As if political division in the United States wasn’t horrendous enough, some mainstream media personalities are throwing fuel on the fire. On January 8, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough thought it would be a brilliant idea to label millions of Americans as “stupid.”
“How stupid are Americans who still believe there’s a crisis on the southern border?” he asked on his show “Morning Joe.”
The television host ranted that major networks should not broadcast President Trump’s Oval Office address, and he accused the president of lying about illegal immigration statistics to manufacture a fake crisis.
However, regardless of Scarborough’s claims, the facts prove that there is indeed a serious problem at the border and that greater border security, including a physical barrier, are necessary to protect this nation’s sovereignty. Here are five reasons why it was “stupid” for him to claim there is no crisis at the southern border:
- Unidentified alien child (UAC) apprehensions by the Border Patrol have dramatically increased in Fiscal Year 2019 compared to the previous year. More than 10,000 UACs have already been apprehended this year alone. Historically, most have been males ranging from 15 to 17 years of age.
- The Border Patrol apprehended more than four times as many family units (48,287 in total) in FY 2019 than during the same time period in FY 2018. Thousands of these families have been released into the country, and many never show up for their immigration hearings.
- The number of pending immigration-related court cases has escalated in the last year. Almost 130,000 cases were added to the backlog in FY 2018. The total backlog now sets at over 786,000.
- With the full year statistics yet to be released, the Border Patrol has already seized more methamphetamine and fentanyl in FY 2018 than the entire year before. When the complete numbers are released, the pounds of fentanyl seized at the border will likely double the total from FY 2017.
- U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) saw book-ins to their detention facilities increase because of the surge in illegal aliens crossing the border, according to the agency’s new report. ICE received 396,448 book-ins in FY 2018 compared to 323,591 in FY 2017.
If these numbers combined with the caravans that have recently been arriving at the border don’t constitute a crisis to Scarborough, it’s hard to imagine what would. Hundreds of thousands of unvetted illegal aliens are storming the border every year, and the lack of proper border security only ensures that the problem will worsen. Before calling concerned Americans “stupid,” perhaps Joe Scarborough should look in the mirror.