On Tuesday evening, President Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office regarding the “crisis of the heart and crisis of the soul” at our Mexican border. Emphasizing the need to fund a border wall and end the government shutdown, the president mentioned not only the threats posed to Americans by the drugs and criminals crossing our border, but also the humanitarian crisis created by an influx of women and children who are victimized or treated as pawns by the coyotes who illegally shuttle them into our country.
By far the most head-scratching response came from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who tweeted the following:
There’s no crisis at the border. President Trump, you want to talk about crises?
-30 million Americans have no health insurance
-Climate change threatens our planet
-Half of older Americans have no retirement savings
-40 million are dealing with outrageous student debt— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2019
It is beyond belief that Sanders would compare “outrageous student debt” and 30 million uninsured Americans with the deadly drug epidemic fueled by Mexican cartels, or the very real problem of violence perpetrated against Americans by illegal immigrants.
Perhaps Sanders has never watched a family be torn apart by drug use. Thanks to America’s drug crisis, like an increasing number of Americans, I have. I have watched heroin deplete resources, hope, and the promise of a bright future. I have seen it do its damage not just in the user, but across multiple generations. Having borne witness to that devastation, I am begging my congressional representatives to ensure that the cartels bringing in heroin and fentanyl, among other drugs, have fewer access points into our country, and that all legal border crossings are equipped with enhanced drug-screening equipment.
Maybe Sanders thinks his “crises” are more urgent because he has never known someone whose family has been reduced in size by the deadly actions of an illegal immigrant. Members of my family have. My father’s friend and fellow Naval Academy graduate, Ray Tranchant, lost his 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her 17-year-old friend, Allison Kunhardt, when illegal immigrant Alfredo Ramos ran into their vehicle at a stoplight in my hometown of Virginia Beach in March 2007. Prior to the incident, Ramos had been convicted of three misdemeanor offenses involving alcohol. His blood alcohol content at the scene was more than 0.3.
The Tranchant family paid a horrible price for Ramos’ actions. Meanwhile, Ramos is serving a 24-year sentence at an American prison. Ramos “can stay in touch with his kids. … he can talk to them on the phone,” Tranchant said. “We can’t.”
To keep other families safe, Tranchant is now deeply involved in the fight for immigration reform. Like so many Americans in search of border security, he clarifies that he is “not against immigration,” but rather “for legal immigration.”
We are no longer experiencing just a border crisis. The crisis has long ago infiltrated America’s mainland, but securing the border is an important part of the way forward.
As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated Tuesday evening, a “proposal to increase security through physical barriers suits the reality on the ground. It’s what career Border Patrol experts support and are asking for. And it simply builds on earlier legislation that Senate Democrats … previously supported with enthusiasm.” McConnell refers to 2006, when then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and even the currently intransigent Sen. Chuck Schumer supported the construction of a barrier along 700 miles of the U.S. border.
Today, numerous Democratic congressmen refuse to listen to Trump. Their belief is that Trump has somehow exaggerated, or been the cause of, our border woes. In reality, Trump is not simply stoking fear, but rather addressing issues that have had a permanent, calamitous impact on too many families.
We cannot afford to wait for these issues to personally touch each lawmaker. It’s time to end the shutdown by funding border security, including a border wall. We must keep our country safe, both for today’s citizens, and for those immigrants and asylum seekers who wish to legally pursue citizenship in the future.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
