The border emergency is real

Recently, a comment in Speak Out stated that there was no emergency at the U.S. border. This is just a Democrat talking point to shut down debate on border security. The truth, there are emergencies at the borders.

Sixty-seven illegal immigrants were found crammed into a 20-by-20-foot shed with a sign in Spanish advising them not to use the bathroom. They were found in Dexter, New Mexico. ICE’s website states, “In fiscal year 2016, HSI initiated 1,029 investigations with a nexus to human trafficking and recorded 1,952 arrests, 1,176 indictments, and 631 convictions; 435 victims were identified and assisted.”

No emergencies? Tell that to the women working for the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida. These ladies are smuggled in by sea containers. Men paid the spa between $100 and $300 to have sex with these women. The women were the victims of men who used the “services” of the spa and the sex traffickers who held them captive. This prostitution ring is thought to be part of a $200 million international sex trafficking organization.

Fentanyl is pouring across the unsecured borders. Nearly 50 percent of the reported 42,249 opioid-related deaths in 2016 were fentanyl related. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows overdose deaths from synthetic opioids between 2012 and 2016 increased by 640 percent. This drug is killing people at an unprecedented rate and it is forecasted to increase.

Yes, there are emergencies at the border. Stating otherwise is false.

DAVID LARSON, Jackson