CV NEWS FEED // Former acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan called out political talking points on immigration during an exclusive LOOPcast interview with CatholicVote’s Tom Pogasic.
“Unfortunately, securing our border has become political,” Morgan noted. “And it’s become driven by ideology, policies, and emotions rather than fact.”
He said that the current record-breaking number of illegal border crossings “pulls limited resources off the front line away from law enforcement and national security.”
“It literally hands operational control over to cartels so that drugs, criminals, potential national security threats can come into the country,” Morgan said.
He pointed out how important it is to have “policies that [act] as a deterrent for those thinking about illegally entering, and [for] those who [do], to apply effective consequences.”
The 30-year law enforcement veteran said that the “most significant change” from the Trump administration to the Biden administration “was a fundamental reverse in policies.”
“When Biden took over, he had the same amount of resources we did under President Trump,” he explained. “The resources didn’t change. What changed was the policies.”
Biden ended Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy and Title 42 and reinstituted “catch and release.”
Morgan quoted former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, once his boss, who called a day with 1,000 migrant encounters a “bad day,” and one with 3,000 “catastrophic.”
In recent weeks, that number has been as high as 12,000.
“In the past 36 months, we’ve seen over eight million total nationwide encounters,” Morgan said. “There’s not a record this administration hasn’t shattered.”
“It’s complete chaos and lawlessness,” he continued. “There’s no country on the face of this planet, including the United States, that can sustain this level of illegality at our borders.”
Morgan said the Biden administration
sent a message to the entire world that’s acted as a beacon for them to come. That if you make it to our borders – once again our borders are wide open – we’ll process and release you into the interior of the United States and you’ll never be heard from again. And while you’re here, we’re going to reward you and treat you as though you’re lawful citizens.
“Migrants from all over the world heard the message loud and clear,” he said. “[In] the past 36 months, we’ve encountered illegal aliens from over 180 different countries. There’s only 195 recognized countries in the world.”
“The Mexican cartels are one of the most sophisticated, powerful, influential criminal organizations on the face of the planet,” he went on:
Their ability to reach out to these different countries and facilitate them coming to an area where they then can take them and push them through the journey of Mexico to our borders is unparalleled. They’re experts on it.
Morgan indicated that many illegal immigrants coming across the southern border are “military-age males,” including thousands of Chinese nationals.
“One of the false narratives that’s out there is that everybody coming to our border are just families, or unaccompanied minors, or poor vulnerable migrants just looking for a better life,” Morgan said. “That’s just a lie.”
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“Typically any objection to a secure border policy is ‘It’s un-Christian, you’re not welcoming the stranger,’” Pogasic said. He asked the former CBP chief what he would say to someone who made this argument.
“They fundamentally have a misunderstanding of the cause-and-effect of illegal immigration,” Morgan responded. “Is it Christian to violate the law?”
He also said that he would explain how unfettered illegal immigration invites deadly drugs, violent criminals, and terrorists to enter the country.
“The flow of illegal immigration is not separate from drugs, criminals, or national security threats,” he stressed. “They’re all interconnected.”
“So, tell me,” he asked, “what is Christian about that?
“This isn’t a red or blue issue for me,” Morgan emphasized, citing his service under both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations. “This is a red, white, and blue issue.”
Morgan spent time as both acting CBP commissioner and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director during the Trump administration. He previously served as chief of the United States Border Patrol under both the Obama and Trump administrations.
Morgan has been a Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center for the past three years. He is a Marine Corps veteran and spent two decades as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent.
Readers can find the full interview below.