Elaine Duke

Opinion contributor

President Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along our Southern border will save countless innocent lives. Our Border Patrol agents have seen firsthand the success of a border wall in Yuma, Ariz. — which serves as a prime example of how investments in personnel, technology and a border wall can turn the tide against a flood of illegal immigration and secure our homeland.

For years, Yuma sector was besieged by chaos as a nearly unending flood of migrants and drugs poured across our border. Even as agents were arresting on average 800 illegal aliens a day, we were still unable to stop the thousands of trucks filled with drugs and humans that quickly crossed a vanishing point and dispersed into communities all across the country.

It is hard for anyone familiar with Yuma sector today to imagine this scene. That’s because nearly a decade ago, a group of bipartisan lawmakers came together to protect the homeland, save innocent lives, and build a physical barrier across the border.

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The bipartisan Secure Fence Act of 2006 — supported by then-Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and others — mandated the construction of hundreds of additional miles of secure fencing and infrastructure investments. Yuma sector was one of the first areas to receive infrastructure investments.

We built new infrastructure along the border east and west of the San Luis Arizona Port of Entry in 2006. The existing fence was quickly lengthened, and we added second and third layers to that fencing in urban areas. Lighting, roads and increased surveillance were added to aid agents patrolling the border.

Although there is still work to do, the border in Yuma sector today is more secure because of this investment. Even under lax enforcement standards, apprehensions in fiscal year 2016 were roughly a 10th of what they were in FY 2005 — and are on track to be even lower this year. Crime has significantly decreased in the Yuma area, and smugglers now look for other less difficult areas of the border to cross — often areas without fencing.

Undoubtedly, Yuma today is safer because of our investments. But a secure border involves more than just investments in infrastructure. It requires a comprehensive enforcement effort in the interior to secure our homeland and advance the national interest.

For years, open borders policies contributed to massive numbers of aliens attempting to enter the USA. For too long, the United States failed to enforce existing immigration laws. The Department of Homeland Security and other entities were directed to “pick and choose” which laws we enforced — and Border Patrol agents were encouraged to effectively look the other way when they did not have sufficient resources to secure the border.

Aware of these lax enforcement policies, tens of thousands of aliens attempted to the cross the border illegally every month. Last October alone, more than 66,000 people were apprehended after entering illegally — and that 66,000 is just the number of individuals we actually found; it does not include those who evaded detection.

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The culture of pardons, permisos and lax enforcement also encouraged dangerous behavior by individuals looking to come to the United States. It meant that parents were willing to risk subjecting their children to sexual abuse and neglect at the hands of smugglers (also known as coyotes). It meant that — in a single year — hundreds of thousands risked their lives. In FY 2016, Customs and Border Protection saved nearly 4,000 near-death individuals who found themselves lost in the desert. This is in addition to the tremendous number of immigrants who are robbed, raped and brutalized along the human smugglers’ dark networks.

Under Trump, the days of permisos are over. We are a nation that secures its borders and enforces its immigration laws. We are a nation of laws — laws that exist for the safety and security of all our people.

Since the first week of Trump’s administration, we have been actively securing our borders and enforcing our immigration laws. Apprehensions of illegal border crossers have plummeted since the president’s election, in part for the obvious reason that the routine and certain enforcement of the law leads to enhanced compliance with our laws. Picking and choosing which laws to enforce and ignore is no longer an option.

To our friends in Central America and Mexico — and throughout the world — do not subject yourselves or your families to the horrors of human smuggling. Smugglers do not care about you. They do not care about your dreams. They do not care about your family. They do not care about your safety. Do not believe the smuggler’s lies. We are enforcing the law. If you come here illegally, you will be sent back home.

It is undeniable that simply enforcing the law, combined with sufficient investment in personnel, infrastructure and technology, can allow us to be successful in our efforts to protect the homeland. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should come together like they did 10 years ago and give the men and women of DHS the resources we need to defend our homeland. This starts with fully funding the construction of a wall along our Southern border.

The lessons of Yuma sector are clear and obvious, and we should apply them to the rest of our border.

Elaine Duke is the acting secretary of Homeland Security.

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