Update on what is happening at the southwest border . Sure, when we talk about the border we have to put it into two pockets. One is the crisis regarding immigration and the other is the massive security crisis. The drive or focus in the last year plus has been the migration flow from the northern tribal countries specifically the families. The reason that has been the focus is because of our broken Legal Framework. Agreement thate if you come to the country with a child, we can hold you for 20 days. That was the genesis of catch and release. We would apprehend families entering illegally and release them into the u. S. Often within days. We had to fix that. The last six months, this , we have and cbp instituted a network of initiatives and policies and rules and regulations that have given us the tools to close the loopholes. Had 140ht of may, we 4000 apprehensions in may alone. 42,000ths later, apprehensions. Jessica how do you know that is not just seasonal . In october seasonally the numbers go up. Now, october and november, seasonally in some demographics, the number has gone up. What we have seen from may to saw an of last month, we 80 5 reduction in families. On that front, we have 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 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 of dollars 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. Jessica 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. So overall, what i refer to, 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 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 all demographics. Individuals, households. About 55,000 to 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 unaccompanied 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 Crisis will be fixed. Jessica which i. C. E. Did not 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. 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 apply 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 honduras 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 crisis, 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. Jessica 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 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 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 overwhelmed. 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 is. 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 our 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 members, 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. 800,000 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 ohio, 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 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. Jessica 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. Jessica 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, the ability 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 unprecedented ways. Established a new national guard. Strengthened their southern border. Apprehensions have doubled last year. They strengthened the u. S. Mexico border and their 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. Plus thats just what we seized. 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 this country. Jessica 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 e