Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen went up to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share a little dose of something called reality with Congress.

"We face a crisis, a real serious and sustained crisis at our borders," she said. "We have tens of thousands of illegal aliens arriving at our doorstep every month. We have drugs, criminals and violence spilling into our country every week. Illegal immigration is simply spiraling out of control."

Now let's break it down to the cold hard facts. In the month of February, 76,000 illegal aliens were apprehended at the border -- that's just the ones apprehended. That's 30 percent increase from the previous month's apprehensions, and from the year before it's even worse. Secretary Nielsen told lawmakers it was an 80 percent increase from the same time last year and that the problem could get even worse as spring approaches and the weather warms up.

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We could be looking at nearly 1 million illegals crossing our borders if the trend continues. If these numbers hold, every four months, we'll import the equivalent of the population of Richmond, Va. or Baton Rouge, La. into the United States. And this isn't a national emergency?

Let's face it, most Democrats know this is a crisis. The sheer volume of crossers is overwhelming our facilities. And liberals then blame Trump?

As with their embrace of infanticide and reparations, and "Medicare-for-all," Democrats have gone far-left on immigration. And now they are, in effect, for open borders. Some think ankle bracelets are a solution. But they already put ankle bracelets on a lot of the illegal immigrants, and they just tear them off. It's terrifying some Democratic lawmakers don't understand the basic facts of immigration.

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And while we're creating these grand new plans to hold the illegal immigrants accountable and retract them, let's not forget who's footing the bill here. Guess what the cost is? $82,000, per year, per illegal immigrant, in the United States. And then, of course, the children they have, and then the children are citizens and then no one's deported.

Democrats prefer to focus though on non-citizens, their treatment, their medical care and, of course, their race. Now, the Democrats can't play chords - they stick to one maybe two notes and they're always off-key. So, they like to keep saying that migrant children are kept in cages.

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Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.:For the record, Madam Secretary, are we still using cages for children?



Nielsen: Sir, we don't use cages for children. In the border facilities that you've been to, they were not made to detain children. To my knowledge, CBP never purposely have put a child in a cage if you mean it like this.

Thompson: Purposely or whatever are we putting children in cages as of today?

Nielsen: Children are processed at the border facility stations that you've been at, some of--

Thompson: And I've seen the cages. I just want you to admit that the cages exist.

Nielsen: Sir, they're not cages.



We could be looking at nearly 1 million illegals crossing our borders if the trend continues. If these numbers hold, every four months, we'll import the equivalent of the population of Richmond, Va. or Baton Rouge, La. into the United States. And this isn't a national emergency?

The so-called cage that the congressman was referring to, that was used by the Obama administration to detain illegal minors during their processing until they could be placed with sponsors. Now, where was the Democratic outrage when Obama was using the same fencing facilities that liberal do-gooders now deplore and make a big deal about at a hearing?

Well, instead of focusing on the surge of the border and the lack of facilities to house the people crossing the border, Democrats are throwing sand and throwing down the race card. It's about all they know these days.



When U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that walls and barriers in key hot spots along the border had an immediate impact in reducing the crossings, Sen. Dick Blumenthal, D-Conn., didn't want to hear any of it.



Blumenthal: Numbers of border crossings are still at a historic low compared to other times in our nation's history.



McAleenan: No, Senator, they're not. We're on pace for over 700,000 crossings this year. That's closer to historic highs and historic lows.

The commissioner is 100 percent right. Over 60 percent of the total apprehensions along the border are now illegal family units and unaccompanied alien minors, those under the age of 18. And new Department of Homeland Security figures find that those apprehensions of illegal family units have surged by 338 percent.

But no emergency here. No crisis. And the apprehensions of unaccompanied children are up 54 percent, that's not dangerous for them, right? No emergency? No crisis?

How about this: Secretary Nielsen testified that because of the increasing violence at ICE, when family units come to the border, every girl over age 10 has to be given a pregnancy test. Girls are being abused, raped, and in some cases trafficked, as part of these caravans. It is despicable what is happening to these young people. Congress needs to get its head out of the sand and stop this madness once and for all.

If someone crosses the border illegally, with rare exception, they should be turned back immediately. Family units or people posing as family units would not make this dangerous trek once word spread in their home country. Congress should pass this law. If you want to apply for asylum, that's fine. But you should do so in the safety of your home country. Or, as is beginning to happen now, once you're in the United States and you declare, you should be sent to Mexico until your case comes up for hearing.

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We have a backlog right now of 800,000 immigration cases. The current system today -- it's obvious, come on everybody knows this, Democrats know this -- incentivizes human trafficking, the abuse of kids and more illegal crossings, period. That's why you have a big jump.

Any Democrat or any Republican who refuses to act now are the ones who are truly lacking in the feeling and the compassion and the empathy, not only for the illegal immigrants but for the American people they're supposed to be representing.

Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue from "The Ingraham Angle" on March 6, 2019.