From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and this is Heritage Explains.

For decades, administrations from both sides of the aisle have spoken about the challenges they face on our borders and the obstacles to

immigration and border security reform. Not only in the states most heavily affected, but in

every place in this country are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering

our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants,

the public service they use imposed burdens on our taxpayers. That's why our administration

has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards,

by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before. Past efforts of reform did not do enough to secure our nation's borders.

As a result, many people have been able to sneak in to this country.

If you don't man your borders and don't protect your borders, people are going to sneak in.

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.

President Trump's campaign was largely built on a promise of strong immigration reform,

and his promise came at a crucial time.

Here is U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan testifying before Congress

on human smuggling at the southern border just last month.

These numbers reflect the highest level of illegal apprehensions of any February in over a

decade. In total, we saw more than 76,000 apprehensions and inadmissible arrivals.

And within that number, in just four weeks, we saw 40,385 members of family units and 7,250 unaccompanied children.

Many on the left refused to acknowledge that this is a real problem that requires immediate action.

But listen to what Jay Johnson, President Barack Obama's last secretary of Homeland Security,

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