Looks like we can finally say it: There is a crisis at the southern border. It may not be the exact emergency President Trump formally declared, but there is a crisis.
This needs to be said because a significant number of reporters and news commentators have allowed their views to be shaped entirely by their opposition to Trump. They define truth as the opposite of whatever Trump says. And so it became an article of dogma in certain circles to deny that there was a crisis at the border.
But it looks like things have changed. CNN has done a commendable job this week exploring the dangers and difficulties facing both immigrants and border agents, and a lot of this is laid out in a lengthy Monday evening segment featuring anchor Chris Cuomo and Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz of the U.S. Border Patrol.
“You’ve got a humanitarian crisis, which has created a border security crisis for us, that we’ve been doing this for an awfully long time, and this is all being driven by policy crisis,” said Ortiz.
He added, “And until we fix the policy crisis, we’re going to continue to deal with the other two.”
As Ortiz spoke, news chryons flashed across the screen, including ones that read, “LIVE FROM BORDER AS HUMANITARIAN CRISIS WORSENS” and “BORDER PATROL SHOWS REALITIES OF CRISIS ON SOUTHERN BORDER.”
It’s impossible to watch the ride-along segment and not think back to all the journalists and pundits who’ve said there’s no real crisis at the border, including when Acosta claimed in a selfie that all is well and calm along the southern border and that the White House’s claims to the contrary are unwarranted.
“I found some steel slats down on the border. But I don’t see anything resembling a national emergency situation,” CNN’s Jim Acosta tweeted in January, “at least not in the McAllen, TX, area of the border where Trump will be today.”
He added, apparently without even realizing he was making an argument in favor of border fencing, “We’re not seeing any imminent danger. There are no migrants trying to rush toward this fence. No sign of the national emergency the president has been talking about.”
I found some steel slats down on the border. But I don’t see anything resembling a national emergency situation.. at least not in the McAllen TX area of the border where Trump will be today. pic.twitter.com/KRoLdszLUu
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 10, 2019
It’s also difficult watching what CNN is broadcasting from the border without thinking back to when Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum claimed in January, “This is not a crisis. It is not anything close to a crisis.” Or when Forbes contributor Stuart Anderson wrote that, “A wall will not solve the problem at the border, and it’s a problem, not a crisis.” Or when Washington Post columnist and forever-war enthusiast Max Boot claimed, “There is not a crisis at our southern border. … That’s a myth that Donald Trump puts out there.” Or when the Post tried to have it both ways in January when it published an article, titled “There is no new crisis at the border,” effectively conceding there’s a crisis but that Trump is wrong anyway.
It’s one thing to attempt to fact-check the White House on the issue of immigration. It’s one thing to say the administration’s claims about border security are overblown. It’s another thing entirely to downplay the actual humanitarian crises at the border just so you can shout “neener-neener!” at the president.
