Donald Trump rode the escalator at Trump Tower (soon to be called Letitia’s Crib or Engoron Tower) in June 2015, promised to build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it. It was the foundation of his successful presidential campaign.

In 2015, there were just under 600,000 “Illegal aliens apprehended in the United States” according to Statista. Many of those apprehended were sent back home.

Today there are over 300,000 known migrants entering (and almost all staying in) the U.S. each month. Migrants are arriving from all over the world, including from geopolitical adversaries like China.

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Then there are those not caught. CBP reports over 1000 “known “gotaways” a day. In total, this is more than the 3.9 million population of Los Angeles added to America’s welfare rolls each year. How many are “unknown gotaways”? You don’t know what you don’t know.

American cities are choking under this invasion. As one example in my home city, “Denver cuts services in response to the migrant crisis that’s costing the city $180 million.” It’s worse in New York City and Chicago.

Trump tried to build a wall but ran into stiff resistance from both Democrats and donor-class beholden Republicans. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell stymied a few billion dollars in wall funding while their successors now happily throw hundreds of billions at Ukraine and Israel to secure their borders, as they add a trillion dollars to our national debt every 100 days.

Just as during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, when his advisor James Carville proclaimed, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Today “It’s the border, stupid.” This should be the new GOP mantra, shouted from the rooftops by any Republican seeking election, and even those not currently running.

Also to be shouted is, “It’s the economy, stupid” as we are in a Jimmy Carter economy despite attempts by Democrats and the media to gaslight voters otherwise.

Illegal aliens are a storm of mass destruction in America today. As Barack Obama astutely observed in 2005, “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.” Yet here we are with Democrats now claiming the opposite.

Oops -- we can’t use the term “illegal alien” any more, according to the Biden administration. Now they are “non-citizens” or “migrants.” Just like “global warming” is now “climate change.”

Was Bill Clinton a racist or xenophobe for using the term “illegal alien” when castigating illegal immigration? Or Chuck Schumer for using that term? Democrats and the media have short memories and selective outrage.

Do Americans care about illegal immigration? Or the economy?

Rasmussen Reports recently surveyed U.S. likely voters finding that the economy and immigration are the most important issues for the upcoming presidential election.

Seventy-seven percent of Republicans, 58% of Democrats and 62% of unaffiliated voters expect economic issues will be very important in the presidential election.

Seventy-nine percent of Republicans, 45% of Democrats and 61% of unaffiliated voters think immigration-related issues will be very important in November.

Rasmussen Reports asked likely U.S. voters about immigration differently. Eighty-one percent say it is important that the government stop illegal immigration, including 55% who consider it very important. Just 17% don’t think it’s important for the government to stop illegal immigration.

In other words, four out of five likely voters believe the government should “build the wall,” but not as many think the election will hinge on the issue. Perhaps voters feel that the personality and cognitive capacity of the likely Republican and Democrat candidates, respectively, will be the top issue. Perhaps so.

A majority of likely voters give the government a thumbs down on stopping illegal immigration with 55% rating government response as poor and only 16% believing the government is doing a good or excellent job. The latter group includes White House staff, MSNBC anchors, and the ladies of “The View.”

Why might voters be concerned over the border? How about these stories:

University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was murdered by an illegal alien with a previous criminal record. Not only was he in the country illegally but he was neither incarcerated nor deported for his previous crimes.

Perhaps voters are concerned about an invasion. “A group of over 100 migrants attempted to enter the U.S. illegally by rushing a border wall Thursday, breaking through razor wire and knocking over guards in the process” as the NY Post reported.

Or this story from NBC News, “Border Patrol agents stopped a Lebanese migrant at the border near El Paso, Texas, earlier this month who claimed to be a member of Hezbollah and that he was going to New York and was going to try to make a bomb.” The tragic mass shooting and explosion in Moscow last week could be coming to America.

What about Haitian migrants and gang members, fleeing their hellhole to Florida? Fortunately, Governor Ron DeSantis has the right approach, “Flying Haitian migrants to Martha’s Vineyard is on the table.”

If you don’t believe Rasmussen Reports polling, let’s ask CNN.

Amid a crisis marked by over 8 million border encounters since 2021, Trump leads Biden by nearly 30 points on these issues.

What's more striking is Hispanic voters' trust in Trump over Biden on border issues -- 49% to 24%.

Illegal migrants now represent 15 percent of the U.S. population, as Breitbart noted, “Biden has driven the nation’s foreign-born population to nearly 50 million -- the largest ever in American history.” For reference, California is only 11.7 % of the U.S. population.

Increasing the U.S. population by 15 percent, most of them with no interest in assimilating into American life, instead bringing their culture, often violent or deadly, into the U.S., will forever change America. Many of these cultures view women and children as property, to be beaten or raped on a whim, as we see on the news.

Few if any migrants are vetted, meaning their health, criminal, education, work skills, literacy, and motivations are unknown. Anyone can ask for political asylum, as they are coached to do. To federal border agents, they are a massive herd of sheep, and it’s all they can do just to get them across the border, feed them a snack, and put them on a bus or plane to Denver, New York, or Chicago.

America is rotting from within. We are spending money we don’t have, incurring debt we can never repay. Our culture is falling apart, and we are fighting victoryless wars around the world. Now we are adding tens of millions of migrants, not assimilating, and requiring resources we no longer can provide.

Donald Trump is the only candidate with the will or desire to upend this Cloward-Piven destruction of America. Build the damn wall, before it’s too late.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer.

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Image: Michael Swan