Top Democrat: US Southern Border Today, ‘by Every Measurable Standard,’ Is Much Less Secure than When Trump Took Office

Top Democrat: US Southern Border Today, ‘by Every Measurable Standard,’ Is Much Less Secure than When Trump Took Office

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Janet Ybarra
Democrat
Former Washington Journalist
Contributor on The Bipartisan Press

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While Donald Trump and his Republican allies regularly blame Democrats for a so-called crisis at the southern border of the United States, a top Senate Democrat has turned the tables by pointing the finger back at Trump for border insecurity.

Meanwhile, independent fact-checking confirms Trump has been exaggerating the problems with immigration through the border with Mexico.

Trump has long thumped Democrats for not going along with his plan to build a wall along the southern border as a means to curtail immigration.

However, at a hearing Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, pointed his finger at mismanagement by Trump and members of his administration.

“In less than two and a half years, there have already been four heads of this department,” Durbin said of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “We have before us today an acting secretary who’s been on the job for more than two months. We cannot face this crisis effectively with a revolving door policy in the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security.


“In fact, every position at DHS with responsibility for immigration and border security is now being held by a temporary appointee who’s not been confirmed by the Senate,” Durbin added. “The White House has not even submitted nominations for these positions. Despite all of President Trump’s tough talk and meanness, our southern border today by every measurable standard is much less secure than when he took office.”

Democrats have, for some time, criticized Trump for such cruel anti-immigration policies as family separation in which immigrant children were forcibly removed from their parents.

At the same time, an independent fact-checking organization finds that Trump has been exaggerating the immigration situation through Mexico, particularly as it relates to immigration from the “Northern Triangle” nations of Central America.

“Mexico has consistently been apprehending and deporting people in large numbers since the implementation of the Southern Border Program in 2014,” Rachel Schmidtke, program associate for migration at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told FactCheck.org.



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