Early this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers performed a routine inspection on a truck about to enter the United States through the Nogales crossing near Tucson, Arizona. When curious alterations in the floor of the vehicle’s cargo section were discovered, sniffer dogs were employed in a more thorough search. The dogs detected an odor they were trained to find; suspicions rose among the border agents; and an even deeper search began.
The agents soon found 254 pounds of fentanyl and 395 pounds of methamphetamine in a hidden compartment under a load of cucumbers. The street value of the fentanyl alone totaled $3.5 million. Nogales port-of-entry director Michael Humphries said of the captured drugs, “Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine,” adding that “a few grains can kill a person very quickly.” An aghast Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) summarized that the fentanyl captured was enough “to kill millions of Americans.”
In previous years, methamphetamine had earned the label of a killer drug. Its place as the number one cause of death attributed to drugs has been taken by fentanyl. Border Patrol agents now have to be extra careful knowing that inhaling just a few grains of this newer scourge could be fatal. Authorities note that most of the illicit substance is produced in Mexico or China.
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In mid-February, Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) returned from a deployment with our nation’s Air National Guard. An Air Force lieutenant colonel himself, this fourth trip to the border was the first time he has been in Arizona. Kinzinger went from “undecided” about the need for a presidential national emergency declaration to fund the wall to a strong supporter of President Trump’s plan. He noted that cameras and radar inspections repeatedly pick up “many groups” heading for the border and entry into the United States.
Former Obama administration Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan got a chance to speak to render his opinion about the illegal immigration problem during a CNN interview. Told the number of border arrests have dropped in recent years, Morgan countered with, “that’s part of the multilayer strategy of barriers, technology and personnel.” In Yuma, Arizona, 23 miles of barrier, technology, and personnel have helped to stem the tide of illegal immigration. “The illegal immigration problem went from 150,000 to 15,000 which shows it works. All the experts will tell you we need more of it.”
President Trump has been criticized by Democrats and their cronies in the media for invoking a national emergency declaration in order to obtain more funds for walls and barriers at the border. But the president’s plan has been opposed by House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer, both of whom supported a Fences Act in 2006 that is similar in many ways to what today’s President wants. As for Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, it is of course that, with or without such a declaration, the president may only spend money appropriated by Congress, and he may not spend money for the wall that is allocated for other purposes. Yet, no Democrat wants to be reminded that President Obama used the tactic of declaring a national emergency 13 times, and his predecessors Bush and Clinton each did so 14 times.
“But walls don’t work,” insist Trump-haters and congressional Democrats. They ignore the fact that walls do work exceedingly well for Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Macedonia and Slovenia. In the U.S, a hastily built barrier at San Diego helped mightily to reduce the illegal entry problem from 565,581 in 1992 to 26,086 in 2017.
So, let’s conclude that walls and barriers do what building them intends. If impediments like them aren’t built at every point along our nation’s immensely long southern border — California to Texas — they will certainly lower the tide of illegal immigration while freeing up some Border Patrol agents to do their important work in areas where no fences exists.
Then, let’s further conclude that Pelosi, Schumer and Democrats in general want more illegal immigrants, not fewer, entering the United States. Why? It’s rather simple: As soon as they can vote, they will choose to elect more Democrats. It’s really that simple.
The U.S. Constitution clearly requires the federal government to “protect each of them [the states] against invasion.” President Trump seeks to carry out that directive. Pelosi, Schumer and their Democratic colleagues hypocritically point to the Constitution to block President Trump’s use of a national emergency declaration to deal with this problem, while refusing to provide the funding and ignoring their own oaths of office to defend the country.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
