here’s a very simple question the president needs to ask as he continues to contemplate action at the border. For whom does our Border Patrol or even the military exist? Do they exist to protect Americans from bad people coming into this country or to serve as babysitters for a cartel smuggling operation that enables bad people to come in? The two jobs are mutually exclusive. Cartel babysitting undermines protecting Americans. This fact alone should prompt the president to shut down all asylum requests at the border and turn back migrants.

Yesterday, the U.S. Border Patrol celebrated a grim 95th birthday. On May 28, 1924, Congress established the Border Patrol as part of the Immigration Bureau in the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924. Prior to that, land borders were patrolled by ad hoc “mounted watchmen” with few formal federal resources, because most people entered through sea ports. The purpose of the Border Patrol was very clearly spelled out in the 1924 funding bill: “Preventing the unlawful entry” of mainly Chinese nationals and deporting anyone who was caught. The Department of Labor was given funding for “the operation of horse and motor vehicles.” It was all for detention and deportation. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fast-forward 95 years later, and Border Patrol has now become a global babysitting and hospital service. It exists for the invaders, not for those supposed to be protected from them. Border Patrol has advertised “the creation of a new Border Patrol Processing Coordinator position” for the purpose of processing and transporting aliens and for “custodial watch of detainees in hospitals.”

Just in the El Paso sector alone, 2,200 illegal immigrants surrendered themselves to Border Patrol on Memorial Day. While most are still from Central America, the message has gotten out to the rest of the world that we are not enforcing our border. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 15 illegal aliens from Congo, a country ravaged by Ebola, yellow fever, and other diseases, were apprehended at Eagle Pass, Texas. Not surprisingly, “The group consisted of five adult males, five adult females, and five minor children.” In other words, just enough minors to go around that each adult pair has one to use as a ticket to amnesty.

What is going on in plain sight at the border is bad enough, but what’s worse is what we don’t see. Try to imagine how many really bad people are coming in the New Mexico desert while the agents are on babysitting duty rather than patrolling. In Texas, border agents at secondary checkpoints caught 38 illegal aliens being smuggled up the highway in the Rio Grande Valley on Monday. Thankfully, those checkpoints are still being manned, but what is happening in New Mexico, where all the checkpoints are down? Any suspicious smuggling activity of people who are scared to meet agents will go unchallenged because they have unfettered access to the interior of the country.

Even among the hundreds of thousands we do apprehend without prior criminal records, we have no idea who these people are. Many Central American teens come from extremely volatile backgrounds and are being resettled in our communities under the most tenuous circumstances in neighborhoods full of existing illegal immigrant gangs. The entirety of the Long Island MS-13 surge has been caused by the influx of Central Americans since 2014. Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said that there are 2,000 MS-13 members in Long Island and “their ranks are continually being refilled with new emissaries from El Salvador.” The Nassau County Police union said on Sunday that they need 60 additional detectives just to combat MS-13 in their area. Eleven people have been killed by MS-13 in Long Island since 2016.

These are the direct effects of our Border Patrol being used to facilitate catch-and-release rather than stop-and-turn-back to enforce a shutoff of immigration the president should have announced long ago. If this is the degree of criminality we saw just from the 2014 wave, can you imagine what is going to occur as a result of this much larger wave?

That is a question Jaeson Jones, retired captain with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, asked on my podcast last week. Jones warned that tens of thousands of illegal aliens have now become “indebted to the cartels inside our country” and will have to go back into the criminal world to pay off that debt.

“Human trafficking will reach new heights in the United States in the next 18 to 24 months,” Jones warned. “Several cartels have stated that they cannot keep up with the number of people surging through their plazas throughout Mexico. Historically, the cartels’ process was to detain people in stash houses until receiving payments from migrants who wished to travel through their plaza or be smuggled across the border into the United States. Those who could not pay would compensate by working off the debt in Mexico for the cartels. For women, that would mean sex trafficking, and for men that would be carrying narcotics for the cartels.”

That has all changed, and the criminal activity will continue on our soil, according to Jones.

“Today, due to the surge of migrants from across the world, the cartels are dealing with new challenges in collecting the piso [tax]. Many migrants traveling from Central America cannot afford the tax ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 per person. Additionally, the cartel cannot afford to house migrants until receiving payment. As a result, the cartels are collecting the personal identifying information (PII) from migrants, including family contact information, which is then confirmed and validated through phone calls made to family members of the migrants. These migrants are then released to travel into the United States.”

Thus, the criminal problems we will face will not only come from those the Border Patrol misses but from those they catch and release.

“Once through U.S. immigration and customs processing, migrants are immediately contacting smugglers and are receiving instructions where to go and who to contact to work off their debt.”

I’ve noted many times that the president has the power to shut off even legitimate asylum claims when he believes it’s “detrimental” to U.S. interests. But this goes even beyond immigration law. This is national security and national defense in the face of a strategic 21st century-style invasion by the most dangerous cartels.

The president would be wise to make the national security case to the American people for designating the cartels as terrorists and using the military to counter them. That would easily pave the way for an executive shutoff of all immigration processing at our border. Then, the Border Patrol can actually focus on patrolling.

After all, that is why we created the Border Patrol. (For more from the author of “The Coming Crime Wave That Border Patrol Isn’t Stopping” please click HERE)

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Hidalgo County, Texas, is ground zero for the most illegal aliens coming in among all places along the southwestern border. It is also experiencing an outbreak of mumps, with 46 reported cases countywide since March, an unprecedented number for any U.S. county. Yet you would never know about this if you rely on the national media beat reporters at the border to report on it. Why? Because it is inconceivable that this unprecedented outbreak is not coming from the influx of extremely vulnerable illegal aliens from source countries that are experiencing a mumps epidemic.

On Monday, the Hidalgo County health department announced that the tally of mumps cases had risen to 46.

@HidalgoCounty 46 confirmed mumps cases – Consult Dr if an MMR Booster would be indicated – Wash hands w/soap & water,, cover mouth when coughing, do not share drinks, If symptomatic consult Dr for testing Stay home away from work & school as directed by Dr @TexasDSHS

— Hidalgo Co. Health (@hidalgohealth) May 20, 2019

According to Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Director Eduardo “Eddie” Olivarez, the county usually only experiences one to three mumps cases in an entire year, and most of them are in infants. Now, they are seeing outbreaks in some of their schools and colleges.

Amazingly, Olivarez is quoted in the local media as saying that in no way is this epidemic coming from illegal immigrants. No sir. It’s likely coming from people traveling to other states around Easter time, according to Olivarez.

So let’s get this straight: We have people coming in the largest numbers ever “from countries where poverty and disease are rampant,” and large numbers of them “may have never seen a doctor, received immunizations, or lived in sanitary conditions,” according to testimony from acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan. They are coming under the worst conditions in “close quarters on trains and buses that smugglers procure for moving them through Mexico,” which “can hasten the spread of communicable diseases,” according to testimony from Randy Howe, head of operations for CBP’s Office of Field Operations.

We know there was a massive mumps outbreak in Honduras right before the caravans started coming up last fall. Two weeks ago, the AP reported that “authorities in the northern Mexico border state of Tamaulipas say they have detained 289 Central American migrants, including some children with measles and other illnesses.” Most of the caravans left from San Pedro Sula, a northern Honduran town that had 1,336 reported cases of mumps as of April.

We now know that there were close to 200 individuals in Texas ICE facilities who contracted mumps. CBP has released thousands of migrants without any screenings or vaccinations. Yet, Hidalgo County officials are 100 percent certain the mumps outbreak is coming from Americans and not from illegal immigrants.

In addition to the threat of diseases from Central Americans, there are now individuals coming from places in Africa that have Ebola outbreaks, such as Congo. More than 1,110 people have died of Ebola, there and the situation has spiraled out of control. I asked CBP if they have a special protocol for not releasing those coming from these African countries effected by Ebola and if they require mandatory screening and holding for an incubation period or if they just treat them if they exhibit symptoms at the moment of arrival or request medical attention. A spokeswoman for CBP responded that “U.S. Customs and Border Protection and public health officials monitor the health of people coming into the U.S. and there have been no encounters of Ebola along the southwest border.”

The CBP official further reiterated that at ports of entry, they have worked closely with the CDC to screen out potential threats:

“CBP and the CDC have closely coordinated to develop policies, procedures, and protocols to identify travelers at all ports of entry who may potentially be infected with communicable diseases and to minimize the risk to the traveling public. These procedures have been utilized collaboratively by both agencies on a number of occasions with positive results. CBP personnel review all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illnesses (visual observation, questioning, and notification to CDC as appropriate) at all U.S. ports of entry, including all federal inspection service areas at U.S. airports that service international flights, land-border crossings and seaports.”

However, there appears to be no confirmation that those coming between ports of entry as families to benefit from catch-and-release are subjected to mandatory screening and incubation based on country of origin. Indeed, a Homeland Security advisory council report observed that there clearly is no long-term screening to ensure those who don’t currently exhibit symptoms are incubated in order “to anticipate some of the potential infectious disease complications that can be found in this population of children.”

The council recommends facilities with exam rooms “and equipment designed to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases.” It further recommends the issuance of “a medical ‘passport’ for children exiting the custody of RPCs that identifies significant medical problems as well as any immunizations provided before their release, which would be beneficial to destination communities and their public health systems and avoid the very high risk of these children becoming lost to monitoring.” That is currently not being done.

Clearly, when it comes to diseases like tuberculosis, scabies, and mumps, it’s very unlikely that Americans are protected from their spreading. Aaron Hull, chief patrol agent of the El Paso sector, divulged in April that Customs and Border Protection is increasingly “caring for more and more sick people, because a lot of these aliens coming in are carrying contagious health conditions, things like chicken pox, scabies, tuberculosis, lice.”

Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot is definitely seeing this problem in his area. “They have come across a number of different diseases, from scabies to chicken pox to measles to mumps … they have encountered that here,” said the veteran border sheriff on my podcast yesterday. “Unfortunately, there have been some Border Patrol agents that have been exposed to these types of health issues. I know there were two Border Patrol agents here locally who contracted scabies from having to have contact with some of these folks. It is an issue that is being monitored by our local health department, but medical [personnel] can only catch what they are able to catch. And when you are running through so many folks, its obviously an issue when they are not showing signs when they are in the custody of BP for just 24 hours.”

Yuma is the third busiest human smuggling sector at the southwest border.

Why do all common sense and precautions for Americans go out the window when it comes to illegal immigration? How bad do things have to get before we enforce our laws barring entry to those with health concerns? (For more from the author of “46 Cases of MUMPS in County with Highest Illegal Alien Traffic” please click HERE)

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In retrospect, Donald Trump locked up the Republican presidential nomination the day he announced his candidacy. In words that will forever be etched in the minds of voters who were captivated by his boldness, Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, and announced, “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.” He spoke directly to the unspoken concern of millions of Americans when he declared, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Fast-forward four years later, and I think any border agent would tell you they would love to go back to the level of border problems they were dealing with in 2015 before the mass migration from Central America, and now, 50 other countries. During the month that Trump delivered the famous speech, there were 38,611 apprehensions at the border, and only a fraction of them were released. Now, over 100,000 are being apprehended every month. ICE has released 168,000 just since December 21, and another 33,000 were released directly by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from March 19 to early May without ever having been processed in an ICE holding facility. The criminal elements are more empowered than ever to bring in gangs, criminals, and drugs. Indeed, America is a bigger dumping ground than ever before.

After vigorous protest from local officials, the DHS announced that it has no plans to dump illegal immigrants apprehended at the Texas-Mexico border into Broward and Palm Beach Counties, Florida. On Saturday, acting CBP Commissioner John P. Sanders announced that “contrary to inaccurate reports in the press, CBP has no plans to transport people in our custody to northern or coastal border facilities, which include Border Patrol stations in Florida.” Instead, what CBP has been doing is “transporting hundreds of families by bus and aircraft from the U.S. Border Patrol’s severely overcrowded processing facilities to less-crowded stations along the Southwest border.”

By declaring reports of sending illegal immigrants to Florida as “inaccurate,” the acting CBP commissioner is seemingly stating that there never were such plans, not just that they changed their mind. It sure doesn’t seem that way from the fact that the Palm Beach County sheriff claims he was told by a local Miami Border Patrol official this was going to happen. In a recorded statement, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said, “It appears that Border Patrol has backed off its initial plans to transport 1,000 illegal immigrants to South Florida.” (Emphasis added.) He thanked county residents for protesting the move “to stop what appeared to be a crisis for our community.”

Either way, it appears that DHS officials recognize the toxicity of releasing illegal aliens into the interior of the country. The problem is that they are admitting to releasing them and moving them around near the southwest border itself. That is not much better. What happens after they are moved around? They are released. And as most border officials will tell you, most of them are not staying near the border but are going to major cities in the interior of the country, most often the East Coast. So while there is much debate over what CBP does initially with the migrants, what is not in dispute is that between CBP and ICE, they have released over 200,000 impoverished illegal aliens who went into our communities.

What is important from the protests of Palm Beach and Broward, two Democrat counties, is that everyone seems to agree that the protection of Americans should come first. They laid down a clear marker that it is unacceptable for Americans to bear the fiscal cost and be on the hook for any health concerns or crime. As Governor Ron DeSantis said, “It will tax our resources, the schools, the health care, law enforcement, state agencies.” Even Democrats were furious. Sheriff Bradshaw, a registered Democrat, called it “a public safety problem,” and questioned, “What kind of health conditions do they have?” Other local Democrats decried the public safety concerns and straining of public resources.

So! If we all now believe that it is unacceptable to dump illegal immigrants into Florida, then why is it acceptable to dump them into Texas and New Mexico outside controlled tent cities right at the border? And why it is acceptable to release them after dumping them in border states and have them smuggled, often by criminal networks in the country, to the East Coast? Is it only a firehose that is a problem, but not a sprinkler system of migrants?

Also, DHS officials now admit that they are indeed using aircraft to fly illegal aliens around, although they say they will only do so to other parts of the border in order to conserve space. But again, once they are putting illegal immigrants on planes, why should the American people be on the hook for their eventual release into the interior instead of flying them back to Central America or at least to one of our islands with military bases? The trip from McAllen, Texas, to San Diego is actually 200 miles longer than a trip back to Guatemala City. Flying them from McAllen, Texas, to San Diego is not going to deter them from coming so long as they know they will be released into our country. If they were flown and held outside the country or returned to their own countries, then that would solve the numbers problem with detention facilities.

What this dust-up over the dumping of migrants in Florida has demonstrated is that now is the best time for the president to begin shifting the debate away from the needs and desires of the illegal immigrants to the needs and desires of the American people and the sovereign states, not to mention the government’s obligation to the American people and the sovereign states. We now see how bipartisan this issue truly is, once the effects are actually apparent, imminent, and brought home to our communities. According to a new Harvard/Harris poll, when asked whether people with questionable asylum claims should “be let into the United States for years until their case comes up or should they immediately be turned back to Mexico for staging,” 66 percent said that they should be turned back to Mexico. And just 13 percent of the same pool of respondents ascertained the number of migrants coming to our border. If more people realized how bad it is, the number of people opposing catch-and-release would likely be higher.

While DHS has been turning migrants back to Mexico in small numbers, the president has thus far declined to issue a complete shutoff of all asylum requests at our border and refuse entry to anyone, an executive power that was just affirmed in the Supreme Court. The American people have been forced to shoulder the burden of millions of illegal migrants from Mexico for years. The American people are clearly tired of it. (For more from the author of “It Turns out That Keeping Waves of Illegal Aliens out of Our Communities Is a Bipartisan Goal” please click HERE)

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