By Congressman Markwayne Mullin
President Trump has chosen to put the American people first by enforcing our immigration laws at the southern border. National security should be at the forefront of any domestic policy for the President of the United States. It is the duty of our president to keep the American people safe from harm. This is accomplished by ensuring that the enemies who wish to do us harm are not allowed to enter our country.
The current Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen put it plainly: “This Administration has a simple message: If you cross the border illegally, we will prosecute you. If you make a false immigration claim, we will prosecute you. If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, we will prosecute you.”
After the terrorist attacks in September 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created to identify threats to our country and protect Americans from any other tragic events like the ones that took place that day. In the midst of Operation Enduring Freedom, DHS foiled attacks against Al Qaeda and later on, ISIS and ISIL.
Al Qaeda had a vested entrance in illegally sending terrorists into our country over our northern and southern borders, according to a declassified Counter Intelligence Agency (CIA) report. ISIS propaganda material was found encouraging illegal crossings on our southwest border. ISIS knows of our nation’s immigration loopholes and is actively seeking to utilize them. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2012 that Osama Bin Laden pursued recruiting terrorists with Mexican passports to plan another attack on the United States. DHS announced that in 2017, they came across more than 2,500 individuals on the terrorist watch list with plans to travel to the United States. This means that on average, seven suspected terrorists are stopped daily attempting to enter our country and harm our citizens.
Members of the violent and ruthless MS-13 are making their way into the United States by way of our southern border. This brutal gang of more than 6,000 individuals recruits new members from within prisons and targets minority groups. Unaccompanied alien children have brought MS-13 a surplus of recruiting opportunities. More than one-third of MS-13 members who have been arrested entered the country as unaccompanied alien children.
The United States is either a nation of laws or we are a lawless nation. It is the job of the president and in this case, the Department of Homeland Security, to implement and enforce those laws without hesitation. Despite what the news media and some members of the American public are saying, the laws governing our immigration system are not the exception to the rule.
Our southern border must be secured. Our national security demands it. I am looking forward to continuing my work with President Trump and his administration to take up comprehensive immigration reform that builds the wall, ends chain migration, and changes the future of immigration in our country. I am grateful that President Trump continues to put American citizens first. Because as President Trump said, “If you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country.”
So can we count on you voting against any of these amnesty bills? It is amnesty, no matter what they call it in the bills.