Why doesn't anyone from national or local media across the country demand answers of those who hold signs and protest the treatment of illegal immigrants at the country's Southern border?
The protesters are given plenty of exposure, their signs and shouts captured on footage and in photographs and their breathless pleadings about conditions being inhumane and hurting the vulnerable furiously scribbled on notepads and digitally recorded.
The protesters sometimes mention "faith" and that what is tragically taking place at the border "shouldn't happen in the United States."
The answer for far-left presidential candidates is to open the borders - to let anyone in the country who would come in and to give them free health care and other benefits to boot.
They know that's not a realistic answer, but no one challenges them on it. No one asks about safety, about cost, about legality.
Across the country, the questions about what to do are never asked locally, either. The illegality of attempting to enter the country without permission is never brought up. The record numbers of people coming at one time is never discussed.
Consider this admittedly simplistic comparison.
Imagine singer Beyoncé booking Memorial Auditorium, which online sources say seats 4,878 patrons. The show is sold out in minutes by paying customers, but on the night of the event, nearly 15,000 people show up to see what they believe is a once-in-a-lifetime concert and demand to be let in without tickets. Despite police hired for the event, the huge crowd storms the doors, lines the walls, stands in front of paying customers, edges ticket-holders out of their seats and waits to hear who they came to see.
No one would say it is inhumane to keep out the non-ticketed individuals, no one would blame the outmanned police for trying to keep out the non-paying throngs and everyone would say it is a safety problem to have nearly 20,000 people in a venue that seats 4,878.
But, writ large, that's exactly what we have on the Southern border. There are no venues to hold the record number of illegal immigrants who are streaming across the border. The overwhelmed security figures are pulled off their jobs of patrolling the border to attend to the human needs of those of who have come in. And safety has become a premium for those who have come in the country illegally, for those attempting to do their jobs in securing the border and those who come in contact with the most dangerous element of those who eventually are dispersed into the interior of the U.S.
Speaking of the most dangerous element, President Donald Trump said recently any immigration raids - some of which were to begin over the weekend - would focus on the criminal population among illegal immigrants.
This is not the first time he has said this, but deporting even criminals somehow seems to be controversial. No one would blink if an American citizen is convicted of aggravated assault, rape or murder and is sent to prison. But if an illegal immigrant is convicted of any of those crimes, in addition to being in the country illegally, it is somehow inhumane to deport that individual.
Mark Morgan, acting Customs & Border Protection commissioner and Border Patrol chief in the final months of the Obama administration, put the problem in perspective on Monday in an interview on Fox News. He said the suggestion of "raids" of all illegal immigrants was "overhyped and over-politicized."
"We have to go after those individuals [who have received 'due process' and were ordered removed by a U.S. judge] and enforce the rule of law," he said.
When President Obama suggested such priorities in 2014, criminal deportations increased 80%.
"I also agreed when he said it was a crisis back then," Morgan said, "and we see a 300% increase today."
Democrats who don't favor open borders aren't interested in solving the problem, either. In a hearing Friday before a Democrat-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform, House members called former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan a "racist," suggested he "didn't care about dying children," told "intentional mis-truth[s]" and didn't let him respond to questions.
"They didn't want to hear the truth," he said. "They wanted to push their narrative and not let me speak."
Later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference to tell those who have broken the law, and been ordered removed by a judge, how they could evade federal law enforcement. Taking such lawlessness to heart, an armed man attending a protest at an ICE contract facility Saturday tried to burn down the facility with immigrants and civilian workers inside.
For those who protest, what are the solutions when 500,000 illegal immigrants have come across our Southern border since last October, when roughly 50% of adult men who cross the border bring a child (up from 2% in 2014), when 30% of family units are found to be fraudulent, when only 40% of Border Patrol agents can be dedicated to border security, when top political office-holders suggest lawlessness?
Shouting "inhumane" and "protect the vulnerable" aren't answers. Where are your solutions to this crisis?