Transcripts For CSPAN Former 20240703

Over one hour. Thank you for coming. It has been clear from the beginning of this administration that if approached, the border specifically is to accommodate the flow of inadmissible aliens, rather than to stop it. The problem is that that has caused nonpolitical headaches as people notice the magnitude of the border crisis. Just at the southern border, since this administration took office, theres been more than five and a half million socalled encounters, that is the pc term and now, at the southern border. So how to do damage control . They can enforce the law and reduce the number of Illegal Immigrants. That is apparently off the table, so to accommodate the flow, they have turned to a strategy the linchpin of which is cbp 1. Its a smart phone app, it you can download it, i havent used it because i dont have to schedule my illegal immigration, but its there for anybody to see what it looks like. The point is this is a tool to funnel inadmissible aliens from between ports of entry where they show up as apprehensions by Border Patrol, to go through lawful ports of entry and call it legal, that is the key point. The goal is reduce arrest numbers and declare victory because the legal pathways i use that in quotations, are what people are turning to. It worked for one month. In june Border Patrol numbers went down and the numbers using cbp 1 one up, so the administration spiked the football. The numbers there was a news dump friday after close of business that showed the numbers at the border are up in the numbers using cbp 1 are up so it is not working. This is the linchpin of the administrations border policy and so to explore what cbp one is in the central role it plays in the administrations approach to the border, we have two eminently qualified people to talk about it. First, mark morgan. He was at the heritage foundation, a visiting fellow, acting under trump. Before that he was head of Border Patrol under obama. Before that, had a long career as an fbi special agent and other experience in Law Enforcement, so he has dealt with this directly and in real life. Joining him is andrew arthur, a resident fellow at the center for immigration policies. He has decades of experience in immigration, was a lawyer for the old immigration and naturalization service, at one point was acting chief of the security law division. Has served two terms on capitol hill, wrote some of the Immigration Law that we all have to deal with now, and also was an immigration judge for many years. So i want to thank them for coming and i want to ask mark first, so you where the Border Patrol chief and then you got a promotion, you are head of cbp which included Border Patrol under it. How not just numbers have gone up, but how has it changed under President Biden . Push the button. Hyper she the question. What we are experiencing is the worst selfinflicted Border Patrol crisis that we have experienced. Sheriff daniels who is the sheriff of coach ice county a few days ago on her both testified that the border is a crime scene. Why the focus on illegal immigration . Thats one of the false narratives. It was at the southwest border is about Border Security. What drives our border to be not secure is illegal immigration. Not legal immigration, that a separate issue. Were talking about illegal immigration. Large areas go uncontrolled, unmonitored, unsecured because Border Patrol agents are at facilities processing illegal aliens and other administrative tasks. We literally have had handed control over the cartels so they can improve power, control and influence, so they can push criminals across our border. That is why numbers matter, that is why the focus on illegal immigration. Let me give you a couple of facts that back up my call that this is the worst Border Security. Some arbitrary number 28 months into the initiation, the comparison should be when President Biden took over the white house. If you look at total enforcement encounters, those numbers were 646 thousand and change. Keep that in mind. That number jumped to one point 9 million, 200 increase. Then it jumped to 2. 7 million. An increase in total nationwide encounters. Right now we are at 2. 5 million on track for 3 million, a 60 increase in total encounters in 30 months under the administration. This is the worst historic high numbers that we have ever seen as well as the highest number from yeartoyear. The total encounters in the first is 7. 7 million. That is insanity. To put that in perspective, there are 37 states in the United States whose population is less than the total nationwide encounters that we have experienced in the last 30 months. I know this is going to be hard to realize but it gets worse. In the first 30 months weve seen 1. 6 million total known. Always. Congressional testimony said that number is underreported by 20 so we are looking at total nationwide got a ways up to 2 million and 30 months. There are 12 states whose total population is less than 2 million compared to the number who got away in 30 months. Right now we are on pace in the first full term of the administration if we keep going theres nothing indicating it will slow down. Were looking at 13 million total nationwide encounters plus those who get away in the first term as president , the fifth largest population under new york. Numbers are not going down, thats a lie and theres no one if you are honest who can stand here after seeing the border, hearing those numbers and telus borders are secure. Its a lie. U. S. What is changed, a lot is change. President biden campaigned and said he was going to stop building the wall, open the borders. During the Democratic Campaign they were elbowing each other out of the way when the question was asked will you give free medical care to illegal aliens. Everybody raise their hand including candidate biden, but lets talk about specifics. The networks of tools, authorities and policies they disband bolts, we dont have enough time they dismantled, we dont have enough time. All northern countries, it was designed to give true asylumseekers relief in the First Transit country they got to and eliminate foreign shopping. The Biden Administration eliminated that. Remain in Mexico Program that acted as a deterrence program, that policy reduced illegal immigration by over 85 within a few months. The Biden Administration to smell that. Catch and release, make no mistake, migrants come to our border right now, theyre not looking for asylum, theyre looking to be part of the asylum process which will release them under this administration. The Biden Administration reinstated catch and release. We leverage mexico through strength and power to get them to join us on the global issue that it is. They had over 25,000 personnel, not only securing the southern border but increasing enforcement. On day one that leverage one away. Interior reinforcement. The highest levels of illegal immigration encounters in our history, the lowest number of deportations since ice was created in 2003. Restrictions placed on the incredible men and women of ice, you have to be a convicted criminal before you are a priority. We are allowing Illegal Immigrants that have committed a secondary crime in the United States released into communities because of this administration. Refusal to enforce the law. He views the law as an advisory opinion. Hes abdicated responsibility, refuses to enforce the law. He said being in our country illegally is not enough to remove you. I object because the law says otherwise. I can keep going, those are the highlights. They have destroyed every element of strong deterrence to deter those illegally entering the country and applying consequences to those who break our law and put integrity in the system by reducing the number of illegal alien false claims. Thank you, mark. Given the situation the white house has created, which is terrible but also a problem for them, they are using this carrot and stick approach with cbp one as the caret and if you could sort of explain a little bit how they are using that to try to create a different message for what is going on at the border. Right, thank you, mark. Lets give the administration the benefit of the doubt. They assume there is a set number of people, foreign nationals who seek to enter the United States illegally every year. They can have those people go between ports of entry, be apprehended and released or the Biden Administration plan that they rolled out on january 5 was to have what is called circumvention of lawful pathways final rule, which they printed up the parameters of, so if any smuggler wants to know how it works, they can explain it. Such a long title, you can claw it the search call it the circumvention law. There is the rebuttable presumption that the alien is not eligible for asylum. There are ways that they can rebut it. One of those exceptions is if you would be illegal migrant schedules a time and place to enter the United States through a port of entry they will be processed under the old asylum rules here is how they do it. You download the app and in northern or central mexico, you can make an appointment to show up at a port of entry. You will get a date for the appointment. Any time you can show that one of eight ports of entry. They dont ask whether you want asylum. Cbs news reported 131,000 people who would use the cbp one app. We know that through the end of july 188,500 p have either come through the people have either come through the ports using that. It is a 23 hour time at a port of entry, one of eight ports of entry along the southwest border, which means one of those aliens can show up at 11 00 at night, mark will tell you you have a shift change and you have other personnel on duty and they can be screened by that person or they can show up the time the kids come over to go to school which is a common phenomenon at the southwest border. Theyre gonna have to make a determination to let you in the United States the only thing they can base it on is what the government has. If we dont have information on you and cant make a ripple on the pond, were not going to know whether you are a criminal, whether you are a terrorist, member of the drug cartel. If you think they set up under cbp one, thats how that works. One of the ways that the administration is pitching this program, justifying it is it reduces the smugglers, people wont have to pay smugglers to bring people across the border. Theyll be able to do it in an orderly way. Our smugglers benefiting from that, making money from it even with this cbp one process . This is one of the areas where i get frustrated because i learned a long time ago intentional omission is the same thing as a lie and that is what this administration, think about it. For the last 40 years, the cartels have only gotten stronger, more powerful and more influential in their Bank Accounts have grown read they have done this on the backs of illegal aliens they have pushed through at the southwest border in the last 30 months. Think about that, what weve learned over the past four years dealing with cartels they have an incredible hierarchy. It did not take them long. Youre supposed to be in mexico but its a joke. Cartels are able to coovercome and get anybody anywhere to get online and get their application to come to a port of entry to the United States. Its equivalent to their Willy Wonka Charlie Chocolate Factory ticket. As long as they have that appointment they are stepping aside and letting them come on in and theyre making their way. Think about that for a second. Its no different. It does not matter if youre going to enter illegally. Youre putting your life in the hands of the cartels, youre being abused, being exploited and i promise you, your having to pay for it every day, thats a lie. You think the cartels are going that as a side. Good luck, goodwill port of entry. That stupid. Thats not real life, somehow that works. The cartels every single day it does not matter whether a migrant is illegally entering or theyre using the cbp one app. I promise you, theyre paying for it. And the other thing ill say about the app, is not just those trying to claim asylum. There is a secondary purpose of the app as well, parole. You can get on the cbp one up in this movie from being from those countries you can get on the cbp one at and get paroled in the United States. That is also against the law, that itself is a certain circumvention of the law. Parole is to be used on a specific purpose for specific Public Benefit or humanitarian purpose. Being just born in a country does not satisfy that lawful requirement, that lawful mandate and of course, shocker, is that being abused . Yes. We know people who for example were born in venezuela but they lived in brazil for the last decade. Guess what . Does not matter, that is not being checked. Theyre getting on the app, saying i was born in venezuela. Theyre being paroled into the United States. That point is very important, we are talking about this because this is one of the tricks, this is part of their shell game that theyre playing, its not only as art said, they made a deal with the entire world and said it do me a favor, this is the deal, if you refrain from illegally entering in between ports of entry, were going to let you fill out the cbp one app, come to the port of entry, we will look the other way while you file fraudulent claims because everyone in the Administration Knows the overwhelming majority of migrants who come to our borders are economic migrants. Theyre not victims. Statesponsored persecution because of their involvement, they know that but they are diverting the port of entry, filing a false claim or looking the other way in the United States. It does not matter if you enter in between at the ports of entry, the same process is happening, the same incentive in the same result, youre being released in the United States. Thats why recalling this a shell game. If i could just follow up on some of the points that the chief made, with respect to the people coming in and they are using smugglers, this is the latest cbp one Monthly Update publish the other day. This one is for july 2020. It includes this line, effective august 9, cbp transition scheduling appointments from 14 days to 21 days in advance to allow noncitizens additional time to prepare and arrange travel to the requested port of entry. Now, if you were in northern mexico, why do you need an extra week to hang out in mexico before you show up for your appointment . Exactly what the chief justice said. The cartels well, the smugglers, the cartels with whom they are in league and for whom they more or less work, are trying to funnel those people north to get them to the border. And from further and further away, that is what the extra week is for. You can take a walk through mexico into a half days. So theres that. With respect to venezuela, nicaragua, haiti and cuba visa program, more than 180 1000 people have entered the United States under that program and again as mark said, none of them had to show an asylum claim. It does not ask you for a claim before it allows you to enter the United States. And many of these people have not lived in venezuela, nicaragua, haiti or cuba. If you want proof, go to the southwest border, the shores of the rio grande, where people cross into the United States and you will find piles and piles of discarded documents inevitably. What those documents are our drivers licenses for venezuelans from brazil. You have, you know, green cards for haitians. The reason that they are dumping those documents is they dont want anybody to know in the first thing mark will tell you they do is they check your pockets or pocket trash as we call it. They dont want anybody to find those documents that shows that theyve been resettled in another country because that is going to torpedo any asylum claim they may have. Real quick, on the Operational Update, i just started the Operational Updates. I can tell you right now, i say they were legitimate Operational Updates. They were not politically driven. We were given the data and the facts as we got them. We expanded the cbp fast portal so everyone can get online, because i truly believe transparency is one of the most significantly read responsibilities that we have to get the facts out there, regardless of where they stand, how they look. The monthly Operational Updates, they are a joke. Theyre totally overcome by political appointees. If you look at it right now and this is very careful, all theyre talking about now, the first two quarters of the Operational Update of the southwest border numbers, theyre only focusing on the southwest border encounters by the United States Border Patrol. Because that is the only area. That is the only area where as mark said there was a slight down tick and a slight down tick the administration said because i was there at the time the numbers are not going down. They were misleading the American People because what they were talking about our nationwide encounters that tells you the full picture as mark talked about, they are an inadmissible aliens that came to our country, 20,000 a month. Then it jumped 290 4000. In fiscal year 22 when they started their shell game, it jumped to 550 1000. In fiscal year 23, we are on track for one million encounters, a record set. Weve never had that number since we been keeping data since 1920 were coming to our ports of entry. Thats part of the shell game. 313 increase in 30 months at ports of entry. So know the numbers are not going down, theyre shifting it and diverting it to the latin American People. Its a shell game. What is also frustrating is even in between ports of entry, in between ports of entry the numbers are not going down. The day is from fy 20. Even at the ports of entry theres been 393 increase in illegal aliens between its of entry, so no, do not believe them when they say the numbers are going down, it is not true. Thank you mark and just to clarify on the issue of the extra week now people have to schedule appointments three weeks out, if i understand correctly what they did is smugglers use a vpn and they tell the vpn they are in mexico even though they arent and when they get the appointment, instead of the person cooling his heels in mexico he stays until he gets the appointment, then gets on the plane and heads to mexico. In a sense cbp one is facilitating the work of smugglers in that sense. That is absolutely correct. We are active participants in the Worlds Largest smuggling operation. Cbp one has not deterred anything. It has not stemmed the flow of illegal migration, it helps the cartels through their smuggling operations theyve made it easier. So before cartels had to have a robust operation in the United States as well and now all theyve got to do is drop them off at a port of entry and we take over from there and we make it easier for the cartels and smuggling operations to get the migrants to our front door. A question i had for you and this is probably what youre gonna bring up anyway, part of the point the administration is making and one of the reasons theyre selling this is taking business away from cartels. The other point is these are legal pathways that in quotation marks, in other words and inadmissible alien, a person who has no right to come here minot visa, who comes through a port of entry and gets let go is somehow less illegal than someone who jumps the border and then is let go. Is that the case . Isnt the person still just an illegal alien . For them weve got to go back in time to prior to 1996. As i look around the room, i dont see many people who were actively reading the news in 1996, but prior to 1996 we used to have to follow what was called the entry doctrine or the clooney doctrine. Clooney was the name of the case that govern this. If an alien entered the United States and was stopped at a port of entry, the alien was deemed excludable and put into a proceeding that offered them very few rights. Basically only the rights included in immigration and nationality act if however that alien managed to elude apprehension, make it into the United States, be free from restraint for any time, that person was the audible and got more rights in a proceeding. It was absolutely ridiculous and very difficult to use. To give you a real quick example, there was a ship called the Golden Venture that ran aground in rockaway. And it was a smuggling ship full of chinese nationals and some of them jumped into the water and were picked up in the water and some of them touched dryland. Hundreds of cases hinged on whether that person touched dryland without anybody seeing them or were picked up in the water. If they were picked up in the water they had not entered the United States, they were asked. If they touched dryland they had entered the United States and they got more constitutional rights, especially a key point that was not even mentioned in a 2020 case called dhs verses involving a guy who said i deserve to have an appeal of my incredible fear denial. In 1996 congress stepped in and said were not doing this anymore. This is ridiculous, no reason to do that. They created one system called removal. There are removal hearings. If you show up at a port of entry and are inadmissible or get apprehended, the law says we are going to treat you the same. Same inspection protocol. You are going to have the same rights and you are going to be removable at the same grounds. Me showing up at a port of entry without a visa and somehow pretending that im seeking to enter the United States lawfully is like me going to a dulles airport, running through the runway, running through the checkpoint, getting to the gate, showing up without a ticket and saying im seeking to enter this airliner lawfully. It is just not. And this is one of those things i heard this on fox news as if people coming through the ports are doing it the right way. The right way is to go to a consulate, get a visa and come to the United States, which is not what is going on. He put it more simply because he is the expert. More simplistic, there are a lot of people as you said, a lot of people think if you walk up oh, sorry. A lot of people think if you walk up to a port of entry, therefore everything you do is lawful, right . You are inadmissible. You have no legal status to be in the United States. Its no different whether you came between the ports of entry or the port of entry without documentation, without legal status, you are inadmissible, meaning you should be denied entry. That should be the starting point. Just because you walked up to the point of entry does not make what you are doing legal. That is a false narrative, misinformation, not accurate. What happens is they are going to claim asylum and then what happens under this administration, they are unlawfully not enforcing the law. They are not detaining individuals that should be detained in releasing them in the United States, just like if you entered in between works of entry, no different. Theyre not trying to stem the flow of illegal immigration, they are just playing a shell game for the optics of more coming between the ports of jeopardizing the nations safety and National Security. Its a joke. I gave you the numbers. Numbers do not live, they continue to go up to historic levels, so it is very important that just because somebody walks to a port of entry does not make it lawful and i will end with i said a minute ago. The overwhelming majority of migrants claiming asylum are false claims. And the data proves that. They are economic migrants, so what the administration is doing with intent, they are allowing our law to be exploited and let them come through the front door and then they look the other way and call it a lawful pathway. Its a violation of the law. Someone jumping the border is committing entry without inspection whereas someone coming to a port of entry is not breaking that law, it is the administration breaking the law by letting them go rather than detaining them. I wrote a piece the headline of which is aliens dont break the law, will do it for you. Thats what cbp one is allowing to happen. The only thing i would add is filing a false asylum claim is illegal. Mark just throws out stuff at such a high rate, its like drinking from the firehose, it truly is. With respect to those people, they are going to file asylum claims, the important thing to note with respect to parole is under the Biden Administration and no Prior Administration including the Obama Administration has ever done this, if we release you on parole, every Prior Administration put you into immigration proceedings, removal proceedings first, then they release you on parole. The Biden Administration has decided that when it releases people on parole, you are on parole until we put you into proceedings. You know, if that worked 60 days which is what it originally was it dropped down to 30 days when you had report to an ice office. At this point, ice is so overwhelmed. There are only 6500 ice Bureau Officers in the United States, they are so overwhelmed that at the end of march, the New York Post reported that aliens were waiting until 2032 in order to even show up at an ice office to get the charging document that is going to put you into proceedings. Thats not waiting for asylum, thats waiting to get to court. Thats waiting to get the court. To quantify this further, nbc news reported in february that there were 588,000 people who had been paroled into the United States who were part of that gigantic queue of people who were simply going to get the sheet of paper that was going to put them into removal proceedings. One of the things you hear a lot out of the Biden Administration is that the Trump Administration broke the Immigration Asylum system. Honestly mark and i i served under obama, mark served under obama and trump. Trump did not really do anything that obama did not do first. There are a couple things i can think of, but not many rated and he certainly did not do this. This is literally breaking the asylum system. If you believe in asylum or believe in the statue of liberty, holding the torch to the nations, this is the opposite there are 1. 64 2 million pending asylum applications in the United States right now. There are fewer than 1000 asylum officers to hear them. 650 Immigration Judges a year. There is no way that they are ever going to be able to get to these cases. This is an important point that many people miss. There are valid asylum claims. We know from historical facts that 17 of all people who show up at the border get granted asylum. Those legitimate asylum claimants are not going to be able to get their day in court because of all of these cases that the Biden Administration has flooded the courts with. That means they are not going to be able to resettle in the United States. Its just like any other court case, you are waiting for the day when you can win your lawsuit or whatever. More importantly, many people who have valid asylum claims have loved ones back home who are in danger for the same reason or because they are related to this person who the government really is out to get. Those people abroad are living in hell until that person, that primary applicant in the United States can get granted asylum. Yet the bottom Biden Administration has decided screw those people abroad, who cares about them . They provide safe, orderly, legal pathways for anybody who shows up at the south border. Which is neither safe nor legal. The cbp one at was released while you were commissioner, but it was a totally different thing. It was for buses and trains. My question here is the administration could conceivably use it in this way if they detained everybody who showed up at a port of entry. Yes or they could do some betting before they make the dangerous trek. Part of the problem is if we wait for them to get to the border, they have already put their lives and financial gain wellbeing in the hands of the cartels thats what we want to try to prevent. We want to defer deter migrants from making the trek because we know the overwhelming majority do not qualify. This is why we are here. Everything that ive been talking about, thats why weve had 7. 7 million total nationwide encounters and 30 months. That wasnt driven by climate change. That was intentionally done by this administration full and complete dismantlement of every tool and policy we had in place. I rattle them off, aca, remain in mexico, the wall. Those are things they got rid of and they reinstated catch and release. This was intentional and i design. Theres no way we would have had 7. 7 million total encounters and now the app has made that easier. Its frustrating for me and i dont know if you will ask this, but you talk about safe and orderly pathway. If i hear that one time coming out of the secretarys mouth, how do we know hes lying . His lips are moving. Im so frustrated. Safe and orderly, thats one of the biggest lies of all. 1900 dead migrants have been recovered by cbp along the border. 1900. That doesnt include the dead migrants found by local Law Enforcement or the migrants who died in mexico on their journey that met migrants who died in the gap owned by every cartel and bad person you can think about. What about the doctors that borders have said 30 of young women and children are sexually assaulted or raped on their journey up . Ive talked to Border Agents who said their lives will never be the same after they talk to a 12yearold migrant that was raped multiple times on her journey up here or sheriff deputy who after they encountered a 14yearold, found a bag of pills in her backpack. She said my mom gave me the morning after pill because she is expected to be raped. What about the migrants . The untold number who are entered into sex trafficking after they enter the United States. Are you kidding me . Orderly and humane is a lie. You dont have to be a Border Security expert when you increase total encounters by 360 because thats where were at. Think about the increased number of dead migrants, inc. About the increased number of migrants who have been raped and sexually assaulted. The number who have been thrust into the life of trafficking. They suffered things we can even fathom how bad it is. No, secretary, dont look in the camera, dont swear one more time that our border is secure or we have control because you know its bs and ally. Its a lie. If i could followup on three points to the chief made, we alluded to before. You could have a couple of guys from think tanks who tell you this is the way i see the world. With respect to the impact that this release pop policy has had on the number of migrants that mark talked about who have come to the United States illegally, a judge in his march 8 opinion in florida versus United States literally said undoubtedly geopolitical factors are part of the reason why a large number of migrants come to the United States but the reason why so many people are coming right now is because under the Biden Administration policy, they will be released into the United States. This was a determination that he made after reading thousands of pages of evidence and hearing the year of testimony, argument and discussion on this topic. This is the law. The administration asked the 11th circuit to stay the decision and they refused and that is the law. The effect that the app is having on the people that are coming here and the increase, i believe his name is henrique lucero but he is the municipal migration minister in tijuana. He literally said the app is encouraging people to come to this country and i know that because after the app went live, number of migrants in tijuana increased by 188 . This isnt a couple of guys from think tanks spit bowling ideas. There were actual people out there dealing with this daytoday the way used to. Finally with respect to the dangers, part of the reason, the main reason why dhs why the Biden Administration did away with the Migrant Action protocols was because mexico is such a dangerous place. We cant send people back to mexico its so dangerous down there. The initial master account on average was held within 24 months of the time the migrant was sent back to mexico. In february, the Monthly Update told us that migrants were waiting three months for their cbp one interview dates. Literally cbp one was waiting making people wait in mexico as long as mpp had. As soon as i brought up this weird contradiction, they stopped bringing up how long people had to wait in mexico for their dates. If you are congressional staff, you have to read through these things, you will have hearing ideas galore. Mpp allowed people to have their asylum claims heard quickly and many were denied. Most were denied. Thats the way it goes. So mexico is so dangerous. Why is the Biden Administration removing them back to mexico . Its a joke, its a big light. Its a big lie. Its full of hypocrisy and they continue july to the American People. They continue to lie to the American People. It is not about the southwest border especially that they are playing the shell game, its about total nationwide encounters. Its not about those they are diverting to the southwest border points of entry. You have to look at interior peel week as well. Interior poes as well. They are being sent to jfk. But the Operational Update has no mention of that. Dont talk about that. Last three months, the last 90 days ports of entry have been getting close to or exceeding 100,000 per month and the number is climbing. The last 90 days it continues to climb. I think it was 110,000 at our points of entry it wasnt just for the southwest, that meant 40,000 thousand they paroled in flying to airports like jfk but no mention of that. The magician sleightofhand, look over here while im doing something over here. They only want you to look at southwest border between the ports of entry. The total is the story and it will clearly illustrate. Total nationwide encounters is all you need to look at. We have questions from listeners. One of them addresses some share of the people who make cbp one appointments are walking across the bridge in el paso, they are getting on a plane in caracas and flying to kansas city or wherever it is. Im pretty sure we have a request on this but do we know the numbers that are going to interior points of entry . Yes we do have that. Its convoluted but if you go to cbp stats there. I see if you subtract its the remainder. You have to do some math. In their defense, i cant believe im going to defend reporters, it is a little bit difficult to navigate but one way, when you look at the ports of entry one easy way to do that is to look at southern border and northern border. If you combine points of entry, encounters at the northern border and southern border points of entry then compare that against total nationwide encounters, that will get you pretty close to the numbers. Most of those people are cbp one . Parts correct. That brings up an important point i dont think we have and should. You are a force of nature so its hard to remember rethink. Part of the problem is that this huge influx of migrants has degraded Border Patrol ability to secure the border. There are 17,000 Border Patrol agents. They work 50 hour weeks which means at any given time there 5550 more or less agents on the border. Its a huge border with just a handful of people keeping an eye on it. When the massive numbers of migrants show up at the border, agents pulled off. That creates gaps in security. The cartels exploit this. Our friend rodney wrote a letter that explain this. The cartels split this, they will send over kids and families so that a bunch of Border Patrol agents get pulled off then they can use those gaps to run drugs and other aliens into the United States. Part of the reason why we have a fentanyl epidemic is sent a law can run in as much fun allow fentanyl as they want. But the app is sharing that burden with cbp officers at the ports of entry. Cbp officers at the ports of entry are used to dealing with people who dont have documents. You show up, you present your documents. You had it to the officer, they ask you questions and waive you through. With someone with one of these appointments shows up, that officer is off the line for in this it takes to process that person. That means its a whole lot easier to run drugs, other contraband, and other potential terrorists and bad people through the ports because there is nobody watching the store when that agent is off the line. This is a huge problem. As mark had mentioned, nearly all of the people who come in from venezuela, nicaragua, haiti, and cuba, and pick it 181,000. Indianapolis is an International Port of entry. There arent that many cbp officers there. When some but he shows up with one of these, they are basically if youve ever stood in a long line at the airport waiting with everybody else in line, you can just imagine they can fly the thing that says its closed and everybody has to go find another line. This puts more burdens on the system. Let me remind there were 20 hijackers who trained for september 11. The 20th hijacker his name escaped me was stopped by an inspector at Miami International airport who was trained and had enough time to say i dont really think youre coming to the United States in order to go to disney world. That person was excluded from the United States and lionized in realtime for their ability. We are degrading their ability to stop those other people when we overwhelm the system with problems it was never meant to have. Heres the crux of the issue. For those of you who dont know, as a commissioner i oversaw Border Patrol and the officers at Border Patrol in the entire country. We have 5000 miles on the northern border and thousands across the Coastal Region we are responsible to protect. Thats a hell of a job to do. I want to put stop on what he said because its important. Lets take the southwest border just a second. Lets look at Border Patrol because we know the millions of illegal aliens coming in every day. Border patrol agents are pulled off the front line and some areas 85 90 of Border Patrol agents are pulled off and away from their National Security mission back into facilities relegated to a ministry of duties. Thats insanity. There are large strategic locations that are uncontrolled, unmanned. We are vide expanding the cartels. Expanding their ability to push drugs and criminals across the border. Thats a fact. Ask any agent that has spent five minutes on the border and they will tell you exactly what i told you. Thats reality. Again i will go back first 30 months, 1. 6 million known getaway. Borders matter. If the majority of aliens come across turn themselves in and wait from Border Patrol agents, why do we have a got away . Thats where the criminals live. As with murderers, rapists, pedophiles, smugglers, traffickers, gang members, thats where they live among the 2 million got a ways. Thats the impact that illegal immigration has on for patrol in between the ports of entry. The same exact impact happens at our points of entry. What he said about wait time closing lanes secondary you dont have his money officers in secondary because of something derogatory you dont have as many officers to do that, i will add one more as commissioner i saw firsthand southbound operations, proactive repetitive southbound operations where they confiscate indices a total number of weapons going southbound. Weapons going southbound are more valuable than u. S. , currency. How many southbound operations are being conducted right now when you have officers pulled off to process 1600 per day . And thats with the cbp one app. Illegal immigration has an impact on our capability, our readiness and ability to secure the borders. I want to followup on that because mark brings up an important point. When i was in tucson a few weeks ago, i was told unofficially that 90 of agents were off of the line. Thats the biggest sector by staffing in the country. This isnt like an underfunded sector, its 262 miles and more than 3000 agents. Because of that, cochise county sheriff has to step in thats Sheriffs Department in an underpopulated county has to step in to fill the void to stop the traffickers from bringing drugs into the United States. Part of that is because they are cops and thats what they do. The other reason is there are so many highspeed chases through cochise county where drug mules most of the drug mules are 1617 years old. They are recruited on tiktok and whatsapp driving through at high rates of speed. The locals are terrified and they want to cut that down. When you hear about operation lone star, the floating barrier in the real Rio Grande River and the Texas Department of public safety, the reason they have to be down there is because there are no Border Patrol agents to patrol the border. Your calling state troopers out of abilene which is nowhere near the border and sending them for five weeks away from their families to the southwest border to run through the brush and try to cut signs. When you hear about governor abbotts mean and he hates people, no. They dont want the drugs and crime that comes with it in the state of texas just like the sheriffs dont want it. We are running short on time. I wanted to make the point that even if magically everyone of these people was fully vetted, even if we could read their minds and there was no fentanyl and all that, congress has still passed numeric limits on immigration. There are only 70 people who are supposed to be moving here per year for reasons related to job competition, assimilation and all of that. My point is even if in some alternate universe all of the promises about vetting and control and everything were still kept real, it still would be subverting Immigration Law because theres a reason we have numerical limits on immigration. Can i take the first part . I feel a need to talk about the bedding real quick. Quickly. They are not vetting. We have encountered migrants from 171 Different Countries. Is pakistan, russia, china, it goes on and on. Do you really think that acumen mail or venezuelan mail, do you think they are getting the equivalent of their criminal history from cuba or nicaragua before we release them . Course not. Thats a fallacy. We are literally leasing people every day into this country that we have no idea about their criminal background and who they really are. Thats happening every day. Its impossible to bet somebody and everybody from 171 Different Countries within 24 hours of them being released not to mention again the 2 million got a ways we have no idea who they are. No, we are not vetting anybody. We have to wrap up, i just wanted to briefly touch on there is a hearing tomorrow on one of the many lawsuits that relate to cbp one. In a very cliff notes way, whats the story with the legal challenges . Thats a case called texas versus chs. Before a judge in texas. It is a challenge by the state of texas to venezuela, nicaragua, haiti parole program. Congress changed a lot and 1996 to curb parole abuses like the one the buy demonstration is engaging in. The judge is going to vacate that program. The by the administration will go to the fifth circuit and ask for estate. Ask for a stay. That will be denied. Then by the administration will go to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will probably deny the stay but they will probably jump over the fifth circuit and send this right through the justice system. The decision in texas versus the United States. The Supreme Court said states dont have the ability to challenge arrest and detention of aliens, but if the by the administration were to give benefits to aliens that they did deserve, then we will consider that. Congress makes the rules as it relates to alien admissions. It comes from the naturalization clause of the constitution. It has been black letter law for 140 years. All of these things that the Biden Administration is doing his undercover undercutting the representatives in congress. So the administration can create its own Immigration Law then comply with it. Exactly. Thank you all for coming, thank those who are watching this on cspan. This will be on our website for those who want to see if there. We are on twitter as well. Thank you and we hope you come to our next event. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indiscernible conversations] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2022] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] he white house, this is 20 minutes