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OPINION:
This week, I spoke with residents of Tucson, Arizona, who are exhausted from four years of an invasion. The U.S. Border Patrol recorded more than 250,000 illegal alien apprehensions in the Tucson sector during the first four months of federal fiscal year 2024, the most of any region in the country.
The residents were thrilled to hear President Trump’s campaign trail promise to take immediate action to secure our border. The facts show a dramatic change within weeks. We are making America secure again.
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that border apprehensions during the first 11 days of the Trump administration improved 85% from one year ago.
Overall, the statistics for January showed the lowest level of illegal aliens crossing the border since a slowdown just after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were fewer total encounters, fewer unaccompanied alien children, and fewer families with parents and children at the border last month. January ended up being the lowest month of people illegally crossing the border since May 2020. The impact is even greater because the first few weeks of January were under the Biden administration. Data for February will likely show even better numbers than January.
The numbers from last month are a 40% drop from December and 90% lower than the worst month recorded under President Biden. The word is out: Don’t cross the border illegally. You will get caught and sent back.
Heightened enforcement at the border, raids across America to find the worst offenders, planes sending the worst of the worst to their countries of origin, and Mexico agreeing to help in the fight against the flow of fentanyl are just a few of the significant actions Americans have seen since Jan. 20. The dramatic changes also have an enhanced deterrent effect, dissuading others from venturing across the southern border. That is a welcome relief to the Americans living in the Tucson sector and all along the border between the United States and Mexico.
Voters in Arizona felt so strongly about the issue in November that they gave a solid win to Mr. Trump and cast a majority of their ballots for Proposition 314, allowing local law enforcement to arrest people suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico. Critics argue it encroaches on the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement. Still, voters correctly saw that the federal authorities failed to fulfill their responsibilities over the previous four years.
On his first day in office, Mr. Trump rightly proclaimed, “In joining the Union, the States agreed to surrender much of their sovereignty and join the Union in exchange for the federal government’s promise in Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, to “protect each of [the States] against Invasion.” I have determined that the current state of the southern border reveals that the federal government has failed in fulfilling this obligation to the States and hereby declare that an invasion is ongoing at the southern border, which requires the federal government to take measures to fulfill its obligation to the States.” Once again, we have a president willing to uphold the Constitution and defend the people of the United States of America.
In his bestselling book “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans,” author Peter Schweizer spells out how the Chinese Communist Party has all but declared war on the United States through its actions along the border. In particular, he highlights research about thousands of Chinese chemists positioned just south of the border. He also notes the significance of the CCP providing the Mexican drug cartels with pill presses to mix fentanyl into what appear to be more common pills. These actions are driving many of the overdose deaths in our country.
Before Mr. Trump’s campaign, many Americans viewed these concerns as limited to border states and the loved ones of drug addicts. The data shows that fentanyl and other drugs are making their way all over the country. The facts also show that many of the people dying from overdoses had never used illegal drugs. Securing the border will save lives.
In addition to the issues of American sovereignty, public safety and public health, securing the border is also key to restoring fiscal sanity to the federal government. The hordes of illegal aliens filling high-rise hotels in places such as New York City are straining the federal budget.
Left unchecked, the lifetime cost of the border crisis would exceed the total amounts budgeted for Medicaid, the Department of Defense, or Medicare, according to research conducted by Daniel Di Martino, a graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute (and a frequent speaker for Young America’s Foundation).
The people in Tucson are pleased to have an administration committed to keeping us safe again. The rest of America also should be thankful.
• Scott Walker, president of Young America’s Foundation, served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
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