It’s New Year’s Eve in Nashville, Tennessee. A 16-year-old girl lies in bed, sleeping in before the start of a new school year. She is soaking up the final days of her Christmas break. Before dawn, a 31-year-old man, known in the community for committing felonies of various kinds, peeks into the home and slips through an unlocked door in her apartment.
The sleeping girl is cruelly woken up to the pressure of the cold steel of a gun on her waist and a man whose eyes are fixed on her. She struggles, desperate to escape him, but the man increases the steady pressure of the gun against her waist and begins to sexually assault her. The girl pleads with the attacker to leave and promises not to share the incident with anyone. The man, undeterred by the bawling young girl, continues his crime and escapes before the sun comes up.
This is a horrifyingly true story, one from my home state of Tennessee, where an illegal alien from Egypt, let loose by a failed city government and let in by failed policies, allegedly stole the innocence of a young girl. This man had been committing violent crimes in Nashville for a decade. However, this time, President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) found him and made sure he never sees an American neighborhood again.
Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), Democrats refuse to acknowledge the horrors of stories like this and instead dare to openly call the brave men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the suspects. Democrats, unable to defeat President Trump at the ballot box, are now trying to punish the American people by destroying DHS, removing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and shutting down the department until Republicans meet a list of radical demands.
President Trump said it best in his 2026 State of the Union: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” That principle lies at the heart of the oath of office, yet Democrats refused to stand up for the victims of alien crime present in the chamber.
DHS is doing some of the most important work in the country right now. If DHS is abolished, the following will go offline permanently: the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) talks to reporters during a press conference on Capital Hill on March 5, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
At a time when our state is experiencing some of the worst ice storms in recorded history, Tennessee cannot afford to be stripped of FEMA disaster assistance. President Trump and Kristi Noem have already sent expedited FEMA funds to Tennessee for storm damage, totaling millions of dollars. This is unprecedented; in the past, FEMA funds took weeks to arrive when Hurricane Helene crippled East Tennessee and the Carolinas. Under Noem’s DHS, federal assistance came in no time. DHS is keeping Americans safe, whether it’s by deporting illegal alien predators or assisting in disaster relief.
The current Democrat shutdown of DHS is also crippling Coast Guard operations. Just last year, the Coast Guard seized over 500,000 pounds of illegal drugs, saving tens of millions of lives. They stopped over ten thousand illegals from coming into the country in the same time frame. Each year, they save thousands of Americans through their search-and-rescue program. They are the definition of an essential service.
We are currently in a cyber war with multiple hostile actors all over the world: the Chinese, the Russians, the North Koreans, and the Iranians, just to name a few. CISA exists to protect America’s digital frontier from these enemies. CISA is housed and funded by DHS. The Chinese in particular are escalating rapidly in their cyber offensives. This means your cell phones, appliances, and vehicles are just one hack away from being used against you.
Just last month, the Chinese cyber terror group Salt Typhoon hacked Congress in an attempt to steal sensitive emails. Last year, CCP-backed hackers breached the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Commerce. They were also able to gain access to Microsoft’s SharePoint Server program, jeopardizing the safety of thousands of Americans. CISA is more important than ever as we attempt to gain the upper hand over these hostile actors. A shutdown of this agency threatens Americans.
Demonstratively, DHS has wielded Homeland Security Investigations to stop Middle Eastern terror threats coming across our borders. An Uzbek national named Akhror Bozoro illegally crossed the border in 2023, received work authorization and a commercial driver’s license, and was later arrested by ICE for ties to a jihadi group and recruiting terrorists online. Afghan national Jaan Shah Safi entered in 2021 and was found arranging weapons shipments for ISIS, before ICE arrested him last December. Shutting down DHS is making it easier for terrorists to embed in our society.
If DHS remains shut down, Americans would continue being assaulted by illegal aliens, drugs would flood through our southern border, and disasters would wreak havoc with no federal relief. Our nation, as we know it, would collapse. It is critical for Republicans hold the line and defend our homeland.
Andy Ogles has proudly served Tennessee’s 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
