To hear the mainstream media tell it, climate change is the most important issue facing America.

But Americans disagree.

“Americans’ concern with immigration continues to be heightened, as 23% name it the most important problem facing the country,” Gallup reports. “This is by one percentage point the highest Gallup has ever measured for the issue since it first began recording mentions of immigration in 1993.”

Gallup also reports that “mentions” of the immigration issue “have been higher on average in 2019 than in any prior year. The 20% average to date compares with 14% in 2018, and no more than 10% in any other year.”

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What’s more, more than a third (35%) surveyed said U.S. immigration levels should be decreased. But Americans still view legal immigration “positively in general, with 76% describing it as a good thing for the country today and 19% as a bad thing.” And two-thirds of Americans who say immigration is the most pressing problem in America still believe it’s good for the country.

The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has exploded in 2019. Border agents apprehended 144,278 migrants in May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Chief (CBP) Operating Officer John P. Sanders told reporters Wednesday. That’s a 32% increase over April, he said.

“We are in a full-blown emergency, and I cannot say this stronger: the system is broken,” Sanders said. The chief said that nearly 700,000 foreigners have been apprehended in the past eight months, which he noted is “more than the population of Miami.”

The May total was the highest in 13 years, border officials said, and included 11,391 “inadmissibles.” Last month’s total was also a 182% over May 2018.

Brian Hastings, Border Patrol Chief of Law Enforcement Operations, said of the number apprehended, more than 84,000 were “family” units, more than 11,000 were unaccompanied minors and some 36,000 were single adults, both male and female. The daily average of apprehensions was 4,286 per day in May.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in the 24 years I’ve been doing this job,” Hastings said.

May was the third month in a row that apprehensions of foreigners illegally entering America surpassed 100,000, with many coming from Guatemalan and Honduran through Mexico.

The flow of illegals into the U.S. has risen each month in 2019. Just last week, more than 1,0oo crossed through the Rio Grande near El Paso and surrendered to border agent — the largest single group of illegals has ever had to process.

“Border Patrol agents have encountered over 180 large groups (100+ individuals) along the Southwest border so far in Fiscal Year 2019, compared to 13 in FY18 and only 2 in FY17. During May alone, USBP apprehended 49 large groups, including a group of 1,045 last week in El Paso,” the CBP wrote on Twitter.

CBP continues to face a worsening crisis at the Southwest border. In May, CBP apprehended or deemed inadmissible 144,278 individuals along the SWB—a 32% increase over the previous month. Details here: https://t.co/ru9AsalgPb pic.twitter.com/p8kcr5lZ7Y — CBP (@CBP) June 5, 2019

Democrats, meanwhile, have bashed Trump for playing hardball with Mexico, forcing the U.S. neighbor to crack down on the flow of foreigners to the U.S. border.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a statement earlier this month saying Trump had “undermined America’s preeminent leadership role in the world” by threatening to impose tariffs on Mexico if it didn’t control the flow of foreigners.

“We are deeply disappointed by the Administration’s expansion of its failed Remain-in-Mexico policy, which violates the rights of asylum seekers under U.S. law and fails to address the root causes of Central American migration,” Pelosi said. “Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy.” The Remain-in-Mexico policy that Trump expanded calls for foreigners to be held there, rather than tyhe U.S., as they await asylum hearings.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that since Trump has supposedly solved the problem, he no longer has to keep talking about illegal immigration.

“This is an historic night!” Schumer wrote on Twitter. “@realDonaldTrump has announced that he has cut a deal to ‘greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States.’ Now that that problem is solved, I’m sure we won’t be hearing any more about it in the future.”