Irish Daily Mirror

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- BY CHRISTOPHE­R BUCKTIN New Mexico chris.bucktin@mirror.co.uk TOMORROW: TRAPPED IN THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

FOR Vietnam special forces veteran Bill Miller, the only man who can liberate what he sees as his under-seige community is Donald Trump.

Miller, 80, proudly flies a flag dedicated to the President outside his home, in a warning sign to the hundreds of illegal migrants he claims walk through his land every week. He said: “Donald Trump is the only man standing up for us.

“He is the most honest President this country has ever had, and if a liberal stepped on my land, I’d shoot them. I have migrants coming across my land every day, all of them illegally. All there is now where I am is a fence. The wall needs to be built.

SHOOT

“There people are bringing crime and disease to this country, and they need to be stopped.”

Miller lives along Route 9, in the border village of Columbus, New Mexico. He is one of hundreds of locals who support Trump’s wall. Many have bought dogs for protection from migrants, while others erected fences along their properties.

Columbus and nearby Hachita are the closest populated places to the Antelope Wells port of entry. A week ago, a group of 306 migrants were apprehende­d at the border crossing – the 26th group of 100 people or more since October.

They come after the port of entry closes at 4pm, usually at night, and walk around the barriers. The Mirror found metal sheeting that migrants used to climb over the primitive barrier, just yards from the official crossing.

Dan Stalnaker, 45, who lives in Hachita, said immigratio­n is a “cause for huge concern”. He said: “The migrants are taking a huge toll on the American taxpayer. Something needs to be done.”

But Mike Sims, 70, says local Border Patrol agents think the wall is “the dumbest idea”. He added: “If an illegal migrant is determined enough, they’ll find a way to get around it. We need our border patrols to be given better resources.” countries. Each applies for asylum and if accepted they are held in a detention centre until a sponsor is found.

If the applicatio­n is successful, the sponsor pays a bond and they are dropped in Guantanamo Bay-type clothing at the local bus station.

We meet Jacquelinn­e Jennifer Puentes Aguilar, who says she would have been killed if she has stayed in El Congo in Santa Ana, El Salvador.

Married for 15 years, raising her three children and her late sister’s son, the 38-year-old and her husband built up a small business selling clothes. But when gangster thugs learned of their modest success they demanded not only her earnings, but also her husband too.

She says: “My husband had to join the gang to save us from being slaughtere­d. But they still wanted money. When I told them I couldn’t pay they threatened to kill my children and me.

“I couldn’t stay. I left my children with my parents and fled.

“My husband is now in prison. know I will never see him again.”

Jacquelinn­e got to Mexico by foot and by bus. Once she made it into the

Icountry, she landed a job on a ranch but was held against her will before managing to escape.

Now, seven months after leaving her homeland, she is waiting to be processed into America’s asylum system, which could take 18 months.

Lamin Jallow, 28, fled Brikama, The Gambia, after it emerged he had been secretly having an eight-year gay relationsh­ip and his boyfriend was killed.

“Homosexual­ity is illegal in my country,” he says. “The punishment by the courts I could handle. The justice administer­ed by the local community I could not. I would be lynched like my boyfriend was before being killed. My father wanted me dead.”

Lamin travelled through Senegal and managed to reach Ecuador, where he was granted a visa. After that expired, he set off north.

It took him a year and a half to walk to the US border, sleeping by day and travelling by night for safety.

He is also waiting patiently at the border in Brownsvill­e for his name be called.

Selfless Mike says he is hoping to to VIETNAM VETERAN WHO WANTS A WALL take early retirement this year to dedicate himself full-time to the migrants.

He says of those he has helped: “Despite what Trump would have the world believe, not one was near a bad person. It’s a lie. They are not rapists or killers or gang members.

“These people are young people who are running away from all that. They are pressured to join the gangs, and if they refuse their families are threatened or killed.

“They merely want to live a life without violence and crime.

“History will judge America for its treatment of migrants under Trump.”

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