We all have our different
nighttime routines. Mine looks a
little like this: eat dinner. Watch
the evening news. Give my three year
old son, Lane, a bath, read him a
bedtime story, say our prayers and
put him to bed. Put Lane back to bed
when he gets up for the third time.
Make sure the doors are locked and
the house is secure. And finally,
brush my teeth, tell my wife
goodnight and go to sleep. I’d
bet your routine looks similar and
we have at least one thing in
common: locking our doors.
As someone once put it, we
lock our doors “because we love the
people inside, not because we hate
the people outside.”
Why should we operate our
sovereign nation’s borders any other
way?
Right now, a caravan of
immigrants is attempting to
illegally cross our southern border. While
many illegal immigrants are innocent
people seeking safety and a better
life, the truth is criminals and
terrorists are exploiting serious
vulnerabilities along our border. As
a reporter on MSNBC said on live TV
from the U.S.-Mexican border
recently, “the
majority are actually men and some
of these men have not articulated
that need for asylum.” In
fact, more than 90% of the
individuals who are part of the
caravan are not qualified to enter
under the asylum program and there
are over 600 known felons traveling
with the group.
The previous
administration’s policies and
Washington’s inability to secure our
border make these immigrants believe
that once they reach our soil, they
will be able to stay here. This
has only encouraged other families
in Central America to make the
dangerous journey and put their
children at risk.
The southern border also
serves as an entryway for illegal
drugs to enter our country. In his
book, Dreamland:
The True Tale of America’s Opiate
Epidemic,
investigative journalist Sam
Quinones lays out how black tar
heroin is smuggled from Southwestern
Mexico across our border into the
United States. Fentanyl,
which was just named the deadliest
drug in America with over 18,000
deaths in 2016, is also pouring
across our border.
On a typical day in 2017,
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)
officials intercepted 1,607
individuals with national security
concerns, seized 5,863 pounds of
narcotics, and apprehended 851
wanted criminals. This
was just one day. So
far in 2018, CBP has apprehended 728
gang members on the southern border,
and according to Department of
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen
Nielsen, we block 10 known or
suspected terrorists a day from
traveling or attempting to enter the
United States.
The House of Representatives
has been on the forefront of efforts
to secure our borders, crack down on
drug trafficking and stop illegal
immigration. President
Donald Trump signed into law H.R. 6,
legislation I led to combat the
opioid epidemic and to stop the flow
of foreign shipments of fentanyl. In
addition, the House has passed
numerous bills to secure our border
and fix our broken immigration
system; however
Senate Democrats have blocked these
bills from being considered and
getting to President Trump’s desk.
As your representative, I’ve
made a promise to each of you to
fight for common sense border
security.
Rest assured, I will not
give up on that promise.
We have a crisis at our
southern border, and I will stand
with President Trump to secure the
funds he needs to deal with this
crisis.
Lane
Ross Designs
