President Trump’s top border official insisted to Congress Tuesday that the only fake news concerning the borders is calling what’s going on there anything less than a crisis.
Carla Provost told the House Judiciary Committee “There is an ongoing debate whether this constitutes a border security crisis or a humanitarian crisis.” Trump’s border chief wants Congress and the American to know “it is both.”
Provost told the committee that one has to “look at what’s happening on the ground” rather than play with the numbers like Democrats and the media seems to be doing.
An example of this is how the number of border apprehensions is used to prove there is no crisis. It’s true that last year’s numbers are less than half of the 1 million people who were caught illegally crossing into the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s. However, Provost pointed out, “today has different needs and is taking up more agency resources than a person they used to arrest.”
In the past, most of those apprehended were adult Mexican citizens. Most of these were documented by Border Patrol, turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement (ICE) and immediately deported.”
What makes the current situation a crisis rests in the demographics of those apprehended. Over the last few years, the Central American children or families represent half of those apprehended at the border. Provost said, “Up until this decade, most of those crossing the border illegally were single adult males. Today, family units and unaccompanied alien children (UAC) make up 60 percent of illegal border crossings along the southwest border.”
Because these children are from countries other than Canada and Mexico, they are protected by a 2008 trafficking law that forbids them being removed immediately. This and other factors have pushed Border Patrol past its limits with 2,000 people being arrested every 24 hours. Most of those cannot be deported immediately because the majority are families for Central America claiming asylum after illegally entering.
“In the El Paso Sector alone,” said Provost, “we have seen a 434 percent increase in apprehensions this fiscal year. Many of these are family units and UAC arriving in large groups, exacerbating capacity constraints in our facilities.”
Because so many of those apprehended require medical attention, the border chief said that about 5,000 of her 20,000 agents are unable to man the U.S.-Mexico border. They instead are needed to transport and care for illegal immigrants requiring medical care.
Each day, nearly 25 percent of my agents are diverted away from our border security mission to care for, transport, and process family members and unaccompanied children.
55 illegal immigrants a day are taken to medical appointments at outside facilities. Despite the media’s mischaracterization of border agents, Provost said those agents “do not leave their humanity at home” but care for those in distress.
Danielle Campoamor of NBC News illustrates perfectly what our top Border official is trying to tell us. Either Campoamor is ignorant of what is really happening on the ground or bashing President Trump is more important than the lives of real people on both sides of the border.
Campoamor quotes the prevailing mainstream media narrative that “illegal border crossings and apprehensions have been declining for nearly two decades” and “undocumented immigrants commit less crime than native-born citizens.” NBC’s conclusion: what President Trump says is fake news, what they say is not.
But President Trump is not listening to the media to get his news about what is happening at the border. Contrary to what NBC suggests, Trump has not “manufactured an immigration crisis for his own political gain, hoping that a fear of “the other” will help him win reelection in 2020”, he has been listening to the person who knows better than anyone else what is really happening at out our border.
Provost’s comments directly refute Democratic critics who have declared Trump’s crisis declaration a “fake emergency.” Congressional Democrats voted to block Trump’s emergency declaration, several progressive groups are suing to block the move in court, and Mitch McConnell is hinting he cannot ensure the Senate won’t follow suit.
Trump has already promised to veto any legislation that attempts to block his declaration of a national emergency. While Washington continues to act like Washington, Donald Trump is doing something many have grown so unaccustomed to it seems revolutionary – he’s keeping a promise.
Donald Trump said elect me and I’ll build the wall. We voted, and he’s keeping his promise.
