Wall along the border protocol: Real facts

VIEW from behind the plow

Will a wall along the U.S. Mexico border save America’s sovereignty?

It surely would provide some help in halting the casual violation of the nation’s immigration laws, as encouraged by the Left in its unending efforts to destroy our republic and turn it into another Third World disaster zone. Think Venezuela, South America’s most prosperous nation until socialist dictators took control.

Perhaps you read the column on the right side of Page 4 (the opinion page) in Wednesday’s edition, correcting the misinformation spewed by the Left about our migrant protection protocols.

It was written by Homeland Security Director Kirstjen M. Nielsen and was written for Border Patrol officers as a guideline for their official actions.

It was sent to us by a mother of a Border Patrol agent who seems dissatisfied by the fake news disseminated by a national media that is obviously an arm of the Democratic Party as now constituted.

We identified the sender of the article only as the mother of a border agent Wednesday. Since then, we have obtained additional information tying her to Kingfisher County.

Now, as radio personality Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story.

Barbara Miller, the mom, writes that she and her husband, Onis, native Oklahomans,  built a home on 30 acres five miles west of Cashion in 2007.  Their daughter,  Gay-lien LaGasse has taught at Cashion for 10 years and her four children have attended school there. Their son, Andrew Wylie, served in the  Marines after graduating from UCO and joined the US Border Patrol in 1998. He is now attached to the Special Response Team in El Paso, Texas.

“Andy is very aware that all of us have concerns about the state of the Border situation, so passes on articles that we normally would not have access to,” Mrs Miller writes.

We appreciate that the Millers consider us an independent newspaper interested in reporting accurate information but in the interest of full disclosure we need to report that Mrs. Miller and staff member Barb Walter are former classmates at Oklahoma City Central High School.

If you didn’t read the item in Wednesday’s edition, it might be worth your time to find it and read it now.

So much spin has been put on the president’s efforts to build a wall protecting Americans that many are undoubtedly confused.

Leftist leaders (yes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer) have attempted to paint the administration’s policies as inhumane and that the proposed wall is only an ego trip for President Trump, even though both have voted in favor of wall proposals in the past.

We are re-printing a portion of Ms. Nielsen’s explanation here:

“Why is DHS Instituting MPP

(Migrant Protection Protocols)

“The U.S. is facing a security and humanitarian crisis on the southern border. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using all appropriate resources and authorities to address the crisis and execute our missions to secure the borders, enforce immigration and customs laws, facilitate legal trade and travel, counter traffickers, smugglers and transnational criminal organizations, and interdict drugs and illegal contraband.   

“MPP will help restore a safe and orderly immigration process, decrease the number of those taking advantage of the immigration system, and the ability of smugglers and traffickers to prey on vulnerable populations, and reduce threats to life, national security, and public safety, while ensuring that vulnerable populations receive the protections they need.

“Historically, illegal aliens to the U.S. were predominantly single adult males from Mexico who were generally removed within 48 hours if they had no legal right to stay; now over 60 percent are family units and unaccompanied children and 60 percent are non-Mexican. In FY17, CBP apprehended 94,285 family units from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (Northern Triangle) at the Southern border. Of those, 99 percent remain in the country today.

“Misguided court decisions and outdated laws have made it easier for illegal aliens to enter and remain in the U.S. if they are adults who arrive with children, unaccompanied alien children, or individuals who fraudulently claim asylum. As a result, DHS continues to see huge numbers of illegal migrants and a dramatic shift in the demographics of aliens traveling to the border, both in terms of nationality and type of aliens – from a demographic who could be quickly removed when they had no legal right to stay to one that cannot be detained and timely removed.

“In October, November, and December of 2018, DHS encountered an average of 2,000 illegal and inadmissible aliens a day at the Southern border. While not an all-time high in terms of overall numbers, record increases in particular types of migrants, such as family units, travelling to the border who require significantly more resources to detain and remove (when our courts and laws even allow that), have overwhelmed the U.S. immigration system, leading to a ‘system’ that enables smugglers and traffickers to flourish and often leaves aliens in limbo for years. This has been a prime  cause of our near-800,000 case backlog in immigration courts and delivers no consequences to aliens who have entered illegally.

Smugglers and traffickers are also using outdated laws to entice migrants to undertake the dangerous journey north where on the route migrants report high rates of abuse, violence, and sexual assault. Human smugglers and traffickers exploit migrants and seek to turn human misery into profit. Transnational criminal organizations and gangs are also deliberately exploiting the situation to bring drugs, violence, and illicit goods into American communities.  The activities of these smugglers, traffickers, gangs and criminals endanger the security of the U.S., as well as partner nations in the region.

“The situation has had severe impacts on U.S. border security and immigration operations.  The dramatic increase in illegal migration, including unprecedented number of families and fraudulent asylum claims is making it harder for the U.S. to devote appropriate resources to individuals who are legitimately fleeing persecution. In fact, approximately 9 out of 10 asylum claims from Northern Triangle countries are ultimately found non-meritorious by federal immigration judges. Because of the court backlog and the impact of outdated laws and misguided court decisions, many of these individuals have disappeared into the country before a judge denies their claim and simply become fugitives.

“The MPP will provide a safer and more orderly process that will discourage individuals from attempting illegal entry and making false claims to stay in the U.S., and allow more resources to be dedicated to individuals who legitimately qualify for asylum.”

The Trump administration is making sincere efforrts to repair a serious situation made more difficult by politicians who are more interested in playing games than protecting the nation’s citizens.