On Thursday of last week, Congress finally struck a deal to avert another government shutdown. The new agreement funds the government through September 30th and provides $1.4 billion of the $5.7 billion that is needed to secure the border. While the deal does not go far enough to fully protect the border or alleviate the humanitarian crisis that puts both Americans and migrants in harm’s way, it is still a step in the right direction.

The following day, after signing the bill, President Trump declared a national emergency to shift federal dollars in order to provide the rest of the funds needed to fully secure the border and aid security services. Of course, the reaction from the Left and the mainstream media was overwhelming negative, causing confusion amongst many Americans.

It’s almost as if they could care less that border security is a top policy concern for most Americans: A new poll found that 59% of Americans rate border security as just as important as North Korea to our national security.

Furthermore, the truth is that a national emergency is not uncommon. Since 1979, 58 national emergencies have been declared by U.S. presidents. In fact, former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush declared a national emergency and invoked reprogramming authority 18 times while in office. They also directed the military to assist the Department of Homeland Security in securing the Southern border.

These are just a few of the many misperceptions out there surrounding the immigration issue. Here are more facts you should know:

  • The number of people apprehended entering the country illegally at the Southern border each month (47,893 in January alone) is more than twice the population size of the average American city or town (just over 20,000).
     
  • While the number of immigrants illegally crossing the Southern border is down, it is still drastically high. It is close to 50,000 per month, and over 10,000 of these are deemed inadmissible (which means they don’t qualify to get a visa or green card due to having a criminal record or other red flags).
     
  • There are drugs coming in through the unsecured places–not just the points of entry–and the fact is, we have no way of knowing how many drugs got in along the open border that were not caught.
     
  • Every week, 300 Americans are killed by heroin alone. At least 90 percent of all fentanyl and heroin comes through the Southern border.
     
  • Barriers at the border funnel people to legal points of entry where there are resources to process them. DHS agents are now processing people crossing the border illegally, which is diverting them from their mission–to secure the border and stop all forms of criminal activity (e.g. drugs trafficking, human trafficking, and so on).

It’s unfortunate that many of the facts are concealed or misreported by the media when it comes to immigration.

Test Your Knowledge: Take 5 short immigration quizzes to see how much you know about our country’s immigration policies. Then be sure to share these quizzes with your friends so they can test themselves and get the facts.