The situation at the nation’s southern border has been described by President Donald Trump as a “crisis.”
Of course, those on the left want to minimize the issue at the border in an effort to push back against President Trump’s agenda. However, it isn’t just President Trump who believes the border is in a mess. Jeh Johnson, former President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary, appears to be on the same page.
“By any measure, 4,000 arrests in a day, 100,000 in a month—that’s the population of the city of Albany, New York—that suddenly shows up on our southern border in one month is a crisis,” he said. “It’s a crisis because it overwhelms our Border Patrol and our immigration officials’ ability to deal with it, and it’s a crisis because you have to absorb that population somehow into southern border towns.”
With the situation growing ever worse at the border, President Trump stated Wednesday that he plans to mobilize more military personnel at the southern border. The president says the problem is growing much worse, with people ending up dead after the long journey into America.
“Many, many dead people. Also, they come in and raid their houses, and it’s very dangerous,” Trump said.
The U.S.-Mexico border is currently patrolled by 5,000 active-duty National Guard troops. President Trump deployed an additional 3,750 troops in February. Later that same month, Democratic governors from California, New Mexico, and Wisconsin made the move to withdraw their National Guard troops, claiming there was not adequate evidence of a security crisis. Therefore, they felt they couldn’t justify keeping extra troops stationed there.
In addition to beefing up the amount of military personnel stationed at the border, President Trump has also been committed to fixing the border problems in other ways. For example, he created a policy that required migrants who are requesting asylum to stay in Mexico while being processed. San Francisco Judge Richard Seeborg is resisting the policy though, and blocked Trump’s new rules for asylum seekers. According to the judge, the policy isn’t a good idea because it requires some migrants to “risk their lives” by staying in Mexico.
Obviously, President Trump and his administration do not agree with the judge’s actions. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders blasted the decision during a recent press briefing.
“A liberal activist judge in San Francisco ruled the United States and Mexico can’t work together to address asylum issues at the border,” she said. “It’s sad that Mexico is now doing more to secure our border than Democrats.”
President Trump added his own thoughts on Twitter.
“A 9th Circuit Judge just ruled that Mexico is too dangerous for migrants,” he tweeted. “So unfair to the U.S. OUT OF CONTROL!”
Unfortunately, a problem with the scope of the current border crisis isn’t one easily solved with a few quick changes in policy. Thankfully, President Trump is committed to doing whatever is necessary, no matter how extensive, to see the issue addressed. One way to tackle the problem, of course, to increase the military presence at the border and secure the wall. The policies he created for asylum seekers another way to address the problem. Jeh Johnson explained it’s a complex problem that requires more than a quick answer.
“They want a quick, easy answers,” Johnson concluded. “They want some legal lever to pull…we have got to make the long-term investment in addressing the poverty and violence in those nations. It can be done.”
~ Liberty Planet
