Under the threat of tariffs, the Mexican government reached an agreement with the United States late Friday to increase their cooperation to secure our border. Kudos to Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who ably represented President Trump in the negotiations.

The Mexican government has reportedly agreed to send 6,000 National Guardsmen to their southern border, which is only 600 miles long. That deployment will go a long way toward halting the human wave that is coming up from Central America, through Mexico and into the United States.

Mexico halted one caravan last week and has begun arresting migrants riding “the Beast,” a freight train that runs through Mexico.

Mexico agreed to hold more Central American asylum seekers in Mexico while we process their cases. And Mexico also agreed to crack down on human smuggling, as well as those financing the caravans.

None of this is carved in stone. Previous Mexican administrations have made promises in the past and never enforced them. Some points of agreement will require approval by the Mexican Congress and could be derailed there. But President Trump warned yesterday that the tariff threat remains if Mexico fails to deliver this time.

We’ll see what happens. But just think about how much stronger the president’s position would be if “the loyal opposition” wasn’t all in for open borders.

When the deal was announced, Nancy Pelosi was furious and she condemned the president’s tactics. Chuck Schumer mocked the agreement.

Pelosi and Schumer sent signals to the Mexican political establishment that there are powerful forces in the United States working against the president to keep our borders wide open.

And I won’t even bother with the Republican senators who were complaining about the president’s use of tariffs as leverage to secure this agreement, while nothing is moving in the Republican-controlled Senate or the Democrat-controlled House to deal with the assault on our border, except for one curious development last week. (See next item.)

Immigration & Identity Politics

We may have to alter the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. As you know, the famous poem says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” If House Democrats get their way, we may need to add to that list, “your pregnant, your transgendered and mentally disabled.”

What I am talking about?

House progressives slipped a requirement into an appropriation bill last week that the Department of Homeland Security prioritize certain categories of illegal immigrants who cannot be deported. Among them are: “(A) pregnant women; (B) individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; and © mentally or physically disabled individuals.”

The president wants give the highest priority in our immigration system to those with skills who can fill job shortages in the United States. The left’s idea of reform is to impose its radical identity politics into our immigration policies.

What does someone’s “gender identity” and private bedroom behaviors have to do with immigration?

Meanwhile, the left-wing California legislature just passed a new program to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants, costing California taxpayers another $100 million a year.

Impeachment Hearings Begin

Do you remember John Dean? No, not the late actor James Dean or the sausage guy Jimmy Dean. John Dean was in the news 46 years ago for his role in the Watergate scandal. Dean was convicted of obstruction of justice, disbarred and spent four months in prison.

But he testified yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee on the Mueller report and the Russia collusion hoax. What does John Dean have to do with Mueller and Russia?

Has John Dean done business with Donald Trump? Not to my knowledge.

Has Dean spent a lot of time in Russia? No.

He has zero relevance to this fake controversy other than he engaged in a cover-up decades ago and he thinks this is another cover-up.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler had Dean testify yesterday for theatrics, just to give the Russia hoax a whiff of the Watergate impeachment scandal.

Robert Mueller and his squad of Hillary Clinton lawyers interviewed 500 people. John Dean wasn’t on Mueller’s witness list because he knows nothing about this. And he shouldn’t be on Nadler’s witness list either.

Unfortunately, his appearance yesterday tells you everything you need to know about where Democrats are headed.

In God We Trust

Atheist Michael Newdow struck out again in his crusade to purge faith from the public square. Newdow made headlines in 2004 arguing that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because it contains the words “under God.” He lost.

He has also sued to prevent presidents from saying, “So help me God” in the oath of office during their inaugurations. He lost those cases too.

And yesterday the Supreme Court rejected Newdow’s latest argument that “In God We Trust” on our currency is unconstitutional.

China Protests

There were massive demonstrations in Hong Kong Sunday. Perhaps as many as 1 million people took to the streets to protest a new extradition law allowing communist Chinese authorities to seize human rights activists in Hong Kong and put them on trial elsewhere in the country.

The resistance, coming so soon on the heels of the Tiananmen Square anniversary, is encouraging. And I wonder if it would be this bold if they did not see America’s president standing up to mainland China as well.

The demonstrations underscore the tremendous problems China is grappling with, and President Trump could be much more effective in negotiations if our elites were not constantly apologizing for China and lobbying on its behalf.

For example, a senior executive from the Chamber of Commerce was on CNBC today excoriating President Trump for his stance against communist China. Trump called into the network this morning and took on the national Chamber of Commerce. Here’s what he said:

“I’m a member of the U.S. Chamber and maybe I’ll have to rethink that because, when you look at it, the Chamber is probably more for the companies … than they are for our country…

"The China deal is going to work out. You know why? Because of tariffs. China is getting absolutely decimated by companies that are leaving China, going to other countries, including our own, because they don’t want to pay the tariffs.”

There is a great irony here. The Chamber opposes American leftists who want to overregulate business, but it defends communist China, which makes all kinds of outrageous demands on companies trying to do business there, while our jobs are shipped overseas and U.S. communities are hollowed out.