility. Severely punish a few employers and other employers will take notice.

Do these things and the illegal migrant population in the U.S. will begin to shrink.

The Left will call it xenophobic and (wait for it) racist.

But for some clarity, take a look at the Brits. It says plain as day on the stamp they put in your passport when you enter their country, “Employment and Recourse to Public Funds Prohibited.”

Are the Brits xenophobic and racist?

Or is it perhaps that one nation’s xenophobia and racism is a more discerning nation’s common sense?