New govt. data DESTROYS Democrat talking point against border wall: More drugs seized away from ports of entry

By Jon Dougherty

The Democrats’ number one talking point in arguing against building more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border is that they won’t do much to stop drug smuggling.

Most drugs, they argue, go through U.S. ports of entry, so the better plan is to simply beef up security there and scrap any notion that walls work to keep drugs out.

Democrats are getting their information from a 2018 Drug Enforcement Agency report which said, â€œA small percentage of all heroin seized by (Customs and Border Protection agents) along the land border was between Ports of Entry.”

â€œThe majority of the (heroin) flow is through (private vehicles) entering the United States at legal ports of entry, followed by tractor-trailers, where the heroin is co-mingled with legal goods,” added.

POTUS Donald Trump, in contrast, has argued that walls would work to staunch the flow of illegal drugs.

â€œWe have tremendous amounts of drugs flowing into our country, much of it coming from the southern border,â€ he said in the Rose Garden in February, as reported byÂ The Associated Press.

â€œWhen you look and when you listen to politicians â€” in particular, certain Democrats â€” they say it all comes through the port of entry. Itâ€™s wrong. Itâ€™s wrong. Itâ€™s just a lie. Itâ€™s all a lie,â€ he added.

A new government report lends more weight to the president’s argument and upends Democrats’ default position by making the case that even stronger that border walls and other significant barriers would help reduce not just illegal immigration but the smuggling of dangerous drugs into our country.

TheÂ Washington ExaminerÂ reported that moreÂ illegal drugsÂ seized around open parts of the border than at ports of entry last year.

â€œU.S. Border Patrol, which works in the unfenced or minimally protected space between crossings, seized nearly 480,000 pounds of drugs on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2018,â€ the Examiner reported Friday.

â€œDrug seizures that occur at ports of entry are documented under Customs and Border Protectionâ€™s Office of Field Operations statistics. Its four field offices on the southern border â€” El Paso, Texas; Laredo, Texas; Tucson, Ariz.; and San Diego â€” seized 370,000 pounds of drugs in the 2018 fiscal year,” the news site noted further.

There is a caveat here: By far, more marijuana was seized between ports of entry than dangerous opioid drugs, which the president has made a priority (if only Democrats in Congress would). Of the 480,000 pounds seized, 461,000 of them were marijuana.

Meanwhile, of theÂ 553,000 pounds of illegal drugs seized at both points of entry and the coasts,Â 300,000 pounds was marijuana, theÂ Washington Examiner noted. So this data means that more dangerous drugs are being interdicted at the ports of entry.

But Democrats arguing that bigger, better border walls and barriers wouldn’t be that effective in curbing illegal drug smuggling (and human smuggling) is farcical, as the Border Patrol data indicate.

Besides, as the president has pointed out, while Democrats (and some RINOs) refuse to provide new funds for border wall construction, forcing Trump to declare a national emergency to get the funds needed to protect Americans, hundreds of our fellow citizens are dying every day.

“Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War,” the president has said.

And there is this: If we simply beef up security at the ports of entry, who rationally believes that the Mexican cartels will merely throw up their hands in exasperation, declare Trump the winner, and justÂ stop smuggling drugs into the United States?

Of course, they won’t do that. They’ll resort to other methods — by land, of course, and, as the Coast Guard will tell you, by sea as well.

As is now obvious as if it wasn’t already, Democrats have no reasonable arguments against the president’s border wall.

Follow Jon Dougherty on Twitter at @JonDougherty10

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