The number of illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border may have dropped by 40 percent because the message that's being sent from the Trump administration is working, but a wall is still needed, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick insisted Friday.
"I have always thought of part of the plan was marketing," Patrick told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "[Former President] Barack Obama made America a sanctuary country. He rolled out the red carpet. People felt like they could get here once they got past the border they could stay."
However, now that message involves the construction of a border wall, as well as people who would consider crossing the border hearing from relatives and friends that has gotten tougher, the lieutenant governor said.
"They see television," Patrick said. "They see we are hiring more ICE agents, more border patrol agents, and they understand that we are serious about this. Messaging works. We still need the wall though."
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell commented during a Playbook event that Mexico would not meet President Donald Trump's promise that it would pay for the wall, but Patrick disagreed, saying the country is already paying the cost.
Mexico, he continued, is absorbing people from Central America and other countries trying to mak the trip to to the United States, while only one in four people who come into the United States are actually coming from Mexico itself.
"When we have someone come here illegally and we have to educate them, they are two or three grade levels behind," said Patrick. "It's very expensive. [They] go to the emergency room and have no medical background and doctors have to do thousands dollars on tests, where an easy prescription would take care of the issue."
The wall is needed, though, Patrick said, as while there are many coming to the United States for the American dream, "too many criminals come with them."
Over the last 4-and-a-half years, Texas had 212,000 people in jail who are criminal aliens, said Patrick, and "we charged them with 566,000 crimes, over 1,000 sexual assaults or 1,000 murders; over 6,000 sexual assaults; 67,000 drug offenses; 67,000 assaults."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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