Perdue: Five-Alarm Crisis at Border, Trump Right to Protect Americans

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) told Breitbart News on Thursday that, despite some media reports, there remains a “five-alarm crisis” at the southern border and President Donald Trump is right to take action to protect the American people.

Sen. Perdue told Breitbart News that there remains a crisis at the southern border and that ending illegal immigration requires more than a wall–America needs more border patrol agents and needs to close asylum loopholes.

“I just got back from the southern border. There’s a five-alarm crisis going on down there. It’s not just the human traffic, it’s the drug traffic. This is not just about building the wall – it’s about closing the loopholes and getting border patrol agents the resources they need,” Perdue told Breitbart News. “President Trump knows that, and he’s right to take action to protect the American people.”

The Georgia conservative traveled in February to the southern border with Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and witnessed first-hand the border crisis. Perdue told Breitbart News that the border crisis was “staggering.” The two Republicans saw illegal crossing hotspots and received real-time briefings from border patrol agents.

Daines told Breitbart News that he backs Trump’s national emergency, contending without a secure border, every state is a border state.

“Montana is a northern border state with a southern border problem. Our communities all over Montana are being torn apart by the flood of Mexican meth coming through the southern border,” Daines said. “We must protect our citizens and secure the border.”

Perdue’s comment arises as an increasing number of Senate Republicans have signaled that they will vote a Democrat resolution that would nullify President Trump’s national emergency to build the wall along the southern border.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Tom Tillis (R-NC) have announced that they will vote for the Democrat resolution to end the national emergency and make it harder to secure the border.

As many Senate GOP lawmakers continue to mull over whether buck the president on the national emergency, illegal immigration is projected to exceed Obama-era levels.

President Trump has continued to stress the need for a more secure border, noting that border patrol agents will likely arrest more than one million people crossing the border.

“We are on track to APPREHEND more than one million people coming across the Southern Border this year,” President Trump tweeted Thursday. “Great job by Border Patrol (and others) who are working in a Broken System. Can be fixed by Congress so easily and quickly if only the Democrats would get on board!”