The nation's southern border is an open sieve. As a result, thousands of people from Central America and countless other countries are storming into the country every day along with untold amounts of drugs and other contraband. The Border Patrol is helpless to stop it, reduced to playing the role of a nanny due to the increased numbers of adults with minors in tow.
It is a thankless job. These brave individuals are often attacked physically by those attempting to gain illegal entry and now verbally by some ungrateful members of Congress. It is a shameful situation!
The left long ago adopted the practice of using women and children in an attempt to get its way on an issue that would otherwise be unacceptable to the general public.
It is no secret that the Democrats need more poor, uneducated immigrants in order to stay in power. They have switched from simply giving lip-service to securing the border to advocating for decriminalizing these unauthorized crossings.
They visit our overcrowded temporary holding facilities and then tell outrageous stories like the one from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that falsely claimed the women there were being forced to drink from toilets. They also claimed that children were denied tooth brushes and a warm bed. These are temporary holding facilities not their ultimate destination!
Oh, the inhumanity of it all! And where were these children sleeping when they traveled on foot across several countries to get here? Did they have toothpaste every step of the way? I seriously doubt it.
Let us not forget that Ocasio-Cortez voted against the $4.6 billion humanitarian aid package for the southern border that it took the Trump administration several months of pleading to get! Yes, $4.6 billion with a "B" for humanitarian aide for these gate crashers. Kind of puts the fight for funding for the border wall in perspective, doesn't it?
So, how did we get to this point?
First, the Democrats spent untold hours telling us that there was no crisis.
Meanwhile, the Republicans, who controlled both houses of Congress during the first two years Trump was in office, refused to use their power to provide the money to build the walls, barriers, facilities and resources to allow the Border Patrol to adequately do its jobs. Sure, there is the arcane filibuster rule in the Senate, which requires a super-majority to simply have a vote, but, make no mistake, they could have – had there been the will – simply changed that rule. However, it is telling that no Democrat – no, not one – would stand with the president on this critical issue.
Now Democrats are moaning about ICE raids meant to pick up the people who have had their day in court and have been ordered to gather their families and all the things they have accumulated here and go home, but have not. First, these people broke into the country. Then, they defied our courts, but Democrats still don't want them deported! In fact, many Democratic leaders actually urged them to evade the law!
But, let's go back to the beginning. In 1985, only four unaccompanied minors were apprehended for illegally crossing the border. One was 15-year-old Jenny Flores from El Salvador who was coming here to join her undocumented mother who was working for a Hollywood actor. A case was filed by an immigrant rights group. In 1993, the Supreme Court held that the government could detain unaccompanied immigrant minors in government facilities or with willing-and-able private custodians, as long as they met minimum standards.
After this sweeping Supreme Court victory, the Clinton administration backtracked. It willingly entered into an unnecessary settlement with immigration activists, which led to our current policy that essentially amounts to a get-out-of-jail free card for minors or anyone with a minor.
President Obama added to the problem by talking about amnesty for those who came here or were brought here illegally as minors. When word got out, the number of unaccompanied minors and those bringing minors with them on this perilous journey began to skyrocket to where it is today.
Make no mistake: Congress could solve this problem in a morning by passing new laws to curb this practice and stop those who now circumvent the immigration process by exploiting our asylum laws. Instead, it simply will decry Trump before taking the month-long August recess.
President Trump is doing everything he can to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, but his new practical asylum rule likely will be tied up in the courts by immigration activists. Meanwhile, this Congress will do nothing.