Border crossings double since spring. Elitist solution? Amnesty!

While both parties, and unfortunately even President Trump, are clamoring for amnesty, border crossings continue to rise. The irony of ignoring enforcement and focusing on amnesty while border crossings double is lost on them. The reason we had a border surge in 2014 was because of DACA amnesty, and the reason apprehensions are back on the rise is likely because of the very promise of permanent amnesty.

One of the most remarkable immediate outcomes of Trump’s presidency was the plummeting of border crossings, buoyed by the perception that the new president would finally enforce American sovereignty. From January to April 2017, border crossings dropped 73 percent, to the lowest level in a generation. Then, after Trump began to equivocate on continuing Obama’s amnesty, the numbers rose steadily again every single month. In April, just 15,766 illegals were apprehended by border agents between points of entry or surrendered themselves at points of entry. By December 2017, that number rose to 40,513, in line with the traditional numbers before Trump was elected.

The worst news is that the number of family units and unaccompanied alien children (UACs) has risen quickly. In December, 5,014 UACs and 12,975 family units were apprehended at the border. That is a 342 percent increase in UAC crossings and a 583 percent increase in family units crossing since the low point last April. That is very alarming because it suggests that the message been disseminated to Central American smugglers that once you come here with a child, even President Trump is all bark and no bite and will not enforce the laws. The promise of amnesty is reversing all of the progress Trump made at the beginning of his presidency.

The problem has been augmented by the sanctuary courts that are mandating catch-and-release policies by prohibiting the detention of minors. Moreover, there is no evidence that the Trump administration has followed through with its promise to properly interpret the UAC law and only offer protections to those who are “severely trafficked,” not those who self-trafficked, which is true of the overwhelming majority of them. Up to 30 percent of UACs detained by immigration authorities have ties to MS-13 gangs, and many are not even minors, including the illegal alien girl using our legal system to demand access to an abortion.

Incentives and disincentives matter. When you promise more amnesty, you get more illegal immigration. With these stark numbers from last year released by the border patrol, how could any responsible president agree to even discuss amnesty before the controls for preventing the next wave of illegal immigration are implemented?

It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of border apprehensions took place in the Rio Grande sector, the eastern-most portion of the border between Mexico and Texas, where there is almost no fencing of any sort.

This is the problem with any amnesty proposal without first implementing all of the proper border and interior enforcement reforms. They claim that only the best and brightest will get amnesty, but the amnesty itself incentivizes all sorts of undesirable migrants to come, including gang members. Amnesty, as its many iterations over the past 30 years have shown, is the ultimate act of hate for America, not a “bill of love,” as Trump suggested yesterday.

If the president is serious about retaining his initial gains on border security, he must threaten a “veto of love” on any bill that does not address the culprit of the leaky border — the amnesty agenda itself.

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