Illegal immigration was the No. 2 issue for American voters during the 2024 campaign. It was second only to the economy. The Joe Biden-Kamala Harris open border policy created such a flood of illegal immigration that every part of the country is feeling its effects.

Many immigrants are peacefully seeking better lives (although skirting our immigration laws), but some are violent criminals. The conviction of the Venezuelan gang member who killed nursing student Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia, is driving home the viciousness and brutality of some of the people the Biden-Harris policy has brought into our lives.

Similar stories of inhuman savagery by violent illegal immigrants on young, teenaged, and senior women across the country convinced Americans that the border must be controlled and illegal immigrants must leave our country.

President Trump campaigned openly and consistently on the need to gain absolute control of the border — and to deport millions of illegal immigrants to whom Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris allowed entrance. Mr. Trump’s firmness on protecting Americans from illegal criminals was a significant factor in his election and Mrs. Harris’s defeat.

Now that the American people have chosen the path of protection from violent illegal immigrants, liberals are already challenging the idea that mass deportation can be done. However, a brief history lesson shows that serious, effective deportation policy is clearly doable.

In 1954, the Dwight Eisenhower administration deported more than 1 million illegal immigrants. A retired lieutenant general, Joseph Swing, led the effort (which has a name which did not age well). That program developed out of a long history of deporting illegal immigrants beginning in the 1940s. It grew in volume as America’s economic growth made it more desirable to get into the United States — even if it had to be done illegally.

In Mr. Eisenhower’s era, there was not much support for open borders and mass illegal immigration. There was a substantial program for legal temporary Mexican laborers in agriculture. However, some employers still hired illegal workers who cost less. Given the poverty in Mexico at that time, many young men were willing to cross the border illegally for work. This was Mr. Eisenhower’s main problem.

There are several big differences between the challenges facing the Eisenhower administration and those facing Mr. Trump.

The first difference is simply scale. If Mr. Eisenhower had been confronted with between 15 million and 20 million illegal immigrants, he would have likely methodically closed the border and maximized deportations. As a five-star general who had led the Allied Forces to victory in Europe during World War II, Mr. Eisenhower understood how to lead successful large-scale operations.

Second, virtually every illegal immigrant in the 1950s came to work. There were private charities for humanitarian purposes, but the liberal welfare state did not yet exist. Coming to the United States to live off the taxpayer simply wasn’t an option.

Third, there were no large-scale international criminal organizations. Of course, criminal cartels and mafias existed, but they did not have the scale of money and influence generated by today’s world-wide trade of drugs, human trafficking, and smuggling.

So, the Trump administration’s challenge is much bigger than the Eisenhower administration’s. However, if Mr. Trump applies the kind of organized, principled common sense for which Mr. Eisenhower was famous, he could arouse enormous support from the American people and solve the biggest problems much faster than so-called experts think.

Here are seven key, common-sense steps which will make America a safer and more law abiding country:

1. First get 100 percent control of the border. The combination of the wall, more border agents in the field, and much tougher asylum rules and procedures will rapidly turn the flood into a trickle.

2. Insist that states, cities, and counties cooperate with the federal government in enforcing the law. Any jurisdiction which refuses to cooperate should have all its federal funding suspended as of that day — every cent. New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles would be in budgetary chaos within a week if leaders insisted on placing liberal politics over the law.

3. Focus early deportations on criminals and persons with past criminal records. This is essential to public safety. In a September letter to Representative Tony Gonzales, the Department of Homeland Security reported there were 435,719 illegal immigrants in the country who have criminal convictions. Another 226,847 have pending criminal charges. Convicted illegal immigrants should be immediately expelled, and none should be released into American society while awaiting trial or processing.

4. Once most criminal illegal immigrants are deported, shift focus to all unaccompanied males. It is estimated 35 percent of all illegal immigrants are males between 18 and 39. There is no humanitarian reason for allowing this population to enter and live in our country illegally.

5. Find the unaccompanied children and return them to their parents or relatives back home. The number of young people who have been trapped in prostitution and other forms of exploitation is staggering and heartbreaking. They deserve to be liberated and returned to their relatives in their home countries.

6. Develop a path to citizenship for so-called dreamers, who were brought to the United States as young children and have lived here peacefully and productively for their entire lives. It is vital in maintaining support for deporting illegal immigrants that popular support be sustained through nuanced approaches to specific issues. Nearly 81 percent of Americans favor enabling dreamers to become citizens. There would be huge opposition to deporting them.

7. Continue to emphasize the importance of legal immigration. Callista and I recently produced a film for PBS called “Journey to America” that celebrates the lives and work of remarkable people who immigrated to America legally. As many Americans favor legal immigration as oppose illegal immigration (73 percent in each case). An anti-illegal immigration policy can retain overwhelming popular support. An anti-legal immigration policy is simply not what most Americans want.

These seven steps would move us a long way toward meeting Mr. Trump’s pledge to make America safe again.