We’ve known for quite a while now how bad the situation on the southern border has been under the Biden administration. Things have improved somewhat in parts of Texas thanks to more stringent enforcement at the state and local levels, but most of the rest of the border remains a disaster. The numbers are staggering, with thousands of migrants and cartel members being encountered daily. It’s believed that the total has already exceeded ten million during Biden’s tenure. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Recently, NewsNation sent correspondents down to the border to embed with immigration agents and the Texas Department of Public Services. They went out on patrol and experienced what the men and women protecting the border go through on a daily basis and it’s simply crazy. Dan Abrams, the host of Dan Abrams Live spoke with correspondent Ali Bradley while she was crawling through the weeds and participating in high-speed chases. The following is an excerpt from the transcript of that report.
“Yeah, hey, Dan. So we’re out here, we’re actually embedded with an elite brush team with Texas DPS. They are working in conjunction with Border Patrol so we’ve got state and federal partners working together and we have the chopper in the air. Let me show you what we just witnessed. So we pulled three people out of this, look at how hard it is down here. This is what they’re up against. So they had to get down in there. That’s basically a canal a drainage ditch of sorts, pulled these three individuals out, one young man from Honduras, telling us that he was on the hook with the cartel to pay $16,000 to get to Virginia. And guess what Dan, they’re actually working another two people that are in the canal further up. So we’re gonna go up there, I’m going to send it back to you here. We’re going to keep our feet on the ground. And we’re gonna go after these other two people that are in the water up there.”
The video is embedded below and it really brings the disastrous situation on the border to life. There are portions of land along the border that are little more than drainage ditches that cut through swampy terrain. The migrants and the cartel mules hide down in that muck and the agents have to crawl down into that mess to physically drag them out and put them in cuffs. In another incident, Bradley winds up going on a high-speed chase in excess of 100 miles per hour as they race to catch up with an 18-wheel tractor-trailer that was stolen. The agents are using ATVs, helicopters, and even riding on horseback in an attempt to capture all of the human traffic, but they are only scratching the surface.
One border official is interviewed and he describes what amounts to “a very dynamic situation.” There are so many hiding places for the smugglers that it’s nearly impossible to cover them all. And at various sections of the southern border, they are plagued by a lack of law enforcement resources where groups have promoted the “defund the police” movement. He is quoted as saying, “No one is coming. No one is coming to protect you. Even at the local law enforcement level, we’re seeing them be defunded and overwhelmed to where your life has to be threatened for them to make you a priority. So, no one is coming. And you better self-help and self-protect.”
That’s certainly a rather chilling thought. As I previously mentioned, the video report is embedded below. It’s definitely worth a look. We definitely aren’t paying the people working the border enough. And the job they are facing is simply daunting.