See Biden’s big border mess with your own eyes

The Biden administration refuses to say that what’s happening at the border is a crisis.

But it plainly is a crisis. I saw it with my own eyes Monday.

I traveled to the border with Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales. His district has 800 miles along the border.

Standing on the edge of the Rio Grande in Del Rio, surrounded by local law enforcement, I looked into Mexico.

The next wave of illegal immigrants was going to come over at any moment.

I saw the piles of trash from earlier crossings, including baby formula and baby shoes.

I saw the footprints, some just hours old, from people who broke the law to come here.

Some are families in search of a better life.

Others are criminals and child traffickers who get rich ruining lives.

Earlier, I saw the grief of families who live near the border.

A mom told me how her mother and daughter were killed by a car stuffed with 11 illegal immigrants.

Her daughter was 7.

I saw anger on the faces of ranchers and farmers who live and work near the border.

Every day, they watch illegal immigrants cut their fences and run through their fields.

They’re spending their hard-earned money repairing the damage that’s done every day.

They don’t go anywhere without their guns for their own protection.

Choking on consequences 

I also saw anger on the faces of legal immigrants living in the area. They waited their turn to come to our country.

They played by the rules.

Every day, their businesses are hurt and their lives are endangered by those who break the rules.

And as people who hope to become Americans one day, they don’t want their new country to be overrun with any more crime and drugs.

I saw the consequences of this crisis, time and again.

Next to the train tracks, where a local sheriff told me the train cars are filled with illegal immigrants waiting to jump off.

A small town, with too many high-speed chases and too few law-enforcement officers.

There’s no part of the border region that doesn’t deal with this crisis every day.

But I didn’t just see the border crisis.

I saw that Americans have the determination to restore the rule of law, protect our families from drugs and crime, and stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

Local law enforcement told me they’re doing everything they can, but they aren’t getting the support they need.

And federal immigration law enforcement say morale is nonexistent and their job is basically baby-sitting. 

Their hands are tied; they’ve had to catch-and-release when they should catch-and-deport.

When I asked Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown what the number one thing we can do is, he had a simple solution: “Close the border.”

It’s not rocket science.

The only reason we haven’t solved the border crisis is because President Biden is not up to the job.

Biden thinks if he doesn’t talk about the border crisis, it doesn’t exist.

The crime and drugs streaming into our country barely register on his radar.

It took him nearly two years as president just to go to the border.

While he stayed in Washington, millions of people illegally came into the country.

So did millions of fentanyl pills and other deadly drugs.

Biden, like so many in DC, would rather use the border for political gain than solve these urgent and deadly problems.

Families destroyed

Biden’s border failure hurts every American.

It hurts our families, who’ve seen loved ones die from fentanyl overdoses — as many as 70,000 in 2021 alone.

I talked with some of these families in New Hampshire just last week.

The drugs that come across the border soon find their way into every corner of America, even those furthest from the southern border.

Biden’s border failure hurts our neighborhoods, which are dealing with unprecedented numbers of illegal immigrants.

It hurts our small businesses, which face unfair competition, and our taxpayers, who pay for handouts for people who shouldn’t get a cent.

And yes, President Biden’s border failure makes America far less safe.

Last year alone, nearly 100 suspected terrorists were arrested attempting to cross our southern border — about nine times more than during the four years of the last administration.

And less than halfway through this year, it’s all but certain that record will be broken.

Securing our borders is essential to national security.

So long as Joe Biden is president, the border crisis will get worse.

Defeating him is the first step to securing our borders, stopping the fentanyl and crime wave, and finally ending illegal immigration.

What I saw at the border Monday should upset every American.

And it should spur us to end this crisis with real leadership.

Nikki Haley is running for president. She was governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations.