If you were to have just woken up within the last month, you’d think that the Border Crisis is a new manifestation of a hostile world.
But if you look at the stats, not much has changed over the last 15 years.
The number of illegal immigrants peaked in 2006 and has been on the decline ever since.
The number of apprehensions at the Southern border plummeted from 1.64 million in 2000 to only 400,000 in 2018.
While traffic across the Southern border is slowing, visa overstays are increasing and now account for 65% of illegal immigrants according to Robert Warren, the former director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s statistic division.
Immigration aside, the flow of illicit drugs into the country and the sharp rise in drug overdoses has been a steady rally cry of President Trump since 2016.
However, the rise in drug overdoses directly correlates to the changes in prescription drug policy.
In 2010 the maker of the popular opioid Oxycontin changed its formula to make it “crush proof” essentially lowering its fast potency. The FDA backed the move and banned generic forms of the drug – also creating an opioid monopoly.
The result? There was a drop in deaths from prescription opioids and a sharp rise in heroin-related deaths.
The government, not getting the hint, cracked down on pain medications and further restricted opioid prescriptions and the death rate DOUBLED.
Government policies are responsible for the Opioid Crisis, not the Southern border.
But that doesn’t stop politicians from telling lies.
President Trump was presented the campaign slogan “Build the Wall” in 2014 by . . . go figure, Roger Stone and Sam Nunberg. The intent was to tie Trump’s experience as a developer into his anti-immigration stance.
For a political play, it was a smart move that presented a core issue Americans could rally behind.
In the long haul, the campaign slogan has become a liability.
Americans who have been presented with enough horror stories to revive a Mexican version of Freddy Krueger, are now demanding the wall as no one has presented an honest look at the issue.
Democrats, knowing it’s the one campaign promise Trump cannot back down from, have turned the border wall into the all-time biggest wedge in modern history.
The concept, if you look at the stats, is absolutely unnecessary and won’t slow the steady tide of illegal immigrants (again visa overstays are the culprit) and it’s highly unlikely it will stem the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.
The ineffectiveness of a border wall is the reason why funding was never passed when Republicans controlled the House and Senate – there was never an intent to build the wall. The goal from Day 1 was to turn this into the ultimate wedge issue to carry Trump through 2020, presenting Democrats as anti-National Security.
Advocates of a wall cite Israel’s wall – but there are two of note.
First is the West Bank Barrier. A winding, 400-mile barrier that does little to slow the flow of 60,000 Palestinians who cross illegally each season.
The Egypt-Israel barrier is only 152 miles line and heavily backed by Israeli military forces. Only 16 migrants were able to cross in 2016.
To the misconception of most Americans, President Trump is no longer proposing a 2,000 mile solid wall that stretches the Southern border. Instead, his plan is a mere update of existing border fencing along a 722 mile stretch – for a total of $20 billion over 10 years.
The current $5 billion proposal that shut down the government was to construct 215 miles of the border barrier.
Note Israel’s effective Egyptian wall cost only $415 million, or $2 million per mile. Trump’s proposal would cost $23.3 million per mile for a steel slat fence.
Democrats have the upper hand on this issue and are beaming with delight with the issue as a whole as it separates the populace along lines of education and intelligence.
Only folks who are blindly loyal to President Trump – or simply blindly partisan, would continue to support a border wall if they took an honest look at the facts.
Everyone else can be won over – not necessarily to support Democrats, but to shake their confidence in the President and lower his support going into 2020.
Establishment Republicans are complicit in the Democrat’s scheme. The cunning, long-time political players like Mitch McConnell know this issue will kill two birds with stone. First it will keep the fight between the President and Democrats, keeping incumbents safe. Second, the “Wall Wedge”, will be the one that fractures Trump’s support and gets them one step closer to regaining their seats as the power brokers in DC.
In the end, the President is being played for a fool and left to do the dirty work. It’s also highly likely that none of Trump’s trusted advisors has presented him with unbiased facts about Immigration and the Opioid Crisis . . . why would they when they know backtracking is impossible for Trump at this point.
Trump would be wise to table this issue and put full focus on the corruption of the intelligence community and their continued collusion with Democrats.
When the homes of government officials are raided by FBI swat teams, ala Roger Stone, the cries for a border wall will be hard to hear over the cheers for justice.
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