Dr. Dobson visited the Southern border to see for himself.
His audio report:
His report is on his Facebook page. Here is the text of his commentary:
Dear friends. Several weeks ago I was invited by the White House staff to visit our southern border at McAllen, Texas where federal agents are struggling to deal with a massive influx of poor and destitute human beings that come in never ending waves. Please believe me when I tell you that the media and leftist politicians have not been truthful about what’s going on there. It is a human tragedy. I promised the exhausted US Customs and Border Patrol agents that I would go home and tell as many people as possible what I had seen up close and personal.
Today, I’m attempting to fulfill that commitment. Approximately 5,500 people show up every day in districts organized along our southern US border. McAllen is the site of only one of them, but it is the busiest and most besieged. The refugees arrive exhausted and ragged from walking hundreds of miles. Among them are large numbers of children, many of whom are unaccompanied by a caring adult.
Last year, 382,000 aliens were apprehended for illegally crossing into this country, and almost 100,000 of them were minors. Consider that. These are kids. Some of them have been abused along the way. Many of them carry lice or scabies or other diseases. Currently, the facility is experiencing a flu epidemic and there are no additional beds on which to lie. Some of the women have been raped. More than 70 people of all ages are sent to local hospitals daily along the southern border. Doctors and medical staff are overwhelmed by their patient load. Remember that word: “overwhelmed.” It describes every aspect of the effort to deal with the situation there. It is systemic and it’s been brewing for more than a decade.
The most heart wrenching experience occurred during our tour of the holding area. It is a huge gym-like building consisting of dozens of fenced in areas. Each one is crowded with detainees standing or sitting shoulder to shoulder on benches. They stared out at us with plaintive eyes. I noticed that almost none of them were talking to each other. The children look traumatized and frightened. Tears flooded my eyes as I stood before them. They had no toys or dolls except for a few items brought by compassionate border patrol agents. One tiny little girl clutched something that resembled a doll brought to her by an agent. There are few provisions made to accommodate the children.
The week before we were there, a delegation of agents went to meet with members of Congress and begged them for additional money to buy pampers and toothbrushes and other necessities. They were turned down flat. These meager supplies have to be purchased with a border patrol budget, which is stretched to the limit. I then walked up to a fenced area holding many skinny young men. An agent standing beside me asked if I would like to speak to them. He offered to translate for me to which I replied, “Please tell them that God loves them.” Then I said, “Now tell them that I love them too.” They smiled and waved timidly.
My heart aches for these poor people. Lest I be misunderstood, let me make it clear that I’m among the majority of Americans who want the border to be closed to those who are attempting to enter illegally. There has to be a better solution than this. I have wondered with you why the authorities don’t just deny these refugees access to this nation. Can’t we just send them back to their places of origin? The answer I received was, “no,” for the reasons I will explain. Only 10% of the detainees are Mexicans. This year alone, people have come to our southern border from 127 countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, India, China, Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and other nations around the world.
Most of them speak their native tongues, which means that they can’t understand each other or the staff. What are we to do with them? The Mexican government will not take them back. There is no place to send them. Our current laws do not permit us to repatriate them to the country of their origin. This is a disaster with no solution or projected conclusion. Let me tell you how these desperate people come to be our responsibility. They are the lowest rung of many societies. They sell their shanties or any other possessions to scrape together $3,500 to $10,000 to pay coyotes to guide them. I don’t know what happens to those who can’t meet this demand. Apparently, most manage to pay the fee and arrive penniless and profoundly needy.
I was told that some of the vulnerable children are recycled repeatedly to help men gain entry into this country. An unknown number of these men are hardened criminals and drug runners and they are difficult to identify. Most make their way across the border. Here’s something else you should know. I have been under the impression that these “would-be” immigrants try to cross the Rio Grande River and outrun or evade the agents. This is not true of most. They come in large groups from 100 to 400 people at a time. As I write this letter, a record 1200 people arrive together at El Paso. The refugees quickly give themselves up to the agents. This is why they have made the journey. They know that they will be fed and medicated and treated humanely, even if they are in holding areas where they are in our custody. Ultimately, America is the promised land and they’re determined to get here if possible. Most will eventually be released on American soil. This is the system set up by a liberal Congress and judges. It’s a well-known fact that President Obama’s administration established many of these unworkable policies and Congress is steadfastly unwilling to change them.
Every effort at reform has been overridden or ignored. It is set in stone. Democrats want massive numbers of immigrants who will someday become voters. Some Republicans support the policies because they want cheap labor for agricultural purposes. The border could be fixed, but there are very few in authority who seem to care.
Getting back to my story, our group of national faith leaders and humanitarian organizations, was taken to a grassy park underneath an international bridge where the coyotes bring the refugees. We stood 50 feet away from them and watched as about 200 people sat on the ground. Then buses arrived to transport them to border control. Agents have to work fast because another group will be showing up soon, and then another and another. The would be immigrants are taken to the center and given cursory medical exams. Then they are segregated by sex and age and placed in the fenced in areas to be held for the next 20 days until they’re processed and given a notice to appear.
If that sounds inhumane, what would you or I do? There is simply no other place to house them. Mismanagement of the border has a long history. A federal judge, years ago issued a ruling called the Flores Settlement agreement. It is still the source of many problems. It requires that any unaccompanied alien child must be released within 72 hours. This is now the law of the land and poor people around the world know it. A single male typically seeks to find a child and a woman to help him game the system. Clearly, many of these are fake families, but there is no documentation in Pakistan or Bangladesh to challenge the claims. Lawyers at home have told them to claim that they are fleeing from oppression or seeking asylum. They’re allowed to plead their cases to judges, but there are too few of them to keep up with the volume.
These people are given court cases and released. The vast majority of them are never seen again. Most of them become anchor babies who are citizens with rights to bring members of their families. Others are given transportation to an American city where they disappear into the culture. In addition to this influx of people from places around the world steeped in poverty and despair, Senator Chuck Schumer authored and helped to pass a lottery system, whereby winners are brought to the United States. They become permanent residents who then begin bringing their families to our shores. Thank you, Senator. 10 years ago, 90% of illegals apprehended at the border were single males, mainly from Mexico. Now, more than 50% show up with babies and children, and 90% of them are from countries other than Mexico, with 64% being family units or unaccompanied alien children. Together they claim to be families and within three weeks they will be home free in America. Is there any doubt why there have been more than a half million illegal immigrants this year alone?
Before I conclude, I must tell you about the agents who have to deal with this chaos. They are compassionate men and women sworn to uphold federal law and protect the borders. They obviously care about the detainees and I respect them highly. They work tirelessly feeding people three times a day and providing clean clothing, and yes, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, they provide children and adults with clean water, and despite what you have told them, they do not drink toilet water. These agents clean and maintain portable toilets in the cells. They have a never ending task. There are only two large showers in the facility, one for males and the other for females. Their capacity is for only 20 people at a time, which is insufficient.
The Border Patrol agents administer this program, but most of them didn’t sign up to be caregivers. Agents were trained to patrol the border and apprehend drug runners and traffickers and smugglers and murderers and every kind of law breaker. This is very dangerous work and some of them don’t survive. But please understand this: the Border Patrol agents are so busy caring for refugees seeking entry into the United States that they have very little time to police the borders. It is so porous that huge quantities of contraband, including all kinds of narcotics, flow into this country every day and then it’s transported northward to America’s cities to be consumed and used by adolescents and millennials. Lawless gangs such as MS13 are also pouring into the culture, making violence for inner cities a way of life. This is the mess that’s been created.
There is one more aspect to the work of these agents that you should know. They are openly hated by citizens who resent the work they do. They’re lied about, as we have seen. They’re routinely vilified and mocked and demonized. Their families are also subject to ridicule. These agents need our appreciation and prayers. They have one of the most thankless jobs in America.
The situation that I’ve described is the reason President Donald Trump’s border wall is so urgently needed. He seems to be the only leader in America who comprehends this tragedy and is willing to address it. Those who oppose him do everything they can to impede his effort. That’s why I went to the border, to see the situation for myself. I came away with an array of very intense emotions.
First, I was profoundly grieved over the misery of thousands of people. Second, I felt a deep appreciation for those who are doing their best to help in an impossible circumstance. Third, and frankly, I was angry at the political fat cats who have deliberately allowed the chaos to occur for political or financial gain.
They and their friends in the fake media have told the American people that there is no crisis at the border. I say shame on them all. What I’ve told you is only a glimpse of what is occurring on the nations border. I don’t know what it’ll take to change the circumstances. I can only report that without an overhaul of the law and the allocation of resources, millions of illegal immigrants will continue flooding into this great land from around the world. Many of them have no marketable skills. They are illiterate and unhealthy. Some are violent criminals. Their numbers will soon overwhelm the culture as we have known it, and it could also bankrupt the nation.
America has been a wonderfully generous and caring country since its founding. This is our Christian nature. But in this instance we have met a worldwide wave of poverty that will take us down if we don’t deal with it and it won’t take long for the inevitable consequences to happen.
Thanks for letting me set the record straight. And then there’s this PS. I want to conclude this disturbing account of the border situation with a suggested action item for the reader. There is only one solution as I see it, which is for people of faith to pray for our president as he seeks to deal with this humanitarian crisis. He’s facing enormous opposition from both political parties, the mainstream media, the entertainment industry, the judiciary, portions of agriculture, powerful lobbies and virtually every dimension of culture. Also the refugees themselves and their children should be remembered in prayer, as well as the Border Patrol agents. Finally, pray for those who are serving in humanitarian efforts. One of the primary organizations working at the border is Convoy of Hope, and you can reach them through convoyofhope.org.
In closing, if you have thoughts on this incredibly complicated and emotional and painful issue, I would sure like to hear from you. Go to drjamesdobson.org or go to our Facebook page to comment. With that I say goodbye. God’s blessings to you all.
Dr.Dobson’s reputation for honesty and integrity should set at ease anyone who questions the validity of a real and present crisis/emergency at our southern border. Congress must act. A wall/fence/secure border is an essential step in resolving this situation. Anyone in the US House or Senate who resists funding for border security does not deserve to remain in office.
Build the wall!
*** Gordon Howie *** is an author and CEO of Life and Liberty Media
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