In a radio interview on Tuesday, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said that U.S. Border Patrol agents are facing the “worst crisis” the agency has ever seen since its formation in 1924.
When asked about the 20,000 migrants that Mexico warned are presently approaching the border, Judd said there is not much Border Patrol can do.
“We ultimately end up letting them go,” Judd said on WMAL. “They cross the border illegally and then we give them what we call a ‘notice to appear,’ and we release them on their own recognizance and what that means is they promise us that they will return for all of their proceedings, but we know that they never do…They know this, that’s why the numbers are so large.”
“This is the worst crisis we have ever faced in the history of the Border Patrol, and we’re going back to 1924. In my twenty-one year career as a Border Patrol agent, I’ve never seen it like this.”
“It’s never been like this before this is the worst it’s ever been and if we don’t do something, it’s going to continue to get worse.”
Judd said he is in favor of President Trump closing the border — a course of action the president warned he might pursue in a tweet on Saturday.
“Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures,” Judd said. “Now, that’s going to be a very drastic, again extraordinary to close down the ports of entry, but what he is doing is he is looking at hitting them where it counts the most and that’s in the pocketbook. The Mexican economy relies upon those ports of entry to get their goods into the United States. Mexico is our third largest trading partner. So if those ports of entry shut down, it shuts down their commerce, it hits their economy, and that then gets the outcry to the government to actually do something.”
Judd added that the Mexican government needs to start securing its own southern border. “They have extremely tough immigration laws, yet people are tracing across their border like it’s nothing. They’re working their way up to our border and they are crossing our border illegally.” Judd added that he believes the Mexican government is “complicit in the crimes that are being committed” because they are “aiding and abetting because they are doing nothing to stop it.”
Judd said he believes that, in the long run, closing the border will be “very beneficial.”
When asked why this crisis is happening now and not under the Obama administration, Judd said that migrants are learning how to obtain asylum with the help of immigrant rights groups who “give them all the coaching that they need.”
“They just found out that this is what works,” Judd said.
Judd said that in March, Border Patrol arrested around 100,000 people.
“In the month of March we arrested 100,000 people,” Judd said. “If 100,000 people all say that they have a fear for their life, that’s genocide in their own country. That’s not happening. We all know that’s not happening. And then if you look at the numbers this year, we already arrested 400,000 people. That means 400,000 people are claiming that they fear for their life. That’s not realistic. That’s not happening.”
On Sunday, The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported that a “spring surge” in migration is taking place, resulting in Central American families and unaccompanied minors flooding the border.