Good afternoon, thank you all for being here for todays newsmaker interview. Today our guest is mark morgan, acting commissioner of customs and Border Protection, one of the d. H. S. Agencies. Its the Largest Law Enforcement Agency in the country and brings amount of nd highest revenue of any agency, probably more popular than the agency that brings in the most which is the i. R. S. The acting commissioner has had a long and distinguished career in Law Enforcement, including, he was named to his present post in june of this year. And prior to taking the job of acting commissioner, hes been hief of Border Patrol. Hes been the agent in charge of el paso, a big role. Hes had roles in counterterrorism, vinyl crime, gang suppression, a lot of things that relate directly to his job today. And hes been a Deputy Sheriff and a Los Angeles Police officer. Not only that, he has an engineering degree and a law degree. So its my great pleasure to welcome acting commissioner mark morgan. Thank you for being here. Mark and former marine. Had to add that. Jessica i had that on my list. Semper fi. Thanks for coming. I want to let everyone know that commissioner morgan will be in the hot seat for a while with my questions but if you have questions that you would like to have asked, please fill out the index cards that we are providing and im going to go for maybe a halfhour or 35 minutes and then well take some questions from the audience. I think im going to jump right in with the topic i think Everyone Wants to know about the most, can you give us an update on whats happening at the southwest border . Mark sure. I think when we talk about the southwest border we have to put it in two pockets. One is the crisis with respect to immigration and the other is what i call the National Security crisis. I think as of late, for understandable reasons, we are talking about the Immigration Crisis. Let me start with that. The drivers really that the focus over the last yearplus has really been the migration flow from the northern tribal countries, specifically the families. The reason why thats been the focus is something ive talked a lot about, thats our broken Legal Framework right now. Specifically the forced Settlement Agreement which had a significant loophole that said if you come to our couldnt i with a child we can only hold you 20 days. That wasnt enough to get through the immigration process. That was the genesis of catch and release. We would apprehend families entering illegally and release them here in the United States oftentimes in days. We had to fix that. The last six months this president , this administration, c. B. P. Along with our other partner agencies, i. C. E. And other, instituted a network of initiatives and policies and rules and regulations that really have given us the tools to close those loopholes. Ill give you an example. The height of may, we had 144,000 apprehensions in may alone. Six months later 4rk2,000 apprehensions. We really, again, targeted that demographic, the northern triangle country family units specifically. Jessica how do you know thats not just seasonal . Mark the numbers will tell you. In october, seasonally, the number goes up, believe it or not. Right now in october and november, october time frame, seasonally in some desk graphic demographics the numbers go up. We have seen it decrease. For the past six months, weve seen a steady decline. 9 11 seasonal times where weve seen an increase in priest years. What weve seen too, from the height of may to the end of last month, six months, we saw an 85 reduction in families. So on that front, we made tremendous strides. Close those loopholes. What we are seeing though is a change in demographics. You and i talked about this. What happens often, its not a surprise prise to us. The cartels, human smuggling organizations change their t. T. P. s, tactics, techniques, and procedure. They saw we were making progress stemming the flow from northern triangle country, taking billion os out of their pockets and they shift. They shift toward supporting additional migration from extra continental country as well as Mexican Nationals. Jessica far away, not just Central Americans or latin america . Mark correct. Indian, africans, haitians, brazilian the list goes on and on and on. Thats what we refer to as extracontinental. Other than northern triangle countries. Jess camplet do you have numbers on the extra continental . Mark were seeing thousands of each of those groups and were seeing from this time last year, were sees an increase, sometimes 200 to 300 of what we saw last year. Overall the numbers are relatively fairly manageable but when you start combining it and then again you start seeing it as an increased issue, we need to get out in front of it. Mexican nationals specifically families, human smuggling organizations are going to families and telling them, hay, the initiatives they have they dont apply to Mexican Nationals. You grab a kid itll be your passport to the United States. I can assure you, were taking this same process with initiatives that we use to counter the flow from northern triangle countries and applying it to the extra continental countries. Like last week, this week we started i. R. I. , interior repay pais tration, were flying Mexican National ints the interior of mexico to other locations. To, rall, what i refer right now where were at, we have all but ended catch and release specifically for the northern triangle countries. For the northern triangle countries. Jessica its been reported its been remain in mexico or migrant protection protocol policies of having people who apply for asylum wait in mexico for their proceedings. Its been reported that thats been applied to about 55,000, is that individuals . Household heads . Mark frlt all demographics. Individuals, households. About 55,000 amean to believe that program, waiting in mexico as they go through the due process immigration proceedings here in the United States. Jessica but there have been hundreds of thousands of arrives who are family units from the northern triangle countries and elsewhere. What happened to the rest . I would estimate, what, 400,000 family units i think . Mark yeah, again, you go to the height of may, 144,000. 65 to 70 of those were family units, families coming from northern triangle countries. Over the last six months because of initiatives we reduced the flow by 85 . Theyre just not coming anymore. This is a really important part. This one thing ive been trying to say, for those individuals, stop listening to the cartels. Stop listening to the human smuggling organizations. Theyre lying to you. Theyre exploiting you. Theyre getting rich off your backs by exploiting vulnerable migrants. And now, because of where were at. Because of the initiatives and tools we have, no longer is a child your immediate passport into the interior United States. We have all but shut that down. So im trying to tell families do, not listen to cartels. Theyre lying to you. Its working. 85 reduction. Jessica so today if a family arrives, are they all asking for asylum . Mark no. Thats a good point too traditionally they havent all asked for asylum. One because of our broken system they didnt have. To forced Settlement Agreement said we could not retain you longer than 20 days regardless of whether you claim aid sy lum or not that still holds now. Congress, and i said, ill continue to say it, were doing all this, the president , the administration, c. B. P. Is executing these initiatives and congress has failed to pass a single piece of meaningful legislation that would address this. They know what to do. They could take a single piece of paper and end 90 , 95 of the Immigration Crisis. Jessica what would that paper say . Mark. It would address the forced Settlement Agreement, and say we could detain them longer than 20 days, we could detain them during their proceedings, which is usually 50 to 60 days. In addition, it would say we can send children back to their families from where they came. In their home country. Jessica some of the families are here. Mark some of the families are here, some are there. Mexico or canada, if youre an unakmpnied child from mexico or canada, we can send you back to your families. If youre from the northern triangle country, we cant. We have to keep you. The last thing is the credible fear standard. There is no standard. Theyre coached what to say. They know what to say. In the end the majority of those credible fears are found not credible. Id probably throw in there, give i. C. E. More bed space and about 85 of the immigration risis will be fixed. Jessica which i. C. E. Dinot get in the latest spending bill. What did c. B. P. Get . Mark one positive factor we got in the spending bill was 1. 375 for the wall. Thatll be significant for us. We were going to be able to use that current funding to continue to build a wall. Thats significant for us. One of the tools that im sure well talk about that in a minute. Jessica i want to come back to one thing with respect to the application of this network of policies. Since we were talking about the migrant protection protocols, stick with that for a minute. I want to reiterate. This is going to aplay to family units from the northern triangle, its going to apply to a family unit that arrives from mexico. Mark no. Right now its not applying to mexico. But we are in negotiations with mexico to expand that. Because again, as i started to explain, although weve addressed greatly, again, that illegal migration for northern triangle countries, were seeing increase in extra continentals and in Mexican Nationals, single adults and families. Of which those niche fives initiatives to work with mexico arent being applied. Were working with mexico to expand that were also working with the government of guatemala and hon dures are rass on the a. C. A. , the Asylum Cooperative Agreement so theyll receive Mexican Nationals as well. Were working with the countries. The ironic thing is right now, we have other countries that are stepping up, seeing its a regional crisisering addressing it as a regional congress, and are doing more to help us than our own congress is jessica thats an important statement. Mark. It is. Jessica what about one last thing on the migrant protection protocols, what about the extra continental families, people coming from africa, middle east, so on . Are those are they waiting in mexico as well . Mark right now, what the current agreement with mexico is Spanish Speaking countries. But were in consultation with mexico as the smuggling organizations change their t. P. P. , were giving them the information and asking for assistance to expand that to accept extra continental countries. Were confident theyll agree to that. As well, well have the same conversation, we are work the government of guatemala, honduras, and el salvador where we have a. C. A. s for them to accept them as well. Jessica so theyll be detained in an appropriate custodial situation an from there possibly released if it cant be done in 20 days. Mark correct, for families, yes, maam. Jess camplet it was reported today by, i believe it was a. P. , or no, excuse me, reuters reported today that this announcement about interior repatriation that has been done often in the past and is now being launched again, that some of theres potential for having mexicans go actually to guatemala. Can you explain that . Mark the a. C. A. , the yen sis of that, i think this is important. If someone has an asylum claim what were trying to encourage is a couple of things. One is reach out and get assistance. If you have a legitimate asylum claim, you should be reaching out and trying to get relief in the first country you come. To logical. Dont give your life savings to the cartel. Dont listen to the cartels that are lying to you. Dont listen to the cartels and smuggling organizations that are going to abuse you and treat you no better than a piece of trash, a commodity. The other day we ap rehened a track terror a tractor trailer load of immigrants trying to enter. Each one had a tshirt on with a letter spray painted on it, they had the letter on their hand, they were marked like cattle. If you have a he yit legitimate asylum claim get relief in the first country. Thats the genesis behind the a. C. A. We have the ability to apply the a. C. A. To Mexican Nationals as well. Were having discussions with guatemala to expand that, to again share in this as a regional crisis. America is not the only country that borders mexico. We should share the Immigration Crisis as regional partners and thats what guatemala, honduras and el salvador are stepping up to do. Jessica do you think these other countries are well equipped to handle those that might be bona fide asylum claims . Mark we are working with them every single tai to improve capacity. We released funding back to the northern triangle countries, millions of dollars specifically designed to improve their asylum capacity as well as their enforcement ability to go after cartels and smuggle organizations. Keep in mind in the height of the crisis, the United States of america, we were everwhelmed. Theres no single country in the world that can handle the level and volume and the height of the crisis. Not even the United States. Thats why we have to Work Together with the northern triangle countries, mexico and other countries to address this as the regional crisis that it s. Jessica the fact that we had policies in place to enable and encourage this flow of people and had the effect of enriching criminal cartels, thats an important issue with huge implications for mexico as well. Its in their interest to try to address this. Because its not just human smuggling. Theres the threat, the criminal threat of the cartels. They dont just smuggle humans they also smuggle drugs. Gang members are taking advantage of this. I think i read on your website where your officers are apprehending Something Like 400something ms13 members a year, one a day, and thats just one of the transnational gangs that has exploited this opportunity to take advantage of ur policies to get here. Mark youre right. That dovetails with the second part we dont talk about, the National Security crisis. When we talk about the crisis, its not just the immigration and humanitarian crisis, its dual, theres the security crisis. One aspect is gang members. We apprehended over 1,000 gang mens, 23 different gangs. And thats just who we apprehended. Theyre using the humanitarian effort to draw border pale to agents off the line during the height over 50 of board pear troll agents were taken off the line to care for kids an families. What do you think the human smuggling organizations were doing . They were exploiting that. They were doing it by design. They would send large caravans in one area so the Border Police would go and address that. Meanwhile and be distracted. Over 1,000 gang members, drug last year, c. B. P. Seized over 800,000 pounds of drugs. Think about that stat. 00,000 pounds. The hard markets, heroin, meth, fentanyl, cocaine, went up last year. Fentanyl, one sector out of nine sectors seized 11 pounds, enough to kill two Million People in the United States. Last year alone, 68,000 individuals in this country died because of direct result of overdose of ill list markets. 68,000 people. More people tied than the entire vietnam conflict. Theres another thing i say. Every town, city, an state in this country is a border town city and state. Mark my words. If you have a meth overdose in highway, for example, mark my words that meth came from a southwest came from the southwest border. What mexico is doing, theyre able to produce meth, for example which is skyrocketed up faster, cheaper, and its more potent. So a lot of times meth was manufactured in the United States. Thats going down. Mexico is creating super labs. Jessica we have laws to discourage that mark so when we talk about the cry us sis crisis at the border, when we talk about the need for a wall, its not just about stemming the flow of illegal immigration, its stopping the drugs pouring into this country that killed 68,000 people last year. Jess camplet this affects every community in our country as well. And its an issue for mexico as well in terms of corruption and the money the cartels have. Mark absolutely. Jessica how much of a threat are the cartels to the United States . A lot of people make the claim that theres little risk of Cartel Activity overflowing into the United States because theyre afraid of u. S. Law enforcement or, you know, a number of other reasons they give. Do you agree with that . Mark depends on how you shake that out. If you talk about violence, thats one thing. But if you talk about Cartel Activity impacting this country, heck yeah. We described the drugs pouring in, 68,000 deaths, Cartel Members dont just operate in mexico, they are here in the United States. They operate houses, have a Network Distributing drugs to every town, city, state in this country. Jessica working with gangs. Mark absolutely. I worked gangs for a long time. Cartels and human smuggling organizations are alive and well in mexico and here. Violence is another issue. Violence has not spilled over. I was special agent in charge in el paso that city was for many years one of the safest cities of its size in america for many years the violence in mexico, the majority of that is cartel against cartel. And this is what the American People need to understand. Why is there so much violence in mexico . Why are the cartels warring with each other for control over the plaza, control over the smuggling routs . Because its so profitable. Its so profitable. Its a multibillion dollar industry for them every single year. We estimate that the cartels, over 60 billion that they have. Its unbelievable. Thats another reason why were working with the government of mexico to work on operations to try to stop weapons from going in there and also ill list currency from going southbound as well. Cartels are alive and well. Jessica i saw a figure today, i think 4 billion a year in revenue for cartels. Mark. I think thats a conserve tiff estimate. Jess camplet and this is one reason we need a multifaceted approach to this. What do you think has worked . Has it been mostly the changing of our policies . Or the working with other countries . What is mexico doing to address this influx of people and ill list drugs . Mark i think its all of the above. We have to separate a little bit. Human smuggling side, on the illegal migration side, it has been a combination. Its been a combination of this president s strategy this administrations strategy, theable of c. B. P. , ice an others to execute on those initiatives, as well as cooperation of other countries. Mexico and northern triangle countries. Were working with panama and other countries as well. Mexico stepped up in uns predened ways. Established a new national guard. Strengthened their southern border. Apprehensions have doubled last year. They strengthed the u. S. Mexico border and their interior enforce. In may we were experiencing 40 or 50 large groups of individuals of 100 or more. Last month i think we had two. Theyre stepping up. Its a huge difference. So it really is all of that. With respect to the illegal migration crisis. On the drug crisis, we still have a ways to go. 800,000. Seized. Ts just what we we know that volumes, greater than we can probably even fathom are still getting through that border and making its way to every town, city, and state in his country. Jess camplet obviously barriers help in stopping people. How much wall has been built . Mark so far, 93 miles. And i think this is important. A couple of address a couple of false narratives out there this is something that the experts have asked for. This is something that the Border Patrol agents and the leadership have asked for. This isnt something that the president asked for. This president asked the expert what is they needed and he is delivering on what they have asked for. When we talk about the wall, its not just a wall. Its a wall system. Its not just a wall system. Its a part of a multilayer strategy of infrastructure, technology and personnel. Everywhere along the southwest border, where those three approaches have coalesced together effectively in strategic locations, its made an impact both on the illegal flow of migration as well as drugs and bad people. Every single place that that has been implemented. We have the data we can show that. Now jessica it works. Mark it does. Now with the new wall system, its not just a physical barrier. It has lighting, technology, access are roads. All those things the leadership asked for, thats all going into this wall system. And i can say, without hesitation, without doubt, every mile of new wall thats being built, this country is more safe because of it. Because it absolutely increases the Border Patrols operational capacity to do what they need to do. Its about impedeance and denial. Will it be impenetrable and not be able to be overcome . No. But it is going to deny and impede. If you have the technology and personnel and uh put thosing to, a person will come in and do the apprehension. Technology is a huge part of this so we need more technology too. Again, at the end of the day, we say it kind of tongue in cheek, technology cant make an arrest. You still need agents. And again, you need jess camplet fewer. Mark exactly but technology is an important part of that as well. All three are its all three together in strategic locations. Thats what were doing. Jessica i saw in your recent testimony before a Senate Committee that you mentioned that there were an estimated 150,000 who evaded our security at the border. How did you come up with how do you know . Mark i think thats a conservative estimate. We call them gotaways. Its not super scientific. A Border Patrol agent may go to an area where there was no wall system or technology, they see footprints in the ground across the border. And they can physically count the foot prins or they see tire tracks. Its not really complicated or scientific. Ut theyre pretty good at that there are signs. Theyre able to determine by looking at footprints etc. Who and what crossed. So throughout the southwest border, all 2,000 mile we estimated at least 150,000, i think thats conservative. I think its higher. Jessica and we assume those are not families seeking, who are going to these are people who dont want to be entered into our system. Mark thats exactly right. Thats another element we dont talk enough about. The majority of the families who come across and unaccompanied children when they make their way to the border, they sit down and wait for Border Patrol agents. Its not adverse. Its a Safe Exchange and apprehension and processing. Those gotaways are right. Those are the ones running. Why are they running . Those arent the good ones. When were having this discussion we need to be intellectually honest through our discussion. Not every person who tries to enter this country is a good person. Theyre not all bad either. But theyre not all good. Were talking about that, we have to be honest about that. Again, thousands of gang members caught. We also have caught rapist, pedophiles, murderers. A lot of people say, those numbers are small. Well how many is acceptable . How many . How many rapist, how many murderer, how many pedophiles are acceptable . How many gang members, ms13 members are acceptable for us to allow into the country . Thats the question we should be asking. From my perspective, Law Enforcement for a lot of decades trying to safeguard the country, the answer is zero. Thats why we need to strengthen our borders. Thats why we need the wall along with other things. Jess camplet customs and Border Protection officers, especially Border Patrol, have in recent times been subject to a lot of disparagement, been vilified, been accused of abusing what do you say to those that officers are overzealous and their mission is inherently inhumane. How do you answer that . Mark a lot. People who say that have not been down to the border or have actually seen Border Patrol agents and officers do their jobs. I have. Let me give you a couple of facts. I do get emotional about this because i know they are lying about the men and women. 4,900 rescues last year. 4,900 rescues. Jessica thats huge. Mark not apprehended, but rescues. They saw somebody in need. They didnt stop to say wait a minute, are you trying to enter this country illegally. They didnt what is your nationality. They saw a human being in need and they immediately went into action with respect to their training and whats in their d. N. A. To help and protect people and risked their own lives 4,900 times. Let me give you another stat. Health care, we average between 70 to 80 hospital visits along the southwest border every day, a day. That means we got somebody in and got the medical screen and able to determine right away it exceeded our capability and we immediately took them to the proper e. M. S. Or medical facility. 4,900 rescues. Thats who the men and women are. We have individuals, including our own political leaders lie who say we are running concentration camps and drinking out of toilets, thats a lie. Come on down. Come on down. These are mothers, brothers, fathers and sisters. I have been there and seen a order patrol agent and saw a brother who suffered at the hands of smuggling organizations and kneel down and talking to them in spanish treating those two kids as if they were air own kids. I will question have you been there and really seen it . Jessica we plug our annual border tour and give people the opportunity to go down to see what is going on and understand the issues better. I want to touch on a couple of other things before we open it up to some of the questions. Not all illegal immigration is people entering at the border. Some people come in on visas and overstay. Enacted a ngress requirement that they have entryexit program and took until 2004 to get the first part of that done and d. H. S. Has done it very well. Called u. S. Visit where we tarted collecting biometrics and comparing them to the fingerprints. But not much has passed since 2004. And congress has passed this six or eight times. Where are we on establishing a comprehensive entryexit system . We are getting passenger manifests so we know how many people are leaving. Can you update us . Mark there are two good points. One there is a lot of privacy issues and groups that have been out there that are very negative towards this and this was a mandate thats been out there a long time. I will give you one reason. Not an excuse but a justifiable reason and why the biometrics has been so slow is the tech following hasnt been there. The last five years, the Industry Standard has said that the technology has 12 times better than it was just five years ago. When people are talking about the data, make sure the data isnt six months old. If you are using data longer than that, it is probably bad data. For us at c. B. P. , we are continuing to make progress. Lets talk about airports and the exit and entry and expanded that to 16 airports jessica biometrics . Mark yes. 16 airports. Jessica for all travelers. International . Mark international travelers, at those airports at specific airlines. The airports are doing it not for all airlines. We have an additional 29 apets that we are working with to improve. And right now, another key element to this is, what i like to say we do is facial recognition. It takes on a different kind of term. It is facial comparison. That onetoone. And that is important distinction and we have a data base, a manifest that where we have those photos and we actually compare that onetoone. Jessica like the person who is issued a visa in whatever country . Mark correct. You think facial recognition, you think of a Surveillance Program and that is not what were doing. Taking the comparison manually to a human being which is failed and flawed. We are taking that ability and making it electronic. Its more efficient and a heck of a lot faster and more accurate. We have put millions and llions through this facial comparison process at 89 to 90 rate. And the technology is improving. Every single year, that tech following is improving. Nd i think we are going to get to close to 100 . Jessica talked to many in the private sector in this industry, people think that the technology is there but this is another situation where congress has not come through with the money that the agency needs. Mark thats exactly right, too. And we need to work with airports and airlines to fund that ability as well and we are making progress on this. On the land side, we have instituted that. So we pilotted it in a couple of areas where in 2020 we will expand it to four areas in the southwest border. We are looking at the flow and so we are instituting that right now. Jessica thats important because most people enter over land border and we dont do any kind of biometric matching now for the millions who cross. We collect the Border Crossing cards. Mark just the short time period we have done it at the land and we call them impossible terse and done it at the airport. Jessica i have one last topic and that is the state of new york recently implemented what i consider to be the most egregious law that not only allows the issuance of drivers licenses to illegal aliens and others who can concoct an identity but greatly restrict access of every immigration Enforcement Agency to their Motor Vehicle data bases. I wasnt aware of this occurring in any other state. New york is a border state. I know you are aware of the law and the problems. Can you explain how important this is and why this is going to impact c. B. P. . Mark it is very important and i cant have enough strong reaction. Its reckless and irresponsible and politics at its worst. Im telling the American People that this policy by new york will absolutely make this country less safe. And its not just confined to new york. A lot of people have a fundamental misunderstanding. You have a car, you just dont stay in new york and travel anywhere in this country. We are going to come across people that we run their plate. You could be in los angeles or South Central los angeles and have a new york plate and the Police Officer is going to run your plate and get nothing back. Jessica restricted access. Mark think about this. From a Law Enforcement perspective, i will bring break it down. Any time you take a legitimate Law Enforcement tool away from a Law Enforcement entity, think about that, you are reducing their ability to safeguard this country every single time you are taking a away a tool. That is what is happening. And being driven by politics. It is irresponsible and this country will be less safe. I also believe its against the law. Under the i. N. A. , immigration and naturalization act, a state cannot institute a law or policy that countersor ability to do our job. Jessica in any way restricts exchange of information. Mark and this law specifically, not only does it talk about any entity with immigration but mentions c. B. P. And i. C. E. Jessica i dont think they are restricting the state of new jersey or the f. B. I. Mark exactly right. Jessica what is the federal government going to do about it . Mark from the moment that that happened, i have been engaged in discussions at a very high level. We are absolutely looking at all options, both within d. H. S. And components of c. B. P. And asked my folks to look at this, what are the options we can do to make sure we close this loophole in any way within our current Legal Framework and im going to push hard to make sure we counteract this horrendous, irresponsible and reckless law by the state of new york. Jessica all right, no shortage of questions here. May take me a while to go through some of these. Heres one. Now that the numbers of the people from guatemala crossing into mexico are down, what are the u. S. Expectations for the Mexican National guard deployment on that border, the southern border, in 2020 . Mark thats a good question and we are going to have to continue to watch that. If you look over history, what we have experienced is, every single time we let off the gas pedal, the human cartels and human smuggling organizations take advantage of that. We have to share information and intelligence and maintain a steady state to ensure that they still have a force adequate to handle the current flow, but this is very important. Although we have addressed specifically what we kind of sought out to do initially and since may it has gone down 85 and the flow at 70 . We are still at crisis numbers, e are averaging 1,400 to 1,500 daily. Johnson said 1,000 is a bad day. We still at 1,500 levels. Low he although we made tremendous strides, we arent done yet. Mexico has to continue. Jessica as you alluded to before, we still need to address some of these problems in our laws that you described. Mark thats a key and thats what this question is going to as well, regardless of how great mexico is stepping up, in the end, the United States, we cannot rely on other countries to fix our broken system. To have a durable lasting solution to fixing our current Legal Framework, congress has to act. When they fail to do so and need to. Regardless of what the northern triangle countries do, thats what Congress Needs to do. Jessica are there restrictions on funding for next year . Mark every time we get funding regardless of where that funding comes from, there are restrictions that come with that. The good news is restrictions will not impede to build the wall. We already long ago identify what it would go. We have had discussion with our army corps and we are on our way of using that 1. 275. Jessica there was a story on n. P. R. Talking about the hurdles for c. B. P. Acquiring land. Do you think that will get in the way of getting the 450 some miles done in the next year . Mark no. D ack which situation is a acquisition is a challenge. Activism of lower courts. We gotten joined by a lower court for using d. O. D. Funding. Thats what causes more challenges for us. With this new funding that came, im absolutely confident, not only are we going to get between 400 to 450 miles built but i think we will exceed that. We will have more miles under contract or ready to be built and exceed it by the end of 2020. Jessica where is it going . Mark all areas of the southwest border. The Border Patrol has come up with a Border SecurityImplementation Plan that identifies the highest priority. That changes. Any time that we go to cartels and shut down one area, they just go down to another area. We are constantly reevaluating the threat area and where we need the infrastructure and technology and ser son ell. The 450 miles is the top strategic miles we needed. Im confident we will have more under contract, that are being built by the end of 2020. Jessica is some of it going into the Rio Grande Valley . Mark yes. Jessica there were accounts that identified that the flow was increasing in certain other areas of the border, that balloon effect, into arizona and that was because the remaining mexico policies were not in place yet in arizona. Mark thats right. It is a very key point because the human smuggling organizations, they know our laws better than most americans when it comes to immigration and know where we are instituting certain institutions. So the smuggling organizations were broadcasting this is where you need to go in. How adaptive ou they are in changing. Jessica the price has gone up. That is always a good sign. The human smuggling or drug smuggling prices. You alluded the corps of engineers. Hy does c. B. P. Have to use the army corps of engineers to build the wall . Why cant they contract direct . Mark you have to remember some of the funding we are using, the d. O. D. Funding, it has to be specifically funding for military projects. The majority of the funding we have is d. O. D. Funding so it makes sense to use the army corps of engineers as the overall contractor. But they are subcontracting out with companies throughout the United States just as we would do. But thats the Main Driving Force behind it. And to be quite honest, they are better at it and done this before and part of what they do, he corps job. Jessica is it really possible to control the border without fundamental change to our asylum law . Mark thats a good question and my answer is, there is control of the border, so, yes, we can get to a position where we have operational capacity to be able to interdict whats coming to the border. The challenge is addressing the flow. That is addressed in congress. We could have a Million People coming to the border and doesnt change my want or need to have operational control. Whether 1,000 or 10,000, i want the operational control and capacity to apprehend and interdict. Jessica and identify. Mark what we need congress to do is fix and pass the loopholes so less will try to come. Those loopholes which are driving more to come. I want both. I want operational capacity and congress to stem the flow to make our job easier to protect this country. Jessica that legalities to this question, in may and june, congress is complaining about ote, unquote, kids in cages, children detained in c. P. P. s custody. What role did Congress Play in that event . Mark back in 2015 when those facilities were built, which i object to the term cages, but back when the facilities were built, the role that Congress Played back then, they were thanking us because we had onslaught of unaccompanied children coming in and the border facilities are not designed for children. Those facilities are designed for single adults to be held for a very short period of time, processed and then removed. Thats the core of the mission and how we operated and the facilities worked to function like that. And we saw this influx of kids and Border Patrol who are mothers and fathers said these are not the conditions that these children one in. We spent a lot of money and scrambled fast and built these facilities specifically for families and kids. And back then, including congress, was applauding it sa saying incredible how fast you were able to build these facilities. Thats why i get so frustrated now. There is chain link fencing there. We have all kinds of demographics. We have babies that are coming in all the way up to 17yearold kids. Some of them have a mother, some have a father. Jessica some of them have a rented mother and father. Mark exactly, you dont want to put a 14yearold male in the same area as a sixyearold female. You rambled around and could see through. Thats how that happened. And it was effective and it worked. Do i want to have facilities that do not have chain link fence . Yeah. We are moving toward that right now. Jessica in your view, what is the number one reason we must enforce our immigration laws . Protect American Workers from fair competition, american taxpayers, National Security or to prevent the entry and reentry of criminals . Mark i would say do all the above. Just my perspective from a Law Enforcement professional, its about the rule of law. We have to enforce the rule of law. If the American People dont like the current laws, dont pick at c. B. P. Or i. C. E. , go talk to congress and have them change the law. So right now, the law is i. N. A. Is the law that we are upholding and enforcing that rule of law. The second is to maintain the integrity of the system. If you dont, then you have no system at all and thats the second priority. The third priority is to safeguard and protect the American People. When i say i want the wall, its not a political statement for me, but from a Law Enforcement perspective. Im honored to be in this position and get the effective tools to the men and women of the Border Patrol. Thats what its about. Jessica this is our last uestion, who is subject to the deal with guatemala on the deportation flights . And they are asking, is it people from el salvador and honduras or mexicans or agents being told to carry out this policy . Mark we talked about the initial agreement is to start ith the people from honduras and el salvador. Guatemala is doing a good job of having an effective system to be able to handle the flights coming in and we are expanding it to others, mexicans. We will expand that to other countries as well. It goes back to the fact its not a United States government problem but all of our problems. Our world is global, our issues are global and solutions should be glole. We are looking to expand that across the board to as many demographics as we can. Jessica thank you for smithing to this. Submitting to this. And thank you all for coming today. And i hope you will watch our website for the next newsmaker event we have in the new year. Happy new year. Thank you very much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org President Trump will sign the National Defense authorization act which sets defense policy and programs for fiscal year 2020. Live starting at 7 20 p. M. Eastern and watch online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. We will bring you the political debate at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern, American History on cspan 3 looks back at the Senate Impeachment trial of president clinton in january and february of 1989. The president suffered a errible moral lapse. Infidelity. Not a breach of the public trust. Not a crime against society that hamilton talked about in federalist paper 65. I recommend it to you before you vote. But it was a breach of his marriage vows. It was a breach of his family trust. It is a sex scandal. Explore our nations path watch the clinton impeachment trial sunday night at 8 00 p. M. On cspan 3. Threejudge panel struck down a portion of the federal Health Care Law this week. The case challenged the Affordable Care act. The legality of the individual mandate which requires all americans to have health insurance. Heres the fifth Circuit Court united s in texas v states. You may proceed. Thank you your honor. May it please the court. I will be sharing my time from the house of representatives and mr. Letter will be going first and i will be go last. We think the state are in the judgment alone and has standing to appeal it