Freedom from Half-Truths and Downright Lies

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the need for freedom from half-truths and downright lies. Dishonesty is always bad, but continual lies and half-truths destroy individuals, families, communities, and nations. Dishonesty about the problems on the southern border has made the problem even worse.

            President Donald Trump has been after the mainstream media for years about their fake news. Patrick Poendl joins in the claims that the media is dishonest. He says that the media “advocacy on behalf of bogus asylum” brought many more family units to the borders and gave power to the drug cartels. Media lies include their denial that there are any problems at the border. Poendl gives “six interconnected points” that explain why the problems at the board right now are worse than ever before and truly a national security and humanitarian problem.

            Poendl’s first point is the trajectory of the current surge of illegal border crossings. The numbers of illegal immigrants were decreasing in the 1990’s as portions of the border barrier were being built. Then the Obama administration offered “amnesty, expanded asylum, and numerous other magnets and invites in a new wave of Central Americans along with more immigrants not of Mexican origin….”  Poendl has several charts that show how the trajectory has increased.

            A second point made by Poendl is that the United States are not sending illegal aliens back to their countries. Over the years of immigrants coming in from Mexico, a large portion of them were repatriated. Sending illegal aliens from Central America home is much more expensive and difficult. Liberal court decisions make the problem even worse.

            The nature of the migrants is Poendl’s third point. For many years the migration was done by single adults, but the immigrants now include many teenagers and family units. The facilities at the border were created to handle men, and they are now being used to house family units. This has caused a humanitarian crisis with the hundreds, possibly thousands, of children. The media’s cries about separating families only served to bring more family units to the border.

            Poendl’s fourth point is that the increased influx of people is overwhelming the Border Patrol. Migrants are crossing the border illegally and immediately turning themselves in to the Border Patrol and claiming to have “credible fear” of being in their home countries. There are so many of them that the Border Patrol is bogged down with babysitting and medical care. Meanwhile, drug cartels take advantage of the situation and use the diversion to bring more drugs into the United States. The ability of the Border Patrol to deal with the migrants and drug cartels is being shut down because of the sheer numbers.

            Poendl’s fifth point is the drug and gang crisis. The drug cartels have been empowered to “spawn the worst drug and gang crisis in our history.”

            The sixth and last point put forward by Poendl is that the “drug cartels are more powerful and dangerous than ever before.”

            Trump is right in saying that there is a national security and humanitarian crisis on the southern border. He is doing everything that he can to convince Congress and all Americans that there is a great need to build a barrier to stop the drug deals, human trafficking, and illegal immigrants with their many diseases from crossing the border. Democrats, on the other hand, want Americans to believe that there is no crisis and that a wall is unnecessary, immoral, and expensive. The media goes along with the liberal’s lies