Posted on 01/15/2019 6:17:00 AM PST by Kaslin
Here in Texas, we know that border walls are effective. President Trump saw that firsthand on Thursday, but the ones who really need to see it are the Democrats.
The President has shown incredible fortitude in holding out to get us the 234 miles of barriers that law enforcement professionals tell us are necessary to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
I was proud to welcome him to Texas when he came to tour an existing section of the border wall. I only wish he had been here to celebrate Democrats in Congress doing the right thing and providing the funding to build the wall along the many unprotected portions of the border.
Instead, President Trump, Senators Ted Cruz, and John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and I listened to our Border Patrol agents brief us on the problems they continue to face. They’re clearly distressed by the knowledge that those problems will remain unaddressed until Democrats abandon their obstructionism or President Trump exercises his legal authority to declare a national emergency.
These agents put themselves in harm’s way every day to apprehend more than 300,000 illegal aliens every year in Texas alone, in addition to another 200,000 in other states. It frustrates them to know that despite their valiant efforts, they’re only catching an estimated 20-25 percent, with the rest managing to slip past them every year because Congress won’t fund the border security measures they need to do their jobs effectively.
At a roundtable briefing with the President after our visit to the border, we received a stark reminder of just how important border security is when Reggie Singh recounted the tragic murder of his brother, California police officer and first-generation American citizen Cpl. Ronil Singh, at the hands of an illegal alien with a criminal record.
Understanding President Trump’s unwavering commitment to secure our border, there’s only one reason that the crisis on our southern border hasn’t been addressed: Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have decided it’s “immoral” to protect America’s borders with walls, so they’re keeping the government closed in an effort to stop it from happening.
The Democrats simultaneously claim walls would be “ineffective,” but that’s not what we heard from the men and women who actually patrol the longest unsecured sections of the border here in Texas.
We know that physical barriers work because walls just like them have already proven invaluable along more than 100 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. Areas protected by walls in Texas have seen massive drops in illegal crossings and improvements in quality of life, just as we’ve experienced in areas protected by similar barriers in California and Arizona.
Our law enforcement experts have already identified the next part of the Texas border, stretching roughly from Brownsville to Falcon Lake, where we can achieve the same success with a portion of the 234 miles of new wall. Border Patrol agents there did not mince words when President Trump paid them a visit Thursday. They have some barriers, but they need more, and they need them now.
Tax-and-spend Democrats are pretending that they’ve finally developed a fiscal conscience over the cost of wall construction, but the $5.7 billion President Trump is asking for pales in comparison to the cost of allowing the current lawlessness to continue on the border. If the walls reduce illegal immigration by just nine percent, they will have paid for themselves more than twice over in only 10 years. And that’s not even counting the benefits of curtailing the flow of illegal drugs, literally tons of which come across our unsecured border every year.
Here in Texas, when our border security professionals tell us they need a certain tool to combat human trafficking, drug smuggling, and mass uncontrolled migration, we give it to them. Over the last four years, Texas has devoted $1.6 billion to border security, and we plan to keep up that pace with an additional $800 million over the next two years.
It baffles me that Democrats who are 1,500 miles away in Washington think they know what is needed for true border security better than the people who live and work along the border.
Not every mile of the border needs a wall. Some areas are so naturally impassable that Border Patrol can do without a physical barrier. Nor is a wall going to solve the border crisis on its own. Just as important are the other items President Trump and law enforcement have asked for, such as 75 new immigration judges to work through the years-long backlog of asylum cases. But some places, like Southeastern Texas, will never be secure without an actual border wall — an impassable barrier.
It’s time for congressional Democrats to give Texas and the other states along our southern border what we need to protect ourselves. If they don’t provide the funding for a border wall soon, President Trump’s only option for addressing the illegal immigration crisis will be to declare a national emergency and get the job done without them.
“Here in Texas, we know that border walls are effective. President Trump saw that firsthand on Thursday, but the ones who really need to see it are the Democrats.”
It’s impossible to reach people who live in denial
It baffles me that Democrats who are 1,500 miles away in Washington think they know what is needed...
He is not really baffled.
Anytime people act in a way that “baffles” you; you can be sure they are acting in their personal interest and not rationally addressing the problem.
maybe Jim Acosta can fill them in for us?
they should believe him right?
If they want to catch illegals they need to forget about the border and go to West Dallas or along the Harry Hines Blvd/I-35 corridor
Too bad that graphic is not 3D. You could see Sen. Cornholio’s knife in President Trumps back.
He even got Jim Acosta to say so...
If the wall was truly ineffective, the Leftists wouldn’t be so dead set against it.
Funny you should say that. That was the policy of the Carter Administration- pulled people off the border thinking it would work better to patrol the major highways near the border. Epic fail, the border was pretty secure when he came up with that winning idea, has never been as secure since. What happens is from where enforcement is concentrated, all the way to the actual border that area is given up- to the bad guys. More illegal traffic is the result- pretty easy for them to get in the country, now they just have to evade until they can blend in. Once illegal traffic reaches a major highway it is very hard to catch them- actually in nearly every case they are home free at that point.
When BP actually patrols and stops people on the interstate every car stopped that does not have illegals or drugs is more people to complain about enforcement, most people do not like being stopped. So as a result of complaints less people are stopped...
In many areas enforcement is still not centered on the actual border- but sometimes miles away. Those of us that live near or on the border don't agree on a lot of the details but nearly all agree enforcement needs to be concentrated on the actual border. Stop them as they are attempting to cross, or just crossed. Don't let them get away from the border to blend in with population for cover. Otherwise you are giving ground to illegal activity.
Since Trump has taken office more and more enforcement is on the actual border, and it was making a difference. The border was fairly quiet until October when Central Americans began to show up in large numbers. They usually (not all by any means) turn themselves into BP at or close to the border. The numbers all at once overwhelm the system that was not designed to handle those numbers. Then BP is stretched thin and other illegal activity picks up. The bad guys know when BP are busy, trust me. That is the crisis right now. I am convinced it is organized of course.
Thank Jim Acosta for PROVING that a wall works!!
bump
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