The Patriot Post® · Battle for the Border
America’s sovereignty is under siege at the southern border. As President Trump frequently — and rightly — says in his speeches, “If you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country."
Well, if sovereignty means anything, it must mean the ability to control your borders. And it’s pretty clear right now that we don’t have control over the border.
Even Jeh Johnson, Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, acknowledges that we have crisis. During an interview Monday on Fox Business, Johnson said, "By any measure 4,000 apprehensions on our southern border in one day, 100,000 in a month, is a crisis.”
President Trump is doing everything he can. The problem is that bad laws, open borders politicians and liberal judges have largely handcuffed him. Meanwhile, the caravans keep coming.
The Trump Administration Monday ordered additional reinforcements to the border. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen directed Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to begin “emergency surge operations,” transferring between 750 and 2,000 Border Patrol officers to the most affected sectors of the border.
Nielsen also ordered McAleenan to increase the number of migrants deported to Mexico while their asylum claims are processed. Statistics show the overwhelming majority (about 80%) of such claims are denied by immigration judges. Meanwhile, 92% of illegal migrant families ignore their deportation orders, so it makes sense to keep them in Mexico while asylum claims are processed.
“The crisis at our border is worsening,” Nielsen said. “We will not stand idly by while Congress fails to act yet again, so all options are on the table."
One of those options may be sealing the border, as President Trump has recently suggested. It is problematic for a variety of reasons, but it’s been done before.
Lyndon Johnson sealed the border after Kennedy’s assassination.
Richard Nixon sealed the border to combat drug trafficking.
Ronald Reagan sealed the border after a DEA agent was murdered.
George W. Bush sealed the border after the 9/11 attacks.
Yet in the face of this crisis, many left-wing commentators are warning us that if Trump shuts the border, we may run out of avocados. We’ve got 1.5 million illegal aliens coming across the border this year and the left’s biggest fear is a shortage of guacamole!
Nonetheless, closing the border would cause significant economic dislocation to the Mexican and U.S. economies. Our sources say the White House is working now on ways to mitigate those dislocations.
Left-wing Extremism
A progressive conference that opened Monday night in Washington, D.C., shows yet again just how extreme the left has become. At the We the People conference, the NAACP’s Jamal Watkins began by invoking the words of Assata Shakur.
Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army, was convicted in 1973 of murdering a New Jersey state trooper. She then escaped from prison and fled to Cuba, where she’s lived ever since. Shakur remains on the FBI’s list of most-wanted fugitive terrorists.
But Watkins didn’t merely quote Shakur, whom he described as a "leader.” He urged the attendees to stand and repeat after him, saying:
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Not surprisingly, the final words of Shakur’s quote were adapted from the final sentences of the Communist Manifesto. I wonder how many of the attendees would have stood and repeated that statement if they had known they were repeating the words of communists and cop-killers.
Kudos to Fox News for exposing this outrageous example of left-wing extremism. I’m sure you can imagine the media’s reaction if any speaker at a major conservative conference was quoting from KKK leaders and Mein Kampf.
Eight Democrat presidential candidates are attending the We the People conference this week. I suspect they did not know about Watkins’ antics. But surely they know about the controversy by now. Will any one of them condemn this? I’m not holding my breath.
Simply put, they are afraid. They are afraid of the far-left progressive movement, where extreme views have suddenly become mainstream.
The silence from these candidates is deafening. It’s also a sign of how aggressive the left has become, and how cowardly Democrat presidential candidates have become.
If these candidates can’t stand up to some activist quoting a cop-killer, how can we expect them to stand up to radical Islamists, China and Putin?
Pro-Life Promises Kept
I am pleased to report that the Trump Administration is following through on its promise to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.
The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the latest round of Title X grants. Planned Parenthood lost about $45 million in funding compared to previous years.
I am also pleased to report that much of this money is now going to faith-based, pro-life organizations, such as the Obria Group. The Obria Group runs 21 health centers in five states and operates 11 mobile clinics. I have had the privilege of speaking at fundraising events for their centers and I know the tremendous work they are doing for the cause of life.
Meanwhile, House Republicans held a press conference yesterday announcing that they are filing a discharge petition to force a vote on legislation preventing infanticide. This announcement comes after Democrats blocked GOP requests for a vote 25 times.
Three abortion survivors, Gianna Jessen, Claire Culwell, and Melissa Ohden, joined GOP leaders at yesterday’s press conference. “I know that this is important and necessary because I am one of the children who deserved to be protected,” said Ohden, founder of the Abortion Survivors Network.
Polls show that the vast majority of Americans, even those who identify as “pro-choice,” oppose infanticide. Yet, Nancy Pelosi and her pro-abortion “progressives” won’t allow a vote on this bill.