Four out of five border-crossers detained in South Texas are Guatemalan, Honduran or Salvadoran. They are driven by violence and poverty in their home countries and the desire for family reunification.
ALAN BERSINThere have been enormous advances since 9/11 to build a very robust set of targeting procedures and watch lists to screen travelers coming to the United States.
More Alan Bersin Quotes
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But in fact as Secretary of Homeland Security General John Kelly acknowledged at his confirmation hearing, walls and barriers alone are insufficient to insure security.
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The Mexican people are increasingly middle class, and Mexico has substantially become a middle-class society.
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We do a trillion dollars in trade among the three countries; more than 18,000 American companies are involved in foreign direct investment in Mexico and Canada.
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We have a combined population of half a billion people; peaceful trade-friendly borders that are the envy of the world.
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In today’s digital online world, those who don’t share information will be isolated and left behind.
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Twenty-nine US states depend on Mexico as their primary export market.
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In the last two years, the Mexicans have detained nearly 400,000 migrants whose intent was to come to the United States.
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The work the Mexicans are doing in terms of migration control on Mexico’s southern border is crucial to our own border security.
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We have to remember that information sharing is restricted by legal barriers and cultural barriers and by the notion that information is power and therefore should be hoarded so if you share information you can extract something in exchange.
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We can’t defend the country by looking at the borderline as the first line of defense rather than as the last line of defense.
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Most people who live at the border or are familiar with the border know that a Berlin-like wall stretching from San Diego to Brownsville is not necessary. And the costs would be prohibitive.
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The potential of Mexico, Canada and the United States is enormous.
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Not only are the numbers of migrants entering the United States at the lowest levels in a generation, but they are now largely Central American.
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And we have to work together to secure the continent in order to keep dangerous people and dangerous things out and strengthen perimeter security on a continental basis.
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That’s the way in which they get entry into a system that will eventually release them into the country.
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Today, the number of migrants crossing is at a 30-year low. That’s because of years of bipartisan work on this issue.
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Migrants come up and no longer seek to evade the Border Patrol, but are actually left at the border by their smugglers.
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Mexico now has the 13th largest economy in the world.
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Six million jobs in the US depend on trade with Mexico. Ten border states – six in Mexico and four in the United States – combined have the third or fourth largest economy in the world.
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To the extent that President Trump means strengthened border security, I am fully in favor of the idea that the rule of the law, secure borders and public safety should prevail. Drugs should not enter illegally.
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As former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pointed out, if you build a 50-foot wall, you’ll soon be confronted with a 51-foot ladder.
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There have been enormous advances since 9/11 to build a very robust set of targeting procedures and watch lists to screen travelers coming to the United States.
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If you build a 50-foot wall, you’ll soon be confronted with a 51-foot ladder.
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You need a strategy that involves layered defense: deployed patrols, sophisticated sensor equipment, and surveillance from the air. That is what has had a positive impact over the last generation.
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We must rely on our allies and foreign governments to share information and data to secure our country.
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The Mexicans return the detained Central American migrants by bus or by air to the countries they come from.
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