President Trump understands that he has a moral responsibility to defend families from the horrific carnage of drug smuggling, human trafficking, and violence caused by our leaders’ unwillingness to stop the flow of illegal migration across our southern border. We support the President in his action today and agree that this humanitarian crisis qualifies as a national emergency.

At its heart, this emergency action is pro-family. For years, migrant families have been abused and exploited by traffickers, cartels, and gangs. In many cases, families have had their young daughters ripped away from them and trafficked across our border to be sold into prostitution and sex slavery. This is unspeakable, and yet it has continued unabated for far too long. Today’s emergency action is an important first step toward confronting this human rights disaster.

This emergency action also defends American families who have seen their communities inundated with drugs and crime. According to the CDC, 70,237 Americans died due to drug overdoses in 2017. That number has risen nearly fourfold since 1999. We can’t just write off these preventable deaths as an acceptable loss.

Congress has shown a shameful callousness toward the plight of both migrant families and American families affected by the border crisis. We believe President Trump is well within his authority as Commander-in-Chief to act, and we support him in doing so.”

To schedule an interview with Terry Schilling, contact Jon Schweppe at (o) 203-503-2010 or jschweppe@americanprinciplesproject.org.