Juan Williams: Death of Border Patrol Agent 'Not a Reason' to Build Wall

A Fox News contributor debated the weight of Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez’s death as it relates to the discussion of building a southern border wall.

“This is a really horrible personal type of attack where you have anger and violence involved,” Fox News Contributor Juan Williams said on The Five on Monday afternoon. “But I don’t see why you would politicize it that as a basis for a wall when, as Jesse [Watters] says crossings are down, in fact they are a record down and you’ve had only 38 agents involved in this kind of violence since [2003], and one this year.”

“So is this now a new justification for building a wall that nobody in the U.S. wants and nobody in Mexico is willing to pay for?” Williams continued.

Watters responded quoting the latest statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on the numbers of Border Patrol agents assaulted in the line of duty during FY 2017.  He said “there have been 720 assaults on Border Patrol agents this year.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with that,” Williams retorted. “So, I don’t have the background, Jesse.”

Watters told him those are CBP facts.

“I’m just saying,” Williams continued, “in terms of people being killed, in terms of agents putting their lives on the line, as Kimberly [Guilfoyle] was discussing, we’ve had one this year.”

“It’s just not a reason — ‘We better to build, change your opinion on the wall, America’,” Williams concluded.

Williams disregarded Watters’ input on the 720 Border Patrol agents assaulted during the first 11 months of FY 2017 (the last numbers available from CBP). The 720 agents assaulted represents a 67 percent increase over the previous year during the same period, Breitbart Texas reported. Williams also ignores the deaths of hundreds of illegal aliens who die each year while crossing the southwestern U.S. border, and the thousands who are injured, raped, assaulted, or held for ransom by human smugglers.

Williams stated that border crossings are down, “record down.” For the last four consecutive months reported by CBP (May through August) the number of apprehensions rose significantly. In August alone, the apprehension of illegal aliens along the southwest border rose by 22.6 percent, Breitbart Texas reported. Despite numerous requests from Breitbart Texas to CBP officials, the September apprehensions and subsequent year-end reports have not yet been made available to the public.