{"id":15720,"date":"2017-11-20T13:05:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T18:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=15720"},"modified":"2018-12-28T12:31:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T17:31:11","slug":"alternate-facts-prove-deadly-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2017\/11\/20\/alternate-facts-prove-deadly-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternate Facts Prove Deadly at the Border"},"content":{"rendered":"

A day before a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed near El Paso<\/a>, an immigration forum in San Antonio concluded that building a border wall is a \u201cwaste of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such talk is cheap, and dangerous.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio symposium<\/a> — featuring open-borders advocates, left-leaning politicians and pseudo academics — parroted the Obama administration line that physical barriers are both unnecessary and ineffective. (Footnote: Obama was for the wall before he was against it, voting for it as a senator in 2006.)<\/p>\n

Speakers at the forum asserted, improbably, that unnamed border agents oppose a wall because it \u201churts security\u201d and \u201cblocks their view.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rhetorical line collapsed on Sunday when Customs and Border Patrol agent Rogelio Martinez, 36, was killed and a fellow agent was injured. The agents were attacked in the Texas Big Bend sector, 450 miles to the west, notorious badlands with no wall and sparse security.<\/p>\n

The deadly assault drove home the chaotic reality of America\u2019s unprotected southern border.<\/p>\n

In fact, border agents up and down the chain of command say a wall is essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about the security and safety of the United States,\u201d the president of the Border Patrol union<\/a> said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Separately, Stuart Harris, vice president of National Border Patrol Council Local 1929, covering the El Paso Sector, said there’s little reason for controversy<\/a> over President Trump\u2019s wall initiative. “The wall is a combination of infrastructure, technology and boots on the ground,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

FAIR: What kind of wall can be built?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A thousand miles farther the west, border agents in California say construction of a border barrier has strengthened security there.<\/p>\n

Before that wall was built<\/a> on this side of Tijuana, Mario Villarreal, chief patrol agent in the San Diego sector, recalled, \u201cWe couldn\u2019t even go on the border because the road was horrible and they would pelt us with rocks.\u201d Initial reports from Texas said agent Martinez and his partner were beaten with rocks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prior to the wall, people freely walked across the California border. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

With the wall, Border Patrol agent Eduardo Olmos reported, \u201cWe can show decreased numbers of assaults. Rapes, murders \u2014 it\u2019s all gone down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only people losing their vision at the border are wall opponents who remain willfully blind to the facts on the ground.