DHS & ICE – The Political Calculous, The Actual Calculous & Digital Currency Declines - Top 3 Takeaways - February 6th, 2026
Takeaway #1: The political calculous
Immigration policy has been front and center of domestic policy for the first month plus of this year. That certainly remained the case this week as the brief partial government shutdown, which centered around ICE policies, was brought to an end with an even bigger battle squarely focused on the Department of Homeland Security that’s now set to begin. DHS funding is only in place until Valentine’s Day – or in other words – only eight days away. What’s set to take place next week figures to include the peak of the Left’s political grandstanding in favor of criminal illegal aliens and against ICE enforcement policy. Expect impassioned speeches by Sparty, Fauxcahontas too. Which as an aside, if you search Fauxcahontas on Microsoft’s Bing, it does identify said individual as “Elizabeth Warren American politician” (as an aside, this is a small example of why I use Edge and Bing over Chrome and Google). The whole reason we’re in this place is of course due to what had been a political calculous. Democrats of course had already struck a deal with Republicans for DHS and ICE funding, the House passed it – but before the Senate took up the bill, the Alex Pretti killing happened. Democrats, demonstrably the pro-criminal illegal alien party, saw the opportunity to leverage his death into grandstanding and less immigration enforcement and here we are. But while Democrats are no doubt preparing their made for campaign ad speeches for next week, there are other political calculousous in play along with historic success that’s being delivered by the day.
Takeaway #2: The actual calculous
From Border Patrol and ICE here’s what’s happened and what we’ve learned this week... 1) January produced the fewest attempted border crossings in American history. Total attempts were 93% lower than the typical January and for the ninth consecutive month there was not a single attempted border crosser released into this county. In other words, the Trump administration's year one policy has been so effective that relatively very few would-be illegal aliens, aka Magic “A” word people, even are attempting anymore. Prevention, as opposed to confrontation, is always the best possible policy. 2) Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota has continued to progress. Despite Minneapolis being the very epicenter of the current political debate, DHS has continued with operations in recent weeks reaching a new milestone of over 4,000 illegal aliens having been removed from Minnesota during the current campaign. As noted by DHS, they’ve detained your run-of-the-mill warm and fluffies including... murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists...You know, just the kind of people that elected Democrats prefer over ICE agents. So importantly, the actual calculous – meaning DHS and ICE doing what needs to be done to prevent illegal immigrant and to continue to combat illegal immigration has progressed despite the political calculous by the Trump administration that’s made the news this week. While Democrats continue to demonize law enforcement and continue to prioritize criminal illegal immigrants over their constituents, there have been two notable political calculoses too. First Border Czar Tom Homan who’s assumed operational ICE control over Minnesota – said there would be a drawdown of 700 ICE agents in Minneapolis in what amounts to a meaningful deescalation (it’s far from a retreat as there are still 2,000 ICE officers on the ground, while President Trump told NBC News that the Department of Homeland Security could “use a little bit of a softer touch”. While Democrats are gearing up for a bunch of demands the Trump administration can show that they’ve already listened to the concerns of citizens and adjusted policy accordingly. Getting out ahead of what’s coming next week is the pragmatic but also operationally strategic thing. The sanctuary state of Minnesota had been flouting federal immigration law refusing to comply with ICE’s 287(g) policy where local law enforcement agencies would turn over detained illegal immigrants to ICE which has jurisdictional authority over all immigration matters, as opposed to having ICE go into communities to track them down instead. What’s happened here is a way for Timpon Walz and Small Fry to claim a bit of a victory, while the Trump administration finally has the prevention policies in place in that state – which is worth more than having those extra 700 officers on the ground – and avoids public confrontations too. The tide has turned on this, and Congressional Democrats will likely regret it if they don’t account for this.
Takeaway #3: Not ready for primetime
There are a number of reasons why Bitcoin and cryptocurrency at large aren’t ready for primetime. And there is one very big reason, namely what you’ll find in Revelation, that I personally don’t think it ever should become a universal currency. But for those who are into digital currencies, I get it. Distrust of central banks, staggering levels of government debt, one can make the case for why decentralized digital currencies should have their place (or perhaps even displace government issued currencies). But for those who’ve been all-in trying or hoping to make that happen...what we’ve seen recently is the reality of how and why cryptos aren’t ready for primetime and also why they may never be. As investors around the world have been realigning their investments and their trades in the rapidly evolving AI age – which has been brutal for software stocks but worse for digital currencies. As of yesterday, bitcoin is down approximately 50% from its all-time high of only four months ago. Imagine for a moment that bitcoins were your leading currency having replaced the US Dollar. You would be living under a 50% inflation rate that would have taken place in only four months. By way of comparison, it’s taken the Dollar 29 years to lose 50% of its value through inflation (and that’s factoring in historic ‘Bidenflation). People may laugh at the idea that the US Dollar is backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government as we’re currently $38.7 trillion in debt. But there is still a country, assets and taxing authority that exists. What’s backing any digital currencies? The bottom line is that they’ve been willed into existence. And if one day people decide they don’t want a particular digital currency anymore, it doesn’t exist. At least with any value anyway. What’s happened here with this recent violent rotation is a cautionary reminder of how quickly times can change, and money can be made or lost when there’s no business, or assets, or governing authority backing a currency.