Protection commissioner mark morgan now on lawenforcement efforts at the southern border. From the National Press club this is about one hour. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here to todays newsmaker interview. Today our guest . Morgan who is the acting commissioner of customs and Border Protection. It is one of the dhs agencies and it is the largest lawEnforcement Agency in the country and brings in the secondhighest amount of revenue of any Law Enforcement agency and id venture to say probably more popular than the one that brings in the most which is the irs but [laughter] thank you for being here. Of course. The acting commissioners had a long and established career in Law Enforcement, including while he was named to his present post in june of this year and prior to taking the job of actingg commissioner he has been chief of Border Patrol and has been the special agent in charge of the fbi in el paso so plenty of border experience. He has had a number of roles in Law Enforcement and in intelligence and counterterrorism, Violent Crimes my gang suppression, a lot of things that relate directly to his job today and he has been a Deputy Sheriff and a Los Angeles Police officer. Not only that but has an engineering degree and a law degree. So, it is my great pleasure to welcome i think commissioner mark morgan. Thank you for being here. Thank you. I also have to say former marine. I had that on my list off mac semper fi. Thank you. Thank you for coming. I want to let everyone know that commissioner morgan will be in the hot seat for a while with my question but if you have questions that you would like to have asked please feel out the index card that we are providing and i will go for 3035 minutes and then we will take questions from the audience. I think i will jump right in and its a topic i think Everyone Wants to know about the most. Can you give us an update on what is happening at the southwest border . Sure, we talked about the southwest border we have to put it into pockets. One is the crisis with respect to immigration and the other is what i Call National security crisis. As of late, for understandable reasons, we are talking about the Immigration Crisis. Let me start with that. The drivers really, the focus over the last year plus has really been the migration flow from the northern tribal countries, specifically the families and the reason that is been the focus is something ive talked a lot about and that is the broken Legal Framework right now, specifically the Settlement Agreement would had a significant loophole which said if you come to a country with a child you can only hold you 20 days and instantly was not long toough to get the immigration process rate that was the genesis of catch and release. The Border Patrol we would apprehend these families entering the country illegally and release them into the United States oftentimes within days and we really had to fix that. The last six months, this president and administration, cbp along with Partner Agencies instituted a network of initiatives and policies and rules and regulations that have given us the tools to close those loopholes. The height of may we had 144,000 apprehensions in may alone, six months later 42000 apprehensions. Again we targeted that demographic of the northern triangle countries, family units specifically, coming in. How do you know thats not just seasonal . The numbers will tell you. Ouseasonal, in fact, its ironi, seasonally in october the numbers go up, believe it or no, november seasonally and some demographics numbers go up and weve seen it steadily decrease. For the past six months those numbers have steadily declined, even though seasonal times weve seen increase in the previous years. What we have seen specifically in the family units from the height of may till the end of last month six months we saw and 85 reduction in families. On that front weve made otremendous strides. Again, close those loopholes. What we are seeing is a change in the demographics though. You and i talk about this and what happens often is its not a surprise but the cartels, Human Smuggling Organizations, they change what we call their ttps, tactics, techniques and procedures. They thought we were making progress towards stemming the flow of illegal immigrations in the northern triangle countries and taking billions of dollars out of the pocket and they shifted. They shifted to supporting additional migration from extra continental countries as well as mexican nationalists. So far away not just Central Americans l or even latin america correct. Indians, africans, haitians, brazilians, the list goes on and on and thats what we refer to his extra continental, other than the northern tribal triangle countries. Tim numbers on what we were seeing of extra continental . We are seeing thousands of each of those groups and we are seen for each of those time last year that we see two, three 100 of what we saw last year and overall those numbers relatively are fairly manageable but when you start combining it and start buen it as an increased issue we need to get out in front of it. Mexican nationals, especially countries, they are going to the families and tell them that the munitions they have they dont fly so you grab a kid that will be a passport in the United States but i can assure you were taking the same process with initiatives we use in the northern triangle countries and we apply to extra continental countries and mexican nationals. This week we started we call our i we are flying individuals now come election nationals into the interior of mexico to other locations. Overall what i refer to as right now where we are at is we have all but ended catch and release specifically for the northern triangle countries. Because its been reported that in about the remains the migrant protection protocol policies of having people who apply for asylum weight in mexico for their proceedings and its been reported that that has been applied to about 55000 and is that individuals or all demographics and individuals and families and yes, its been around 55000 that we have found for that program that are in mexico as they go grthrough their due process, immigration proceedings here in the United States. But there have been hundreds of thousands of arrivals andy family units from the northern triangle countries and elsewhe elsewhere. What happened to the rest . I would estimate what 400,000 family units, i think. Again, you go to the height of may and 75 of those were family units, families coming from the northern triangle countries over the last six months because of initiatives we were reducing our flow by 85 meaning theyre just not coming anymore. This iss really an important pat will think ive tried to say is for those individuals and the country stop listening to the cartels but stop listening to the Human Smuggling Organizations. They are lying to you but they are excluding you and getting rich off your backs by exploiting these vulnerable migrants and now because of where we are at in the initiatives and tools we have no longer is a child their immediate passport into the United States. We have all but shut that down. Im trying to tell the families do not listen to the cartels. They are lying to you. 85 reduction. Or so, today if a family arrivel asking for asylum . No, thats a good point. Traditionally they have asked for asylum because they did not have to. Before the Settlement Agreement they said we cannot retain new longer than 20 days regardless of whether you claimed asylum or not. That still holds. Congress and i said i will continue to say it, we are doing this because this president and this administration is a congress has failed to pass a single piece of new legislation that would address this. They know what to do. It would take them 15 minutes, single piece of paper and they could and 9095 of this Immigration Crisis. What would that say . It would address the Settlement Agreement which said we could detain the visuals longer than 20 days and we could detain them during their immigration proceeding whichmi takes on the average of 5060 ndays for it in addition to that we could also send children, unaccompanied minors from the northern triangle countries, we could its in the back to their families from where they came in their home country. Some of the families are here. Some are here but some of the families are there. Mexico, for example, mexico or canada if you are an unaccompanied child from mexico or canada we can send you back to your families but if youre from the northern triangle countries we can. We have to keep you. C that should be addressed by congress and the last thing is the credible standard initially. There is no standard. Ay to have credible fear only in the end there found not to be credible then to give i. C. E. Morbid space what did cbp get for this work . We one positive fact we got in this in the spending bill was 1. 375 for the wall. Thats going to be significant for us. We are going to be able to use that current funding to continue to build the wall so that significant for us. And one of the tools. Im sure well talk about that. I do want to come back to one thing with respect to the application of this network of policies. Since were talking about the microprotection protocols, stick with that for a minute. I wantto to reiterate, this is going to apply the family unit from the northern triangle. Its going to apply to a family unit that the rice of mexico . So dull. Right now is not applying to mexico but we are in negotiations with mexico to expand that. Again as i started explained although we have addressed greatly i didnt get illegal migration flow from a the nortn triangle of countries what were seeing is an increase from in a cot middles increase a mexican nationals, single adults and films which those initiatives is where open the mexico are not being applied but were working with mexico to expand that. Were also working with the government of guatemala and honduras to sign an asylum coopted agreement to expand that so they will receive mexican nationals as well. So were working with the countries. The ironic thing is right now we have other countries that are stepping up, seen its original crisis and are doing more to help us that her own congress i is. Thats an important statement. It is. What about one less thing on the migrant protection protocols, and that is what about the extra continental families, people coming from africa, middle east, so on . Are they weighed in mexico as well . Its expanding. Right now what the occurred with agreement with mexico in spanishspeaking countries but again we are in consultation with mexico as the smuggling organizations i can change their tpp we are according with mexico, giving that informatin and asking for assistance to expand that to accept extra continental countries. We are confident they will agree to that and as well will have the same conversation, we are with the government of guatemala, honduras and el salvador where we have those acasnd present except of the demographics as well. Right now some of those would be allowed to enter reasonably detained in an appropriate custodial situation . Correct. And possibly released if it cant be done in 20 days. Correct. It was reported today by i believe ap excuse me, reuters reported today that this announcement about interior repatriation that its been done often in the past and it is now being launched again, that theres potential for having mexicans go actually to guatemala. Can you explain that . Yes. I get under the aca, the genesis of that and this is very important, the genesis, if someone has an asylum claim, what were trying to encourage is a couple of things. One is reach out and get assistance. If you have a legitimate asylum claim you should be reaching out and try tosh get relief in the first country you come to. Logical. Logical. Dont give your life savings to the cartel. Dont listen to the cartels for lying to you. Dont listen to the cartels and smuggling organizations that are going to abuse you a treat you know better than a piece of trash, a commodity. The other day we apprehended a tractortrailer load of immigrants trying to illegal entry. They had tshirts on that had a letter spraypainted on it and mark underhand. They were marked like cattle. What im try to do is to listen to those organizations. They will treat you like cattle, treat you like a commodity. If you have a legitimate asylum claim get relief in the first country. Thats the genesis behind aca. We have the ability to apply that aca to mexican nationals as well. Na were having those discussions with guatemala to expand that to again share this as a regional crisis. Americas not the only country that borders mexico. We should share the Immigration Crisis as regional partners and thats what guatemala, honduras and el salvador are stepping up to do. Do you think these other countries are well equipped to handle, those are might actually be bona fide asylum claim . If you think about it one is when working with them every single day to improve the capacity that we just released funding back to the northern triangle countries, millions of dollars, specifically designed to improve their asylum capacity as was their interior enforcement ability to go after cartels and smuggling organizations. During the height of the crisis the United States of america, we were overwhelmed. There is no single country in the world that can handle the level and the volume at the height of the crisis, not even the United States. Thats why we have to Work Together with the northern triangle countries, mexico and other countries to address this as a regional crisis that it is. The fact we are policies in place that in a bold and encouraged this flow of people and had the effect of enriching the criminal cartels, thats an important issue with huge implications for mexico as well. Its in their interest to try to address it because its not just human smuggling. Theres the threat, the criminal threat of the cartels. They dont just muggle humans. They also smuggle drugs. Gang members are taking advantage of this. I read on your website where your offices are painting Something Like 400 some ms13 members a year, which is one a day, and thats just one of the transnational gangs that is exploited this opportunity to take advantage of our policies to get here. Youre right. Thats just who we catch. That dovetails into the second part we dont talk enough about, the National Security crisis. When we talk about the crisis its not just the immigration and he mentioned crisis. Its nationals could crisis as well. One aspect of that is what you said, gang members. We apprehended over 1000 and members 22 different gangs and thats just who we apprehended. The Human Smuggling Organization and cartels are using the humanitarian effort to draw board of virtual agents off the line trying to drawing the hei of the typical agent were taken off the line to really care for kids and families. What do you think the Human Smuggling Organizations were doing . There were exploding debt. They were doing it by design. They would send large caravans in one area so that the Border Police would go and address that. Meanwhile, be distracted. Of the 1000 gang members. Drugs last year, cbp seized over 800,000 pounds of drugs. Think about that. 800,000 pounds. Another 300,000 pounds of drugs, heroin, meth, fentanyl, cocaine all those hard narcotics with of last year. Fentanyl, one sector out of nine sectors seized 11 pounds, enough to kill 2 Million People in the tray. Last year alone 68,000 individuals in this country died because of direct resultdu of overdose of illicit narcotics. 68,000 people, more people than died in the entire vietnam conflict. Theres another thing that i say, every town, city and state in this country is a border town city and state because mark my words if you have a meth overdose in ohio, mark my words that came from the southwest border. What mexico is doing is there able to produce meth which is skyrocketed up faster, cheaper, and its more potent. A lot of times meth was manufactured in the United States. Thats going to enter mexico is grading superlattice. We have laws that discourage that. Thats right. When we talk about the crisis of the border, when you talk about the need for a wall as one tool, its not just an at stemming te flow of illegal immigration. Its about also stopping the drugs pouring into this country that killed 68,000 people last year. This affects every community in our country as well, and its an issue for mexico as well in terms of corruption and the money that the cartels have to throw around. Absolutely. How much of a threat other cartels to the United States . A lot of people make the claim that there is little risk of Cartel Activity overflowing into the United States because they are afraid of euros Law Enforcement or a number of other reasons they give. Do you agree with that . It depends on how you shape that appear in the talk about pilots, one thing. But he could talk about Cartel Activity impacting this country, heck yeah. We just described the drugs pouring in, 60,000 deaths, cartoon of a soldiers operate in mexico. They are in the United States. They operate stash houses. O they have their networks in every city state conten