Two women married to US Border Patrol Agents have sent an open letter to US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, inviting her to come visit Texas and see first-hand why a border wall between the US and Mexico is urgently needed.
"We the wives of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol would like to cordially invite you to come visit McAllen, Texas, as President Trump did. We would like to show you around!" the letter, published on Facebook, reads.
"You don't need to bring any security detail. Our husbands/significant others are actually very good at their jobs, thank goodness!" it continues.
"We'd also appreciate if you'd stop pretending you care about federal workers. If you did, you would care for their safety, not just their paychecks. We can hold out awhile longer, if it means our husbands and communities are safer."
"I just felt it was really important that our leaders come here and see what's happening first-hand," Jill Demanski, one of the two wives, explained to "Fox & Friends." "It's important for them to meet with the people that are here on a daily basis, that are witnessing it and the effect that it has on our country. We want them to come here and make an informed decision."
Border Patrol wives invite Nancy Pelosi for visit: ‘We’d also appreciate if you’d stop pretending that you care about federal workers’ https://t.co/hJjtV463Xu pic.twitter.com/VXfd1GwdKh
— CafeNetAmerica (@cafenetamerica) 28 января 2019 г.
According to Demanski, it is not Trump himself spearheading the demand for the wall, but rather Border Patrol agents in the field and local experts. Trump is simply a conduit for their pleas.
"Border Patrol and our agents, the experts here, have been asking for it for years," Demanski explained. "We finally have a president that has come here and seen firsthand the need for it, and has had our back. I don't know of many presidents that really have gone through the turmoil that he's gone through to try and help us try to get this."
Renea Perez, the other Border Patrol agent wife, said that while citizens feel safe in Rio Grande Valley so far, the agents on the southern border definitely could use some help in high-traffic areas. According to Perez, agents spend long hours in remote areas fending off what could be hundreds of people at times from crossing the border illegally.
"[A wall] will allow them to do their job more efficiently and give them more time — if they are by themselves — have another agent meet them. It is definitely needed," Perez said. "We just want them to come down there on the line and actually see where the argument is all about."
While on Fox, the two women also blasted the government shutdown which took place because of the Democrats' reluctance to provide funding for the wall. According to Perez, the shutdown was hard for her family financially because her husband wasn't paid during it.
"It gets tough. The bills don't stop. We were feeling like we were forgotten," Perez said.
A 17-person bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers has until February 15 to negotiate border spending, Fox reports. According to White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Trump is inclined to get the wall built "with or without Congress" and is very much willing to shut the government down a second time, if needed.
