The Horowitz Hearings

 
Yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring FBI Director Christopher Wray and Inspector General Michael Horowitz was more than three hours long.  Several senators did a good job of zeroing in on the animus against President Trump and his supporters at the FBI's Washington, D.C., headquarters.  (Here, here, here and here.) 
 
We also learned at yesterday's hearing that there is an ongoing investigation of James Comey's handling of classified information.
 
Inspector General Horowitz is testifying today before a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Government Reform and Oversight committees. 
 
Rep. Trey Gowdy set the tone for the hearings with a "blistering opening statement" in which he slammed James Comey's leadership of the FBI and how he treated the Trump Administration very differently from the Obama Administration. 
 
For example, at no time during any of Obama's many scandals did Comey ever leak government memos seeking to get a special counsel appointed to investigate the president.  Bias anyone?
 
 
 
Border Battles
 
A few months ago, there was a big controversy about a caravan of illegal immigrants marching toward our southern border.  Now there is a big controversy over the treatment of people with children at the border. 
 
Almost every nation in Europe is embroiled in the same debate.  But the fundamental issue is the same:  Conservatives here and in Europe believe that you cannot be a nation if you cannot secure your borders and decide who is allowed into your country. 
 
The left here in the United States and in Europe believes in open borders and will not do anything to stop mass migration across borders. 
 
The controversy over people being separated from their children is full of misinformation and outright demagoguery by the left.  Frankly, this seems like a manufactured crisis to distract from the inspector general's damning report of bias at the FBI. 
 
Here are two key facts to keep in mind:
 

• Immigrants claiming asylum or refugee status who report to an official port of entry are not being separated from their children.  That is the appropriate process to claim asylum.  That process desperately needs reforming and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken some important steps to limit abuses because there has been a 1,700% increase in asylum claims over the past ten years.

• The people being separated from their children are those who do not go to ports of entry but instead attempt to illegally cross the border at some point where they hope to avoid detection.  That is a crime.  It is illegal.  And this administration is prosecuting illegal entry. 

 
If you are an American citizen arrested for a crime, your child is separated from you while you are going through the justice system.  Your child does not go to jail with you.  That is the same principle at work here.
 
Moreover, a patchwork of laws and rulings from the Ninth Circuit Court force the government to release family units after just 20 days of detention.  That is very little time to adjudicate asylum and refugee claims, and is the genesis of many "catch and release" policies, which the Trump Administration is trying to end.
 
During a press conference yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen disclosed that we have 12,000 children currently in custody and under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. 
 
Ten thousand of them are unaccompanied minors.  They crossed the border without a parent, sometimes with the aid of smugglers.  What kind of parent sends their children to make such a dangerous journey?
 
Only 2,000 children (less than 20%) have been separated from people claiming to be their parents.  In many cases, Border Patrol agents have discovered that the adults traveling with them are not their parents, but other illegal immigrants attempting to exploit loopholes in our laws that made children a "get out of jail free" card.
 
As Secretary Nielsen noted, "In the last five months, we have a 314 percent increase in adults and children arriving at the border fraudulently, claiming to be a family unit." 
 
In other words, these kids are victims.  They are being exploited by illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the country, and yet the left-wing media and political complex is screaming at Donald Trump.
 
The Department of Health and Human Services is taking custody of 250 children a day.  That works out to more than 90,000 a year.  If word spreads that getting a child across the border results in de facto amnesty, it won't be long before we have 190,000 children crossing the border every year. 
 
Each of these children will cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a year (here and here), more money than many taxpayers can spend on their own children each year.  Collectively, they are costing taxpayers over $1 billion a year.
 
Secretary Nielsen also said yesterday that in the past five years 500,000 children entered the U.S. and because of Obama's "catch and release" policy "most of [them] today are at large." 
 
 
 
Trump Responds
 
President Trump interrupted a planned speech yesterday to directly address this controversy.  Here's what he said:
 
"The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility.  It won't be.  If you look at what's happening in Europe, if you look at what's happening in other places, we can't allow that to happen to the United States — not on my watch. . .
 
"We want safety and we want security for our country. . .  We're stuck with these horrible laws. . . We have the worst immigration laws in the entire world. . . You see about child separation; you see what's going on there.
 
"But just remember, a country without borders is not a country at all.  We need borders.  We need security.  We need safety.  We have to take care of our people."
  
This gets back to a major priority of this president:  The only way we are going to fix this disaster is to get serious about securing our border. 
 
We are a compassionate nation.  But we should also be able to decide how many people we can allow in without overtaxing the American people, our schools, our hospitals and our economy.
 
For those citing Scripture, there is nothing in the Gospel that requires the nation to commit suicide in the name of compassion.