Kerby Anderson

President Trump’s opponents argue that there is no crisis at the border, thus we don’t need to build a wall or deploy troops to the border. Proponents, of course, argue just the opposite. Is there any way to evaluate these contradictory claims?

One way, of course, is to look at the increasing number of men, women, and children crossing our southern border. The US border patrol reported that more than 76,000 migrants crossed illegally into the country in just one month. That seems like a crisis.

There is another way to evaluate those claims. That is to look at the number of those migrants who came across our border with dangerous intentions. Terence Jeffrey (editor in chief of CNS News) examined the criminal statistics for federal courts. He found that the five federal court districts that sit along the US-Mexico border were the top five districts in the country for the number of defendants convicted and sentenced to imprisonment last year. Those would be the Western and Southern Districts of Texas, the Southern District of California, and the Districts of Arizona and New Mexico.

He has mentioned in some of his radio interviews that this is well known by assistant US attorneys. They know that if you want to work in a busy federal court district, just go to West Texas, South Texas, Arizona, California, or New Mexico. Even more to the point, criminals (like drug cartels, migrant smugglers, human traffickers) know that the border is not secure.

Lest you think this is a recent anomaly, just look at previous years. He says that every single year (going back to 1959), the office of US attorneys has published an annual statistical report that shows a similar pattern. People on both sides of the border are being victimized, and the court records provide another statistical illustration of why we need to protect the nation’s border.