Chaos at the Southern border

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next: securing the southern border.

As we reported, former President Trump made a trip to the southern border yesterday.

That came roughly a week after Vice President Kamala Harris made her first trip to El Paso, Texas since taking office.

And now we’d like to take you to the southern border, as best we can, through the eyes of someone who lives and works on the southernmost edge of Texas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: WORLD’s Kent Covington spoke with Victor Manjarrez. He served for many years as sector chief for the U.S. Border Patrol. Today, he is associate director of the Center for Law and Human Behavior at the University of Texas El Paso. He told us that the southern border really is out of control right now, with levels of illicit activity along the border flirting with an all-time high.

Here now is a portion of that conversation.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS EDITOR: Chief Manjarrez, good morning to you, sir!

MANJARREZ: Good morning to you, Kent.

COVINGTON: Chief, what do you hear from border patrol agents right now on the ground? What are the challenges they’re facing now as they state them?

MANJARREZ: You know, the agents along the southwest border, the biggest challenge they face is just the overwhelming numbers of individuals coming through. You know, within the last 24 hours, Rio Grande Valley apprehended a group of over 200 people. And the problem is that it takes a lot of manpower or personnel to actually make that type of arrest and into logistics that follows, right? To be able to transport those people to a station, to be able to process them. As that's going on, the border doesn't stop. As those agents are tied up with that activity and trying to wrap that up, there are other things that are hitting our border that can't simply be addressed. It was always my concern, as a chief in Tucson and as a chief in El Paso prior to that, is that what are we missing? Great job making the arrest, great job, you know, making seizures on that. But that always ties up people. And when they tie up, you can't respond operationally to other activities

COVINGTON: So, is the answer more border patrol agents, do you think? Or, what could be done better to address that? Just better manpower? More barriers?

MANJARREZ: Well, it's always a combination of several things. You know, the easiest thing is to kind of throw money at the problem, right? And that money usually manifests itself in either border barriers, personnel, and technology. And those help immediately. But if if you're not addressing that pull factor, or the reason why, you know, the belief of a change, that you know that the U.S. may be more welcoming is really a belief that many people have, we're going to struggle.

COVINGTON: Texas Gov. Abbott has talked a lot about a tremendous increase in crime, border communities under siege. He even used the word “carnage.” Is he exaggerated for effect or is he right on target?

MANJARREZ: You know, it really becomes a matter of perspective. I think there's some times that he does exaggerate for an effect. But then when I start looking at the unified crime report, then it becomes very impactful, very truthful. But to paint that very broad stroke along all of Texas would be inaccurate. It certainly is accurate, though, in certain specific areas, where you're looking at very high numbers. Crimes that occur with the border that really has no semblance of control, vehicle thefts, home invasions, trespassing, things of that nature, that really just kind of have an impact on the quality of life of residents who live along the immediate border area.

COVINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited the border for the first time since taking office. Republicans, though, criticized her for traveling to El Paso - in your backyard. They say she was avoiding the hotspots where the real problems are along the border. But what was your reaction to her border visit?

MANJARREZ: I was surprised. I was surprised at the site selection of coming to El Paso. I mean, El Paso you get a taste of it, a taste of what's going on. But it's certainly not the focus point of all that’s occurring. That's down in South Texas. So I was really surprised at the selection.

COVINGTON: So if you were advising her trip, what would you want her to see?

MANJARREZ: I definitely would have—if I was an advising her—is we need to go to the focus point we need to see, you know, the worst hit area and that's South Texas. That's in McAllen. And I would actually spend some time with the border patrol agents in the field and looking at the challenges. We look at the Rio Grande area in McAllen. It's very imposing, but it becomes a challenge. People are crossing it. And the problem with that is it's very dangerous. When agents are working in that area, we often just think of them making arrests, making, you know, drug seizures, things of that nature. But a big portion of that is life saving attempts because quite frankly, there are a lot of people that cross and simply go out to swim, rescue attempts and what type of resources it takes. I would advise, you know, the operation, let's take a look at that firsthand, look at the challenges. Second is, you know, there's an arrest or seizure made and that's always, you know, a great talking point. But that always has a logistical tail end. If you make an arrest, a large arrest, you have to do something with them . And that has an impact. I think I would explain that process. What it does, you know, it they are family units or unaccompanied children, you know, what does that entail? And so I would have given her a broader picture of what was occurring operationally, like what she received in El Paso was a very small slice of that. And it has a tendency of—you visit El Paso, you leave with a false impression that it's not as bad as it really has made out to be. But it's worse in other places.

COVINGTON: Well let’s talk about the border wall. President Biden, as you know, has pulled the plug on construction of the wall. In response, again, Gov. Abbott has said the state of Texas will take that on and complete the wall in his state. Is this something that Texas can actually pull off? What’s your take on the state’s plans?

MANJARREZ: I'm a little leery of having the state picked up or any entity to be quite honest with you. We've seen some non-government organizations build up sections of the wall through private donations. And what we've seen is that those don't last very long. The engineering is not in place, which includes hydrology and things of that nature. And we've seen they’re falling apart, it becomes more of a hindrance for the men and women that are patrolling that area. So my hope is with the Texas of plan is that if they're gonna build a barrier, build that barrier in a thoughtful and meaningful way that's designed to last for years. Not just, you know, for this term cycle.

COVINGTON: Okay, Victor Majarrez with the University of Texas El Paso has been our guest. Thanks so much for your time and your expertise!

MANJARREZ: Thank you very much.

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