On Wednesday’s broadcast of FOX News Channel’s “The Story,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said he could only “guess” the number of people who sneaked through the border without being caught. We have no control and the situation is not in place at the moment. ”
host Martha McCallum asked. [relevant exchange begins around 3:00] “If Congress had passed this process that started today, would this bill have brought us any closer to operational control of the southern border?”
Owens replied: “First of all, I want to say that as a law enforcement professional, in the better part of 28 years, I have never seen a situation where I could say that the border is secure. They need more people. They need more agents. They need more power in technology, equipment, and infrastructure. It will only help them do their jobs better. The bill would have added hundreds of additional Border Patrol agents, provided more technology, and provided more equipment and infrastructure. There’s a certain side to it. Of course, I’m going to support that.”
McCallum then asked, “How many people do you estimate will fall into the fleeing category this year because they didn’t have what they needed at the border and couldn’t get any further assistance? Do you have any numbers? ” he asked. about that?
Owens replied: “That’s just speculation, because there are so many areas where we don’t have situational awareness, so many borders that we don’t control, and we’re not there at the moment. I know that what you’re looking at, what you can actually photograph, is in the hundreds of thousands. And these are numbers that really…keep us up at night. Because if you… would be willing to risk crossing the desert or hiding in hiding to avoid capture if they knew all they had to do was turn themselves in to Border Patrol and go through the process. Why? Go home or end up trapped in the back seat of a tractor trailer? Perhaps people with criminal intent, people with malicious intent, representing a potential threat to the people of this country. Is it the people? It’s the kind of thing that keeps us up at night.”
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