OPINION:
The group of illegal migrants continues to cross Mexico toward the United States. President Trump is deploying more than 5,000 troops to the border. The Mexican government has not been able to turn the group around toward their own countries, and they persist in defying multiple laws in their stated efforts to breach the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Mexican government has offered legal status and jobs to those who will stay in Mexico, but most insist that they will not stop until they reach the United States.
American leftists claim that these people are refugees seeking asylum in America, yet the constant refrain from those in the invading mob is that they want jobs in the United States. Jobs in Mexico won’t do, only jobs in the United States.
President Trump has been using the bully pulpit to pressure leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to prevent this group, and the additional groups already forming, from approaching the U.S., but they have accomplished very little.
More troops on the border and pressure, including threats to withhold U.S. foreign aid, have been little deterrent.
Congress must act immediately to require that applicants for asylum may only apply in their native country, and may not enter the United States unless, and until, asylum is granted.
At the same time Congress must pass H.R. 6657, the bill I introduced which both funds building the wall and restores money to pay and equip the Border Patrol agents that we all depend on.
There is another pressure point that is available. Many of those who illegally cross Mexico hoping to enter the United States do so via train — “La Bestia.” Union Pacific Railroad owns 25 percent of FerroMex, the major railroad going north from Southern Mexico, and Kansas City Southern Railroad owns the lines that move people and goods in the eastern part of Mexico to the southern Texas border.
Those railroads must do all they can to prevent these invading groups of illegal aliens from using their lines to get to the U.S.-Mexico border.
We have reached a pivotal point in American history. We have to answer the question of whether we are a sovereign nation of laws, or even, a nation at all. Our national resolve is on the line in the question of whether we will secure our national border.
• Andy Biggs is a Republican who represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District.
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