Reece Gardner: My views on the crisis at the U.S. southern border
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Let’s take a look at some of the activity going on at our southern border. There has been a lot of bad publicity coming from some left-leaning political groups who recently visited the border and then reported that conditions there were similar to Nazi Germany's concentration camps and that people were living in cages.
Fortunately, that visit was followed last week by a group of three conservative U.S. senators, led by Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. They were serious about wanting to understand the situation, visiting several border facilities and riding the border itself with Border Patrol agents.
Ernst then held a news conference, briefing reporters on what she had learned. Here are some key points made during this conference:
Despite left-wing claims, the crisis on our border isn't manufactured; It's very real — it is a humanitarian crisis
Any comparison of the detention centers to concentration centers is totally false. These centers are very safe, but they are running out of room. They are now at their maximum capacity
The numbers in the centers aren't just uncomfortable for the people waiting in them, they are a risk to our national security. The Customs and Border Protection agents are "extremely compassionate" but their efforts to meet the needs of detainees is affecting their ability to patrol the border. Ernst found that about 60 percent of agent’s time is now being spent looking after detainees, and that this is a recipe for a disastrous spiral. With fewer agents on the border, more people will enter our country illegally and need to be detained. That means even more agents will be needed to run the centers, and even fewer left to guard the border
Ernst found that agents working in the centers are using their own money to buy diapers and baby formula, because Congress has failed to provide the funds necessary to do so
Fortunately, as I am sure many of you are aware, the judicial branches of our government are cooperating more fully with the President's efforts to hasten the completion of a wall that will work and to have the flexibility to return illegals to their countries. There does indeed seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel.
In this space for next week, I plan to go into some detail about the so-called Red Flag Law now being pushed by some members of the U.S Senate and the U.S. Congress. This effort should indeed raise some "red flags.”
And now, some humor: Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources officer asks a young engineer fresh out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "And what starting salary are you looking for?" The engineer replies, "In the region of $125,000 a year and a very generous benefits package for starters."
The interviewer inquires, "Well, what would you say to a package of five weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental coverage, company-matching fund up to 50 percent of salary and a company car leased every two years, say, a red Corvette?"
The engineer sits up straight and says, "Wow! Are you kidding?"
The interviewer replies, "Yeah, but you started it."
Have a really great day!
