Kirstjen M. Nielsen, the Homeland Security secretary, came to Texas this month and continued the Trump administration's distortions about the Southwest border.

Without evidence, Nielsen predicted a new surge of illegal border crossers as a way to promote Trump's call for a border wall and thousands of additional border and immigration agents.

This border paranoia may make for good politics in some circles, but it makes for lousy public policy.

As a candidate and now as president, Trump has portrayed the U.S.-Mexico border as a lawless region that needs to be militarized and sealed off with a wall. The truth on the ground is far different.

The Southwest border is well into the second decade of an impressive decline in the number of illegal crossers apprehended by Border Patrol agents. Border communities, particularly in Texas, have far lower crime rates than similar cities away from the border.

The border could be made even more safe through smart investments in technology and through better deployment of existing resources. Instead, the Trump administration pushes to spend billions on a wall and for hiring 15,000 new border and immigration agents.

U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, who represents more of the border than any other congressman, has described the wall as "a third century approach to solve 21st century problems." He proposes an increased use of sensors, radar, drones and other technologies that would cost a fraction of Trump's border wall.

The average Border Patrol agent currently apprehends fewer than two undocumented immigrants a month, a number than in some sectors drops well below one a month. That suggests the agency could better deploy existing resources and raises questions about what thousands of additional agents would be able to accomplish.

The Border Patrol also has long struggled with recruitment and retention issues, and the Trump administration now plans to pay a private company $300 million to help recruit 5,000 new agents.

The administration is spending this money even though the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general last month said DHS's border and immigration agencies haven't been able to justify the need for the additional agents that Trump ordered hired in an executive order.

The Republican-led Congress has been skeptical of some of Trump's plans, particularly with the border wall. Congressional leaders, especially those from border states, are best positioned to develop a rational policy to further enhance security without wasting billions of dollars in the process.

Border bashing plays well at election time, especially in Republican primaries. But it gets in the way of efforts to truly make the U.S.-Mexico border region both secure and economically robust. It's time for a more reasoned and rational approach to border security.