The following op-ed appeared on WashingtonExaminer.com on January 9, 2019.
On Tuesday night, a lot of Americans learned, perhaps for the first time, there is really an urgent crisis at our southern border. The crisis is causing human suffering and death, and it is heartbreaking.
A familiar sense of pain develops in my heart when I learn of stories like the one belonging to 22-year-old Pierce Kennedy Corcoran, from my home state of Tennessee. Corcoran, a promising young man who loved golf, soccer, tennis, and running, was killed after an illegal immigrant allegedly swerved into oncoming traffic. The killer had lived in America for 14 years in “the shadows” and made no attempt to reside here legally. Pierce’s mom, Wendy, said, “Our son’s life meant something, and our government makes it feel as if it didn’t — that somebody who had no right to be here matters more.”
According to the White House, in the last two years ICE officers arrested 4,000 illegal aliens for homicides. That means there are close to 4,000 more stories just like Pierce Kennedy Corcoran’s. We only know some of their names — Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbets, and Joshua Wilkerson.
In the case of Pierce Kennedy Corcoran and the other victims of illegal immigration, we are not powerless. We have the prescription that can fix this. We can end this human suffering, and we can do it very easily. Under Article I in the Constitution, the Congress can provide funding to secure our border and improve immigration enforcement.
I would expect that to spark jubilation — we have the means of triumph at our fingertips. If we had found the cure for cancer, the medical community would be rushing to apply it and end patient suffering.
As we saw in the response to the president’s address, the faces of the opposition are Democratic leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The president made a clear policy proposal to fix a documented crisis, and the two congressional Democratic leaders revealed they are opposing the president primarily because they oppose his personality.
In doing so, Pelosi and Schumer seemed callous to the human suffering caused by the unsecure border.
I call on my Democratic colleagues to reverse course, put down their resistance, and heed the president’s request for border security — for all our sakes.
