Speech #CREC-2017-02-01-pt1-PgH860-7_t4

Total northbound apprehensions of any people from any country coming across our southern border are also at historic lows. And if there are any surges in people or populations coming across that border, it happens to be young children and families fleeing horrific, historic violence in the northern triangle of Central America. And those little kids, they are not trying to evade detection, they are not trying to climb fences, they are not trying to escape the Border Patrol. They are, in fact, turning themselves in, and presenting themselves to Border Patrol agents and to Customs and Border Protection officers at our ports of entry. We should also note that we are expending record amounts of U.S. taxpayer resources to secure the border--$19 billion a year this year, last year, and the years going forward--only to increase with these executive orders. We have more than doubled the size of the Border Patrol in these last 15 years from just a little under 10,000 agents to over 20,000 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border and some on the U.S.- Canada border. There has never been a terrorist, a terrorist organization, a terrorist plot, or a terrorist act connected to our border with Mexico. There has been with our northern border with Canada.