A leaked video from a Border Patrol source shows agents getting into a heated back and forth with USBP Chief Raul Ortiz right in front of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during his visit in Laredo, Texas.
“I do think that we’re losing too many agents,… you’re frustrated … Doesn’t mean you give up.”
“We’re not,” one agent responded. “I know you’re not,” Ortiz replied. “That’s why I’m saying, we don’t give up… We all signed up for it, we all raised our hand.”
That’s when things got more heated. “It’s kinda hard to say that when…” one agent began to say. “It’s not hard to say it,” Ortiz shot back. “It may be hard for you to say it, I’ve been doing this for 31 years. It’s not hard for me to say it.” “You’re getting bogged down in the policies and the politics,” Ortiz stressed.
Multiple agents then said agents can’t use the term “illegal aliens.” “You just said it,” Ortiz replied. “Ain’t nothing gonna happen to you.” With the agents seemingly still not satisfied with the answers they were getting, Ortiz asked them, “Why are you guys getting caught up in semantics? … I’ve been doing this job as long as y’all.”
“That’s the problem, chief,” one agent interjected. “For evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. That’s exactly what’s happening here. Good men are doing nothing. You’re allowing illegal aliens to be dropped off in communities.”
“I don’t know,” Ortiz said. “We’re working on it. “And that’s the problem,” the agent said. Someone in the room then cracked a joke, defusing the tension.
In a visit to the southwest border, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) decried the new “border wall” being built. Lankford pointed out the difference between the border wall built during Donald Trump’s presidency and what is currently standing today. “There’s been some new construction that’s happened along the southern border because there are large areas where there are no fencing at all,” the senator said. “Last year I was in this area and I was showing you some of the Trump wall that has a 12-foot concrete section with an 18-foot wall on top of it.”
Lankford reveals that the so-called “new wall construction” that has been resumed by President Biden includes a concrete wall that is half the height of the former wall, along with a short section of fence on top that he says resembles “a guardrail,” not a fence. “Maybe six feet tall of concrete and then another six-foot section on top of it so definitely not a fence that would actually keep anyone out to say the least,” Lankford revealed. “They’re calling it more guardrail than they are actual fencing on it. This is the challenge we have in trying to deal with basic infrastructure.”
He continued, “The folks that are here along the border, they need personnel, they need policy changes that they can actually implement the law. They need infrastructure that will help deter people … this doesn’t deter anyone. In fact, I’m not sure this would slow anyone down in the process.”