CV NEWS FEED // During a Sunday CBS News appearance, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said that the nation’s unprecedented migrant surge is a “national security threat” as many “gotaways” are “exploiting a vulnerability that’s on our border right now.”
“Face the Nation” hostess Margaret Brennan reported that per Owens, Border Patrol “is on track to record over two million migrant apprehensions this year.”
She also reported that, according to the Border Patrol chief, “most [border] crossings are being aided by a criminal network of smugglers.”
CBS immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez asked Owens: “Are the smugglers setting the rules of engagement here?”
“Yes, they absolutely are,” Owens replied. “They dictate what the flow is going to look like.”
“There’s over 1,900 miles of border with Mexico,” Owens explained:
When you talk about 20,000 Border Patrol agents that seems like a lot. But, when you multiply that by 24 hours a day seven days a week across the entirety of the year, that number starts to dwindle very fast.
And that’s exactly what [the smugglers will] do. The tactic is they’ll push groups across knowing that we’re going to respond from a humanitarian perspective and make sure that they’re safe. And while we’re tied up and occupied doing this, what are they doing a couple of miles down the road?
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Montoya-Galvez then asked Owens if he was concerned about “the potential dangerous people or potential terrorists who may be infiltrating the country” because Border Patrol is “so focused on processing asylum seekers, families, and others who are in distress.”
“Absolutely,” the Border Patrol chief said. “You ask any law enforcement officer, especially somebody who works in border security. That is what keeps us up at night.”
“What’s keeping me up at night is the 140,000 known ‘gotaways,’” Owens continued. “That’s just what we know.”
“That is a national security threat,” he emphasized. “Border security is a big piece of national security.”
“If we don’t know who is coming into our country, and we don’t know what their intent is, that is a threat,” Owens indicated. “And they’re exploiting a vulnerability that’s on our border right now.”
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Montoya-Galvez pointed out that migrants encountered included those from Africa and Nepal.
Owens said: “This fiscal year alone, we’ve had people from 160 countries or more come across our border illegally. This is a global issue.”
“Every country and every region has smugglers trying to facilitate a pipeline,” he continued. “And they’re connected with one another.”
Owens told Montoya-Galvez that the “vast majority” of migrants Border Patrol is encountering are “by and large good people.”
“I wish they would choose the right way to come into our country and not start off on the wrong foot by breaking our laws,” Owens said:
There are still people that we are finding in those groups, though, that have criminal backgrounds, that have been convicted sexual predators, that have been convicted gang members, a very small amount in that population but they’re still there.
Most of the folks that we’re encountering that are turning themselves in they’re coming across because they’re either fleeing terrible conditions or they’re economic migrants looking for a better way of life.
“[It] doesn’t make them bad people,” Owens added. “It’s just that they’re not being respectful of the laws that we have established as a country and they’re actually putting people in this country in harm’s way because they’re pulling the border security apparatus off of task.”
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Montoya-Galvez wrote in an article for CBS News later Sunday:
In his interview with CBS News at CBP headquarters in Washington, Owens also called for tougher immigration policies to reduce the number of migrants arriving to the southern border.
“I’m talking about jail time. I’m talking about being removed from the country and I’m talking about being banned from being able to come back because you chose to come in the illegal way instead of the established lawful pathways that we set for you,” he said.
The New York Post reported Sunday: “Border security has emerged as a hot topic among voters before the Nov. 5 presidential election, as shown in a litany of polls.”
“President Joe Biden has sought to flip the script on Republicans by chastizing them for killing a bipartisan deal to tackle the border that came up in the Senate last month,” the Post added.
Readers can watch CBS News’ full interview with Owens below:
