Our Southern Border: National Emergency Or Not?
The big question these days is whether the crisis at our southern border is actually a “national emergency” or not?
Unfortunately the answer to that question by too many is based more on their hatred of President Trump and their ideology than it is on unemotional thought, facts and data.
I believe there could be a reasonable debate on whether you believe it is a national emergency or not, the problem is only one side would like to have a reasonable debate. You cannot have a reasonable debate with yourself.
The mains stream manipulative news or as some call it the main stream opinion networks refuse to report the facts thus encouraging emotional decisions or at least certainly not decisions based on facts and data.
For instance as President Trump has stated, in the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of illegal aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Even the Washington Post agreed on the previous numbers when they stated “The Post concluded that the number was technically correct but wasn't provided in the proper context”. Regarding the proper context part the Post went on to say:
So the numbers add up, but they’re misleading…The total covers all types of offenses, including illegal entry or reentry. ICE does not break down arrests by type of crime, but 16 percent of the total charges and convictions (not arrests) in 2016 were strictly immigration offenses.
Well if “ICE does not break down arrests by type of crime” how can you state that 16% of the total charges were immigration offenses? Do they not even know that they are disproving their own “proper context” statement?
By the way if 16% were only “immigration offenses” that still leaves us 223,440 people who were caught that had criminal records above their first offense of entering the United States illegally. Do we need more criminals in this country, do we not already have enough of our own?
There are credible numbers that we have 4,000 angel mothers here in the United States. What is the definition of angel mothers: angel mothers are mothers whose children were killed by a person residing in the United States illegally. Even if the 4,000 is incorrect does the number 2,000 make it any better? That is 2,000 mothers and fathers whose children were killed by illegal aliens and mostly likely would still be alive today if their killers were not here in the United States illegally.
The Center for Immigration studies in a report stated that:
This report attempts to establish an understanding of the difficulties in identifying and combating crimes committed by immigrants. The purpose is not to create an "immigrant scare." Immigrants are crime victims as well as criminals. There is a long, ignominious tradition in this nation (not to mention others) of violence toward newcomers. In recent years more than ever immigrants who enter America illegally are at the mercy of unscrupulous and sadistic smugglers, and many die in boxcars or ships before arriving here. Others, in order to "work off" their debt to their smugglers, become slaves all but in name, and are subject to extortion, forced prostitution, and sweatshop jobs, often tricked by their ethnic compatriots into doing so.
But this reality should not undercut concern over the crimes immigrants commit. States with large immigrant populations, such as California and New York, have had to devote an enormous portion of their law enforcement and criminal justice budgets to investigating, apprehending, and incarcerating immigrants to ensure safety for the law-abiding. The federal government since the mid-1990s has stepped up funding of state and local efforts for this purpose.
So we are left with the questions is our southern border not fully secure to the best of our ability and if not does that equate to a “national emergency”?
That is up to each one of us to decide but we need the facts and data to do so. The main stream “news” is not accurately reporting on that so how are all of us supposed to have a reasonable debate in order to make an informed and reasonable decision on that question?
We cannot and it leaves us with people making a decision depending on where you get your actual “news”.