President Trump ends a driving force behind mass illegal immigration
“How do you stop the torrent of kids risking their lives and coming to America illegally?” the New York Post editorial board asked recently. “One key way: by finally fixing the Flores agreement, as President Trump hopes to do.”
Last week, the President unveiled a new plan that does exactly that.
Going forward, new standards will be implemented that ensure apprehended alien families can be held together during their immigration proceedings. This new rule will keep children safe, secure, and well cared-for while in U.S. custody. At the same time, it will help end the practice of exploiting children as tickets to enter America illegally.
The Flores Settlement Agreement, along with a string of related activist court rulings, has forced our Government to release most illegal immigrant families—including fake families posed by smugglers to game the system—into the United States after just 20 days in custody. It is among the most glaring loopholes used to circumvent America’s legal immigration system. Democrats in Congress have repeatedly declined to fix it, so the Trump Administration is taking action to address this cause of our border crisis.
Loopholes such as Flores are a magnet for smugglers that unleash lawlessness and chaos on America’s doorstep. For context, the number of family units apprehended at the southern border has skyrocketed in recent years—from just 14,855 in fiscal year 2013 to 432,838 so far this year.
That’s an increase of more than 2,800 percent.
Every bit as important, by closing this loophole, President Trump is taking real action to destroy horrific child smuggling operations. For too long, the Flores agreement has allowed children—some “bought” or stolen from their families by criminal organizations—to be used as pawns to bring large groups of illegal aliens into the United States.
The bottom line: “Ending the settlement was the right call,” John Daniel Davidson writes in The Wall Street Journal. “More than any other single policy, it has created a magnet for illegal immigration, essentially guaranteeing entry to unaccompanied minors and any adult who crosses the Rio Grande with a child.”
Every single American should want immigrants to enter our country legally, safely, and fairly. Only politicians who want open borders would oppose such an obvious fix.
President Trump is enforcing the law AND keeping families together at the border. |
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