A reported tentative deal between the U.S. and the incoming Mexican government on asylum requests by migrants would be a victory for the Trump administration and the American people if it is finalized.
According to a Washington Post story published Saturday, the Trump administration and the incoming Mexican government have tentatively agreed that migrants from south of the U.S. border will wait in Mexico for their American asylum requests to be ruled on, rather than being allowed to wait in the U.S.
However, The Associated Press later quoted Mexico’s incoming interior minister, Olga Sanchez, as saying: "There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the U.S. government."
Since the Washington Post report says the agreement with the administration of Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador is not final and might still collapse, the comments by Sanchez do not necessarily run counter to the Post story. The Post said its report was based on accounts from Mexican government officials and senior members of López Obrador’s transition team.
Hopefully, a final agreement will reached soon after López Obrador takes office Dec. 1.
The White House did not comment on the Washington Post story Saturday.
But President Trump said in two tweets Saturday night: “Migrants at the Southern Border will not be allowed into the United States until their claims are individually approved in court. We only will allow those who come into our Country legally. Other than that our very strong policy is Catch and Detain. No ‘Releasing’ into the U.S... All will stay in Mexico. If for any reason it becomes necessary, we will CLOSE our Southern Border. There is no way that the United States will, after decades of abuse, put up with this costly and dangerous situation anymore!”
If an agreement like the one described by the Post is finalized, President Trump will have made major progress in his efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigrants on our southern border and strengthen our national security.
And the adoption of such an agreement would show that once again – facing a challenged that has prompted other presidents and politicians to throw up their hands and say nothing can be done – President Trump will have proven himself to the master dealmaker.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have a responsibility to support the president’s actions to secure our borders, because they have a duty to protect the American people and enforce our laws. And one of the first steps they should take is to provide funding for a border wall that is vital for our security. Defending America should not be a partisan issue.
Right now, growing numbers of migrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and many are applying for asylum because they know they will be able to live in the U.S. for years while their asylum requests are processed. U.S. immigration courts have an incredible backlog of more than 750,000 cases, accounting for the long delay in reaching decisions on asylum requests.
In October the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 60,000 migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. without authorization – the highest number in any month since President Trump has taken office.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have a responsibility to support the president’s actions to secure our borders, because they have a duty to protect the American people and enforce our laws.
Many migrants awaiting asylum hearings in the U.S. never show up for their court dates. And the longer they stay in the U.S., the more sympathy they draw in the media and from many compassionate Americans. When the migrants have children in the U.S. the children are automatically American citizens, and their parents often argue that they must stay in America to care for the children.
For years, elites in both political parties have ignored the illegal immigration crisis growing on America’s southern border.
Republicans did nothing about the issue because many businesses and farmers supporting the GOP were happy to have a source of cheap labor to pick crops, work in factories, and hold many unskilled jobs. A steady supply of illegal immigrant labor kept wages low for these jobs – cutting costs for employers but hurting American workers, particularly those who never went on to college or have not graduated from high school.
Democrats encouraged a porous southern border because they saw migrants and their American-born children as a source of future political support. The Democrats want a pathway to citizenship for the illegal immigrants so they can become Democratic voters in a few years – and some Democrats even argue that non-citizens ought to be able to vote in U.S. elections.
Now our generosity as a country is being taken advantage of daily by thousands of Central Americans who are being guided by well-funded nonprofits to gain entry into America.
The U.S. welcomes more immigrants than any country in the world, but in recent years our compassion has opened the door to waves of criminals entering America, alongside other migrants who want to work hard – and do no one any harm – in order to build better lives for their families. Unfortunately, it’s often impossible to know which migrants are entering to do us harm.
Donald Trump was elected president by campaigning on the promise to build a wall to secure our southern border. He understands – as do millions of American voters – that a country without borders is not a country.
One of the first and most important components of a nation-state is strong borders with a definitive delineation of where its own nation’s sovereignty begins and ends. Unfortunately, this is now a point of disagreement between our two major political parties.
Candidate Trump won states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Carolina in a stunning fashion in the 2016 presidential election, with a crackdown on illegal immigration being his central theme. Yet Republicans in Congress have been reluctant to fund the construction of a border wall Trump promised to build.
Senate Republicans especially have failed time and time again to appropriate the funding needed to build the border wall to defend our country from the flow of drugs, illegal guns, gang members and other illegal immigrants.
This is why in recent weeks you have seen the president mobilize the military to help construct a barbed wire barrier to make it much more difficult for illegal immigrants to cross our border. That’s an important step to begin the process of sealing off our border, but hardly enough to stop the southern border penetration that threatens our country.
Here are some eye-opening figures regarding the threat open borders pose on our country:
The annual cost of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. each year is about $115 billion in benefits and services, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. American taxpayers pay an extraordinary amount to fund benefits.
Thousands of children are trafficked across the border every year. This is one of the most horrific practices that still exists to this day. Our porous borders are a dream come true for the evil and immoral child sex trafficking industry.
The U.S. Border Patrol has seen a 72 percent increase in heroin seizures in the last year. A majority of the fentanyl in America comes across the southern border.
President Trump has taken numerous actions to protect our borders. The tentative agreement reported by The Washington Post is just the latest. You can be sure the president he will do whatever else he can to defend our country. He deserves the support of us all.
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