‘Democrats in Congress won’t help solve the problem because they do not even recognize that a crisis exists…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Five GOP congressmen who witnessed the crisis at the US–Mexico Border called on their Democratic counterparts to quit living in denial.
Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, John Joyce of Pennsylvania and Duncan Hunter of California recently visited the Yuma borderline in Biggs’s home state.
On Friday, they published a recap of what they encountered via the Fox News website.
Their firsthand report of seeing scores of Guatemalan nationals apprehended, overcrowded detention centers and cartels keeping lookouts reaffirmed the charges long made by the White House and Department of Homeland Security.
Contrary to Democrats’ claims that they are supporting a humanitarian mission, the congressmen said the political inaction and loose enforcement of immigration laws was, in fact, contributing to immigrants’ anguish as parents were sold into servitude by organized crime syndicates.
The children, said the congressmen, were then held captive, to be “rented” out to border-crossing illegals in a bid—often successful—to exploit the loopholes in asylum laws that would lead to a quick release.
“The inhumanity is caused by judicial activists who have limited the executive branch from enforcing our immigration laws,” the congressmen said.
While the laws based on the Bill Clinton-era Flores settlement require that children (and their accompanying guardians) be held no longer than 20 days, the overcrowding and lack of family detention centers often means they are released far sooner, usually about three days.
“President Trump has declared an emergency on the border. He is right,” said the congressmen. “We catch, at most, one-third of people illegally crossing into the U.S., and one-tenth of the drugs.”
But even as the top priority is securing the border, the Republicans said their political adversaries continued to ignore the problem altogether.
“Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress won’t help solve the problem because they do not even recognize that a crisis exists,” said the congressmen.
That isn’t for lack of effort on the part of border-security advocates, who say many Democrats have rebuffed their open invitations to arrange a visit.
Shortly after the government ended its shutdown in January, a group of Border Patrol wives in Texas’s Rio Grande area saw their online call to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., go unanswered.
“”You don’t need to bring any security detail,” wrote would-be organizer Jill Demanski on Facebook. “Our husbands/boyfriends/fiances/wives/significant others are actually very good at their jobs, thank goodness! And since you see no threat here, I’m sure you can just make a quick flight down here alone.”
A day later, a rancher in Pelosi’s home state of California re-extended an invitation, which he said he had initially offered more than four years prior, for the left-wing party leader to visit.
Shortly thereafter, Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy made an “unannounced” border trip to see some of the trouble areas in the Rio Grande Valley, which he live-tweeted in early February, inviting supporters to use the hashtag #PelosiDoesntCare and others.
More recently, in early April, Art del Cueto, vice president of the Border Patrol Council, issued an open invitation to Democrats to visit after three Texas-based Democrats—including presidential hopeful Julian Castro—attacked Trump’s policies and called for open borders.
“I haven’t seen any of them down here working with us, I haven’t seen any of them down here asking to speak to any of us,” del Cueto said.
It is no surprise, of course, that Democrats are eager to avoid the bad optics. If they were to witness the lawlessness being described, they would have to acknowledge the crisis.
On the other hand, by going to a safe and secure section, as CNN‘s Jim Acosta attempted to do in early January, they risk even greater political peril in potentially encountering their greatest nemesis: an effective border wall.
While Acosta’s trip was widely mocked for helping to prove Trump’s point, a follow-up visit from Acosta’s network colleague Chris Cuomo in early April to the same area—near McAllen, Texas—showed a far different story as Cuomo visited one of the over-run detention centers.
Two CNN reporters go the U.S.-Mexico border. @Acosta doesn’t see anything. @ChrisCuomo finds the border at a breaking point. Must have been a slow day in McAllen. pic.twitter.com/SPvfqvPt2V
— NumbersUSA (@NumbersUSA) April 3, 2019