Trump Assails Open Borders in SOTU Address

During his first “State of the Union” (SOTU) address in Washington, D.C., President Trump assailed “open borders” and the violent El Salvadorian street gang, MS-13.

Trump attacked open borders in his address to the American people, blaming decades of weak border enforcement, mass immigration, and low-skilled legal immigration for putting downward pressure on America’s working and middle class.

“Struggling communities, especially immigrant communities, will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of American workers and American families,” Trump stated.

“For decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. They have allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans,” Trump continued.

Trump introduced the American family members of two MS-13 gang victims who were brutally murdered in Long Island, New York.

Trump said:

Most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives.Here tonight are two fathers and two mothers: Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens. Their two teenage daughters — Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens — were close friends on Long Island. But in September 2016, on the eve of Nisa’s 16th Birthday, neither of them came home. These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown. Six members of the savage gang MS-13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa’s murders. Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors ‑- and wound up in Kayla and Nisa’s high school.

As Breitbart News reported, there are more than 200 members of the MS-13 gang in the Long Island, New York area, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.