{"id":2197161,"date":"2024-03-12T07:33:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wa-congressional-candidate-at-the-southern-border-its-worse-than-you-think\/"},"modified":"2024-03-12T07:33:24","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:33:24","slug":"wa-congressional-candidate-at-the-southern-border-its-worse-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wa-congressional-candidate-at-the-southern-border-its-worse-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"WA congressional candidate at the southern border: \u2018It\u2019s worse than you think\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwa-congressional-candidate-at-the-southern-border-its-worse-than-you-think%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2197161&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>(The Center Square)\u00a0\u2013 In a seven-way Republican primary race for the 5th congressional district, Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle wanted to break out of the pack. He knew he needed to educate himself on national issues. And with immigration and border security polling at the top of\u00a0Gallup\u2019s Most Important Problem list, Bingle went to the southern border.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe people I met with in Nogales want us to understand this isn\u2019t an Arizona or a Texas problem; this is a U.S. problem,\u201d said Bingle. \u201cThey told me you don\u2019t think you\u2019re a border town, but because of this crisis, every town is a border town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Bingle is\u00a0running\u00a0for the seat being vacated by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers at the end of her current term. Other Republicans in the race include Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper, Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, State Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber, Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel, retired civil servant John Guenther and radio host Rene Holaday.<\/p>\n<p> Democrats in the race so far include retired foreign service officer Carmela Conroy, small business owner Ann Marie Danimus, and OB-GYBN Dr. Bernadine \u201cBernie\u201d Bank.<\/p>\n<p> Bingle traveled to Arizona last week for meetings with Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway, Border Patrol agents and Republican candidates for county supervisor. The following are some of his impressions from an interview Saturday after his return.<\/p>\n<p> The Center Square: What does the border actually look like?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0More intense than you think. Sometimes you forget Mexico is a third-world country. On the other side of the border, the poverty is right there. The wall is far larger and longer than you can imagine, its more aggressive than you can imagine. Razor wire over the top and the middle, and it\u2019s seriously tall \u2013 15 feet-20-feet fall. It\u2019s big and it\u2019s effective.<\/p>\n<p> The setting reminded me of how a ski lift goes through where the trees cleared out in a line, only here you have a giant wall going through the cleared bit, steel beams with metal grating over it, and barbed wire, and the barbed wire is littered with clothing. And it\u2019s not like you see one piece of clothing every once in a while; you see pants and shirts and coats.<\/p>\n<p> You can see how many people have tried to come across. These are the people who can\u2019t afford to pay the cartels. Where there\u2019s no wall is cartel territory.<\/p>\n<p> Every five minutes we saw someone else trying to come across the border wall, in broad daylight in the afternoon. You\u2019d see people watching the Border Patrol move by, then try to climb over. Two cartel scouts came walking by on the Mexico side, taunting the Border Patrol. Happens all the time, according to Border Patrol.<\/p>\n<p> TCS:\u00a0What did the Border Patrol agents have to tell you?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0I felt so bad for one officer, close to retirement age; big guy like the biggest bouncer you\u2019ve ever seen. He told me his body was so broken from chasing people and fighting them. He\u2019d tell them to stop fighting; he was taking them to the station, and they\u2019d just be let go. He said, \u201cEvery day I come to work, I feel like I\u2019m betraying my country.\u201d You could hear the brokenness in his voice. That won\u2019t leave my head.<\/p>\n<p> Every morning, there\u2019s a place called the Mariposa pad and the Border Patrol will find 200 to 300 people every morning just sitting there waiting to be picked up.<\/p>\n<p> Agents told me they see criminals coming across with all the gang tattoos; they know who they are, they know they are criminals, but they have to let them in. One agent said he caught a guy on the terror watch list, but because they didn\u2019t have any beds, he had to release the guy.<\/p>\n<p> TCS: Who were your tour guides?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0Two Republican candidates for county supervisor and Sheriff David Hathaway, a Democrat, were primary contacts. Supervisor candidate Gerry Navarro is a former Border Liaison Officer for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Jesus Jerez was a former assistant port director in Nogales.<\/p>\n<p> Jesus told me what was coming through the port, telling stories that would blow your mind \u2013 90% of the fentanyl coming into the US is coming in through the southern border.<\/p>\n<p> TCS: What were your big takeaways from the trip?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0In almost every conceivable way, it\u2019s worse than you think. Border Patrol morale, it\u2019s worse than you think. Coyotes exploiting women and children, its worse than you think. Best estimates I heard were 7 to 10 million people have crossed illegally since Biden became president. That\u2019s as many as 200,000 people per state, a new city the size of Spokane in all 50 states. Even on the low end, 7 million is larger than 34 states\u2019 total population, all added in the last three years.<\/p>\n<p> Most people say they are looking for work and opportunity, and they are. But let\u2019s say just a half of 1% of 10 million are serious criminals. That\u2019s 50,000 nasty, violent people who came into the country during the Biden administration. That\u2019s still a thousand per state, and that\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n<p> TCS: What next?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0We have to stop enriching the cartels. While Border Patrol is processing people coming illegally, cartels are busy trafficking people and drugs.<\/p>\n<p> People when coming up through Mexico, there are organizations that coach them on what to say, and the key phrase is \u201cI fear for my safety.\u201d They tell them what to say their final destination is, to ask to go where the biggest backlog is.<\/p>\n<p> New York has an eight-year backlog in cases, so they can go to New York and then anywhere in the country.<\/p>\n<p> TCS: Was Spokane mentioned as a destination?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0Spokane was not mentioned specifically, but Spokane County is one of the federally designated\u00a0High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, so I absolutely believe Spokane is one of those places they tell them to come to, but that\u2019s just an opinion.<\/p>\n<p> Realistically they\u2019re going to places where there are sanctuary cities and a giant backlog in immigration cases.<\/p>\n<p> TCS: How will you use information from this trip for your campaign?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0Border control is, if not the top issue, then certainly in the top three. Speaking with Border Patrol agents, they would say most of the policies we need are already in place; we just need an administration that will enforce them. We need to put the MPP [Migrant Protection Protocols] back in place; the remain-in-Mexico policy.<\/p>\n<p> We need to change out when asylum is granted, and realistically, we need more immigration judges to process faster so we don\u2019t have an eight-year backlog in New York City and other sanctuary cities.<\/p>\n<p> TCS: What should I have asked you and didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n<p> Bingle:\u00a0One of the saddest things was to see a wreath or cross where someone had died trying to come across. We were out in fields where there weren\u2019t walls, there would be a cross, and it\u2019s so heartbreaking to think someone died trying to come here. They believe the opportunity here is so great it was worth their life to try to get in. It reminds us what a great country we have and how much we take it for granted.<\/p>\n<p> And then there\u2019s people who want to tear the country down, insist America is systemically racist. Tell that to the millions of people literally breaking into this country right now that it\u2019s systemically racist, and they can\u2019t ever succeed because I think they\u2019d disagree.<\/p>\n<p> It makes you really grateful for where you were born and where you live as an American.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(The Center Square)\u00a0\u2013 In a seven-way Republican primary race for the 5th congressional district, Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle wanted to break out of the pack. He knew he needed to educate himself on national issues. And with immigration and border security polling at the top of\u00a0 Gallup\u2019s Most Important Problem list , Bingle went<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2965,"featured_media":2197162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP24061444865027-1-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP24061444865027-1-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2197161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2197162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}