Arizona sheriff to Democrats in DC: ‘Walls work’ to reduce illegal immigration, crime

As we near the end of the second week of a partial government shutdown, the sheriff of an Arizona county where a significant barrier exists between Mexico and the United States has a message for hesitant Democrats: They work.

“The fence worked here. It may not work in New Mexico, I can only talk about my area. But [politicians should] defer to the Border Patrol experts,” Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot told Fox News. “They know the situation.”

He noted that illegal immigration and crime dropped dramatically — by 91 percent — after significant fencing was built in his county, which includes a section of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In 2006, President George W. Bush and Congress passed the Secure Fence Act which had a tremendous impact in Yuma County. The law called for some 700 miles in new fence construction along significant portions of the border.

Fox notes:

In 2015, Fox News reported a 96 percent reduction in apprehensions due to a 20-foot tall steel fence and manpower being tripled. Wilmot was a deputy during that time but saw the impact firsthand.

“It was a 91 percent drop,” Wilmot said. “It obviously helped us curb some of the criminal activity that we, unfortunately, had to deal with.”

The Secure Fence Act passed with significant support from Democrats — including then-Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), as well as current...

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