Former head of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan joins the Great America Show to discuss the latest on the border wall, immigration, and much more. Great America is a podcast that focuses on the intersection of politics, economics, and economics.
00:01:28.220The big deal this week is who will be Speaker of the House.
00:01:32.560President Trump scheduled to be on Capitol Hill to whip the conference on electing a Speaker.
00:01:37.840Trump initially said he would be open to serving as Speaker in an interim basis while the Republicans vote on who they want to be the Speaker of the House.
00:01:47.620It's unclear whether Trump is still set to make an appearance after he enthusiastically endorsed Jim Jordan to be Speaker at the end of last week.
00:01:56.720The Republicans are doing, I think, pretty well.
00:02:09.280He either wins the presidency or the country loses.
00:02:13.060The country, in my judgment, will soon be no more if he were to lose.
00:02:17.080And with Jim Jordan as Speaker of the House, the Republicans can unite under two men who will lead the nation back from the brink of what could have been a Marxist-dim disaster and a final disaster.
00:02:30.780Among the most important issues President Trump faces, the southern border.
00:03:13.900That's more in that sector than in the last 11 years combined.
00:03:18.680So yes, we have a northern border problem.
00:03:22.360No reason to think the Biden regime will do anything about the northern border either.
00:03:27.520America under Biden is simply being invaded by illegals in numbers never imagined.
00:03:33.480It didn't take long for the Marxist-dim secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, to change the narrative of what's happening at the border.
00:03:43.480He, in fact, does President Trump really a favor by letting the American people know that Trump is the reason for any additional wall being built.
00:03:53.380I want to address today's reporting relating to a border wall and be absolutely clear.
00:04:02.360There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall.
00:06:18.660This is the worst lawlessness, chaotic, whatever adjective you want to use to describe the open borders that we've ever had in our nation's history.
00:07:38.360When a mother and father has to bury their 15-year-old daughter that she thought she was taking a Percocet that was laced with fentanyl that came from the wide-open southwest border.
00:07:47.080And they had to bury her, their 15-year-old daughter.
00:07:51.940So they caved to avoid bad political optics to keep the government funded.
00:07:58.200Meanwhile, they've literally allowed the cartels to remain, have operational control over a border to push criminals, drugs, and national security threats through our country.
00:08:06.440You know, I feel like the fellow that, you know, you're at a party or whatever, and everybody makes a joke.
00:09:32.860And I don't understand why we've got, what, 50,000 people in the Border Patrol, why we're even messing with Customs,
00:09:38.940because the Chinese are bringing whatever they want to, including fentanyl, across that border, 2,000 miles wide open.
00:09:46.460Come on into the United States, and nobody seems to give a single damn.
00:09:50.820Yeah, no, Lou, actually, I'm agreeing with you.
00:09:52.920Look, I'm a proponent that DHS is a failed experiment.
00:09:56.600I understand why it was created, and the intentions back then were good, I believe.
00:10:00.860But it has failed since the couple of decades that it's been there.
00:10:05.320And I'm actually a proponent that it needs to be disbanded, as you just stated.
00:10:10.560Look, I'm for then taking and creating a strong border security agency that actually, though, the key is they're actually allowed to do their job.
00:10:20.800They're actually allowed to enforce the law.
00:10:22.920They're actually allowed to protect and defend our nation's border and go after the cartels to stop drugs, criminals, and national security threats from pouring in.
00:10:31.240And right now, the Border Patrol, you're right, they're not able to do that.
00:10:34.320That's why their morale is the lowest it's ever been since Border Patrol was created in 1924, because they're not allowed to do their law enforcement mission or their national security mission.
00:10:44.540They are right now, they've become nothing more than a processing agency, nothing more than a federal-sanctioned travel agency for the millions, millions of illegal aliens that have crossed over our borders and filed fraudulent asylum claims.
00:11:00.980And that's why I say the result of that is we've literally handed operational control of our borders to the cartels.
00:11:07.700They're laughing all the way to the bank as they exploit migrants and they push threats across our borders, killing Americans every single day, like you just described.
00:11:16.460And sex trafficking and you name it, it's just, it's an outrage.
00:11:20.320And by the way, too many people along that border on the northern side are pretty comfortable with the situation, aren't they?
00:11:25.840They're getting pretty flush, as a matter of fact, while this is happening, because let's be really honest, those border states, there's enough corruption at the southern end of those states to really bedazzle the world.
00:11:40.580I mean, we have to have some law enforcement agency in this country who actually wants to enforce the law and protect this country, but it isn't the FBI, it isn't the DEA, it's alcohol, tobacco, and firearms spend all their time.
00:11:55.840They're trying to crush gun rights and gun shop owners.
00:11:59.640I mean, what in the world are we going to do?
00:12:02.060Yeah, and I think, look, from the highest level, what you're saying, I think, is what most Americans feel right now.
00:12:08.820That's why the public's trust has eroded, you know, in the Department of Justice, the FBI, and those other agencies you just talked about.
00:12:14.740Now, I still believe, and you know, Lou, I spent, you know, my entire adult life as a career federal agent.
00:12:20.480And so I still believe that the majority rank and file are their heart and minds are in the right place, and they want to do the right thing for the right reasons why they swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, why they put that badge and gun on a hostel every single day.
00:12:34.460What we really are talking about is the top echelon, the top leadership, and it's being directed by the administration.
00:12:39.940This isn't going to change until we get somebody in the White House that actually cares about this country, actually cares about the rule of law and upholding and defending the Constitution.
00:12:51.340And until that happens, I think it's just going to get worse.
00:12:54.580And I think you can look to the southern border as an illustrative example of how when you have the right person in the White House, how things change.
00:13:02.340And when you have the wrong person, how it goes downhill.
00:13:16.400We're back with Mark Morgan, a former commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, serving the nation throughout his career as a federal agent.
00:13:26.460And I have to say, in the FBI as well.
00:13:30.400And I want to say, Mark, speaking of things that really anger me, infuriate me, and absolutely, I'm just frustrated out of my mind when I look at what's happened to this federal government.
00:13:47.320Taxpayers are paying to have a target on their foreheads put there by the FBI, the CIA.
00:13:53.500You name the alphabet agency, the intelligence community, the Department of Justice, parents want to go to a school board meeting.
00:14:02.860We're all told to go to hell and get out of the way and shut up and sit down.
00:14:07.800I've had a belly full of this federal government, and I've had a belly full of people who rationalize it.
00:14:15.66020 years in the FBI, I'm disheartened of what I see right now.
00:14:18.720And, Lou, I talk to agents that are active agents now as well as retired agents, and those that I talk to feel very similar.
00:14:27.060And, again, I really want to foot stomp that the overwhelming majority of the rank and file, they're out there doing the right things for the right reasons.
00:14:35.020And the FBI, for example, they're still doing incredible investigations protecting this country every single day, full stop.
00:14:42.100However, however, there's the other side that you just described.
00:14:46.620It's the reason why the public's perception in the FBI and the Department of Justice has been eroded.
00:17:30.160How about we have Director Wray take that same approach and admit that some of the memos and admit that some of the arrests that have been made were over the top and how that he understands how American people can develop the perception that there's a two tier system of justice and their trust in this, you know, 100 plus year agency has been eroded.
00:18:18.940We know that they tried to frame innocent citizens.
00:18:21.800We're talking about frame a president, to frame a national security advisor, to absolutely throw their weight behind two candidates, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when they wanted to run against President Trump.
00:18:40.600These are ignorant and absolutely mendacious and dangerous, dangerous people we're talking about here.
00:18:50.400This is this is not a it's not a Boy Scout camp now.
00:18:54.820This is a country that is at war with its own government because they have targeted us and they mean to destroy us and this country.
00:19:03.720And just look at the last eight years, what they've done to President Trump, done to a host of the people who support him.
00:19:11.160This is if people don't understand right now that the federal government is controlled by the Marxist stems in the deep state and they mean to crush us and the American way of life.
00:19:48.240What I'm trying to say is, is that the problem, Ray is part of the problem because he could really make a lot of this go away if he would just address it honestly, if he would just say we've made mistakes, if we would just say he understands how this perception and this is what we're going to do to prevent it.
00:20:05.460And but then most importantly, what he does, and I've seen him testify, I've seen him give interviews and he projects this this typical arrogance from the leadership right now under this administration that he attacks anyone, anyone who challenges their motives or their actions.
00:22:15.460I think our nation is in real trouble.
00:22:18.000And unfortunately, I think because what you said, and I've said it is Democrats, when it comes to borders specifically,
00:22:24.240the Democrats created the crisis, but the Republicans lack the political courage and will to actually fix it.
00:22:30.340And so I think, right, I think we're stuck until 2024 and we get somebody back in the White House like President Trump that understood that border security is synonymous with national security and knows and understands how to fix it and how to secure it and that will do that.
00:22:44.960You know, we were talking with Steve Friend, who's a FBI whistleblower.
00:22:49.500I don't know if you know him, but a great American.
00:22:52.240And I asked him what he thought should be done with the FBI.
00:22:56.280And he said, we should just smash it to pieces and start again.
00:23:00.800I want to find out what you think, Mark Morgan, what we ought to do about a host of agencies, the FBI, the Border Patrol, the DHS, and go from there.
00:23:24.660I'm I'm particularly piqued, I guess, as the saying goes today.
00:23:28.780It's just it's just stupefying to think that we as a people have gotten ourselves and this great, great nation into such such a disastrous mess.
00:23:42.680We have permitted it if we haven't instigated and created it.
00:23:46.880We're certainly perpetuating it with our cowardice and our laziness and our our pathetic apathy.
00:23:52.720What do you think we should do about the DOJ, which is obviously corrupt?
00:23:57.920We've got hundreds of our fellow citizens, prisoners of war to these Marxist leftists of the FBI, the Department of Justice.
00:24:07.140We've got a nation just reeling from millions of illegal immigrants being dumped in this country over the past two and a half years.
00:24:15.480What's your thought on the FBI, the DHS, the Border Patrol, all of it?
00:24:56.840The functions that are like the border security function in there.
00:24:59.720You can take ICE and CBP and other functions and create one entity that's really so focused is going to be to secure our borders, all of them, land, air and sea.
00:25:09.700Now, when you come over to the FBI, again, that's a component within the Department of Justice.
00:25:27.040There's no other entity right now in the federal government that can do some of the things that the FBI does on a couple of fronts.
00:25:33.740Counterintelligence front, cyber front, as well as the terrorism front.
00:25:39.420There's no other domestic entity right now in this country that can take on those responsibilities that the FBI is doing.
00:25:47.120Having said that, the FBI is in serious trouble.
00:25:50.100The FBI has to regain the public's trust that's being eroded.
00:25:54.720One way that I think you can do that is to maybe carve off some aspects of what the FBI does, as well as you're going to have to gut the leadership in the FBI.
00:26:06.200The public has to believe that anybody that's part of this issue right now is no longer able to influence the future direction of the FBI.
00:26:16.720I think Dr. Ray should have done that when he took over and he did it.
00:26:20.140And I think that was one of his fundamental flaws.
00:26:41.600We will run the largest deportation operation in the history of the country.
00:26:47.820So we've got with I guess I'm guessing here like everybody else.
00:26:52.240No one really knows, including the agencies.
00:26:53.980But my guess is there are at least I'm going to say eight to 12 million illegals who've made it their way into the country in the past two and a half years.
00:27:28.720The first 32 months, we've had 7.5 million total nationwide encounters and known guideways are 1.6 million, which goes to your point, though.
00:27:49.760So you could, in my opinion, you could easily say the past 32 months, we're getting near 10 million.
00:27:55.820And by the end of Biden's first full term for years, you're going to be in the 13 to 14 million total nationwide encounters and guideways easily.
00:28:27.000The majority of illegal aliens sit down, turn themselves into border of Tokyo because they know they're going to be processed and released in the United States.
00:28:33.660Because those are where even this administration would detain or remove them because they're criminals, murderers, rapists, podipers, aggravated felon and gang members.
00:28:42.6401.6 million have invaded this country and now call the United States home.
00:29:11.120And Lou, you said something very important that President Trump says right now that I'm not seeing anybody else say it's a multilayer strategy.
00:29:18.580Oh, so, you know, I've heard some candidates get real tough about, oh, I'm going to secure the border.
00:29:32.340You've got to go after and force Mexico to step up and increase their interior enforcement and secure their borders.
00:29:38.060You've got to force the Northern Triangle countries to do the same.
00:29:41.340You've got to put resources on our border.
00:29:43.060And you actually have to increase interior enforcement as well.
00:29:47.620You have to do all of those things to be successful, to deter the flow, and secure our borders, and protect and defend the American people.
00:30:17.480At one point, because I was there as commissioner, Mexico had about 25,000 personnel engaged in this global issue that it is.
00:30:24.940He was increasing interior enforcement.
00:30:26.800He was securing his own southern border.
00:30:28.540And that led, by February of 2020, we had reduced illegal immigration by 85 percent because of what Trump forced Mexico to do, as well as our own network of tools, stories, and policies that we had implemented.