President Trump Is Way Ahead of the Democrats on Southern Border Policy

THE MEXICAN DEAL PROVES THAT THE BEFUDDLED DEMOCRAT PARTY LEADERSHIP STILL DOES NOT UNDERSTAND PRESIDENT TRUMP. The Democrats in Congress will not do anything about the southern border illegal immigrant crisis, and they refuse to accept that President Trump is so good at his job that he can get a lot done without their help. • • • REASONABLE DEMANDS SERVED UP WITH REAL THREATS AND IT WORKED. That's how President Trump and his team approached closing the southern border when it became clear that Congress -- specifically the House Democrat majority -- would never step up and do its job. • In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan said it was President Donald Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on Mexico that brought it “to the table with real proposals” to crack down on illegal immigration. McAleenan said : "People can disagree with the tactics....It brought them to the table. The foreign minister of Mexico arrived within hours...with real proposals on the table. This is the first time we've heard anything like this kind of number of law enforcement being deployed in Mexico to address migrations. Not just at the southern border but also on transportation routes to the northern border and in coordinated patrols in key areas around our southwest border." McAleenan added that 144,000 people were detained for illegally crossing the border last month.” • American Thinker's Clarice Feldman wrote on Sunday : "[T]he foreign policy 'experts' decried the President’s ability to handle foreign relations because, after all, he was 'just' a very successful real estate developer and TV personality with no coherent strategy -- that is to say, he was ignoring their advice. Time and again he’s proven them wrong, and this week was no exception. He had a very congenial meeting with the Queen of England, wowed at the D-Day celebrations, and returned home to announce a deal had been cut with Mexico to help stem the tide of Central Americans caravanning through the country to cross our borders. Congress refuses to act on this influx of illegals. Obama-appointed judges have done what they could to limit his opportunities to halt it. The media are full of sob stories about the invaders, tarring as 'racists' those who oppose them. Experts decried Trump’s threat to impose tariffs with a variety of warnings about consequences -- from a rise in Chipotle prices and avocado shortages to a trade war-caused depression. Indeed, the left reportedly was already preparing ads about the devastation to our farmers. Then came the deal -- obviously encouraged by our negotiators presenting a list of doable things that Mexico could do and wasn’t. Mexico will send thousands of their troops to the Guatemalan border and elsewhere to intercept the caravan's passage through Mexico. Persons arriving from Mexico into our country to file for asylum will be returned to Mexico where they will await processing of their claims, Mexico agrees to purchase substantial amounts of US agricultural products. Two leaders of the caravan movement were arrested by Mexico. Twenty-six funders of the caravans had their accounts frozen. In return, the President 'indefinitely suspended' the imposition of the threatened tariffs on Mexico. To those doubting Thomases : Trump cocked the hammer, didn’t need to fire, but hasn’t yet locked up the pistol. • BlabberBuzz reprinted an article from The New American written by Steve Byas that appeared on Saturday. Byas said : "President Donald Trump announced on Friday, in a tweet, that he is suspending his plan to impose steep tariffs on Mexico, threatened in an effort to compel Mexico to stem the invasion of illegal migration into the United States through their country....Trump tweeted, 'I am pleased to inform you that the United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico. Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the US on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended.' According to Trump, Mexico has agreed it will do its best to 'stem the tide of Migration through Mexico and to our Southern Border.' Trump added the concession by Mexico will 'greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States.' " Byas gives greater details of the new agreement : "According to a joint declaration released by the US Department of State, the Mexican government has agreed to 'unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration.' One move that Mexico has agreed to take is the deployment of its National Guard not only on its southern border with Guatemala, but throughout Mexico. The State Department added that Mexico is taking 'decisive action to dismantle human smuggling and trafficking organizations as well as their illicit financial and transportation networks.' Trump said that Mexico will use 6,000 soldiers in its effort to control the tide of illegal migration through Mexico into the United States. 'Mexico will try very hard,' Trump said, 'and if they do that, this will be a very successful agreement for both the United States and Mexico!' President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tweeted, 'Thanks to the support of all Mexicans, the imposition of tariffs on Mexican products exported to the USA has been avoided.' A celebration is planned on Saturday in Tijuana." Concerning the Democrat reaction, Byas added : "It was not surprising that Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs resulted in strong criticism by leading Democrats in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) responded that Trump’s 'threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy,' especially with 'our close friend.' Of course, Pelosi’s only expressed concern has been, not about the surge of illegal migrants and its effect upon the United States, but instead she has voiced her worries that Trump’s effort 'violates the rights of asylum-seekers under US law and fails to address the root causes of Central American migration.' ....While one could have predicted that Schumer and Pelosi would have opposed Trump’s plan -- they oppose everything Trump -- the President even faced resistance within the Republican Party, especially from those members who worship at the altar of free trade. Multiple Republicans in Congress were publicly warning Trump that they would defy the policy and attempt to block implementation of the tariffs, expressing concern that the tariffs would raise costs to US consumers, harm the economy, and possibly scuttle the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) trade deal." For Byas : "Few Americans want to end all international trade, but making such trade a sacred cow, more important than any other policy concerns, like stopping the invasion of illegal migration, is wrong-headed. The Founding Fathers were almost uniformly in favor of taxes on imports -- tariffs -- and while Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton disagreed on many things, they did agree that tariffs, wisely employed, were good for the country. In his 1998 book, The Great Betrayal, Pat Buchanan explained, 'The most perilous aspect [of free trade]...is the loss of US sovereignty and the potential loss of nationhood itself. Look at Europe. Nations there are meekly transferring control of their defense and foreign policy, of trade and immigration policy, to a super-state called the European Union; they are even giving up control of their currencies, which means control of their destinies. And what is happening to France, Britain, Germany, Italy, will happen here if we do not wake up. Once a nation has put its foot onto the slippery slope of global free trade, the process is inexorable, the end inevitable : death of the nation-state.' Fortunately, in this case, a choice was made to put the welfare of our country over the devotion to the globalist free-trade agenda." • Separately, BlabberBuzz reprinted a Breitbart article that quoted writer and economist Stephen Moore, who said President Donald Trump’s negotiating prowess with Mexico had the potential to aid trade negotiations with China. Moore talked with Breitbart News Saturday host Matt Boyle, telling him : " 'This was a sign of Donald Trump’s negotiating skills,' said Moore, who worked with Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. He emphasized, 'If you want to understand Donald Trump you have to read his book, The Art of the Deal, adding that he doesn’t think he has met a better negotiator in his life. 'I have to confess I was against the tariffs,' said Moore, adding he didn’t think Mexico would come to the table, but admitting, 'I was wrong. Boy has this worked, and now Mexico is sending thousands of their National Guard to the border,' he said, calling it a 'big victory' for the President." Moore and Boyle laughed at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comment that the dispute with Mexico was a “distraction” from the Mueller report : "“I do think this will have a positive implication for the China negotiations because China is going to look at this thing and go, ‘Ha, this guy really knows how to negotiate, he’s gonna win,’ Moore said. 'If Trump can get that -- the same kid of concessions from China, which I think he will, as he got from Mexico, ya know the economy is just going to soar.' ” [Breitbart : "Moore recently released the book Trumponomics with co-author Art Laffer. President Trump will soon award Laffer, the 'Father of Supply-Side Economics' and the Laffer Curve, the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Moore was recently under consideration for a seat on the Federal Reserve board of governors, but ultimately withdrew himself from nomination in May."] • And, the New York Post added its voice to those praising the Mexican agreement : "The agreement, reached late Friday after three days of intense negotiations in Washington, is a victory for President Trump after he threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican goods if the country does not crack down on Central American migrants journeying through Mexico toward the US’s southern border. Mexico’s newly created National Guard will take the lead in the enforcement effort, according to reports in Mexican media. A group of 200 troops were already on Mexico’s southern border this past week to intercept a caravan of 500 migrants that arrived Wednesday. The 60,000-strong force was established in March....Mexico also agreed to accept more migrants from the US. It promised to provide them with education, work permits and health services. The deal is meant to foil American judicial rulings that have forced the Trump administration to allow migrants claiming asylum status to remain in the US while their cases are decided -- the so-called 'catch-and-release' policy that has encouraged hundreds of thousands to illegally cross the border. Despite the program’s steep price tag, which could amount to millions of dollars, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he was 'satisfied' with the results of negotiations....'I would like to thank the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, together with all of the many representatives of both the United States and Mexico, for working so long and hard to get our agreement on immigration completed!' Trump tweeted Saturday. According to the declaration, both countries will continue to brainstorm other measures to be announced in the next three months." • • • EVEN CNN JUMPED ON THE TRUMP BANDWAGON. On Sunday, BizPac Review stated : "After days of suggesting that President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs to pressure Mexico into taking more action to thwart the flood of illegal aliens across the United States’ southern border would fail and backfire, ultimately nosediving the economy into a recession, the media have now been forced to admit that his plan was a complete success. And leading the pack was CNN. 'So now there’s the additional border enforcement and help in breaking up trafficking networks. The US got almost everything it wanted from Mexico,' CNN correspondent Victor Blackwell conceded Saturday on 'New Day Weekend' with what appeared to be a sad frown. 'The talks go on for another three months,' co-host Christi Paul added." • • • IT WAS ALL PART OF THE ANTI-TRUMP LITANY. The New York Post noted : "This rhetoric fits a seemingly never-ending pattern of Trump announcing a plan, the media fear-mongering over the plan, the President succeeding at the plan and the media winding up with egg on their face. Rarely, however, does the media ever actually admit defeat. Even with this clear-cut victory, some segments of the media have already begun twisting the narrative to, one, make it seem as if the deal that was reached was a 'compromise,' and two, attribute any potential upcoming drops in migration to other factors, such as weather." The NYPost quoted the LA Times : "If historical trends are any guide, the recent migrant influx -- last month U.S. officials detained 133,000 people at the southern border, more than twice as many as in December -- is likely to fall in coming weeks as searing summer heat kicks in. That will give Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador room to claim their efforts have succeeded.” But, states the NYPost : "That’s a false narrative. The last time that border migration dropped precipitously during the summer months was in 2014. Last year border crossings increased during the summer. The same thing happened in 2017 and 2016. In 2015, on the other hand, crossings declined slightly. It’s unclear why the media are unwilling or incapable of sticking to the facts and shedding the false narratives and nearly always inaccurate speculation that have defined them for the past four years and counting. What does seem to be clear is that the army of so-called 'experts' that the media -- including CNN -- use to prop up their bizarre conspiracy theories don’t actually have a clue." • • • ONLY THE DEMOCRATS TRIED TO CALL THE MEXICAN SUCCESS A FAILURE. Mad Maxine Waters had the poorest timing. On Friday, she tweeted : "Spineless GOP Senators grew a backbone this week & finally stood up to their Dictator Trump on something : Mexico tariffs, also known as a TAX INCREASE on American consumers. Bet your bottom dollar, Trump will back off by the weekend. Just another bluff!” That was mere hours before the President announced the Mexican agreement. Western Journal Conservative Tribune wrote : "While Democrats like Waters spent the week criticizing and insulting the President, Trump proved once again that the American people voted for someone who would lead the country and protect our southern borders from what the President and many experts call a sincere 'crisis.' Do you think for a second that someone like Waters, or any of her leftist colleagues, would have had the political fortitude to nail down such an incredible deal with Mexico? Of course not. We saw their negotiation skills back in the Obama-era -- when the United States was taken advantage of at every turn and nobody batted an eye....Trump’s power play is certainly a huge step in the right direction. Democrats will never admit that, of course, but that’s just fine with me. We’ll see how far screaming and whining about impeachment gets them in 2020." • And Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- fresh from her idiotic remark about wanting to see the President in prison -- issued a statement published by Fox News : “President Trump undermined America’s preeminent leadership role in the world by recklessly threatening to impose tariffs on our close friend and neighbor to the south. Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy.” Pelosi seemed to be greatly irritated by the agreement between President Trump and the Mexican government to allow the US to expand its “Remain-in Mexico” policy of returning asylum applicants to Mexico while their claims are processed. The US committed to accelerate asylum claims while Mexico said it will "offer jobs, healthcare and education according to its principles." Fox News reported that : "Pelosi said Democrats are 'deeply disappointed' by the expansion of 'Remain-in Mexico' and said it violates the rights of asylum-seekers, and fails to address the root causes of migration flows from Central America. She also promised that Congress would continue to put pressure on the administration on immigration. 'Congress will continue to hold the Trump Administration accountable for its failures to address the humanitarian situation at our southern border. President Trump must stop sabotaging good-faith, constructive, and bipartisan efforts in Congress to address this complex problem in a humane manner that honors and respects our most cherished national values.” • It that gem from Pelosi isn't Orwellian Newspeak, nothing is -- it is the Democrats under Pelosi's leadership who are unwilling to raise a finger to 'address the humanitarian situation at our southern border.' ” President Trump went after Pelosi and her House Democrats on Saturday, tweeting : "Nervous Nancy Pelosi & the Democrat House are getting nothing done. Perhaps they could lead the way with the USMCA, the spectacular & very popular new Trade Deal that replaces NAFTA, the worst Trade Deal in the history of the USA. Great for our Farmers, Manufacturers & Unions!” • • • A 'WIN-WIN SITUATION. American Thinker's Monica Showalter wrote on Sunday : "President Trump announced a deal with Mexico to help stave the border security crisis, and leaders of both countries celebrated. After all, both countries said they were the winners in the newly signed migration deal. There were losers, of course - Mexico's infamous human smuggling cartels, and far left activists who shake down migrants, both of whom get curbed in the deal. But none made fools of themselves the way the biggest losers here, the Democrats (and their media allies) managed to do. According to the Washington Times : 'Democrats lashed out in all directions at President Trump after he won concessions from Mexico....House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chided the President Saturday for his method, saying his threat of tariffs was unbecoming of a friendly country’s treatment of a neighbor....When you've got both sides celebrating, it's a no-brainer to normal people that it's all good. Mexico avoided tariffs and retains a fighting chance of rescuing its economy. Tijuana doesn't get flooded with more caravans full of foreign migrants. Cartel activity becomes less lucrative so there will be less cartel activity. Americans can happily buy Mexican avocados (world's best) without a punitive new tax on them. Big supply chains stay undisturbed and the markets soar with joy. In normal parlance, this is what's known as a 'win-win' deal. President Trump celebrated from Europe via Twitter : 'The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the US on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended. Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to....stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States. Details of the agreement will be released shortly by the State Department. Thank you!'....Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador actually flew up to Tijuana to rally and celebrate with the city, which seems thrilled its maquiladoras will continue to hum, its people will continue to get paid, and costly, ungrateful, and crime-committing migrants disrupting their city will be fewer in number." • Showalter called the Democrats "trapped : "What we have here is evidence the Democrats have been steamrolled, trapped, made fools of by President Trump. How else to explain reactions such as these? You'd think they'd be happy the US economy won't take a hit from Mexican retaliatory tariffs and the stock market is back in the business of rising, helping to fatten the pension funds of Democratic civil servants in places like California. But actually, no, they couldn't be more miserable. They are out doing catcalls. Their sputtering is the output of politicians who've lost the narrative after betting badly on a deal Trump came out a winner on. With the New York Times reporting that the deal was pretty much in the works all along, obviously, Trump trapped them. Again....There are no fools like old fools, and these leftist gerontocrats just don't seem to know him very well." • And, another American Thinker contributor, By Silvio Canto, Jr., writing last Wednesday before the Mexican agreement was announced, was nevertheless on target when he said : "Like most "free traders," I don't like tariffs but understand that a message has to be sent to Mexico. It appears that many Americans feel the same way, according to this analysis by Scott Rasmussen : Just 25% believe they will be good for our country, but 50% support that tariff. Very interesting, to say the least....It appears that many Americans are willing to pay a bit more for their Mexican avocados in exchange for less chaos on the border....At the same time, do not underestimate Mexican public opinion....most Mexicans do not like the caravans walking through their country either. As I've said before, President Trump's unconventional approach is often a step ahead of his critics. On this issue, he is again." • • • WHY WAS PRESIDENT TRUMP SO TOUGH WITH MEXICO? Liberty Headlines spelled it out last Thursday : "Groups of family units from around the world are traveling thousands of miles just to enter the United States illegally to exploit our immigration laws....Border agents have arrested more than 500 people from the African continent in the Del Rio Sector since May 30....They typically travel in groups as family units from the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola, according to US Customs and Border Protection. 'The introduction of this new population places additional burdens on processing stations, to include language and cultural differences,' said Raul L. Ortiz, Del Rio Sector chief patrol agent, in a statement. 'Our agents continue to meet each new challenge as the ongoing humanitarian crisis evolves,' Ortiz said. Mexico’s lax immigration rules makes it possible for migrants around the world to try and gain access to the US. In Nuevo Laredo -- across the border from Laredo, Texas -- more than 1,500 Central and West African refugees have gathered at the southern border, trying to seek asylum in the US, according to USA Today. 'They don’t speak the language, they don’t have money, they’re not very well-received in Mexico,' said Mike Smith, a Methodist pastor who runs a migrant shelter in Laredo. Last Saturday, the CBP said it picked up a group of 37 African immigrants attempting illegal crossings into Texas. The week before, agents said they picked up a group of 116 African migrants crossing the river into the Del Rio sector. Del Rio Sector’s apprehensions of non-Mexican immigrants has increased by nearly 500% this year, according to CBP. 'We are continuing to see a rise in apprehensions of immigrants from countries not normally encountered in our area,' Ortiz said." • The BBC reported last week, just before the agreement was announced, that US Customs and Border Protection said "migrant arrests had surged in May to the highest level in more than a decade. Border Patrol apprehended 132,887 migrants attempting to enter the US from Mexico in May, marking a 33% increase from the month before. It said 84,542 were families and 11,507 unaccompanied children. The arrests were the highest monthly total since Mr Trump took office. Another 11,391 migrants were deemed 'inadmissible' and turned away after arriving at US ports of entry, bringing the overall figure to 144,278. 'We are in a full-blown emergency, and I cannot say this stronger, the system is broken,' said acting CBP Commissioner John Sanders." • In an early morning article published last Friday, American Thinker's Monica Showalter wrote : "Risky as President Trump's tariff threat tactic on Mexico is, it appears to be...working....According to Fox News : 'Reports in the evening indicated that Mexico's negotiators with Washington have offered to immediately deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala. Additionally, Mexico has reportedly agreed to a major overhaul of reasonable asylum protocols, which would require asylum applicants to seek permanent refuge in the first country they arrive in after fleeing their home countries.'....and....: 'Also on Thursday, Mexico's financial intelligence agency announced it had frozen the bank accounts of 26 people who it claimed 'have presumably participated in migrant smuggling and the organization of illegal migrant caravans.' The agency said it had detected money transfers from central Mexico to six Mexican border cities presumably related to the caravans. Here's another one, a particularly satisfying one cited by Breitbart : 'Mexican authorities arrested two men suspected of promoting and organizing the migrant caravans that moved thousands of migrants from Central America to the US border. Officials claim that the two men demanded money from Central American migrants in exchange for getting them illegally into the US. Mexico's Attorney General's Office announced the arrest of Irineo Mujica and Cristobal Sanchez during operations in the border state of Sonora and in Mexico City. Mexican officials only identified the two men by their first names. Authorities have charged the two men with human smuggling. In the case of Irineo Mujica, authorities have added the additional penalties of child smuggling.' So it turns out these guys were making money from caravan shakedowns all along, even as they browbeat America into accepting these migrants' entry into the States under the phony narrative of humanitarian need. The only need they had was for cash to keep rolling into their bank accounts, and Mexico's authorities knew this all along. All of these acts, if sustained, really could place a dent on the migrant surge, which has since gone global as Europe cracks down on migrant surges, and Mexico and the US become the new fulcrum. • • • THE DREAMERS GET HOUSE DEMOCRAT ATTENTION. The Washington Free Beacon stated in a June 4 article : "House Democrats voted 237-187 Tuesday to pass a bill that, if entered into law, would grant amnesty to an estimated 2.5 million illegally resident people. They also blocked a proposed change to the bill from Republicans, which could have helped reduce illegal immigration by funding border crisis relief to the tune of $4.5 billion. H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, made it to the floor following a contentious intraparty debate over its contours in the House Judiciary Committee. If passed into law, the bill would create a path to citizenship for three distinct groups of illegally resident individuals who have been heretofore protected from deportation by separate government programs. Specifically, H.R. 6 would offer protection from deportation to 2.1 million individuals who arrived to the United States as minors (including 600,000 DACA recipients), and 400,000 some beneficiaries of the TPS and DED programs. Those who arrived as minors would be offered Conditional Permanent Residency, with a path to Lawful Permanent Residency (i.e., a Green Card) and even citizenship; TPS and DED recipients would be granted green card status. The bill passed with the support of over 230 cosponsors, all Democrats. It now goes to the Senate, where it is unlikely to get any traction under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell." The Free Beacon said the passage of the mass amnesty bill "is largely symbolic, indicating where Democrats would take immigration policy if they were swept into power in the 2020 elections." BUT, the White House harshly condemned H.R. 6 in a strongly worded statement of administration policy issued late Monday : "H.R. 6 would incentivize and reward illegal immigration while ignoring and undermining key administration immigration objectives and policy priorities, such as protecting our communities and defending our borders. The administration has put forward proposals to address the status of the hundreds of thousands of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients, but only in the context of actual solutions that would address the underlying problems in our immigration system." The Free Beacon says such solutions are absent from H.R. 6 -- it contains "neither funding for border security, nor any proposed solution to the surge of individuals crossing the southern border who have collectively stretched immigration officials' capacity to the breaking point." House Democrats even chose to block proposed changes to the bill that would have added such funding." • • • DEAR READERS, PollingReport.com has just given a summary of 2019 immigration and border security polls. /// The CBS News Poll taken on May 17-20, asked : "When the U.S. government is deciding which immigrants to admit to this country, should priority be given to people who have family members already living in the US, or should priority be given to people based on education, job skills and work experience?" 48% said people with education, job skills and work experience should get priority, while 40 % said those with family members already living in the US should receive priority. /// A Quinnipiac University Poll taken on April 26-29 asked registered voters nationwide : "As you may know, the U.S. Census attempts to count all people living in the United States, whether they are citizens or not and whether they are in the U.S. legally or not. Right now, the federal government is planning to add a question to the 2020 Census asking whether or not the person participating in the census is a citizen of the United States. Do you think adding a citizenship question to the census is a good idea or a bad idea, or haven't you heard enough about it?" 48% said it is a good idea, and 33% said it is not. /// An ABC News/Washington Post Poll taken April 22-25, 2019 of adults nationwide asked : "Do you think the situation with illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border is currently a crisis, a serious problem but not a crisis, or not a serious problem?" A combined 80% said it is a crisis or a serious problem, as opposed to 18% who think it is not a problem. /// Similarly, a Monmouth University Poll taken April 11-15, 2019 of adults nationwide asked : "How serious a problem do you think the issue of illegal immigration is for the United States right now: very, somewhat, not too, or not at all serious?" 71% said it is very serious or somewhat serious, while only 28% said it is not too serious or not serious at all. /// When the Monmouth poll asked "Do you favor or oppose building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico?" 42% answered that they favor it while 56% do not -- an early March Quinnipiac poll found similar results, with 55% opposing a wall and 41% favoring it. /// BUT, when the Monmouth pollsters asked "Should immigrants seeking political asylum at the border be allowed into the US while they wait for their claims to be processed, or should they be made to stay in Mexico?" 51% want them to be made to stay in Mexico while 41% want them to be allowed into the US. /// AND, when Monmouth pollsters asked "Do you think immigrants who come to the border seeking political asylum are really fleeing violence, or are they just trying to get around the normal process of applying for entry to the country?" 37% said they are fleeing violence, while 46% say they are tying to get around the normal process. /// A Quinnipiac University Poll of registered voters nationwide asked in late January : "Would you support or oppose a bill that funded new border security measures, but did not fund a wall along the border with Mexico?" 61% said they would support such a bill, while only 33% said they would oppose it. /// an ABC News/Washington Post Poll taken in late January asked adults nationwide "Do you think the United States is currently doing too little, too much, or about the right amount to keep undocumented immigrants from coming into this country?" 54% said the US is doing too little and only 40% said the US is doing too much or is doing just about the right thing. /// When Pew Research Center asked adults nationwide in mid January "As you may know, there is a proposal to substantially expand the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. In general, do you favor or oppose this proposal?" 49% favored expanding the wall and 58% opposed expanding it. BUT in the same poll, when asked "Do you think substantially expanding the wall along the border with Mexico would lead to a major reduction in illegal immigration into the US, a minor reduction in illegal immigration, or not have much impact?" 54% said it would have a major or minor impact as opposed to 44% who said ti would have not much impact. /// AND, when Quinnipiac University pollsters asked voters nationwide in early January "Do you believe that there is a security crisis along the border with Mexico, or don't you believe that?" 54% said they believe there is a security crisis, while 43% said there isn't. BUT, when asked "Do you believe that there is a humanitarian crisis along the border with Mexico, or don't you believe that?" 68% believe there is a humanitarian crisis and only 26% do not believe there is one. • Reading through poll results can be boring, but they reveal the complexity of the immigration and border security issues. It seems that Americans do not see a wall as effective -- in questions I didn't reproduce, they feel it is not a good use of taxpayer dollars, but they see security and humanitarian issues along the southern border as real. Yes, they want to stop the flow of illegals coming across the southern border, but they do not want illegals who have lived in the US a long time to be turned back to their native lands. • Overall, if President Trump can make Mexico abide by last Friday's agreement, it seems to offer the best possible combination of what Americans want along the southern border -- no illegal entries, elimination of the humanitarian crisis, better and more border security, and all without having to spend taxpayer dollars on a wall. President Trump is so much faster than the Democrats that they must feel like deer in his headlights. Why, then oh why, don't they just lift their noses up out of their Soros playbook, admit that he is smarter than they are, and get in line behind him.