Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Says 'Fences and Walls' Not Enough To Curb Illegal Immigration
Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Roy Villarea told Fox News on Monday that in his 30 years as an agent, he has never witnessed what agents are facing today at the border.
In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” he said that the border is being “overwhelmed with migrants, principally family units and children and then people that are from countries other than Mexico.”
Villarea told the news station that “for the first time in Border Patrol history,” most of the illegals authorities are capturing aren’t from the United States’ southern neighbor.
Instead, he said that the majority of people they arrest are “people from China, Bangladesh, India, and of course Central America.”
When asked what kind of technology he wanted at the border, Villarea said the country needs a “border enforcement system.”
Villarea said that “there is no singular solution” when it comes to curbing illegal immigration, and what they need “is a combination of factors.”
He added that what he would like to see is, “a border infrastructure, roads that provide access to the border, technology, ground sensors, night vision cameras, drones and then, of course, wall or fencing to secure the border.”
“It is a comprehensive system. It’s complex. It’s multifaceted, and what we need is an entire border enforcement system,” Villarea added.
Villarea was then asked how a wall would help in this “current situation.”
Villarea replied, “After 30 years of working in border enforcement, I can attest to the fact that walls, border fences do work. I was here in the San Diego back in the late ’80s, early ’90s.”
“We began putting up fences in the mid-1990s and that had a dramatic impact on the flow of illegal migration,” he added.
When asked if putting up a wall is “racist” Villarea said, “The wall doesn’t see color. It doesn’t see nationality. It’s designed as a border security structure.
“It’s designed to provide a delineation of the border. It provides an opportunity for agents to respond to any sort of traffic at the border, whether it be an illegal migrant, whether it be narcotic traffickers — whatever that threat may be, it provides an opportunity for us to respond,” Villarea concluded.
Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted once again the need for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump wrote, “I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall. Our Southern Border has long been an “Open Wound,” where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here an fix now!”
I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall. Our Southern Border has long been an “Open Wound,” where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here an fix now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
A few hours later, Trump followed up on the tweet by slamming the Democratic talking point that the wall is “old technology.”
“It’s incredible how Democrats can all use their ridiculous sound bite and say that a Wall doesn’t work. It does, and properly built, almost 100%! They say it’s old technology – but so is the wheel. They now say it is immoral- but it is far more immoral for people to be dying,” Trump said.
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