President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Tuesday and declared the need for immediate action to build a wall and increase security at the Southern Border.

“More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the Vietnam War.”

He came short of declaring a national emergency as some had predicted.

The president said that “more Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War,” and said that the Southern border is the pipeline from which “vast quantities of illegal drugs – including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl” come into the United States.

The humanitarian crisis.

“Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone – 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border,” he said.

“This is a humanitarian crisis – a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States – a dramatic increase,” the president said.

“These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims by far of our broken system,” he said.

The emotional argument.

“America’s heart broke the day after Christmas when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold-blood by an illegal alien who just came across the border,” the president said. “The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country.”

In California, an Air Force Veteran was raped, murdered and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading, and dismembering his neighbor. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl,” he said.

“Over the last several years, I’ve met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I’ve held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible. I will never forget the pain in their eyes, the tremble in their voices, or the sadness gripping their souls. How much more American blood must be shed before Congress does its job?” the president said.