I’ve been pondering this a lot of late, especially during the government shutdown where President Trump was trying to bully Congress into funding his wall, or more accurately a fence, along our border with Mexico. And I must admit I was skeptical about its effectiveness when President Bush first pushed the idea.

But I received a news release recently from the Department of Homeland Security with some frightening statistics. According to the release, the U.S. Border Patrol is currently encountering illegal immigration at the highest rates since 2007. “In fact, February more than double the level of migrants crossed the border without authorization compared to the same period last year, approaching the largest numbers seen in any February in the last 12 years, The New York Times reported,” the release states.

“The truth is that the politics and policies of open borders have failed the American people. Our broken system endures, and the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis at our Southwest border leaves many minors and families at extreme risk of being exploited by traffickers, human smugglers, gangs, and other nefarious actors seeking to profit at their expense,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen.

READ: How do we recognize an immigration crisis?

“Activist courts, congressional inaction, and criminals intent on breaking our laws stand in the way of confronting illegal and uncontrolled migration threatening our safety and security. What was a crisis, is now a full-fledged emergency.” Here's a graph from Homeland Security that illustrates the increased presure on our southern border.

Here are just a few of the statistics noted in the release to bear out Nielsen’s claim of a border emergency:

Nielsen says this cannot be a partisan issue and she is right. We must fix the immigration crisis. However, agriculture, including the beef business, needs immigrant labor. That is undebatable.

I don’t know what the solution is. And if you’ve ever been on our southern border, you know there are miles and miles of very remote country that’s nearly impossible to patrol. The DHS release didn’t report the number of deaths of immigrants who attempt to cross the border, and I don’t recall the last number I saw. But it was heartbreaking.

READ: Immigration reform critical to the beef industry

I’ve read reports that the fences already constructed along the border are effective in stopping illegal immigration where they’re located. So perhaps that is the answer, expensive though it may be.

In the meantime, we’ll wait and watch to determine if Trump’s emergency order works. If you have suggestions on how else to attack this emergency, please share it with your state cattlemen’s association, NCBA, and your national representatives and senators.

Make no mistake—it is an emergency. Those we elected to represent us cannot play politics with our southern border any longer.