Border Protection Create A Nation

Why 200 Miles of Border Wall Matters

6/29/2020 - Brian Lonergan Townhall.com

You may have missed the news that President Trump did a victory tour of more than 200 miles of newly constructed border wall in Arizona last week. With no shortage of tumult in the country at the moment, the story got scant attention. Chalk it up as another example of media bias by omission, but the construction of the border wall is more consequential than its opponents will ever admit.  

To be fair, there was some coverage of the president’s tour, and it came with the predictable negative slant. Trump made a “renewed anti-immigrant appeal,” The New York Times railed, “bragging about the progress his administration has made” in building the wall.   

There is nothing “anti-immigrant” about a border wall. Before coronavirus, our government was admitting legal immigrants into the country on a daily basis, and that will resume at some point in the future. It is more accurate that a border wall is “anti-illegal immigrant,” and there’s nothing wrong with that. An America with a controlled, orderly legal process for admitting immigrants is a safe, prosperous nation for everyone. An America that tolerates widespread violations of our immigration laws is a dangerous place where foreign nationals are exploited as modern-day serfs. The middle class is in rapid decline, and society is polarized into the wealthy elites and the servant class that mows their lawns and cleans their mansions. Unless you’re among the wealthy elites, who wants to live in a country like that?  

Critics of the wall have argued that it is cruel to “slam the door” on those seeking a better life. Take away the politically-charged emotionalism and one can see the fraudulence of that charge. What is cruel is to entice impoverished people to make an incredibly dangerous journey with the lure of easy access into America that turns out to be false. Along the way, girls are subjected to sexual assault and children are forced to pose as the children of adults they are not related to in order to exploit our laws. Those children are often recycled back to Latin America by cartels to enable other adults to get across the border, after the aspiring immigrant pays an exorbitant fee to the cartels.  

In addition to being exploited, those seeking entry are putting their lives at risk. Low estimates from the Border Patrol between 2000 to 2014 put deaths attributed to unlawful border crossing at over 6,000, and that’s just along the border. Without plugging the gaps abused by migrant-smugglers, migrants will keep on coming, and so will the deaths. Some may see the wall as a closed door, but the reality is that it saves lives.     

For all the scorn directed at it, a wall saves lives on both sides of the border. Heroin and opioids are primarily sourced from Mexico, and their toll on Americans has been devastating. In 2014 alone, 47,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, including 21,000 deaths from opioids (like fentanyl) and 10,000 from heroin.     

This is a problem that is rapidly worsening. In 2016, 64,000 Americans died from opioids, more than the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. In the same year, opioids became the leading cause of death for men under 50, and analysts found that because of the extent of the crisis, the average life expectancy of the country actually experienced a decline. A fortified border wall presents a significant obstacle to those who traffic these deadly imports into our country. How many lives might be saved by keeping that poison out of our communities?  

These facts are lost on critics of the wall, who offer up myriad specious arguments. “Walls don’t work,” they say. Based on the recommendations of our immigration enforcement professionals and the documented results in countries like Israel, India, and Turkey, physical barriers are a very effective way to restrict the flow of those seeking to enter a country illegally. So “walls don’t work” isn’t really a cogent argument against a border wall, it’s a bumper sticker that is demonstrably false.   

Another attack is that a contiguous wall from San Diego to Brownsville would be utterly impractical. President Trump has long said that due to the presence of natural geographic barriers, a continuous wall is not necessary and is not the goal. While we have a strong law enforcement presence at the border, agents cannot patrol every mile. It is in those gaps where an imposing physical wall, and not a “virtual wall,” can be very effective.  

Two hundred miles of border wall is not the destination, but it is significant progress given the ferocious opposition that has been thrown at it. Those trying to obstruct President Trump’s efforts at the border have yet to put forth a serious alternative that would keep America safe and preserve our national sovereignty. Weakness and open borders are not the answer. Strength and security are the only responsible way forward.   

This War Between Patriots and Arsonists is One We MUST Win!

The American Regime Is Under Siege

6/26/2020 - Josh Hammer Townhall.com

More so than at any time in at least a half-century, and possibly at any time since Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox, the American system of governance and way of life is under existential duress. As one astute remonstrator observed on Twitter, what we are now witnessing is an attempt at regime change in the United States of America.

That may well come across as embellishment at best and disingenuousness at worst. But nothing could be further from the truth. How else to interpret the mass anarchy and callous disregard for the rule of law now wreaking havoc upon America's greatest cities? How else to assess the destruction wrought by the scofflaws and ingrates who patrol the land on a never-ending hunt to vandalize and topple memorials erected in honor of our noblest statesmen, such as George Washington?

The modern left, in thrall to the anarchists of antifa and the Marxists of Black Lives Matter, has positioned itself as a political movement that stands athwart the American regime. At an institutional level, Democratic Party leadership is increasingly a dog wagged by the tail that is antifa and Black Lives Matter. And that tail, as is openly conceded in moments of candor, is resolutely opposed to the idea of America itself. There is no alternative way to comprehend the ardent desire of those insurrectionists who, channeling the very worst of Mao's Cultural Revolution, would deface and demolish societal tributes to the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence (Jefferson) and the man who brought to fruition its ideals (Lincoln). Could we ask for a more clarion demonstration of the dripping disdain with which the left views the entire American project?

We are now in the midst of a cold civil war between Americanists, proud defenders and preservers of the American regime and way of life, and the civilizational arsonists who seek to burn that regime and way of life into the ether. Yes, we are in a fight for America's soul -- but we are also in a fight for America itself.

Amidst our current doldrums, in the dog days of an election year, and staring at foreboding poll numbers this November, Republicans face a crossroads. On the one hand, the president and his party can continue the status quo, which entails rhetorical paeans to both law and order and "criminal justice reform" and "police reform." On the other hand, Republicans can boldly rise up, paint a stark and unequivocal contrast with the civilizational arsonists, and offer a compelling defense of the moral primacy of the rule of the law and the American way of life.

Republicans must choose the latter course. From here through November, President Trump and Republicans must present themselves, as their partisan forebear Lincoln once did, as the defenders and preservers of the American regime. They must call out the radicals of the modern left for what they are: unmitigated foes of an American order predicated upon the Declaration's truths about human equality, the Constitution's structural safeguards for ordered liberty, and the wisdom embodied in the Judeo-Christian moral tradition undergirding our entire governmental edifice.

Every single day until Election Day, Trump and Republicans should frame the choice facing the American people as between the American regime and insurrectionism. But to credibly do so, Republicans must immediately pivot to a full-throated rhetorical and substantive defense of why the American regime is worth preserving.

Campaign trail speeches, congressional bills, and everything in between ought to revolve around unabashed assertions of America's inherent worth and dignity. The New York Times' "1619 Project" should be denounced as a monstrous, ahistorical mendacity -- and the spirit of 1776 should be channeled and lauded. The rule of law, as well as law enforcement itself, must be heralded as indispensable elements of a just society conceived centuries ago and still worth defending today.

The president's current poll numbers do not inspire confidence. If the election were held tomorrow, Joe Biden would all but assuredly prevail. But there is still time to make the case. That case must be a forceful and unrelenting call to preserve the American regime and way of life against the threat posed by those seeking to destroy it -- and celebrate in its burnt ashes.

Border Protection -- Money Well Spent!

200 Miles of Border Wall and Counting

6/23/2020 - Mark A. Morgan Townhall.com

Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, the operational environment of the Southwest Border has been completely transformed. Since January 2017, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has completed construction of over 200 miles of new border wall system. The new border wall system remains a crucial element of CBP and the Border Patrol’s strategy to achieve operational control of the border.

The new border wall system uses technology and lighting, in addition to a physical barrier, to stop or slow illegal cross-border traffic between the ports of entry. The new border wall system denies, deters and impedes the unlawful entry of people and contraband into the United States. By slowing or stopping illegal activity, border wall systems increase the likelihood of an appropriate law enforcement response and resolution. It’s a simple fact that is borne out by the data – walls work.

From an operational standpoint, the border wall system is the backbone of our border security posture.  Open borders play right into the hands of the cartels. Without the border wall system, crime and gang activity goes up as drugs, and other contraband make their way north into the homeland.

The new border wall system also plays a critical humanitarian role by reducing human smuggling – an activity that places people in real danger.  Human smugglers are all too willing to abandon men, women, and children – taking their money while leaving them alone to die of dehydration, exposure, or drowning.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic the new border wall system also serves as a vital reminder that public health begins with border security.  Last year, CBP was confronted with an unprecedented national security and humanitarian crisis when hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens arrived on our Southern border. 

The new border wall system interrupts the flow not only of illicit migration and smuggling activities, it also helps us control the movements of potentially infectious people and disease. That mass migration underscored how desperately more miles of the new border wall system was needed.

In addition to the over 215 miles of new border wall system constructed along the Southwest Border, there are an additional roughly 340 miles currently under construction with another approximately 183 miles in the preconstruction phase. CBP has prioritized these construction projects and locations based on extensive threat assessments to determine where the wall system is needed most.

Since President Trump took office, CBP has received approximately $15 billion to construct approximately 738 miles of new border wall system through a combination of Department of Defense funding, the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, and Congressional appropriations.

Unfortunately, some in Congress continue to ignore the real threat on the Southern border while insisting CBP’s new border wall system is ineffective.  Nothing could be further from the truth, just ask the men and women of CBP who protect this Nation day and night, they know full well the new border wall system works. 

Based on projections provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CBP anticipates completing approximately 450 miles by the end of the year. The President promised more miles of border wall, and CBP is delivering on his promise. 

Mark Morgan serves as the Acting Commissioner for the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

'Liberalism is a Mental Disorder'

How Long Will the Vandals Run Amok?

6/23/2020 - Pat Buchanan Townhall.com

The left's war on America's past crossed several new frontiers last week.

Portland's statue of George Washington, the Father of his Country and the first president of the United States, the greatest man of his age, was toppled and desecrated.

While the statue stood, an American flag was draped over its head and set ablaze. After it was pulled down, a new fire was set on another American flag spread across the statue, and also burned. The vacated pedestal was painted with the words, "You're on Native Land."

In Portland also, a statue of Thomas Jefferson that stood at the entrance of a high school named for the author of the Declaration of Independence was torn down. In New York, city council members demanded that the Jefferson statue in city hall be removed.

Anticipating what was coming, the New York Museum of Natural History got the permission of city hall to have the giant statue of Theodore Roosevelt astride a horse, flanked by an African and a Native American, removed from the front of the museum.

What was wrong with the 80-year-old statue?

Said museum president Ellen Futter, the problem is its "hierarchical composition." Only Roosevelt was mounted.

With Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt all under attack, three of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore are now repudiated by the left.

Our Taliban have moved on, past Columbus and the Confederate generals, to dislodge and dishonor the Founding Fathers and their patriot sons.

In Philadelphia, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution, with its statue of Washington, was defaced. The tomb is the final resting place for thousands of soldiers, known but to God, who died in the struggle for American independence.

"Committed Genocide" is the charge scrawled on the memorial.

Local authorities or police did not stop the vandals. One wonders what will happen should the haters of Washington and Jefferson decide to torch their ancestral homes at Mount Vernon and Monticello.

Still another line was crossed last week in the war against the past.

A statue of Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was toppled. Police watched as hundreds gathered to take down the general and 18th president, who accepted the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Also pulled down in Golden Gate Park was a statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," after he watched all through the night in 1814 as British warships bombarded Fort McHenry.

A third statue torn down in Golden Gate Park was that of Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan priest who founded nine of the 21 Spanish missions in California that run from San Diego to San Francisco.

Serra lived in the 18th century, long before the U.S. acquired California and decades before Mexico won its independence. Pope Francis canonized him in 2015.

At the end of last week, the last statue of a Confederate soldier in the nation's capital, that of Gen. Albert Pike, who spent his years after the war doing good works, was pulled down, while Mayor Muriel Bowser's D.C. cops watched from police cruisers.

We erect statues to remember, revere and honor those whom we memorialize. And what is the motivation of the people who tear them down and desecrate them?

In a word, it is hate. A goodly slice of America's young hates this country's history and the men who made it. It hates the discoverers and explorers like Columbus, the conquistadores and colonists. It hates the Founding Fathers and the first 15 presidents, all of whom either had slaves or coexisted with the injustice of slavery. But hating history and denying history and tearing down the statues of the men who made that history does not change history.

So, where are we going?

Today, as was true in the 1960s, the American establishment is on the run. It recoils from mob action but cannot bring itself to condemn those tearing down the statues, for it basically agrees with them and seeks to marshal their energy to help it get back into power in November.

But this cannot go on. The political and propaganda war on the cops, the vandalism of the statues and memorials, the disgracing and dishonoring of American heroes cannot go on indefinitely.

At some point, in the near future, the establishment, and its questionable political instrument, Joe Biden, will have to have his Sister Souljah moment, and stand up and stay, "This should stop."

For, whatever happens in this election, the American people will not stay united around a party and a movement built on the proposition that America has been, from before its birth, a racist criminal enterprise.

You cannot lead a people whose history and heroes you hate.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. And a society whose history is hated by millions of its members will not survive.

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever." To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.