Illegal immigration is already hurting commerce at the border.............Yesterday, the Washington Post wrote a long article chronicling the complaints of trade associations regarding the slowdown at points of entry: the “trucks backed up for hours and industry leaders warning of possible produce shortages and supply-chain interruptions.†They tacitly accuse the administration of implementing “a slow-motion facsimile of the border closure that President Trump threatened two weeks ago before backing down amid protests that shutting down the border would hurt the economy.â€
Furthermore, as of the beginning of this month, CBP has shut down all commercial trucking lanes at the Nogales, Arizona, port on Sundays until further notice. It cites the redeployment of customs agents to deal with the border crisis as the cause.............
............But nobody is really explaining what they want the administration to do instead. If they don’t want the president to choke off all immigration, then more agents are indeed needed to process the flow. Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement operations for Border Patrol, told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday that “on average the Border Patrol is sending 63 people per day for additional medical treatment†from the illegal immigrant families. “This is the highest we have seen this number since we began tracking this,†he warned. “We’re currently on track to refer over 31,000 people for medical treatment this year as compared to only 12,000 during fiscal year 2018.â€
The need for a redeployment of agents is obvious. According to Hastings, “Since December 22, 2018, US Border Patrol has spent over 100,000 hours — agent hours — at a hospital or medical facility.â€
And the trajectory is not good: “Most concerning for us looking ahead is summer is approaching, this typically historically has meant increased flow from what we’ve seen in prior years and we’re concerned with the high temperatures paired with the dangerous and crowded conditions on the journey that puts this vulnerable population of family units and unaccompanied children at risk.â€.............
https://www.conservativereview.com/news/illegal-immigration-already-hurting-commerce-border/