Morning Wire - On the Frontlines of Texas’ Border Battle | 2.18.24

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

Daily Wire reporter Kassy Dillon spends a week with Texas state troopers as they patrol the US-Mexico border by land, water and air. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The crisis at our southern border continues. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkis was impeached by the House of Representatives this week, and last week the Senate border bill was defeated. Meanwhile, states, including Texas and Arizona, are left to deal with the flood of illegal immigrants. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has taken action to secure his state's border despite efforts by the federal government. In this episode, we talked to a reporter who spent several days on the Texas southern border about what's actually taking place on the ground. there. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's February 18th, and this is a

Sunday edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now to discuss what's really happening at our southern border as Daily Wire reporter Cassie Dillon. Hey, Cassie. So you spent several days patrolling the border with Texas state troopers by land, by Aaron, by Rio Grande. What did you learn during your time at the southern border? Hi, John. I spent four days at the southern border near Eagle Pass, Texas, where the state troopers really gave me an up-close look at what they experience on a daily basis. As you said, I traveled the border with them by boat, helicopter, and patrol car. I couldn't help but see how frustrated both the state troopers and the National Guardsmen were at having to do the job of the federal governments.

Since last month, the feud between Texas and the federal government has spiraled into a nationwide issue with 25 other Republican governors backing Abbott and 13 of them actually traveling down to the border to see the situation for themselves. Just feet away from the real ground, the governors gathered together to accuse President Biden of failing to do his job as commander-in-chief. We spoke to Governor Sarah Sanders of Arkansas

about the tensions. Governor Abbott has been stepping up where the federal government is dropping their duty. And so states are coming together, working together to help do the job of the federal government. What comes next,

hopefully, as the federal government sees that Texas and other states are capable of doing the job that they claim is impover. and that they'll start helping in the process. If they don't, you'll continue to see states step up because we know that we have to protect our border and protect the people of our states. Several of the states sent troops to assist the Texas National Guard and guarding the border. One of these states was Florida, which also sent state troopers with patrol cars and airboats.

Along the border, we saw makeshift barriers made of shipping containers and razor wire. In the area of Shelby Park, where there is once thousands of migrants crossing and being processed by border border. patrol, crossings have significantly decreased. We did, however, meet small groups of migrants who swam over the Rio Grande and were stopped by the razor wire. She's not having family. Where's my mom? Venezuela, all of Venezuela.

One man we spoke to from Venezuela was on the bank of the river behind the wire with a three-year-old, who he said was his wife's daughter. He said his wife swam over with him earlier in the morning, but was currently giving birth, somewhere in the U.S. Texas State Trooper, Lieutenant Chris Olivares, assisted us with interviewing the migrant in Spanish. They're saying that his wife was pregnant, that her water broke. And that's why...

Here. Yes, here. On this side, while they're waiting here, right, just right now. After she's kind of across the river. Right, this morning. That's why National Guard, they took her out to the hospital, they get her medical treatment. So to be that far in your pregnancy, right, they have to know more or less, okay,

when she was going to get birth in order to cross on this side and have a child here in the U.S. Is that baby a citizen now? Tances are yes, because of that she was going to be born. born here. And we see that a lot with a lot of pregnant females that are coming across. They'll wait usually when they're about to give birth, and then they'll cross into United States because they'll have the baby that same day or they'll have it like right at the river as they're crossing. So his wife just managed to get across the border and now their child may be a

U.S. citizen. Correct. What specifically has Texas changed in terms of taking action on the border when migrants cross? Lieutenant Olivera said the process used to go like this. Migrants would cross the border, turn themselves in with board patrol, and wait to be processed and released into the United States. But now with Texas and control, migrants are stopped by the barriers and told to swim back and are only assisted if there is a medical emergency. I understand they're desperate, right, but they're really placing their children in danger, especially crossing the river. And only that too, then you're paying a criminal, a smuggler in Mexico to get across to. So there's a lot of, just a lot of concerns with that in general.

and that's why because of the federal government and what they're doing right now, they really don't acknowledge the fact that it's okay for people to cross a river with a child, right? To them, it's fine. They ignore that issue, but when it's evolving in the state of Texas, when we put up barriers, well, that's inhumane,

well, that's cruel. But yet we're trying to prevent people from crossing so we don't see situations like this, so we don't have anybody drowning, especially children. We're the only ones really trying to prevent that. And yet the federal government hasn't done anything as far as trying to prevent illegal. crosses between ports of entry. But not all migrants are coming to the border and waiting to

encounter border patrol, correct? There are currently two types of migrants crossing our border. Those who want to be detected so they can claim asylum and those who hope to be undetected and sneak any legally. Typically, this group includes criminals and those who do not have an easy time claiming asylum. On two days during our trip, we joined Texas State Trooper Jacqueline Gooding on her patrol shift near the border to find human smugglers and illegal migrants. So yeah, in April of This past year, we encountered two suspects that were involved in a human smuggling operation. They were smuggling six undocumented individuals. It was a pursuit when I tried to stop the car initially.

And we were able to capture the two individuals that were involved in the smuggling event, as well as all of the undocumented individuals. It happened that the suspects were armed at the time. Both of them had firearms, and the driver had an active warrant for murder out of Louisiana. And we were able to bring justice to him and be able to transfer him off to her. a federal agency not only for smuggling charges where we worked together with them, but then the other agency in Louisiana was able to pursue him for the murder warrant. Gooding says she has encountered illegal immigrants, miners, and American citizens smuggling because there's profit to be made.

Money. It's all about money, right? So the cartels and gangs are at the center of the smuggling trade, and anything that they can make money off of is a commodity to them. So you have to remember with undocumented individuals as much as we've viewed as humans and want to protect them as well to these gangs that are benefiting from them, they're just money. And that's what it's all about. They're a commodity that can be reused and even taking advantage of after the stop to get more money out of them. How much money are we talking? Your average driver per vehicle that's, we call it loaded with individuals, they're going to make $5,000 to $10,000 on average. While we keep hearing the phrase, every state is a border state, the people

People who truly suffer the most are the ranchers whose properties are being decimated by the flow of illegals on their land. Wayne King manages an 8,200-acre ranch of exotic African animals that his clients can hunt recreationally. You can hear the frustration in his voice as he describes how migrants have cut through his fence thousands of times, causing the ranch to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. So cutting into your fence. Oh, yeah, they cut plumbed through it. I've had them cut big holes, big square holes where they can get through. I've had them cut from top to bottom, lay it back, drive through it,

cut chains on locks on gates on the other side, get out. And what's the danger of them cutting hole in the steps? Game gets out. I've already estimated we've lost about 400,000 in revenue from game being out. If they really wanted to do this right, why are they coming through my pastures? Why are they destroying water troughs, water lines, windmills, venses, why are they doing that? Why don't they just cross the bridge where they can get all of the government's handouts and everything's hunky-dory? Now, Governor Abbott has tried to help this situation for the ranches, correct?

He has. His Operation Lone Star empowered many counties to have more resources and tools to crack down on criminal activity along the border. One of those tools that has been in use in recent years, depending on the county, is having ranchers give state troopers the ability to access their land and arrest migrants for illegal trespassing. Half this ranch is in Kennedy County. Half is in Maverick. But Kenny County was the first county where we could file charges for illegal trespass. Well, when they did that, the big thing that it helped,

because most of my holes at the very first of this, was due to the coyotes. And they'd cut big holes where they could get a group through, keep going. but when we started putting them in jail, when we caught them, it pretty much curtailed the coyotes. Now it's just those, what the government wants to call getaways. King said he is very appreciative of Abbott standing up to the Biden administration and says he's really beginning to see a difference. Abbott is doing his utmost best to protect us here on the border

because, man, it's just crazy. I mean, what else you want to call? when our state is trying to protect us, but yet our federal government is trying to stop the state from protecting us. So overall, our trip to southern Texas showed us that people on the ground really believe that Governor Abbott is making a difference by taking responsibility for securing the border so far. Well, a very complex and problematic situation happening down there. Cassie, thanks for reporting.

Thank you. That was Daily Wire reporter Cassie Dillon, and this has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire. I'm