President Trump negotiates a deal with Mexico to crack down on illegal immigration
Stew Leonard's Supermarket Stores CEO weighs in on the impact a tariff hike on Mexico would have on American goods.
The agreement President Trump announced Friday night between the U.S. and Mexico on tariffs and immigration is an achievement that has eluded past presidents. He deserves the thanks and gratitude of all Americans – but of course, he won’t get it.
After threatening to impose tariffs on everything Mexico exports to the U.S., Trump got Mexico to agree to finally take greater action to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. Trump then suspended imposition of U.S. tariffs on our southern neighbor.
Under the Friday agreement, which was distributed to the media, Mexico said it would "take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration."
TRUMP DEFENDS DEAL WITH MEXICO TO STEM MIGRANT FLOWS, PREVENT TARIFFS
The steps will include stationing Mexican National Guard troops around the country to stop illegal immigrants from entering Mexico from the south and from entering the U.S. In addition, Mexico agreed to expand a program that makes some immigrants wait in Mexico while U.S. officials review their asylum claims.
"Mexico will try very hard, and if they do that, this will be a very successful agreement for both the United States and Mexico!" President Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
I don’t care what party you are affiliated with. There is no downside to securing our border. There is no downside to fewer illegal drugs being smuggled into our country. There is no downside to taking profits from criminal cartels.
As the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and someone who spent almost 34 years working in the immigration and law enforcement fields, I believe President Trump has been right on the immigration issue from the start.
He is doing his job as president to protect our nation and our citizens. He is trying to keep his promise to the American people to enforce our immigration laws – a position that should draw bipartisan support, but draws only criticism from most elected Democrats.
President Trump has taken many executive actions on immigration because of the failures of Congress and the courts.
The president has sent more than 5,000 military personnel to our border with Mexico and additional federal civilian employees to augment the extremely overworked agents already there.
And Trump even declared a national emergency along the border and has continued to seek funding for a border wall that will help reduce the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs.
The president also put a new long-term immigration plan on the table that the Democratic congressional leadership would have welcomed 10 years ago – but instead has rejected out of hand.
The turnabout in Democratic attitudes on illegal immigration in just a few years is astounding. I would like to ask the critics of the president’s immigration policies the following questions:
Why do you believe it is OK to not care about securing our borders and enforcing laws passed by Congress? Why do you vilify the brave men and women who enforce our laws? Why do you ignore an unprecedented humanitarian crisis on our border?
And I would also ask opponents of the president’s immigration policies:
Why do you continue to put the most vulnerable in more danger, day after day? Why do you not want to protect our nation and our sovereignty?
I have served six presidents throughout my career and I respected each one of them because they were elected to the highest office in the land by the American people. I didn’t always agree with them on immigration but I carried out my duties as a career law enforcement officer.
Throughout my career, there was a general consensus that laws enacted by Congress and the president – regardless of political party – should be enforced. And there was respect for the dedication of law enforcement officers doing their job and sometimes risking their lives.
But once President Trump took office, Democrats turned against him and his priorities with a vengeance. It seemed like when he said he was for something, Democrats in the House and Senate decided they were against it.
A few years ago Democrats supported funding for border barriers. They used to think a secure border was a necessity and provided many resources to help secure it.
We are now facing an unprecedented crisis on our border. It is not just a humanitarian crisis but one of national security.
Democratic leadership said the caravans of illegal immigrants were not real, that there was no national emergency, and that all the issues on the border didn’t exist but were simply manufactured. They demanded that ICE be abolished because it is the only law enforcement agency that exists to arrest those who are in our country illegally.
What has been offered by the Democratic leadership since the current illegal immigration crisis started?
Democrats in Congress demanded an investigation into the men and women of the Border Patrol when several children died after making a treacherous journey to the U.S.
Democrats refused to provide any meaningful amount of funding for a border barrier, even though they have done so for other presidents.
Democrats sued the president in federal court over his barrier funding. They have not offered up one dollar of the supplemental spending request to deal with the crisis so the most vulnerable can be cared for.
Democrats continue to push for ICE to be abolished and defunded. And they have refused to close the loopholes that have resulted in 90 percent asylum fraud.
In addition, Democrats just recently proposed legislation for amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. If that ever became law, it would only serve to entice more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally.
At a time when they can and should help calm the illegal immigration crisis, Democrats only throw gasoline on it.
If Democrats want to know why children are dying and 31 percent of women coming to the U.S. illegally are being sexually assaulted during their journey, the Democrats need only to look in the mirror and see their inaction.
The Democrats want to know how the criminal cartels in Mexico make billions of dollars a year on illegal immigrants smuggling and human trafficking in women and children. Again, they need only look in the mirror.
If the Democrats want to call illegal immigration a manufactured crisis then they must accept that they manufactured it. They manufactured it because of their drive to see President Trump fail, their desire to have open borders, and their desire to turn illegal immigrants into American citizens and Democratic voters.
Finally, and most importantly, 40 to 60 percent of Border Patrol agents are no longer on the front line securing our border. They are busy caring for children and families.
This is a clear example of why I have been saying that this “humanitarian crisis” has created a national security crisis. Criminal cartels who control the northern Mexico border are coordinating the movements of large groups in order to tie up Border Patrol agents so the cartels can move bad people and drugs through other unprotected areas.
My biggest concern is that our border is less secure than it was just a year ago. If there are people in the world who want to do harm to this country – such as mounting a terrorist attack – they can take advantage of the current chaos and vulnerable border.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks our government established numerous checks and databases that are run on anyone trying to get a plane ticket into the U.S. The same systems are used to check on anyone trying to get a visa to come to our country.
Terrorist organizations will recognize that the easiest way to get into this country is the same way 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants did it. The whole world knows our border is in chaos and that is why we are now seeing illegal immigrants from over 40 different countries staging south.
God help us if another tragedy falls upon us because Democratic leaders in Congress want to play politics with our safety and are blinded by their drive to see our president fail. No one should want our president to fail. His success is America’s success.
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I don’t care what party you are affiliated with. There is no downside to securing our border. There is no downside to fewer illegal drugs being smuggled into our country. There is no downside to taking profits from criminal cartels.
And there is no downside in saluting and thanking the men and women who strap a gun to their hip every day to protect our great nation. When all is said and done, I am sure that those opposing border security and against addressing the illegal immigration crisis will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Our nation deserves better.