At the Heritage Foundation 'Policy Fest' event at the RNC on Monday, former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan spoke about the southern border.
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NewsTranscript
00:01Thank you for being here.
00:02I really do appreciate it.
00:04I love this country.
00:05I want to fight for this country, and I know you do as well.
00:09One of the biggest issues that's out there is obviously about immigration.
00:12So I am really pleased to have two of the foremost experts on immigration and what's
00:19happening here.
00:20So I'm going to introduce Mark Morgan, a visiting fellow at Heritage's Border Security and Immigration
00:27Center and served as acting commissioner of the United States Customs and Border Protection
00:31in the Trump administration.
00:34We also have Tom Holman.
00:39He was the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and currently
00:44a visiting fellow at Heritage's Border Security and Immigration Center.
00:49So thanks so much for joining us.
00:50We're going to have a good discussion about what's going on, what's not going on.
00:55We're going to assume that you understand that securing our border is a problem.
01:01I don't think that's a hard sell with this audience and this understanding.
01:06We'll certainly get into and describe some statistics and numbers that are truly shocking
01:13by any metric.
01:16But we really want to talk about solutions and moving forward and what we should be doing.
01:23And that's the discussion that we want to have here today.
01:27And these two gentlemen have poured their hearts and souls and careers into making these
01:32things happen.
01:33And so we're just thrilled to have them and their service.
01:37And you'll see their love of country and their passion for this issue.
01:41They dedicated their lives to it and I think it's going to be a vibrant discussion.
01:45So with that, one of the things that I look at and I keep arguing for, and Tom, maybe
01:54we can start with you, but it just seems to me, why don't we start with enforcing the
02:01current law?
02:02Because right now, we're not enforcing the current law.
02:06No, you're exactly right.
02:08And that would fix a lot of problems, right?
02:10Because the law is clear.
02:12When you enter the country illegally without proper documentation, you shall be detained.
02:17That's what it says.
02:18Not maybe.
02:19Not think about it.
02:20Maybe you should just, you know, take asylum claims and parole them in the country.
02:24None of that.
02:25If they would enforce the current law and catch and release and actually enforce immigration
02:28law, let the Border Patrol do their national security job, a lot of this problem would
02:33be solved.
02:34This is not a resource issue.
02:35It is not a legal issue.
02:37It's a policy issue.
02:38This administration chooses not only to ignore the law, but they're actively violating the
02:43law on the misuse of parole policy.
02:45You know, if I can footstep on this, I actually steal Tom's line all the time, because Tom
02:49and I were there under President Trump.
02:51We had the most secure border in our nation's history under President Trump.
02:58And to Tom's point, a policy issue.
03:00President Biden came in within the first few days, issued over 94 executive orders that
03:05dismantled, destroyed, and disrupted the network of tools, authorities, and policies
03:09that President Trump gave us to achieve the most secure border.
03:13Our current president right now intentionally unsecured the border.
03:18That's why we're here right now.
03:19And let me, you know, you know this is going to happen.
03:24We can't shut up.
03:25But, you know, I go across the country speaking, and people always walk up to me, Tom, why
03:29are you, why are you always pissed off?
03:32Because I'm pissed off.
03:33Because Mark said it right.
03:34You know, I started in Border Patrol in 1984.
03:37I spent 34 years on the border issues.
03:40I worked for six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan up to Donald Trump.
03:44Every president I worked for, even Clinton and Obama, took steps to secure the border,
03:48because they understood you can't possibly have national security if you don't have border
03:52security.
03:53We need to know who's coming in, what's coming in, why it's coming in, where it's coming
03:55in.
03:57President Biden's the first president in the history of this nation who came into office
04:03and unsecured a border on purpose.
04:06That has resulted in historic illegal immigration, historic drug flow, historic sex trafficking
04:12of women and children, historic number of people off the terrorist watch list crossing
04:16the border.
04:17And they want to attack the Trump administration, oh, Homan, Trump, you're racist, you're inhumane.
04:22Really?
04:23Well, let's look at the data.
04:24Under Trump, four years, 13 people on the terrorist watch list.
04:29Biden, three and a half, 376.
04:33Women and children, sex trafficking up 600%.
04:36We got 140,000 dead Americans of fentanyl.
04:40This administration is not only killing Americans at record numbers from the fentanyl smuggling,
04:44they've killed illegal aliens at record numbers.
04:47We're already over 2,200 illegal aliens dying crossing this border.
04:50So when Trump had illegal immigration down 83 to 90%, when 90% less people were coming,
04:57how many women weren't being raped by the cartels?
04:59How many children didn't die in the river?
05:01How many no-inspect terrorists didn't get into the country because the border's secure?
05:06How many Americans weren't dying?
05:08How many billions of dollars did cartels not make?
05:11President Trump's policies saved lives.
05:12He was one badass president that did the right thing for this country, and I can't wait for
05:17him to get back.
05:18Yeah.
05:19Look, Tom and I served the same time, six presidents, both Republican and Democrat.
05:27I, too, every single day, and I'm already feeling myself getting fired up and pissed
05:30off right now because, look, just mention a couple of names.
05:34Laken Riley, say her name, say her name, right, was killed by an illegal alien.
05:39Her life was taken away.
05:40Say Rachel Moran, say her name, a mother of five, 37 years old, that was savagely raped
05:46and killed by an illegal alien.
05:48I could go on.
05:49We could spend the next hour talking about the Americans that have died at the hands
05:53of individuals.
05:54We actually have Democrats on Capitol Hill that want to talk about, well, Americans kill
05:58people, too.
05:59Are you kidding me?
06:00That's the litmus test?
06:02How about this?
06:03An illegal alien, the reason why it's so different is because it shouldn't happen because they
06:09shouldn't be here, right?
06:14But this administration intentionally unsecured the border, and Secretary Mayorkas, how do
06:20we know he's lying when his lips are moving?
06:23He knows every single day, because of these open border policies, that border patrol agents
06:28are pulled off the front line, away from their law enforcement and national security mission.
06:32They're relegated to be a federal travel agency.
06:35We're literally handing operational control over to the cartels every single day so that
06:40criminals, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, aggravated felons, and gang members are pouring
06:44into this country.
06:46Drugs are pouring into this country.
06:47As Tom said last year, 108,000 Americans died from drug overdose and poisoning.
06:53Put that in perspective, that's more Americans than died from all the terrorist attacks in
06:58our nation's history, the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam wars combined.
07:05When is enough enough?
07:06Tom, we've got a lot of people in this country that came here illegally that need to be deported.
07:14When I was on the Judiciary Committee on the Immigration Subcommittee, I asked to be
07:19on that because I really wanted to dive into it, Democrats will say, oh, we care about
07:24this, we need to do legislation, the only way to solve this is we've got to have a legislative
07:28fix.
07:29Well, when Zoe Lofgren in the House of Representatives was the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on
07:33Immigration, of which I was there, guess how many hearings they had, how many things that
07:38they did on this?
07:39Two.
07:40One was for a class photo, and the other was literally, it's not, this is actually what
07:46happened, the person that came and testified about immigration was Stephen Colbert.
07:53They literally brought Stephen Colbert into, no other hearings, no proposed legislation,
07:58and remember, the Biden-Harris administration, with Kamala Harris being the border czar,
08:06they had the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, they had all three levers of power.
08:12Did they introduce legislation?
08:13You know, you hear Joe Biden now, you hear the President talk about, you know, I've,
08:17since day one, I've been pushing this immigration.
08:19Why didn't they move that bill?
08:21Why didn't they actually do it?
08:23It's because what these gentlemen are telling you is true, which is they wanted an open
08:27border, but now we have a lot of nefarious people here.
08:31Don't think that these are all just, oh, the woman just wants to, you know, clean houses
08:35and work at Taco Bell.
08:37That's what you hear, and you hear Jerry Nadler literally say, we gotta be able to pick the
08:42fruit in this country.
08:44But the people that are here illegally, that nefariously didn't go through the port, explain
08:49to, explain the policy, because if you want to claim asylum, you're supposed to be able
08:55to come through the port of entry, but now, Tom, that we have these people that are here
09:02committing crimes, explain to them how bad the situation is, because you have these sanctuary
09:08states, sanctuary cities, in New York, for instance, I keep complaining about this.
09:13Look, they're, they're moaning and groaning in Boston and New York and in other places
09:17in Minnesota saying, oh, we don't have the resources, we got all these people, and Ron
09:22DeSantis sent people to not, to Nantucket, for goodness sake, you know, how bad is that?
09:28And thank goodness for Governor Abbott actually dispersing people out to, you know, where
09:33they actually want to go, and they're going to go anyway.
09:36But guess what?
09:37Now they're claiming they need all these resources, but they have not taken down their sanctuary
09:43city status, their sanctuary state status, and consequently, they're not communicating
09:49and working with ICE, even on the most nefarious, worst criminals that are out there.
09:54Well, you're exactly right.
09:56Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.
09:59The last eight terrorists that were just arrested, eight people that were planning a terrorist
10:03attack, along with all these murders Mark just mentioned, what's the common denominator?
10:08Every one in the sanctuary city, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles.
10:12But I want to first, I want to talk about something, because I made a comment about
10:15this the other day, and the left went crazy.
10:17I got all these inputs, do you want to, do you want to explain the statement you're making?
10:21Here's the statement I made, and I'll make it to you here today.
10:23So the meeting room, you can double down on it.
10:26They say, you know, my wife come running downstairs several years ago and says, look at the hit
10:30piece Washington posted on you.
10:32And it was a story, and the first line of the story says, Tom Holman deports people,
10:36and he's really good at it.
10:37My wife says, look at this hit piece.
10:39I carved it out and it's hanging on my wall right now in my office.
10:42That's a badge of honor, because I did my job.
10:45So last week I made a statement, you ain't seen nothing yet, wait till 2025.
10:50So I said it, I meant it, you can go ahead and print it.
10:55What I really want to draw, we have to, look, people say, well, Trump's threatening this
11:00historic deportation operation, he's going to build concentration camps, he's going to
11:04sweep neighborhoods.
11:05Let me be clear, none of that will happen.
11:09We are going to have an historic deportation operation, because you got an historic illegal
11:14migration crossing the southern border.
11:16If you look at immigration court data, nine out of ten, nearly nine out of ten of these
11:20people won't get asylum, because they don't qualify.
11:23So they're going to be ordered removed, they'll get a federal order saying you must leave.
11:28What is the option?
11:29We have to execute those orders, or you know what, just shut down the immigration court.
11:33Take the border, take the border patrol off the border, what the hell are we doing?
11:37So when they get due process, that billions of dollars of taxpayers' money, and a federal
11:41judge says you must go home, the Trump administration is going to make them go home, and it's going
11:47to require an historic deportation operation.
11:50We're not going to sweep neighborhoods, you know, we're not building concentration camps.
11:55Every person that ICE arrests, when I was ICE director, 91% of everybody arrested was
11:59convicted criminal, pending criminal charges, or a fugitive.
12:02Bottom line is, under President Trump, he's still going to prioritize national security
12:07threats and criminals, but no one's off the table.
12:11If you're in the country legally, it's not okay.
12:13If you're in the country legally, you better be looking over your shoulder, because it's
12:17not okay to enter this country legally.
12:19It's a crime to enter the country legally.
12:21And I'll say this, I'm sick and tired of people saying illegal aliens commit less crimes than
12:25U.S. citizens.
12:27That Cato study has more flaws than if you read it personally, they combine illegal aliens
12:31with legal aliens.
12:33Most illegal aliens come to this country are pretty law-abiding, first of all.
12:35But the bottom line is, every illegal alien is a criminal.
12:38They enter the country in violation of federal law.
12:40It's a crime to enter this country legally, so the number one crime right there, right?
12:44So as far as Kamala Harris is concerned, I'll show her how to be a Bordezar.
12:53Looking forward to it.
12:54Well, look, and to foot-stomp on that, here's what's important.
12:59We have to take back the narrative, because the narrative is that what's happened on our
13:02border is about immigration.
13:05That's a lie.
13:06It's a lie.
13:07It's not about immigration.
13:08What's happened on our border is about border security, which our ability to secure and
13:12defend and protect our borders is degraded by illegal immigration.
13:18Illegal immigration and immigration are not the same thing.
13:21If you and I go to a grocery store, and we go shopping, you fill your cart full of groceries,
13:25and you go out to check us down and pay and go to the parking lot, I go into that same
13:29grocery store, and I fill my cart full of groceries, but I go past the checkout line,
13:33I don't pay, and I meet you in the grocery store, and somebody asks us what we did.
13:37They both say we went grocery shopping.
13:39No, you did.
13:40I committed a crime, right?
13:43And here's what's important.
13:44Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.
13:47Every single illegal alien means that's one more resource, again, that's pulled off their
13:52law enforcement, away from their national security mission.
13:55We hand operational control back to the cartels.
13:57With respect to drugs, I'm so sick and tired of the BS lie that illegal aliens commit less
14:04crimes than Americans.
14:06First of all, that's just a stupid litmus test, right?
14:10So because one demographic supposedly commits less crime, somehow it's not an issue?
14:15That's just stupid, right?
14:17But here's why it's false.
14:19Let me give you just a couple of stats.
14:20The first three years of this administration, ICE arrested 163,000 criminal illegal aliens
14:26in this country, including 4,700 murderers and 8,000 gang members.
14:32Texas, DPS alone, from 2011 to 2024, arrested over 300,000 criminal illegal aliens and charged
14:39them with over 500,000 crimes, including over 1,000 homicides, 1,400 kidnappings, and 60,000
14:48assaults.
14:49In the first three years of this administration, Border Patrol has apprehended over 48,000
14:54criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, aggravated felons, and
14:59gang members from 180 different countries.
15:02To put that in perspective, that's a 99% increase from FY17 to FY20 combined.
15:10So don't tell me that this is a one-off.
15:13Don't tell me that Lake and Riley murder or Rachel Moran's murder is a one-off, because
15:17it's not.
15:18It's a lie.
15:19And on the terrorism front, it's not a matter of if or when the terrorist threat comes to
15:23our country.
15:24Ladies and gentlemen, it's already here.
15:28And so part of the largest deportation effort that we need to do, here's why we need to
15:32do it.
15:33Because we need to send a strong message to the entire world that Tom said, one, it's
15:38not OK to illegally enter this country, which jeopardizes our nation's safety and national
15:43security.
15:44But if somehow you get past our frontline defenses, you're not going to stay.
15:48We're going to find you.
15:50That's going to send a strong deterrence message.
15:52And history has shown, when we have strong border security on the physical border, backed
15:56up with effective policy to remove people, illegal immigration will go down.
16:01Once that happens, our border will be secure, I promise you.
16:06Mark, I want to come back to you, because one of the things I saw when I was on the
16:12Judiciary Committee is that pretty quickly into the Obama administration, they've started
16:17to redefine their interpretation of what asylum is.
16:22Maybe you can walk us through what true asylum is, and how it has morphed into pretty much
16:28anything that the first Obama administration, and now the Biden administration, wants it
16:33to be.
16:34It's a great question.
16:35So we're talking about solutions right now, and listen, look, I'm not trying to blow smoke
16:40your way, but one of the solutions is we need him back, right?
16:46I know this man, I'm serious.
16:47I know this man.
16:48We both know him.
16:49And he was on the right side of the issue.
16:50I know this man.
16:51I know this man.
16:52I know this man.
16:53He was on the right side of the issue the entire time he was there.
16:56He was one of the few people that spoke with honesty and clarity and common sense.
17:01Look, I'm critical on both sides of the aisle.
17:03Remember, even under the Trump administration, the Republicans had the House and the Senate
17:07for the two years, and not a single piece of meaningful border security legislation
17:11got passed.
17:12So there is plenty of blame to go around.
17:14There's plenty of rhinos there.
17:15This man was not one of them.
17:17But asylum, here's something we just completely forget about.
17:20Here's lawful asylum.
17:22You're fleeing persecution because of your involvement in a protected class.
17:27That's it.
17:28Right now, as Tom said, we know that over 90% of those that are coming to our country,
17:33especially those that are illegally entering, do not qualify for asylum.
17:37This administration knows it, Secretary Mayorkas knows it, but every single day, he's still
17:42releasing people in this country in defiance of the law when he knows that over 90% of
17:49them do not qualify for asylum.
17:51And after the release in the United States, very few are actually removed.
17:56And so it's a big lie on top of a big lie.
17:59And we go back.
18:00What's the solution?
18:01Jason, it's what you started.
18:03Let's just enforce the law.
18:04But this administration, this is why Secretary Mayorkas was impeached.
18:08This man as well as this administration, they look at congressional laws that have been
18:11passed as a mere advisory opinion.
18:15It's unbelievable.
18:16The founding principles of our Constitution but separate but co-equal branches of a government
18:20is irrelevant to them.
18:22Secretary Mayorkas, we don't have enough time to go through all the laws that he continues
18:27to violate every single day, and enforcing asylum is just one of those.
18:32You know, one of the criticisms, Tom, is, oh, you're being so mean.
18:36You're being just, you know, you're not being nice enough.
18:39But it is absolutely stunning to me that we have by the tens of thousands, if not more,
18:45unaccompanied minors that are being exploited.
18:49They're being brought through.
18:51We don't know where they are.
18:52We don't know whose hands they're in.
18:54And these are minors.
18:55We're talking, like, 12-year-old girls.
18:58Explain to us the problem and then, more importantly, what's the solution to this?
19:02Well, first of all, there's a lot of people, I mean, I'm hated by a big part of this country.
19:07And frankly, I don't give a shit.
19:09Because...
19:11Now, for the record, for the record, I was betting that Mark was going to swear before
19:16Tom, so...
19:17I almost did.
19:18I lost that bet.
19:19But continue on.
19:20No, I just don't.
19:21I just don't.
19:22Because if they wore my shoes for 34 years, they would understand me.
19:26And a lot of them would agree with me.
19:27Look, I've told this story many times, and we get to children.
19:31You know, I know what it's like to get on my knees and talk to a 9-year-old little girl
19:40who had everything innocent and stolen from her, because she's gang-raped by these cartel
19:45members.
19:46I've talked to numerous young ladies, as young as 9, who live a nightmare, because that was
19:55part of the fee for coming across this border.
19:58I'm talking to you right now.
20:00Let's put politics aside for a minute.
20:02While I'm talking to you right now, women are being raped by members of the cartel to
20:07cross this border.
20:09Not once, numerous times.
20:12A child will die today on the border.
20:17Women and children are going to be smuggled in this country and forced into sex trafficking.
20:20We already found a bunch of kids working in a meatpacking plant, cleaning up entrails
20:26at midnight shift, not getting paid a dime because they were trafficked.
20:30We got 100,000 missing children.
20:33Now people want to attack myself and President Trump over family separation.
20:37Let me be clear on this.
20:40It was zero tolerance.
20:42The reason it was done is to try to save some lives.
20:46Maybe less women get raped.
20:48Maybe less children will die crossing this border if we prosecute those for entering
20:54the country illegally, which is a crime.
20:57Prosecute them and maybe it'll slow down.
21:00Maybe less women get — children get raped.
21:02Maybe less people die if there's a consequence.
21:05It wasn't about separation.
21:06It wasn't about punishing anybody.
21:08It's about saving lives.
21:10But then let's just turn around to this family separation, ripping a baby out of a mother's
21:14arms.
21:15Let me tell you something, law enforcement across this country does it thousands of times
21:20a day.
21:21When I was a cop, I separated families many times in New York.
21:24It's sad.
21:25You don't want to do it.
21:26When you arrest a parent and lock them up, the kid can't go with them.
21:29That was the whole purpose, to save lives.
21:32Less death.
21:33But they want to keep pointing to that.
21:35In the meantime, over 400,000 children have been smuggled into this country in the hands
21:40of criminal cartels.
21:41Self-separated from their families, put in the hands of criminal cartels.
21:45I just told you what a lot of these children go through.
21:48This government, Secretary Becerra of HHS, he was bragging two months ago, I watched
21:52him, bragging how quick they release these children from custody.
21:56No kidding.
21:57The vetting is a fraction of what the Trump administration did.
22:01We did DNA testing.
22:03They're releasing kids and now they can't find 100,000 of them?
22:07Let me tell you, based on my 34 years investigating this type of crime, many of these children
22:11are living with pedophiles.
22:12Many of these children are going and showing up in pornographic movies.
22:15Many of these children are forced labor.
22:16Do not tell me that this administration's policies is humane.
22:21I said it before, they're killing Americans at record numbers, they're killing migrants
22:24at record numbers, and they're causing a sex trade of children that are undeniable.
22:31Anybody can look at the data.
22:34When you wear my shoes, you stand back a tractor-trailer with 19 dead people at your feet, including
22:39a five-year-old little boy who begged to death.
22:42Every one of them in their underwear because they're trying to get some relief from the
22:45heat.
22:47I smelled it.
22:49I tasted it.
22:51It changed me forever because these people suffered a terrible, horrific death.
22:58When Trump had immigration down 90%, less of this stuff was happening.
23:04And why am I pissed?
23:06Because this administration came in and unsecured a border.
23:08Deaths are skyrocketing, rapes are skyrocketing, and we shouldn't be okay with that.
23:14So come at me all you want, hate me all you want.
23:17I'm doing the right thing for the right reasons.
23:20I love this country.
23:21I think President Trump's the greatest president I've ever worked for, and I can't wait for
23:26him to work for me — work for him again, because he will secure this border.
23:31Mark, look —
23:32Look, I got — I got to foot stomp a couple of things here.
23:36Every single time — I've heard Tom speak about those experiences, and every single
23:40time I still get chills, and then I get angry, and I get pissed off.
23:44My challenge to the liberal media back there — how many times have you mentioned under
23:50this presidency the 2,000 dead migrants that CBP has recovered?
23:56How many times?
23:57The number's zero.
23:58Zero.
24:00And that doesn't include the deaths in Mexico.
24:03That doesn't include the deaths in the Darien Gap, one of the most inhospitable places on
24:07the face of the planet.
24:10We know that Doctors Without Borders said up to 30 percent of young women and children
24:14are sexually assaulted or raped on the journey up here.
24:17I too have talked to countless border patrol agents and other law enforcement professionals
24:22on the border who tell me that they've interviewed a 12-year-old girl who raped — that she
24:26was — who encountered that she was raped multiple times.
24:30Or a 10-year-old who — they were going through her backpack and pills fell down on the ground,
24:35and they said, what is this?
24:36It's a morning-after pill.
24:37Where'd you get those?
24:38My mother gave them to me because she was expecting that I was going to be raped.
24:44How many times have you heard the liberal media talk about that truth?
24:50The answer is zero.
24:53And that's why you get frustrated.
24:55Tom is absolutely right.
24:56There's no safe, orderly, and humane illegal immigration process.
25:03That's an oxymoron.
25:04It doesn't exist.
25:05That's what this secretary and that's what this administration tries to get this country
25:09to believe, and it's all a lie.
25:13But we never hear about that.
25:16We never hear about — you know, how many times have we heard about a fentanyl overdose?
25:23Remember about a year and a half ago when the cadets from West Point went down to Florida
25:28and they took some cocaine?
25:29That was a mistake.
25:31But unbeknownst to them, it was laced with fentanyl, and a couple of them died.
25:35I read about a dozen reports of that.
25:37You know all but one, all but one never even mentioned that the fentanyl comes from the
25:42southwest border.
25:44We have illegal aliens that are apprehended inside the country that commit heinous acts
25:49against America, and we have law enforcement agencies in sanctuary cities that refuse to
25:54tell you that the crime was committed by an illegal alien.
25:58The liberal media is complicit in that, and I believe they hide that information from
26:02the American people to cover for this administration with respect to the magnitude of the chaos
26:08and lawlessness on our border that jeopardizes every aspect of our nation's economic, safety,
26:13and national security.
26:15Tom, I want to talk about the border itself, the idea of a border wall, and the idea that
26:25Remain in Mexico, you know, it's miraculous.
26:28I thought that President Trump negotiated and pulled that off, but it makes a lot of
26:32sense to me.
26:34Give us your perspective on how to actually secure the border itself.
26:39You want to secure the border?
26:41We have to obey everyone in Trump's policies.
26:42You do it in a week.
26:43The wall.
26:44I'll let Mark talk about the wall.
26:45I'll pass it over to him in a minute.
26:50The wall works.
26:52Every place they build a border barrier, illegal immigration went down, illegal drug flow went
26:56down, and guess what?
26:58Walls save lives.
26:59Because the people I'm talking about, the most vulnerable, the women and children, they're
27:02not getting over that wall.
27:03They're going to go to a place where there's not a wall.
27:05And what's waiting for them?
27:07The 20,000 American patriots wearing that green uniform who will take care of the humanitarian
27:11and medical needs.
27:12These are, let me touch on this, 20,000 men wearing that uniform, men and women wearing
27:18uniform are national heroes who were slandered by the Secretary of Homeland Security and
27:22the President of the United States at the White House podium for whipping black migrants.
27:26I watched that video.
27:28It took me a minute to figure out they didn't do anything wrong.
27:31They did exactly as they were trained.
27:33The horses did exactly as they were trained.
27:35The only one who did anything wrong that day were the Haitian migrants who came across
27:38the country illegally, which is a crime, ignored a federal order to take action, which is a
27:44felony.
27:45And no one talked about that.
27:46These men, to this day, Jason, their careers aren't the same.
27:49Their families and children were bullied in churches and schools, that your father's a
27:53racist.
27:54And to this day, no apologies, and these men still aren't 100% back to duty yet.
27:58I got off the subject, but I just want to bring it up.
28:00This is an important part because it was actually the Heritage Foundation, the Oversight Project,
28:05that pushed to get the Freedom of Information Act and exposed the idea that Secretary Mayorkas
28:11knew that this wasn't true even before he commented publicly on it.
28:15And what they put those Border Patrol agents through—
28:18It was incredible.
28:19I wore that uniform.
28:20It's the proudest moment, days of my life, wearing that green uniform.
28:22All right, let's get Mark—
28:23I need to—
28:24We're running out of time here.
28:25Remain in Mexico real quick, though.
28:26Okay.
28:27Remain in Mexico is a game-changer.
28:29People can still claim asylum, but they're going to wait in Mexico.
28:32Hey, if you win asylum, welcome to the United States.
28:34If you don't, we're not going to look for you, we're not going to remove you, because
28:37we know nine out of ten will get order removal.
28:39And the DHS Secretary's report, the lifestyle report, says only 6% leave that they get order
28:44removal if they're not in custody.
28:46So it's a game-changer.
28:47It worked.
28:48These policies work again.
28:49Mark, I want you to talk about the wall, because you built 465 miles of wall.
28:52Yeah, Tom, I know we've got to be quick here.
28:54So the wall—
28:55Here's— I want to mention a couple of things that shows the hypocrisy, right?
28:59So to be clear, and again, a lot of liberal media—
29:02You're never going to hear this from them, but we actually started building the wall
29:06under the Clinton administration.
29:07Did you know that?
29:08Yeah.
29:09It just sucked, but we were building infrastructure.
29:11It was then that we actually started— the Border Patrol, on their own, started to develop—
29:16and this is back in the early 90s— the multilayer strategy of infrastructure, technology, and
29:21personnel.
29:22And everywhere where we applied that multilayer strategy in the border, every single measure
29:26of success increased.
29:28After 9-11, the 2000 Secure Fence Act came, which actually codified that multilayer strategy,
29:34again, of infrastructure, technology, and personnel.
29:37And we had 85% of senators vote for the 2000 Secure Fence Act, including then-senators
29:43Biden, Clinton, Obama, I could— Schumer— the list goes on.
29:48And part of that mandate was— wait for it— to build 634 miles of wall in the 2000 Secure
29:55Fence Act.
29:56How many times do you hear about that anymore?
29:57In fact, the first two years of the Obama administration, we built 134 miles of wall.
30:04And now, President Trump comes along, and all of a sudden, it's immoral, effective,
30:08and racist.
30:09Right?
30:10It's a big lie.
30:11You've been lied to intentionally for the past three and a half years.
30:16It's a big scam.
30:18It's a big lie to villainize Trump and to actually further their agenda.
30:23But what we did, what Trump gave us, as Tom mentioned, he gave us those tools.
30:27And it wasn't just a wall.
30:28It was a wall system.
30:29It wasn't just steel and concrete in the ground, but it was integrated technology we had, state-of-the-art
30:34technology, access roads, lighting— the list goes on and on.
30:38But we didn't have— the Border Patrol agents didn't have to choose because we weren't just
30:41giving them infrastructure.
30:42We were giving them technology as personnel as well.
30:45And every single mile where we had that strategy, the border was secure.
30:51We have just five minutes left.
30:55The backlog that is now facing— I mean, now that there's so many people here, one of the
31:02things I was deeply concerned about is these administrative courts where the adjudication
31:07process happens.
31:09I was on the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives.
31:12I wanted to go watch one of these cases.
31:15They wouldn't allow me to go.
31:17I said, you want me to work to reauthorize these courts and to fund these courts?
31:21You won't even let me see it?
31:23They're not available for you as the American people to look at it.
31:26And that is so counter to how the American system should be.
31:31If you're going to court, you should be able to watch that and be able to see that and
31:35go watch it yourself.
31:37But now that we have, I don't know how many people in the backlog, there are people that
31:43are getting court dates that are nine years out.
31:46That was part of their plan.
31:50That's a part of their plan.
31:51They want to overwhelm the system to put court hearings back seven, eight years, knowing
31:55that 90% will lose, get order removal.
31:57But by then, they got two USC kids.
32:00They own a home.
32:01They have equities.
32:02That even when I was an ICE director, I had Republican senators call me and say, why'd
32:05you remove that guy with two USC kids?
32:07Well, he didn't have two USC kids to enter the country legally.
32:11He didn't have two USC kids who got ordered to move because he successfully hid out long
32:14enough.
32:15Now he's immune.
32:16The corridor doesn't mean anything.
32:18No.
32:19Under the next administration, all that garbage won't change.
32:22First of all, there needs to be an immigration officer in every immigration court.
32:25So when these are removed, put the cuffs on and remove them.
32:29Don't wait and don't release them.
32:30You got to take custody.
32:31But that is their plan.
32:33And we just saw it.
32:35Now they're going to get parole in place to a half a million people that have been here
32:39for more than 10 years.
32:41That is their plan.
32:42Overwhelm the system.
32:43Let them build equities and have U.S. citizen children.
32:45Then all of a sudden, I even get pushed back from the Republican side of the House on deporting
32:49people.
32:50Let me be clear on this.
32:52I'm going to double down on it.
32:54This isn't just a Democrat problem.
32:56We have some Republican congressmen, and I said it on TV not too long ago, for every
33:01Republican congressman who didn't vote to impeach Mayorkas, he shouldn't be there.
33:06They all be gone.
33:10So we got to take control of the immigration courts.
33:12We need a strong president, and I know who the strong president is, is President Trump.
33:17There was countries who wouldn't take their people back, and they're having that problem
33:20right now with China.
33:22But President Trump didn't take that.
33:23I sat in the Oval Office while he called presidents of these countries and said, you're going
33:25to take them back, or I'm going to pull every dollar of international aid away from you.
33:30And guess what?
33:31Within 48 hours, we have plane loads going to those countries.
33:34President Trump thought out of the box.
33:36He said, Tom, how do we deal with these inculturated countries, and how do we deal with this?
33:39I said, well, every administration, every administration sends billions of dollars down
33:42there to create opportunity zones so these people don't have to leave.
33:46How does that work, though?
33:47It doesn't work.
33:48Because these countries are corrupt, never get to where it needs to go, and the people
33:51want to come to the greatest nation on Earth.
33:52He goes, OK, well, I'm not going to give him a dollar.
33:55I'm going to start taking money away.
33:56When he started taking money away, you've got the Remain in Mexico program, military
33:59on the northern and southern border, you've got the Third Safe Country Agreements.
34:03President Trump, he put America first, and he called these countries and said, you're
34:06going to do this for not only your own good, but for the good of this nation, or I'm going
34:11to penalize you.
34:12And it works.
34:13We need a strong president with a backbone that's going to do that.
34:15So talk about strength, right?
34:18Forever, the most iconic picture I think is going to go down in the history of this country.
34:23After President Trump was shot in the head, what does he do?
34:27Fist bump and says, fight, fight, fight, right?
34:31That's the strength of the man that Tom and I, Jason, know.
34:35That's the strength of the man we know.
34:36And to give you an example, so the Remain in Mexico program that Jason mentioned, the
34:40most successful, one of the most successful policies, it reduced illegal immigration by
34:4385 percent.
34:45You know how we got that done?
34:47President Trump sent out a tweet, right, that said, Mexico, you're going to support
34:51this, or I'm going to come down with tariffs, and I'm going to destroy your GDP.
34:55Shocker, the next night, the president said, I'm all in.
34:59That's the strength we need from the president of the United States.
35:03And I want to — I know we got a minute, let me — I want to share this with you.
35:10When you get home tonight, I want you to think about what I said.
35:15People are dying every day on that border.
35:17Women and children are getting sexually assaulted on that border every day.
35:22People, this isn't a political issue.
35:25This would be a, this would be a non-bipartisan — every Republican, Democrat, Independent
35:31should be for border security.
35:32I say this all the time, what's the downside on a secure border?
35:36What's the downside on less drugs?
35:37What's the downside on less terrorism?
35:39What's the downside on less sex trafficking?
35:41There's no downside.
35:43Everybody should want to secure this border.
35:45And we're going to have a president in January 2025 who's going to do just that.
35:53This portion of the program is — and I just want to leave you one thought.
35:57The people that we're failing are the people that are trying to come here legally and lawfully.
36:01The people who are willing to do it the right way, they're coming in line, you know what,
36:05they get bypassed.
36:06They are the ones that we're failing.
36:12And if you come here legally and lawfully, you can be welcomed into this country.
36:16There is a uniform rule.
36:19There is a uniform way to actually go through the process.
36:24And so don't think for a moment that Republicans or the right or whatever is anti-immigration.
36:31It's what Mark said earlier.
36:33There's a legal path and there's an illegal path.
36:36And what we stand for, what I personally believe, I should say, is that you've got
36:41to do it legally and lawfully.
36:43And if you're doing something illegally and you're getting every metric going the wrong
36:47direction, you have to change that.
36:49So thank you so much.
36:50Tom Homan, Mark Morgan.
36:52Thanks.
36:53Same way?
36:54Thanks, guys.
36:55Yep.