No matter how desperately the Democrats try to distort the President’s immigration policy, the American people want real border security, including a strong physical barrier to prevent illegal immigrants, drug smugglers, and human traffickers from flooding our communities.
As it stands today, immigration remains one of the top issues for voters, with 49 percent stating that the government should address the matter this year. The ongoing crisis on our southern border is so concerning to the populace, in fact, that more than 325,000 Americans have lost their patience with the obstructionist Democrats in Congress and joined together to raise almost $20 million for President Trump’s border wall.
It’s easy to see why so many Americans are growing tired of Washington’s inaction on immigration.
According to Border Patrol statistics, the Office of Field Operations had seized close to 48,000 pounds of cocaine, 67,000 pounds of methamphetamine, and 5,000 pounds of heroin before the end of fiscal year 2018 alone. During the same period, Border Patrol agents also took a total of 566,281 enforcement actions and arrested 1,547 criminal aliens who were already wanted by law enforcement.
Sadly, our immigration authorities can only do so much to protect the country from drug cartels and other foreign criminals who consistently evade security checkpoints to cross our borders illegally. Every year, thousands of Americans fall victim to the drug trade, and criminal aliens are exacerbating the problem by smuggling heroin, cocaine, and other dangerous substances across the border.
At the same time, illegal immigration is overwhelming our economy, costing taxpayers a whopping $116 billion per year.
The American people aren’t stupid — they know that no country on the planet can afford to bear the burden of unfettered illegal immigration for eternity. That’s precisely why they voted for President Trump, a champion of border security who promised to solve the illegal immigration crisis and fix our broken immigration laws.
Instead of working with the President to address one of the most pressing issues of our time, however, Democrats in Congress are devoting all of their energy to obstructing the President’s agenda and fantasizing about impeachment.
Ignoring their own pledge to embrace bipartisanship after the midterm elections, the Democrats have ramped up their obstructionist campaign, refusing to fund the President’s wall or agree to any other compromise on immigration.
President Trump’s border security solutions, however, aren’t nearly as controversial as the Democrats are trying to make them seem — not too long ago, prominent Democrat leaders openly supported tough immigration enforcement policies similar to those the President is now requesting.
“We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country,” former President Obama said in 2005.
Similarly, President Trump’s 2016 election opponent, Hillary Clinton, even voted in favor of a physical barrier on the border when she served in the Senate.
“I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in,” she recalled during a 2015 campaign event. “And I do think you have to control your borders.”
Sadly, after years of empty promises from politicians, we still don’t have the border wall that we need. Now, in desperation, hundreds of thousands of Americans are donating their hard-earned money to help President Trump fund the wall that we’ve been promised by politicians in both parties for decades. They shouldn’t have to — their tax dollars should be dedicated to American security first and foremost, but establishment politicians have them failed time and time again.
The American people want border security, not continued obstructionism. If the Democrats truly care about border security, they should immediately fund the border wall, end the government shutdown, and stop playing political games aimed at taking down the President.
It’s time to put national security interests above petty political aspirations. The American people want the games to end and the border secured, and are even willing to use their own money to get the job done that the Democrats refuse to do.
