Editor's note: This piece was co-authored by Utah Attorney General Derek Brown.
Over the past four years, hundreds of public officials from all around the nation have made their way to the U.S.-Mexico international border for the purposes of obtaining a first-hand, eye-witness account of the intensifying crisis at the southwestern United States. Those who traveled to the border were usually shocked over their experiences, seeing many illegal immigrants flow across the boundaries and an overwhelming sense of chaos in those neighboring communities. This lawlessness at the border was a large reason for President Donald J. Trump’s landslide victory in the General Election this past November.
This past month, a dozen attorneys general and local officials from Arizona traveled to the border in Yuma for the first time since the Trump administration assumed office in January. What we observed at the border was surprising – but not in the way perceived under the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas regime. The border we witnessed was quiet. It was under control. It was appropriately manned by agents and technology alike. And it had a semblance of law and order that hadn’t been seen for the past four years.
During our visit, we talked with local law enforcement, government officials, medical professionals, and representatives of community organizations. They all gave testimonies to confirm our experience that day was not a mirage. The border was more secure, and it essentially happened overnight, when President Trump took the oath of office in the U.S. Capitol on January 20.
Instead of hundreds of illegal immigrants giving themselves up to border agents every day, there is a now mere handful of apprehensions. Instead of local-area hospitals being overwhelmed by border crossers, residents are currently able to receive priority and higher-quality care. Instead of community resources being expended to care for the humanitarian needs of exploited aliens, those are better allocated to U.S. citizens in need. Instead of countless illegal immigrants escaping culpability, the Department of Justice is taking a pro-active approach to prosecute crimes.
Gone are the days of a rising number of ‘gotaways’ escaping detection from law enforcement officials because of thinly stretched personnel and resources. Gone are thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants being caught and then released into the interior of our homeland. Gone are the record amounts of fentanyl and other deadly drugs pouring across our border through the gaps that cartels and smugglers orchestrated along the international border. Gone is the plummeting morale of border agents and local law enforcement officials, who have been again empowered to perform the jobs they signed up to do.
As we observed on our trip – and as many across the country have ascertained by reports – President Trump’s will to secure the border has produced immediate results. While there is still work to be done on all fronts at the border, no one in their wildest dreams could have predicted how quickly the White House could have pulled off this feat. The best part of the story is that none of this has been done to score political points; it has been done in the spirit of protecting innocent Americans in their communities all around our great nation – exactly as the border should be treated by our government officials.
This is the most shocking part of President Trump’s drastic clean-up at the border, that partisan politics has been drained from much of these efforts and debates – even though our friends on the left still try to keep up their drumbeat for more lax borders. For decades, members of both major parties – Republicans and Democrats – could actually agree on significant elements of border security. Not too long ago, high-ranking Democrats even supported construction of a border wall. Elected officials across the political landscape understood their responsibility to safeguard vulnerable citizens, and they were apt to work with each other to accomplish that necessary work.
If there is one thing we hope remains from this renewed push to secure the border, it is the realization by all public servants, regardless of party affiliation, of the need to protect our communities from the harms of illegal immigration. Arizona might be one of the major thoroughfares of illegal immigration, but we have seen over the years that every state in our nation is a border state. Dangerous terrorists, gang members, and criminally violent aliens have made their way from border states to countless communities across the United States, inflicting fear and even death to unsuspecting souls. Deadly drugs come up from the border and are transported to schools, neighborhoods, and unsuspecting homes, where innocent men, women, and children fall to the fatal effects. Illegal immigrants drain financial and local resources meant to benefit citizens and lawful residents. Fentanyl overdose deaths have skyrocketed in Utah, as drug traffickers use the I-15 and I-80 corridors to transport these drugs that kill our citizens throughout the state and ultimately, the nation.
While the border is certain to be secure throughout the duration of the Trump Administration, it requires constant vigilance from all public servants. That is why Republican attorneys general, the Arizona Legislature, and Utah will continue to fight for the rule of law and against all attempts to return to the disastrous open-border policies of the previous administration. Congress must also do its part, including codifying President Trump’s actions to end catch and release into law. The people we serve cannot afford a return of a lawless border, with fentanyl and dangerous individuals crossing into our homeland every day.
All our leaders must work toward a perpetually secure border on behalf of future generations who are counting on us to put politics aside and safeguard their precious communities.
Derek Brown is the Utah Attorney General. He brings decades of legal and political experience to his role, shaped by his service as legal counsel to two U.S. Senators and as a state lawmaker.
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