Tag: border security

A top Republican challenged a professor on the border debate. It did not go well.

The following article by Melanie Schmitz was posted on the TinkProgress website September 6, 2017:

Oops.

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY OF CALIF., SPEAKS TO REPORTERS ON CAPITOL HILL IN WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2017. (CREDIT: AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE)

During an interview with The Ralph Bailey Show on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy attempted to explain the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program scale-back, immigration, and the debate over the southern border to a political science professor from California State University, Bakersfield. The professor just didn’t understand the issues with immigration, how border patrol operates, or why Mexico was so dangerous, McCarthy claimed. “Have you ever been to the border?” he asked.

There was just one problem: the professor to whom McCarthy was speaking— Mark Martinez—had indeed been to the border. In fact, Martinez had previously taught graduate studies in Mexico at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, hundreds of miles south of the border and has a wide breadth of knowledge in political development, international relations, and American foreign policy. Continue reading “A top Republican challenged a professor on the border debate. It did not go well.”

Border Officers: Real Security is More Complicated than Building a Wall

The following article by Patrick Tucker was posted on the NextGov.com website January 26, 2017:

U.S. Border Wall Already in Place

President Donald Trump’s new executive orders to extend walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport undocumented individuals may have a popular appeal, but achieving real border security will likely take longer than many Trump supporters hope.

“We’re not ready to do it yet,” said one U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told Defense One on condition of anonymity at the 11th annual Biometrics for Government and Law Enforcement Summitt in Arlington, Virginia. “I think it will take years.”

Even CBP officials who spoke on the record said challenges to fully securing the border and identifying undocumented aliens will extend well beyond the construction of a wall, Right now, CBP catches 85 to 95 percent of undocumented people crossing the border, according to Antonio Trindad, CBP’s director of enforcement systems. Continue reading “Border Officers: Real Security is More Complicated than Building a Wall”