Hudson Statement on Trump's Border Security Address
January 8, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 8, 2019
Hudson Statement on Trump’s Border Security Address
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (NC-08) released the following statement after President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office on the humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border:
"As President Trump clearly laid out to the American people, the crisis at our southern border is undeniable,” said Rep. Hudson. “I’m disappointed Democrats in Congress have been unwilling to come to the table to make a bipartisan deal to build the wall and address this crisis. Just last week, Democrats voted to give $54 billion in foreign aid to other countries. All President Trump is asking for is 10 cents of every dollar they want to give to foreign governments to go to secure our border and build a wall. Is that too much to ask?”
Rep. Hudson previously voted to fund the remaining government agencies and President Trump's requested $5.7 billion for border security. According to the White House:
- In fiscal year (FY) 2018, 17,000 adults at the border with existing criminal records were arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and border agents.
- In FY2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents saved over 900 children from human trafficking and sexual assault.
- In FY2017 and FY2018, ICE officers arrested approximately 235,000 aliens on various criminal charges or convictions within the interior of the United States—including roughly 100,000 for assault, 30,000 for sex crimes, and 4,000 for homicides.
- We are now averaging 60,000 illegal and inadmissible aliens a month on our southern border.
- Last month alone, more than 20,000 minors were smuggled into the United States.
- From October 2017 through August 2018, the Department of Homeland Security reported that U.S. Border Patrol seized: 6,423 pounds of cocaine 532 pounds of heroin, 439,531 pounds of marijuana, 10,382 pounds of methamphetamine, and 332 pounds of fentanyl.
- 300 Americans are killed every week from heroin—90 percent of which floods across our southern border.
- The amount of fentanyl seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in FY 2017 (2,370 pounds) was enough to kill every American citizen by overdose.
- Illegal immigration is a humanitarian crisis: 1 in 3 migrant women is sexually assaulted on the journey northward to the U.S. border; 50 illegal migrants a day are referred for emergency medical care; and CBP rescues 4,300 people a year who are in danger and distress.
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