Obama’s former Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan responded to President Donald Trump’s Wednesday speech on illegal immigration by noting that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents regularly apprehend “murderers, rapists, pedophiles, other violent offenders, and gang members.”
Morgan made the remarks while appearing on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with host Tucker Carlson immediately following Trump’s Oval Office address.
“Before I was even chief of Border Patrol, I served on the FBI for two decades,” he told Carlson. “One of my assignments was I led the El Paso office. From my office right on the border, I could see Juarez. Every day, Tucker, we worked the DEA and all components of DHS. And we worked human trafficking cases, we worked drug cases, and we worked drug and gang cases, all impacting the southern border.”
“And then as chief, every single day, Tucker, I was briefed every single day about the men and women who are risking their lives every day and they’re apprehending murderers, rapists, pedophiles, other violent offenders, and gang members,” Morgan continued. “That is not manufactured, that is real, and that’s a fact and it’s still happening today.”
Morgan also addressed the Democrats’ unsubstantiated claim that this is a “manufactured crisis,” a notion that even The Washington Post dismisses.
“And I would say, one last point is, 127 Border Patrol agents have died,” Morgan added. “They didn’t die playing Monopoly. They died defending, being the frontline defenders of our borders, trying to apprehend 17,000 people, the bad people, that Secretary Nielsen mentioned. I wondered if he asked their families if this was a manufactured crisis.”
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Full transcript provided via NewsBusters:
TUCKER CARLSON: Joining us tonight is Mark Morgan he’s the former head of the Border Patrol under Barack Obama was then replaced by the Trump administration and we’re glad to talk to him again for the second time this week. Mr. Morgan, thanks a lot for coming back. When you hear the term “Manufactured crisis” from politicians and their lackeys in the press, what is your response?
MARK MORGAN: My response is those people that are saying that—Anybody that says that, Tucker, is misinformed and they’re misleading the American people. So before I was even chief of Board Patrol, I served on the FBI or two decades. One of my assignments was I led the El Paso office. From my office right on the border, I could see Juarez. Every day, Tucker, we worked the DEA and all components of DHS. And we worked human trafficking cases, we worked drug cases, and we worked drug and gang cases, all impacting the southern border.
And then as chief, every single day, Tucker, I was briefed every single day about the women you are risking their lives every day and they’re apprehending murderers, rapists, pedophiles, other violent offenders, and gang members. That is not manufactured, that is real, and that’s a fact and it’s still happening today.
And I would say, one last point is, 127 Border Patrol agents have died. They didn’t die playing Monopoly. They died defending, being the frontline defenders of our borders, trying to apprehend 17,000 people, the bad people, that Secretary Nielsen mentioned. I wondered if he asked their families if this was a manufactured crisis.
CARLSON: I do wonder that. I do wonder what people serving on the border of all backgrounds and political beliefs think when, they hear these self-appointed experts on television refer to this as a manufactured crisis.
MORGAN: And I think that’s the point. Self-appointed experts. Go to the experts that are really working that. I’ll say, the President has done that. The President is talking to the leadership of CBP and the Border Patrol, and the rank in & file, and those are experts and they’re saying, “the wall works”. It doesn’t work everywhere. It’s not the end all to be all, but it works.
CARLSON: So I want to run a couple of facts by you that I can watch journalists tell me last night in the fact-check segments. The first is that drugs don’t really come across our border. They come through our ports is that true.
MORGAN: Again, a complete disingenuous statement. So you want to say, because more drugs enter the points of entry, therefore it’s not a problem in between the ports. That’s just fictitious. It is correct, more drugs, enter throughout point of entry. But Tucker, millions and millions of pounds of drugs, still enter through the ports of entry.
(…)
CARLSON: Now, I saw a lot of people who had the air of authority about them, and really seemed to know what they were talking about, last night claim that every study has shown that illegal immigrants to this country, commit crime at a lower rate than native-born Americans. We do this topic a lot and we’re pretty converse in the social science of it. I’ve never seen that study. Where are those numbers from, do you know?
MORGAN: I’ve never seen the study either and I pose that to somebody to show me that stat and show me how they can come up with that. Because can I show you the opposite. The sheriff Yuma Arizona just published an article today, where he talked about in 2005, when they started putting the fence — the wall up in his area, violent crime, all crime drastically reduced in his area.
CARLSON: So you’re saying — I don’t want to blow anyone’s mind here, but the people telling us that they were fact-checking the speech may not have really known what they were talking about?
MORGAN: That’s absolutely what I’m saying.