Durbin blames Trump for border crisis

A letter U.S. Senator Dick Durbin sent out to Illinoisans last week points to President Trump's "fear-mongering approach" as a key element in the problems now at our southern border:

Last month, I traveled to El Paso, Texas, to get a firsthand look at the situation on the southwest border.  I spent time with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers and Agents at the Paso del Norte Port of Entry and a nearby Border Patrol Station, and met with El Paso community leaders and advocates. What I saw there will stay with me forever.

I visited what the detained migrants call a “hielera,” Spanish for icebox. It is a metal-sided detention room which the detainees complain is kept painfully cold. The sign above the door reads “Capacity: 35”. There were close to 150 men in the room. One of the women’s cells had a sign reading “Capacity: 16.” I counted about 75 women in the cell. Some mouthed the word “help” as they made eye contact through the window. Some were mothers nursing their babies

President Trump’s fear-mongering approach to those who come to our border, many of whom are just seeking safe haven as many of our ancestors did, does not make us safer and is not representative of America or our heritage. Instead of working with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where the vast majority of these migrants are coming from, the President decides to cut aid that can help the violent and corrupt situations in these countries. He also has eliminated a program that allowed asylum seekers to be processed in their home countries, and not at our border.

The Trump Administration’s border policies have failed, and the President’s fixation with a wall and his non-stop attacks on Mexico have made our border less secure. My visit underscored the need for border security. In an age of drugs and terror, we need to know who and what are coming into our country. The reality is that we cannot accept everyone who wishes to come to America, and the bottom line is that we should never let anyone in our country who we know to be dangerous. But the only reliable response to our challenge is bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform - which includes smart, effective, and humane border security. What’s happening at our border isn’t a national emergency, it’s a humanitarian disaster of the President and his Administration’s own creation.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)