The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Borderline: Defending the Home Front by Vincent Vargas

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Borderline: Defending the Home Front by Vincent Vargas https://amzn.to/3FccY7R An inside look at the U.S./Mexican border through the eyes of former U.S. Border Patrol agent, Vincent Vargas, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. Featuring a Foreword by #1 New York Times bestselling author Jocko Willink. The U.S./Mexican border stretches nearly 2,000 miles and is protected by a thin line of overworked and underfunded U.S. Border Patrol Agents, who risk their lives every day. Stigmatized in the media and fought over in the halls of Washington D.C., this is the true story of what is really happening on the U.S./Mexican border. Borderline provides an inside look through the eyes of former U.S. Border Patrol agent, Vincent Vargas, who is no stranger to violence, having served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. The story begins on the battlefields of the Middle East and culminates on the southwest border of the United States, where Vargas was tasked with protecting his country, his fellow agents, and the immigrants caught in the middle. He learned firsthand about the unforgiving brutality of the cartels, human traffickers and the desert. After bearing witness to the carnage, Vargas made the decision to join the Border Patrol’s elite search & rescue unit called BORSTAR. With almost unfettered access, Vargas provides an in-depth, never-before-seen look into the U.S. Border Patrol, from the agency’s origins to its present-day missions.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. I'm Oaks Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. It's an honor to have you guys always with us. For 15 years, we've been bringing you the smartest people in the world.

The billionaires, the CEOs, the Pulitzer Prize winners, people who advise presidents, the people who write these amazing books that you see from all these amazing publishing houses. We're always honored they bring us on the show. And all these brilliant people come to you on the show. And then one small idiot with a mic, myself. That's not right. Wait, who put that in the teleprompter? It wasn't me.

So there you go, guys. As always, help us build the show. Give us five-star reviews over there on the iTunes. And give us follows. Refer your friends, neighbors, relatives, dogs, cats. Get everybody involved in the family because you want to make them smarter. And give us follows. Refer your friends, neighbors, relatives, dogs, cats. Get everybody involved in the family because you want to make them smarter. And tell them to go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisfoss,

linkedin.com, 4chesschrisfoss, youtube.com, 4chesschrisfoss, and chrisfoss1 on TikTok. And we have an amazing gentleman on the show. He's written his newest bestselling book. This is going to be hot to talk about and a very insightful thing, I think, as well, because a lot of times these are stories that don't get told. He's the author of the newest book that comes out November 14th, 2023. Holy crap, we're almost to Thanksgiving. That's not the name of the book, folks. I'm just making that side note. Vincent Vargas joins us on the show.

His newest book is called Borderline, Defending the Home Front. And I think this will be an important discussion to have because, like I mentioned before, it's a story that doesn't get told a lot. We talk a lot about immigration, what's going on at the border, and different things like that. But there are some stories that are left out. And that's why we do these shows. Vincent Vargas was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After four years of active duty in the United States Army, serving three combat deployments with the 2nd Battalion of the Elite 75th Ranger Regiment, he joined the U.S. Army Reserves, where he continues to serve as a drill sergeant. In 2009, he became a federal agent with the Department of Homeland Security

and served as a medic with the Special Operations Group. He is a successful entrepreneur, actor, writer, producer, currently stars in the hit FX show Mayans MC, and he's also a motivational speaker who focuses on leadership, military transitioning, and motivating youth. He's happily married with seven children count them all and uh his bio says he resides in salt lake city but i believe he just recently moved welcome to the show vincent how are you good how you doing thank you for having me there you go

and it was dallas texas right yeah yeah we moved to dallas texas just recently it's a little outdated the bio but we have eight kids now and we're done holy crap wow yeah geez i just read it i just read seven you just picked up another eight in the last five seconds you are from utah no i'm just kidding uh so there you go welcome the show vincent congratulations the new book give us a dot com so if you're going to find you on the interwebs uh yeah it's i mean really social media but you can go vincent rocco vargas.com or vincent vargas.com you'll be able to find me but social media same thing vincent go to VincentRoccoVargas.com or VincentVargas.com. You'll be able to find me. But social media, same thing, Vincent Rocco Vargas.

I'm pretty much on every platform with that. There you go. So what motivated you to want to write this book? It was having frustrating times watching the news and watching kind of the Border Patrol as an agency get demonized and politicized. I was a Border Patrol agent for just close to seven years, and I walked away from that career really proud of what I did there and proud of what the agency does. And so just watching it firsthand, seeing the news kind of make them look like they are the scapegoat for everything immigration, I felt like I needed to write something that would

hopefully better explain the career field itself and maybe in a digestible way so the average person could understand the career of Border Patrol and what they actually entails of the career field, but as well as what they don't do. So there was so much confusion on the career field that I wanted to kind of help clarify that. There you go. And was I correct in saying this is a story that doesn't get told much of the border patrol? You guys kind of get stuck in, you know, being kind of the, being kind of the, everyone getting all the blame from both sides of the parties and stuff. Yeah, yeah. That's the weird thing. You know, you'll hear the news call it border control where there's nothing ever named border control.

That's the lack of knowledge of the career field. There's things like detention and believe that that's Border Patrol, but that's usually ICE, right? Because what Border Patrol does as an organization, right, they apprehend it and then they process and then they hand off to ICE. And so there's just a lot of confusion on the whole immigration process and all the entities involved. And so my goal was to, one, this book will better explain the career field. We'll also better explain immigration, kind of how it is in our country, how it's dictated essentially. But as well as this book will kind of be an inside look onto the career and what they do day in and day out, as well as

the special operations units in the organization. There you go. And is it a bit of a memoir as well? Yeah, it is. I thought the best way to tell that story is to tell my own story, how I got into the Border Patrol. And as I kind of gone through every chapter of the Border Patrol career field from being a regular agent, going through the whole journeyman process, as well as select trying out for selection for the special operations units and becoming a medic for a BORTAC team. And so I want to just tell my story as a BORST agent. It's the Boar Star hat right here. But to be, you know, that most people don't know how much, how many rescues happen on the border, how the humanitarian mission that happens daily on the border, and as well as how much drug trafficking is stopped on the border as well. Yeah, we have a real big problem with fentanyl coming across the border as well. I think sometimes that's used to mask that people just don't want immigrants here and some sort of racial bias.

I know one of the biggest problems we have, someone said it very succinctly on Bill Maher the other night. They said basically what we have is we have a Congress that doesn't want to do anything or can't do anything because it's so gridlocked. And, you know, they'll be like, hey, you know, let's blame immigration or the border patrol or you know what's going on at the border and you're like hey aren't you guys supposed to like regulate that like like if you don't like what's going on down there you're the idiots who's supposed to make the laws like do something right right and it's funny so the people blame the border patrol for that but like wait border patrol doesn't make the policies yeah yeah just like a sheriff doesn't create this speed limit you know what i mean it's it's you know you just follow policy and yeah that's absolutely correct yeah you guys are the sheriffs of the

border and you guys you know every police officer in this nation follows the laws that were made by the lawmakers you know and if you don't you want different laws, go make them. But the interesting point they made on Bill Maher was the gal said, you know, with the advent of so many presidents that now make executive orders, it's kind of become this thing where Congress doesn't want to, people in Congress don't want to do anything. And the fighting goes on on both sides, but they don't want to do anything. And they know that if they don't do anything, then a president will just make an executive order and they can blame the president for everything if it doesn't work out.

They'd be like, oh yeah, he made a, you know, meanwhile, you're like, you guys are supposed to make the laws. So I think this is important to point out, but also telling your story. So tell us a little bit about your origin story. I know I alluded to some of it in the bio, but give us from your words, some of your journey through life. What grew you up? How were you raised? What shaped you and made you want to join our military? Yeah, you know, my mother's a first generation American and her mother came over in a very

special way. You'll have to read it through the book. It's pretty interesting. But my father's Puerto Rican, so I'm half Mexican, half Puerto Rican, and I grew up in the Los Angeles area in the San Fernando Valley. I grew up playing baseball. Both parents were hard workers. One's a believer, one's a dreamer, and they did their best to live that American dream. My father was an LA City firefighter. My mother was a secretary for the LA Unified School District. My father was a Marine. He got in trouble with the law when he was young and he became a Marine. And I was raised by this Marine who wake up at seven o'clock and half the day is gone. You know what I mean? Like just tough. I never thought about joining the military until I lost a full ride scholarship for baseball.

And so I decided at that point was, you know, I watched the war on TV. I seen it happening. And a part of me didn't want to miss out on such an iconic time of our lives. And I also needed to pay the bills. I had a daughter on the way and I wanted to, to find a way to support her. And so, you know, being an athletic person, I decided I wanted to join the special operations unit, army ranger, become an army ranger. And I did that. And after my four years of active duty, I decided to just go into the reserve side and kind of pursue a life outside of the military uh i became a prison guard for two years and right away within one month i knew i didn't like that so let me ask you this why didn't you did you you went into the

army right yeah i did so is there a reason you didn't choose the marines so is it uh any sort of issues there with dad no i asked pops i said hey i want to join, I want to join the Marines. He goes, don't join the Marines. I think he was trying to protect me, right? I think he was guarding me. You know, the Army had a big signing bonus. And so that was the most intriguing thing for me. Oh, there you go. There you go.

Well, I mean, it's so interesting, the different branches and what they do and everything. And then the competition, they sling at each other as much as better and stuff. So it's a nice healthy or unhealthy. I don't know which it is. I guess it depends on what bar you're in on a Saturday night. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I remember my brother, he went to, he went to the Marines for four years in, in, or he did his time.

It might've been two or three, but he, uh, he came back and he told me about how the bars near the bases have steel cues, pool cues, instead of wood. And I was like, why? And he goes, that way they can't be broken over people's head and they have to be replaced all the time. Yeah, there was definitely a lot of drinking and fighting in the military. There you go. Well, you know, you got to get prepared for war somehow. So you served time and you're still in the Army now.

I recently was medically retired from the military and walked away so yeah the only thing i currently am pursuing is the acting and writing space there you go and how did you find your way into acting and stuff uh you know the same thing everyone else does you kind of you head to la and you you do your auditions and uh you know have my head shot i did some i produced a film already by then and so i had a little bit of a resume and walked into the right place at the right time and looked like you know, had my head shot. I produced a film already by then, and so I had a little bit of a resume and walked into the right place at the right time and looked like someone who would be on the show, Mayans MC. And so I landed the role and began to be on that show for the entirety of the show.

It just recently ended, but I ended there as a season regular and a writer of the show. There you go. What is it like to go from being in the military to being on TV? Uh, similar and different, right? I think it's very similar in the fact that there's a hierarchy of, uh, you know, rank structure. And so, you know, know your job, do your job and, and, you know, and, uh, hurry up and wait is, is very common in both places, military and, and Hollywood. So I feel like I fit in really well there. So it worked out. That's true. It is, it is the hurry up and wait thing, huh? Preparedness is everything, but do you,

so do you see yourself doing more in Hollywood here coming up? Yeah, I would like to, you know, the, the writing strike and the acting strike kind of slowed the momentum, you know, it was kind of a good timing for us to, to get this book out. And, and, you know, when there was nothing else happening um you know there's a few things hopefully that are coming down the pipe but i want to hopefully you know this book hopefully tell the story of the border patrol but hopefully make a screenplay of it as well there you go that would be good because these stories need to be told i mean they're human beings down there uh fighting the good fight and uh you're dealing with stuff uh tease us out

some of the stories of the book that were some of your favorite things that you think are important. You know, the people we can encourage people to pick up the book. Yeah, I think it's interesting in the immigration process side of things is you have two sides of parties arguing, right? And usually people have two different ideologies and they're arguing back and forth. But I think both of them have a valid argument, right? When you look at immigration, there is two sides of it. We want to look at our immigration policies, but we also want to understand the homeland security side of things. And so we have to somehow please both of those arguments, you know, and both of those arguments are usually coming

from one side or the other, but they both can exist. And there is a fine line that we can find that is equally humanitarian, as well as providing security for our nation that we desire. It just depends on how far we want to dial that. Too much security causes an issue, and too open of borders causes another issue. And so the answer is somewhere in the middle of that. And that's getting both sides of the party to have a conversation about it. So I delve deeper into that argument and try and explain that a little bit better to, in a digestible way that most can understand. I use the metaphors like we all have doors in our houses and with that door in our house, we expect people to knock before they enter. And as well as we could also determine

how long they stay, you know, if they overstay their welcome, we can actually kick them out. And so that is, you know, a metaphor that is also used in the immigration side of things is that we do have a front door policy in our country, and we want people to use that front door. And we also know there's these outliers with, you know, claiming political asylum and things like that. And that's what our country is good for is that we actually, you know, have the humanitarian side of us trying to help those countries as well. But where's the balance in that? Where's the balance that we're not dealing with what we have today, this influx, this overwhelming influx that depletes resources and then that causes more issues on our border

where our own agents are not able to work the line as they normally would. And so then you start fearing the security aspect. There you go. Do we need to, in your mind, do we need to provide, do we need to upscale the amount of agents we have to try and cover it? I know that we're seeing a record number of immigrants coming. Yeah. Is that one problem, an overwhelming more capital thing? Yeah. I like to say, like, you know, this whole immigration process, there's no, like, one plus one equals two answer.

It's a recipe for a cake, and anything too much can destroy it all or can make it better. Right. And so, so if you see it that way, it's multiple layers of issues that we can address that could probably help the situation. Currently what the administration has in order is, is not as effective, right? When you incentivize coming over to America illegally, well, now you have this massive influx, but we have nothing in place to manage this, well, now you have this massive influx. But we have nothing in place to manage this, right? There's no housing for this. There's nothing in place that can manage this besides what's happening now is the notice to appear, the NTAs, which is for the security aspect of the argument is dangerous, right, just to catch and release, if you will.

And so there's a lot of things, the border, you know, they have close to 20,000 agents out there working and that's three different shifts working at a time. And so in this, you have some around maybe 3000 at a border at all times, trying to protect our borders. When you have a massive influx, one direction, what slips through the cracks everywhere else, that could be drugs, fentanyl, if you will, and so on and so forth. So yeah, there has to be something that is, that is rectifying the issue of the massive influx. I would say you can harsher punishment. Yes, you can. But then there's an argument on that side

as well. So there's a long list of almost a seven-layer cake of decisions that have to be made and not just scrape off the top what most political presidents or cabinets do as they turn over a new president. It's like, let's change this, but there's still the seven layers underneath that that hasn't been fixed. The illegal immigrants who have been working here so far, other countries and their issues, right? Do we help? Do we educate? And as well as we can talk about you know the the problems we have with with trafficking organizations that are making money and so it's a long it's so many different areas uh currently i think the fact that we have incentivized coming over illegally is why we have

the massive influx how do we do that and are we doing that right now how do we how are we doing that uh the incentivization is is a lot of there's a lot of um non-profit organizations that are giving money and giving giving giving um migrants a lot more things than than the average person would get as an american right and so right now in certain areas of the country they're coming over and getting processed and then released to a notice to appear that could be 10 years from now. And then given a cell phone and some money from some of these, these NGOs. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, yeah. Cell phones, a plane ticket, and sometimes $1,500. And so that's, yeah. And so that's an interesting one to me, because I was like, Whoa, that's, that's crazy. I know, in our own country right now, we have people that are struggling with jobs with with other things. And so that's

that one, that one, if that doesn't raise a question what does right that's like that's interesting uh but as well as what we've had before you know before there was an operation streamlined where if you come across illegally you actually went to jail right if you were coming across without any proof of seeking asylum then you would go prison time you'd have some jail time and that jail time would would increase every time you've come over illegally. Well, that has proven to have slowed down the path of people wanting to come across, right? Yeah. Deterrent. Right. It's a deterrent. And so that has been something that has not happened. The crazy part about it, which is I don't understand how good they are communicating, but it's so good about communication.

As soon as you know, go to Eagle Pass, Texas. Right now, they're letting you in in three days, right? Wow. Somehow, the whole South American countries and all the exotics who come across the border are getting pushed through in that same exact area. And then when you implement a new law, like back when I was in, I'd say there was Operation Streamline where anyone who came across illegally would do 30 days in jail at first, and then the second time would be a year and so on and so forth. Yeah, the traffic went down to like, you would maybe catch 30 people in a month. And so somehow, some way, they're communicating very openly with where you can access in America and the fastest route to getting opportunities. And that's what's happening.

They're figuring out our weak spots, basically, or easy access parts. Now, I know the Trump administration built a lot of private prisons for, you know, I don't know if it was for ICE or for you guys, and I don't know what they were used for. I don't know if they were used for holding and processing. I know the courts, the immigration courts are a big problem, and i think they're understaffed because they're so absolutely understaffed yeah i mean it's taking six months eight months to a year to to see some of these uh claiming asylum right so it goes into a further investigation i'll explain this so when you come across the border illegally and that border patrol apprehends you they put you

through a process in which rolls your fingerprints, they get your information, they find out exactly where you're coming from. So in the event that we deport them, we'll send them back to their country. But currently, right now what's happening is if they have no prior history of any kind of breaking the law or whatnot, then they're going to be accessed to allow to be come through because they're all claiming asylum, right? They're all claiming political asylum. Why? Because they all claiming political asylum. Why? Because they all know if they do, they have a better chance of staying in our country. So once they've been processed, then it's handoff to the ICE,

and ICE will determine what they do from that point. Border Patrol only does their apprehension, process, and handoff. That's what Border Patrol does. And so in Border Patrol stations, you don't normally have a holding area that can hold more than 20, 30 people. And so these massive influx were overwhelming. Border Patrol stations were like, we have nowhere to put them. So then, boom, they started creating those what people called cages was actually just holding facilities. I don't know how else we would have done it or how they could have managed it better, but it was just a massive influx that no one was prepared for.

And so now what you're seeing the border patrol has is processing centers. And some of those processing centers can house close to 1500 at a time, but within a three day period, they're processing those 1500 out and potentially another 1500 come in and those get handed off to ice as well. They get bust by ice and ice will determine how they get released into whatever it is and so right now you guys you know there's some people saying you know they're getting bust into sanctuary states essentially what's happening why chicago is currently like frustrated with that as well yeah new york new york correct yeah new york just really was screaming about recently they they feel like they're kind of uh at the point which is i mean the worst place to send people is new

york because it's so damn expensive to live there i mean some people do i mean even utah is cheaper to live in new york or just anywhere send them montana they need people in montana uh wyoming there's plenty of room in wyoming for everybody i've been it's it's wild that i'm not sure what the plan is for any of that is there's such a massive influx like whatever north dakota there's nobody there it's like five people in north dakota and paul bunyan statue i think or something um but uh and and i love how you're you're helping people understand this concept because these politicians that don't do their job and don't pass laws and just want to sling fest stuff to raise money on on uh creating you know social media whatever um, you know, social media, whatever.

Um, it, you know, there's, there's a lot of different factors that need to be addressed. Uh, let me ask you this. One of my perceptions of, of one of the problems is this immigration issues that the theory that possibly we created this with all the mucking about from the sixties on that we did in South America, trying to play our little imperialistic they were supporting capitalism you know we saw what we did in Chile with the Pinochet there and you know always trying to put our thumb on the scale

of different things and mucking up you know we've done a lot of stupid shit in South America and really fucked up some stuff I mean you know between massacres and I'm trying to I'm thinking of a few different things that have gone on down there. But we've kind of created this, haven't we?

Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. And that's something that I think we're starting to reap that now. You know, the Venezuelans that are coming to America currently right now, the massive influx. I don't know much about what's happening with that.

I know they're going through their struggles, right? But one of my friends who is an actor mentioned, he goes, yeah, but this all happened because America did this, this, and this. And I was like, oh, snap, that's some interesting information. But it didn't strike me as a shock, right? Because I understand like, yeah, we have, you know, dabbled our fingers in areas that created this ripple effect of issues um but i think that's part of one of our answers is that we have to find these countries that are struggling and why their people are wanting to leave their country and part of our job should be to help them find uh a peaceful and and a better situation for their people to want to stay i think our job is

america you don't want you we don't want them to come here in this massive influx of people. We want them to use the regular system, but they, they're coming here claiming political asylum. Well, and how do we fix their country so they don't want to leave? And how do we work together in a way where we can all help each other in this aspect? I think we're not educating enough people on it. That's, that goes with also the, the, the organizations also the organizations that are doing human trafficking. I don't think we're educating enough people down there in South America that they don't have to use that process. There's no legal process. Manipulation is strong and it's a huge business down there.

You look at what we did even far back in the 80s with El Salvador, our mucking about with the Reagan administration and some of the, some of the massacres that took place. And, you know, we've, we've really, if you study what's gone on since the sixties, we've done so much mucking up down there in South America. We've created, kind of created our own problems. And I know that evidently the people you mentioned that are doing this human trafficking, that are running the, you know, what do they call them? The wolves or the coyotes and some of the people that are encouraging people and getting paid. Evidently it's a billion dollar industry to move people to our border across South America.

It's probably more than that. I would say more than trillions because right now what's – I didn't even talk about this in the book because it's a whole book on itself, but human trafficking is turning into now sometimes organ harvesting is what they're finding out with Intel. Holy crap. We've got Chinese stuff going on. Yeah.

So it's getting great. You know, and they don't care. They get paid up front. So they don't care if some mother dies crossing wherever or is pregnant. They don't, you know, they don't care if you make it. They already got paid. But, I mean, it seems like until you shut down this billion dollar industry um you know that gets paid to traffic people or do something is there a way to hold countries more accountable i think

i don't know if it was the trump administration the biden administration but at one point they were trying to keep people get mexico to quit and other countries to quit letting people pass through and is there is there any way to hold countries accountable and say, hey, man, knock it off or else? Yeah, I have no idea if we'll ever have any kind of power influence on other countries. That's kind of tough. There's a lot of trade that happens between the U.S. and Mexico. And we actually have a pretty good relationship.

It's just, it's not necessarily, it's the, you know, it's the organizations that are doing the manipulation behind the end, you know. you know and you know it's just cartels who power it right that the money is so so vast over there that corruption is is everywhere yeah and then you know i mean there was the recent kind of rhetoric that's been going on well we need to start a war with mexico um you know we've been doing more in mexico as we're trying to move away from china because of the issues with taiwan and and our chip manufacturing, different things. And it's kind of too bad. I really think we should just annex China or we should annex China.

Annex Mexico. It's a little hard to do. I don't think they're in for it. We should really annex Mexico and just, I don't know, make them a thing. But we can't do it by force. They'd have to, like, agree to it. But, you know, I mean, we're such a trading partner with them, as you say. You can't go to war with your biggest trading partner.

Yeah, I know. I think that argument is so crazy to me. I think, you know, there's definitely some organizations down there that are corrupt and that are causing a lot of issues. And I guess you can focus on that but like to say to go to war with mexico is just like that's a short-sighted comment there you go do you so do you think that the first the first step in the right direction is to somehow get congress to pass better laws and to finance more money to this issue and and try and actually do something?

Yeah, I think, yeah, exactly. I think if the first line of defense you have is border patrol, let's focus on how do we get that more equipped and more personnel and as well as better, better, I guess, deterrence opportunities, right? So the argument with the wall was crazy to me because people boots on ground, guys like me who actually do the job, there's areas of the border that are impossible to work, to manage. It's's so deep sometimes it takes two and a half hours just to get to your point where you're supposed to even check right and so you have things like a wall all that is is a deterrence it allows them it allows you one to have more time but two it funnels people towards areas that you can actually manage better and that's all it was and so the idea of like people getting mad about the wall well guys let me put some ground we don't

see it in this political argument we see it as a as a value to doing our job better because there's areas that are so rural so desolate it's like man i need someone to cover that because i can't get there within enough time and by the time i get there if something does occur say 20 people just illegally by the time i get there they're already scattered possibly to a road of some sort and really picked up and gone and so the wall was just one way of being able to slow down the the the movement and that helps a lot you know and there's a lot more things like that did no i've seen people scale the unscalable wall with ladder it's quite it's quite interesting to see there's yeah they scale it they

cut through it there's they go under it there's everything but that's at such a small percent that it's still more valuable to have that than not to have do you think we need more walls or do you think maybe we just need more people in the in the border patrol i think i think both right there is areas that are impossible to cover. You have to have something other than just open. There's open territory from Mexico all the way to the United States. There's still tons of land, thousands and thousands of miles of land that's still just open.

They can just walk across, no issues whatsoever. I think there is still areas that desperately need the wall. I think we definitely need more personnel boots on ground. It's hard. It's hard when you demonize the career field. It's the hardest recruiting you could ever get to tell everyone who's watching that the Border Patrol agents are the reason or they're beating them or this or that. What most don't get is that the Border Patrol's position with immigration is actually very passive. If you think of a cop pulling someone over and he pulled them over for a reason, usually they're ready, hands on their pistol, and they're ready to escalate that. Us as border patrol agents, we have the pistol there, but the first thing we ask is, we tell them to stop. Most

times they stop. And if they stop, then it's like, hey, let's go. They just get into the truck willingly. They got it. They got captured. Very few put up a fight. We just take more of a, I would say, a passive posture in that i think our presence is intimidating enough for them they've heard the stories that border patrol does this and that but the truth is if you look at the use of force uh numbers the border patrol border patrol agents get assaulted by far way more than the average law enforcement officer based on how per capita of how many engagements we have compared to the turnaround is how many times have a border patrol ever pulled out his pistol annually.

It's the lowest in almost any law enforcement you can find. And the numbers are in the book. Wow. And that's probably true because I mean, I imagine I shouldn't say it probably is probably true. The because, you know, these people technically want to be found half the time because you guys have

water and food and they may have been crossing a stretch of desert they they don't want to cause problems because if they know if they fight you or or cause some sort of issue it's probably guaranteed they're going to come down with a crime and come back um do americans do americans are americans you know i believe when you get the government that you you deserve um and so when it comes to if you don't like your politicians, go find a fucking mirror and look at your fucking mirror and who you're voting for. And so I believe in the American people for everything, including myself.

So if you want better politicians, vote for better politicians or demand that those politicians do their jobs actually do their jobs not just the what is it four hours a day or something they show up once a week um the uh uh and so i do we need to be more compassionate do we mean you have more empathy for these people because they are human beings and yeah that's it's i think the border patrol does what what what the american people they see it as a threat. And I get both sides of that argument as well. Like I said, there's two sides of that argument.

Everyone that comes across and is not thoroughly vetted, there's a potential risk factor. That could be potentially infiltrating, right? People say the invasion. That's always a threat. But at the same time, they are human and they're looking for a better life my hope is that they have invested interest in the united states and want to do want to help make this place an even better country if they have invested interest in this place yes i'm interested in having you i'm interested in you providing value to our country absolutely but so then your kids have a better opportunity as well absolutely that's what immigration was back when

i was that's what my grandmother came here here to America and made the best opportunity she could. And she created a lineage of us who wanted to serve our country and protect and and so on and so forth. And so there here I am protecting our country, going overseas and now doing it in here in country. That's what my bloodline wanted to do, to continue to invest into this country. And I hope that the thousands and thousands that are coming across have the same intention, but I am not ignorant to say that is the facts, right? So there is people coming here. They want that opportunity of what America presents. And then there's people here that just want to kind of use the system for what it is. There you go. And then politicians who just want to use it, not really do anything, it seems, but just either be abusive and use it not really do anything it seems but just either be abusive and and use it as a

political curmudgeon or or a weapon and and again you know i i get real tired of some of the different politicians are out there and it's like do you you guys are the ones you're supposed to pass the laws like why are you complaining about this stuff but uh one thing someone's bringing up to me recently um was the small donor issue and i didn't realize what was going on with the small donor issue but uh one thing about shifting from large uh money that has been influx of the things which has its own issue to politicians is a small donor issue flooding to politicians is this sort of nature where people on social media they're politicians can kind of just kind of hit these,

these hot points that they want to hit. And they can be like, Oh, see, here's what's going on over here and blah, blah, blah. Send me some money.

And they fundraise off it. And, and they don't really fix anything because they can fundraise off it. Why fix it when you can raise money off it. And of course, ensure that you're going to be re-elected to fix those problems that you always promised to fix and you never fix yeah and it really made me have an aha moment i'm like yeah no one of these guys never fix stuff and never do the laws uh to

update this stuff but you're right i think the border patrol and immigration and ice and and everybody kind of gets caught as the as the uh as the person who gets the stick on this and gets blamed for everything. And sadly, you know, the people pointing the fingers half the time are these politicians that could easily fix it. And they just pass some laws and say this is the thing. So I'm glad this discussion is out there. I'm glad the education is out there and you're educating people on what needs to be done. Thank you. Or what can be done, assuming we can get people to do it.

But, you know, the most important thing is for Americans to care and elect people or demand better from your politicians. You know, I'm reading, what is it, the, I always call them the Madison Papers, but I'm reading the Federalist Papers right now. And the intent was that we were supposed to send our smartest, the most brightest people from all walks of life and work to, you know, spend four years or two years in the six years in the Congress and then come home. It wasn't supposed to be, you know, the geriatric retirement community that it is right now. And people have been there for 50 years and they certainly aren't our smartest or brightest in many cases. So, you know, we need to do better as people in what we do. Final thoughts as we go out on your book, Vince, on Borderline. Well, I just, I hope that people, you know, take this opportunity to pick up this book and read it because the most important thing you can do is be informed and actually educated on the topic itself.

There's too many people jumping to conclusions on titles of blogs or these, you know, these agendas left and right. You know, let's just get educated on the topic. Let's understand what virtual career field is about. And when you understand that, I think that's a good starting point to really continue to learn more about immigration. Education is the best way to fix everything. Understanding the problem instead of just being led by the nose or hairs around by politicians or people who are beating drums going, oh, this is going on. And you're like, wait, aren't you supposed to be the guy

who fixes this? And there you go. I think that's more what people need to realize because I've kind of come to that. I'm like, wait, is this your job? I don't pay you to complain about this stuff it's pay you to fix it so there you go uh thank you very much vincent for coming on the show we really appreciate give us your dot coms where you want people to find you on the interwebs please sir you guys can like i said vincent vargas.com or you can find me

on any kind of social media usually it's vincent rocco vargas i'm on tiktok instagram facebook whatever it is you have any questions hit me up up directly. I answer everything. There you go. Order the book, folks, wherever fine books are sold. Remember, it's Christmas coming up, so buy a whole bunch in a giveaway. Borderline, Defending the Homefront comes out November 14th, 2023. You can pre-order it now wherever fine books are sold.

Get educated, people. The more you know, that's why we do the show. I mean, half the time, I just love being so educated myself from all the great authors we have on the show, but the more you know, share the why we do the show. I mean, half the time I just love being so educated myself from all the great authors we have on the show. But the more you know, share the knowledge and demand more from your politicians. That's my advice. Thanks for tuning in, everyone.

Go to goodreads.com, Fortress Christmas, LinkedIn.com, Fortress Christmas, YouTube.com, Fortress Christmas, Christmas 1, on the tickety-tockety. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time.

The Greatest Show on the World