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Wait, what? No matter where it sits in the long-term rankings, that is a big number of people apprehended crossing illegally into the country in just one month, especially when it’s not like there’s some massive war or natural disaster on the other side.

The Customs and Border Patrol website pegs the full tally for November at 62,456. The highest over the last five years is 66,842, that was in October 2016 just before Trump was elected. The lowest is April 2017 at 15,798, and it’s believed – although hasn’t been proven – that this was caused because potential crossers wrongly thought Trump had tightened the border substantially so they initially stopped bothering to head over.

Either way, when your number of annual apprehended individuals – and this isn’t all of the people crossing illegally, just those stopped by border agents – is consistently in the half a million range, you have a serious problem.

Why do Democrats and the left in the U.S. now refuse to discuss this rationally? For the most part, it’s just silly accusations of immorality and racism.

Is it just, as Trump himself suggested on Tuesday, because he’s the one now asking for it? After all, they supported versions of it in the past.

“The government has built nearly 700 miles of wall and fencing since 2006, mostly on federal land and where the terrain does not provide a natural barrier,” The New York Times reported last year. The current $5.7 billion Trump is seeking and not yet getting, which is causing this partial shutdown, is to build an extra 200 miles.