Congressman Backs Trump’s Emergency Declaration
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Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois returned from an Air National Guard deployment — during which he conducted aerial surveillance over Arizona — and agreed with President Donald Trump that there is a crisis at the southern border.
The Republican told CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan on Sunday that based on this experience, he will be voting against a Democrat resolution to rescind Trump’s national emergency declaration on Tuesday.
Brennan first asked Kinzinger if what he saw constituted a national emergency.
“Yeah I think it does,” the lawmaker responded. “You know, I went down there kind of undecided. You know I put on my lieutenant colonel hat, was apolitical but obviously, I’m looking at this, getting the information I can.”
“And I think if this was just an issue of immigration it wouldn’t constitute a national emergency but what I saw was really disturbing.
The Air Force pilot recounted finding a woman abandoned in the desert by her border trafficking coyotes, while on another mission they assisted in apprehending a person carrying 70 pounds of methamphetamines.
Kinzinger, who was flying his missions out of Tucson, said the situation in Arizona is completely different than what he saw during a prior border deployment in Texas during the Obama administration.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, joins moderator Margaret Brennan fresh from his deployment to the border as a member of the national guard to discuss what he saw.
Kinzinger, who was flying his missions out of Tucson, said the situation in Arizona is completely different than what he saw during a prior border deployment in Texas during the Obama administration.
During this deployment, Border Patrol informed him that they find at least 200 dead people a year in the arid, rough terrain.
Brennan pushed Kinzinger on whether there is truly a crisis, saying according to Border Patrol apprehension are near a 50-year low.
Kinzinger responded that while the total apprehended may be down, his experience was large numbers were still crossing.
“There were many, many groups that we would see on technology with camera radar or something like that that we could not go address because there were not enough Border Patrol agents,” the congressman said.
“These agents sometimes left to take a truck and then walk two miles through terrible terrain to get to these groups only to have them run while they’re already exhausted and they get lost in that chaos.”
Kinzinger further observed that part of the decrease in illegal crossings outside the ports of entry can be attributed to more migrants learning how to abuse U.S. asylum laws.
“But I’ll tell you what I saw was a lot of people coming over the border, a lot of drugs in the border and a lot of human trafficking,” the congressman reiterated. “I mean these coyotes that would get paid a lot of money to bring groups over and then desert them to save their own backside. It was extremely disturbing.”
Kinzinger contended that he believes Trump’s national emergency declaration is constitutional, and he will be voting against the Democratic resolution to overturn it.
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https://www.westernjournal.com/congressman-ba...rn-journal
https://www.westernjournal.com/congressman-ba...rn-journal