with the national border patrol. some of you, i know very well. agents. we love our law enforcement. and we want to thank you for doing an incredible job. god bless you all. thank you. thank you, brandon. [applause] announcer 1: president trump hosted border patrol union members after the national order control council reelected brandon judd as union president during its annual meeting in washington, dc. we talked with mr. john this morning -- mr. judd this morning. host: joining us is a border patrol agent and president of the national border patrol council.

tell us what that is. brandon: we are the organization which represents the interests of all border patrol agents nationwide. we represent them legally and politically in whatever interests they want us to do. host: how long have you been a border patrol agent? brandon: 22 years. host: president trump is meeting with your group. can you tell us what the meeting is about? brandon: he is actually going to speak with the spouses and children of our border patrol agents talking about what the policies the administration has ouremented to make one, our job safer and two, to make the border more secure for the american public. host: you have been an agent for 22 years. under a lot of administrations. give us your sense of how things are under the trump administration. brandon: if you look at the past administration, we felt greatly

demoralized. we were not necessarily -- due to policies by the agency, we were not necessarily allowed to do our job. and when that happens, we do not feel -- everybody wants to feel like they have accomplished something when they go home at the end of the day. we just we were not feeling that way. under president trump, we feel like we are actually able to secure the border. the policies he has been implementing have been working, such as the mvp, the aca, these are policies that he negotiated with other countries because congress has not helped him. host: looking at the numbers from the trump administration, the apprehensions, the illegal alien apprehensions at the southwest border, 2016, 408,000, it dips in 2017, it rises again in 2018, but 2019, almost 900,000 apprehensions. what is going on there? brandon: what happens is the american public, they demanded that president trump try to work with congress to close certain loopholes that were inviting people to cross the border

illegally. when congress refused to help, what that did is that exacerbated the problem. that allowed criminal cartels to go out and recruit people to come to the united states, put themselves in their hands. it also allowed criminal cartels to create a huge profit and revenue. when that did not work, president trump went out on his own, and he negotiated agreements with mexico, guatemala, honduras and el salvador. these programs have caused a n exponential drop in illegal immigration and it is because frankly congress refused to work with him. host: for those of us who do not are border border or patrol agents, what do you think is the biggest thing, misunderstanding that americans do not know about the work you face on the border? brandon: what most people do not understand, they believe that -- they believe the only people that we deal with are either from mexico or central america. that is absolutely not true. we deal with people from all over the country.

i personally have arrested a group of illegal border crossers that were from poland. we recently -- host: coming through the southern border. brandon: the southwest border. in arizona is where that was. with the coronavirus outbreak, recently arrested a few chinese in the dell rio sector. two of the three individuals were sick with high fevers, and we had to transport them to the hospital. this was just a couple days ago. most people think that all we deal with our people from mexico and central america. we deal with people from all over the world. russia, brazil, china, everywhere in the world. host: has that changed in the years you have been on the border? brandon: no. this is what we have seen throughout my entire career. host: tell us about the specific area where you work. have you been there most of the time? brandon: i have moved around a lot due to what i do. i want to get a full idea of what is going on in all of our

borders. the southwest, northwest and northern border. i spent 15 years in california and arizona. i have been moved to maine and spent three years in maine, now i am in montana. i spent the last five years in montana and in a couple months i'm moving back to arizona. to go back to the southwest border. brandon: vastly different experiences very different. ,brandon: very different. host: one of the things that is a big part of president trump's push on the borders is border wall funding. we have seen he is moving money around the headline in the , washington times, the president will take more funds from the pentagon for the wall, and the pentagon informed congress on thursday, it will take another $3.8 billion from its accounts to build president trump's border wall. he rushes to get as much construction done before the end of the year. tell us what you see happening in terms of the wall being built. how quickly is that happening?

brandon: it is already being built right now. we added 100 miles of replacement wall. this is new wall system that helps us secure the border better. i would like to go back to my time in arizona. i worked in a 58-mile stretch of border. we did not have any infrastructure, any border barriers. we were arresting over 100,000 people in this one small area a year. we started constructing, building walls, and those arrests have dropped down to about 10,000 a year. physical barriers in strategic strategicolutely -- locations, they absolutely work. all you have to do is look anywhere that we have dealt these areas, such as san diego, el paso, arizona. when we have done that, illegal immigration and drugs -- that is a very important part -- drugs have gone down through those areas exponentially. it allows us to dictate where illegal crossings will take place rather than the criminal cartels dictating to us where they are going to cross.

host: the cartels keeping up the pressure. recently, there was a tunnel, california, arizona. brandon: we want them to go underground because this costs them an awful lot of money to do, and it is cost prohibitive. if they cannot get their products across easily, it puts -- they have to start spending money which puts a dent in their profits, and we go after them with our intelligence department. that is always where we want to be. host: brandon judd is our guest a border agent for 22 years. ,welcome your calls and comments. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents and others, that is 202-748-8002. have you ever been in life-threatening situations? brandon: i have i have a couple , times. it can be a very dangerous job. one thing i would like to point

out, criminal organizations, they are the ones that are going to be dangerous. they try not to harm border patrol agents as much as possible because they know if , they do, there will be public outcry because of what they have done. there is going to be a lot of pressure. there are sometimes they absolutely have to go out of their way to get us out of the picture so that they can get their drugs across. host: are you feeling more political pressure from washington? you are head of the council, you represent your members. are you feeling both conservative, both republican and democrat pressure on the council? brandon: no. what is interesting, when you look at moderate republicans and moderate democrats, they generally tend to agree that we have to secure the border. there is really a lot of agreement in that respect. it is when you get to the outliers, you talk about the radical left, you start talking about the radical right, that is when you start getting into things that do not make sense policy-wise.

the radical right wants us to shut every thing down to where nobody comes in illegally or legally. the radical left does not want order patrol or ice anywhere. neither one of those policies work. it is where we are meeting in the middle that republicans and democrats can get along and they agree we have to secure the border. host: have you been down there when members of congress or the president has visited? when those members leave those tours, what is there take away? -- their take away? brandon: it depends who it is. i have sat in on roundtables with president trump when he has gone down to the border. he supports our mission. because of that, the morale goes up exponentially. but then when you have members of congress -- i will say her name -- alexandria ocasio-cortez, when she says we are running concentration camps, and we are basically the gestapo morale is going to go in the

, tank. these are people that are supposed to support, and she goes after the men and women, and that is a huge contrast between president trump, who supports the men and women of a the border patrol and supports the mission we are trying to accomplish. host: that is the council, but the number of border patrol agents, that has grown and the -- in the last few years. brandon: we have a hard time detaining our agents because of the politics. we are in the spotlight. right now, there is almost 20,000 border patrol agents nationwide. host: for a stretch on the southern border there was some , military involvement in terms of support for you guys. is that still happening? brandon: yes we still have the , national guard that is down on the border. what they do is act behind the scenes. they bring our cameras, they help with certain detention facilities, which allows us to free up our agents to be in the field to secure the border. they are a great help. host: is that because -- you use the national government

because we need to increase the side of the border patrol staff? brandon: we do not have enough agents to put our agents in the field. when our agents have to be in the processing center to process individuals, or when our agents have to run our cameras or monitor sensors, it takes agents out of the field where we need them in the field to patrol the border. host: we have calls waiting . we will hear from jim on long first island on the independent line. caller: great job, buddy. i don't know why they didn't come here, the border patrol, when they had that greenlight law passed in new york where the lines were out the building and snaking around the building. they could have snatched some of these guys. i live here in central islip where they chopped up some people down the block from me. i could tell you, i am 66 now, 66 years old. i have to call the cops every weekend from april to october because the spanish people from south of the border love to

blast the music so loud that my mirrors fell off the wall. host: we are going to leave you there and hear from jim on the independent line. caller: i applaud your service. i am a veteran. other than defense of this country, i think illegal immigration and immigration are number two in my book. you got to take care of this immigration problem. your comment on shutting down the border totally, i wish you could take a pause. the assimilation is not happening. you know, you have 1000 channels on the tv. they can sit there and watch spanish tv or korean tv all day long. i am in construction. i could be probably making a dollar or two an hour. but again i go on these , construction sites. large commercial construction sites, building homes for these developers, and i can't -- i can speak to maybe one guy in the

whole crew. it is ridiculous. unemployment in this country should be zero. every able-bodied man and woman should be out there working. 287g e-verify should , be fully enforced. are you aware of -- i can't remember if it is m.i.t. or yale study that was done where they ran the numbers. they said there is probably over 30 million illegal immigrants in this country. also any word on the daca? everything leaks in washington except something from the supreme court. these daca kids, i am sorry if , you came here illegally, your parents got to go home. i will give you a pass on the kids, but the parents have to go home. host: several issues there. do you want to address this? brandon: first of all we have to , separate illegal immigration with legal immigration. i don't think there is anybody in the united states that disagrees with legal immigration. but the vast majority of the united states does not want to see people come here illegally and game the system and get all

the benefits. as far as daca goes the parents , are subject to deportation. daca was ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court. and so the parents are subject to deportation. the problem is is actually finding those people that are here in the united states illegally. but when we do find those individuals, ice does a great job of doing their portion of the -- putting their work into the portion of the immigration debate. host: tell me your experience the change the administration , made, the migrant protection protocols. so people are coming to claim asylum, they come to the border, and they are told to wait in a border town, correct until the ,ir case is heard? brandon: what used happen, and this was the major problem, there are certain magnets that draw people to cross the border illegally. the main magnet is what we called the catch and release program. somebody would cross illegally, they would claim asylum, get

released into the u.s., and never show up to their court appearances. they would do what president obama termed disappear into the shadows of society. president trump says we have to get rid of that magnet. we can't just release people into the united states and not have them show up to their court appearances. now if somebody comes up and claims asylum, we send them back to mexico pending their asylum proceeding. and then if they show up to the court proceeding, then they have the right to prove they should be allowed to remain in the united states. and if they don't have that right, we send them back to their country. host: some pushback on that because of the violence related in those mexican towns. one person said the department of homeland security says this program is to increase access to court hearings. but in reality what it is doing is forcing 62,000 plus asylum-seekers to wait in appallingly dangerous conditions with no hope they will ever have the opportunity to get a lawyer and virtually impossible chances of ever winning asylum regardless of the strength of their claims.

brandon: what frustrates me is just three years ago, if we ever issued -- if the state department issued a travel warning to go into mexico and say, mexico is dangerous everybody would be pushing back , on that saying mexico is not dangerous. now all of a sudden because we have the mvp mexico is extremely , dangerous. the mexicans have certified these towns for their own country is perfectly safe for these migrants to be in their country. frankly, you hear a lot of anecdotal evidence or anecdotal stories that there is violence in these mexico towns, but there is no actual evidence that -- there is no physical evidence that the violence is taking place. host: is there evidence when called for the folks are coming back? brandon: absolutely. we parole them back into the united states for their hearings. as long as they give us an

address or a way we can get a hold of them, we bring all of these individuals that are waiting for asylum back in to have their court appearance before an immigration judge. host: what happens after that hearing? brandon: the burden of proof -- because this is not a criminal proceeding. the burden of proof is on those individuals to prove that they should be allowed to remain. if they can't prove that, they get sent back to their country. host: let's hear from lancaster, pennsylvania. vince on the republican line. caller: yes, hi good morning. , i wanted to say thank you for the job you all do down at the border. if it wasn't for c-span, i know a lot of folks, democrat, republican, independents, or plain old americans would probably never get the right story. it would not be spun like the media does. whether it is fox or if it's one of the other ones. there are a lot of folks that don't like what is going on.

i called because this new bill that is trying to be passed with 44 democrats, i understand, on board as far as folks that have been kicked out, going through the expense of taxpayers, actually bringing them back and having them tried, basically opening up all the borders. i mean pardon me for not , remembering exactly what the law is called. know, after you do all your efforts and you can't be discouraged anymore, somebody is throwing another pile on top of you. i was curious what you thought of this new bill that is trying to be passed now. i want to thank you before you comment. i say goodbye, thank you for all your hard work and we pray for you. brandon: let me address the whole issue of c-span. i absolutely agree that c-span is right down the middle. they look at both sides of the issue. i can personally appreciate that. they don't take up one side or the other.

and again the american public , needs to. we need to have an honest conversation. once we have that honest conversation, whether you agree or disagree with me, at least you know the truth is, and then you can make up your own mind. as for as the bill, i believe he is talking about is hr 8353. , that would make -- decriminalize the process of crossing the border illegally. this is a bill that does not have a prayer in heck of passing. when we talk about the radical left the radical right, bills , get introduced. this bill will not pass. it has no support. it does not even have the support of the majority of democrats. so it is just not going to pass. but to again incentivize people to cross the border illegally, if you do that, people are going to violate our laws. you cannot incentivize. you cannot reward people for violating our laws. if you do that, they will continue to do that, and that is

exactly what that bill will do. host: i want to play the comments of the subcommittee chair in the house foreign affairs, what he thinks the commission should be doing to reduce violence on the southern border. here is what he said. [video clip] >> i have long advocated for robust u.s. assistance to help mexico strengthen its democratic institution, combat corruption, defend human rights, and improve security. i believe that mexico and united -- and the united states have a shared responsibility to reduce violent crimes and improve quality of life to those living on both sides of our border. the united states must enact stricter gun laws, dedicate more resources to combating money laundering by the cartels, and increase investment in programs to reduce domestic demand for illegal drugs.

but we also expect a sincere commitment on the mexican side to reducing this violence. host: brandon judd? your thoughts? brandon: so i have never seen an administration work more with the mexican government than what the trump administration has been doing. the trump administration has been trying to put as much pressure and give us much aid to mexico as possible to try to help with this crisis that is on the border. as far as guns, mexico has some of the toughest gun laws in the entire world. yet they have one of the highest murder rates due to guns. to say the united states has to place stricter gun laws, i just do not know somebody from another country should be talking about it. host: where do the cartels get their guns? brandon: look, there is a lot of places they can get them from. they can get there from china, they can get them from many different countries. some come from the united states. we saw that with fast and furious. host: let's go to warwick, rhode

island jerry from rhode island, , democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a liberal. liberals don't like laws. and the democrats have had some great bills that are obstructed by the republicans that said we need more outposts, we need more cameras, more technology, more drones. and when people come to the border, we should be able to know they are coming and be able to greet them with the proper people. if it is women and children, they get dropped off by the coyotes, we can bring them food, medicine, we can process them. if they are criminals, we can stop them. a place on the border, just the locals put in 500 cameras and they stopped the drugs and put them in the ravines and all of these places. that is what we need to do. a wall is a wall of hate. if you're dropped off by the coyotes and you go 100 miles to a wall, you have to decide which way to go. the chance is you are going to die.

it is just a wall of hate. but if you do it with the technology and the other way, it is compassionate, and it is a much better way to go. host: are those human traffickers, those coyotes still as active as they have been in the past? brandon: yes. they are more active due to the profits they are able to generate. what really frustrates me is when our policies allow a criminal organization like the cartels to generate billions of dollars of revenue. what we should all be for is we should be for is legal immigration. we should be for people coming to our ports of entry and presenting themselves and asking for legal entry. what we should absolutely be against is people crossing our borders illegally. because when they do that, they are putting themselves in the hands of very dangerous criminal cartels. and they are paying these organizations thousands of dollars each to bring them to our borders and smuggle them into the united states. host: you mentioned your experience as a border patrol

agent in maine and in montana and in those lonelier outposts. illegalre attempted crossings there? brandon: have attempted illegal crossings everywhere. we have it on our northern borders, our coastal borders. obviously we have more on the southwest border because it cost less to come up in mexico than what it does to fly into canada and then cross across the northern border. as we do a better job on the southwest border, we can expect see more illegal immigration of n the northern border, which is actually what we have been seeing. host: ashland, ohio. gary, good morning. caller: good morning. i got three questions i would like to ask. number one, what is the ideal population of the united states? number two, what is the cost of illegal immigration to the american citizen? and number three, what is the cost of legal immigrants to the american citizen?

brandon: i would love to be able to answer that question, but i'm a law enforcement agent. we don't deal with the cost aspect of it. what i can tell you about -- what i am an expert on is border security and how we can secure our border. i mean, those are absolutely good questions and questions that need to be addressed. i'm just not the one to address them. host: you are the president of the border patrol council. when did you get elected? brandon: i was just elected again for another term yesterday. but i have been the president for the national border patrol council for the last seven years. host: you balance that with you , are a working agent as well? when you are finished this weekend, after meeting with president trump, it is back to work next week? brandon: i spent a good deal of my time representing our agents and in uniform patrolling the border. host: we will hear from mel in salt lake city, utah. democrats line. mel. caller: yeah, thanks for c-span.

right off the bat, i know trump cuts legal immigration. so there has to be more illegal immigration. and you guys have it totally wrong. now the one guy that called before me about sensors and cameras, let's go that route. walls are totally not needed nowadays. and you guys got it all wrong. 800,000 people came across with a coyote, i don't think so. host: brandon judd tell us about , what efforts you see daily in terms of technology. what new technology is being introduced? brandon: first and foremost we , have gone the technology route. we spent the entire -- i'm sorry the last part of the bush , administration and the first part of the obama administration enamored with technology. technology helps us detect people. that is what it does. it does not help us apprehend people.

you have to understand it is a mixture of both. yes, we get enamored with technology. we want drones flying in the air. drones flying in the air tells us there is people crossing the border. if i don't have the personnel to actually respond to those individuals, there is nothing i can do. what you have to do is have the proper mixture of technology, personnel and infrastructure. if all those three mesh together -- again, it is pieces of a puzzle. you can't complete a puzzle unless you have all of the pieces. technology is one piece of the puzzle, and we are working on that. brandon: and on the walls themselves, we have seen pictures of some that have blown down in some breezes. criticism or -- host: no. as we are building those walls -- that is not a finished wall. that is something as you are constructing it. yes, some things like that will happen. put the wall back up. you justput the wall back up. you finish the construction. we have never had a finished

wall blow down because of the wind ever. host: we will hear from susan in glenwood, illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. agent judd, i just want to commend you for your service and congratulate you on your appointment for another term as president. and living in both illinois and for over 25 years in arizona, can you tell the american public what would happen if all the wall, all the restrictions on the border were removed? what would happen to our nation as a consequence of the action of the radical left? brandon: well what i can say is , if we did not have the border patrol, if we did not have laws, yes, people would be coming across. we already have laws, we have

the border patrol. as you pointed out we apprehended in 2019 almost one million people that crossed the border illegally. if you have those laws and still a million people are crossing the border illegally, i would hate to imagine what would happen if we did not have any laws. but again, what we do is we enforce the laws congress passes. we do not go out and decide what we want to do. all we are there for, law enforcement officers, and that is whether it is border patrol officers or municipal law enforcement officers, we enforce the laws that are passed by whatever authority passes those laws. host: how frustrating is it to see congress fail to pass comprehensive immigration reform over the course of now two decades? brandon: it is extremely frustrating. i go back to the immigration the problem with that was there was a legalization piece and

an enforcement piece. they gave a legalization piece but did not follow through on the enforcement piece. because they did not follow through on the enforcement piece , what you did was it gave rise to the illegal immigration we saw. that we've had to double the border patrol on three separate occasions because of the number of people that were crossing our borders illegally. anytime you intensify -- i will go back to that. if you intensify crime, it is going to take place. we have laws in this country to protect the american public. thatly, it is the laws made this country the greatest nation on earth. if we ignore those laws, we come like any other country. --t: border have pretensions apprehensions drop. the number has dropped for the eighth straight month following crackdowns by the trump administration including forcing asylum-seekers back over the border to wait out

their claims. 3 if you want to send us a text. jimbo in bakersfield, california. independent. wouldn't it be best to focus on upgrading these locations on the border with a smart wall? your work more effective under trump in previous administer agent? we have to look at the idea that more drugs are crossing at ports of entry than they do between the ports of entry. -- if athe same idea tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, doesn't make a sound? just because you don't detect the drugs that are crossing the border between the ports of entry does not mean they are not crossing. what we can do is we can see how many drugs are in suburban america. you know how much is there based upon how many deaths are happening or the arrests. we know not all those drugs are crossing through the ports of

entry. they are crossing between the ports of entry. we have a problem in both areas. we absolutely have to increase the enforcement at our ports of entry. te more to divo resources -- devote more resources. -- i will tell you under the trumpet administration morale from a national ports o -- order counsel stand -- national border counsel standpoint it is higher. this president supports the work we do. host: a quick follow-up on drugs coming into the u.s. is that 70 with a backpack on or a tractor-trailer? guest: it depends on what drugs they are bringing across. if it is marijuana, it will be backpacks. if they are bringing across it will be inds, smaller containers.

they will bring those through with cars to the ports of entry. at a port of entry i can inspect every single person in every single vehicle that comes into the u.s. it does not make sense to bring drug support -- through the ports of entry. if you go i don't have people, i can't inspect. it makes sense the cartels are going to bring the drugs between the ports of entry rather than through the secured locations. ist: the next caller karen in new jersey. caller: good morning. i have a question on the border crossings. see the focus is on people who are brown and black. whonted to know how many are not brown or black are crossing the border?

what is there apprehension right? guest: it does not matter what color a person is. whether you are from china, whether you're from poland -- i citigroup from poland. it does not -- i arrested a group from poland. we see a camera picture people crossing illegally. when somebody crosses the border illegally, we deploy our agents to the area and we will take those individuals into custody. personally you i have never arrested somebody from africa. there have been arrests. i have personally not. i have arrested people from russia that were white. people from poland that were white. yes, we do deal with the majority -- that what you already -- the majority are from sukkot or central america. that is undeniable. it doesn't matter for you are from. if you crossed illegally, we will deploy resources and try to

take you into custody. host: what was the story with the group from poland? where did they land? why were they coming to the u.s.? guest: during the processing we have to try to determine that. they will give us a story. the best we could determine if they flew into mexico city and worked for mexico city up to the border. i think it was 2001. host: today higher eight coyote -- did they hire a coyote? guest: nobody crosses without paying criminal cartels. you have to pay to work your way up to the border. host: rodney from maryland, independently. -- independently. line. caller: i wonder why no one talks about the real issue in south america. i'm a self-employed mechanic. i repair all kinds of equipment

on the construction sites. forklift and bobcat, that kinda stuff. i have been doing this for 22 years. over the years i've had quite a who are mostly from el salvador or guatemala. guys onry rare you find the construction sites from mexico. with, they are building all the houses out there that people are living in. man they tell me the reason they came to the u.s. was because they can't make any money where they come from. yearst know 50, 60 plus we have been allowing american corporations to go south of the whatever build their they want to build, factories and stuff.

they pay literally five dollars per day. no one can live on five dollars a day. if we have a universal wage and we required american corporations to go south of the border to make their products to pay the same wage they pay in this country, if you can make $20 in el salvador and in american factory, he would have people coming from the u.s. to go there to work. host: brandon judd? guest: i will first address why people are coming here. the vast majority of individuals coming here are coming here to work. they know that there is a lot more opportunity in the united states. so they will come to the united states. there are specific driving factors that force people to leave the country. there are specific factors

that cause people to cross the border illegally. the main factor is we have the best country in the world, in my opinion. we have more opportunity then you will see throughout the world. people are going to want to come here. we want to see people come here legally, not illegally. host: please ask your guest about the e-verify program and why it does not work. guest: the program does not work similar because it is not being enforced. it is like any law. if you don't enforce a law, it will become a suggestion. if it's a suggestion, people will violated. if i'm driving down the interstate ending of the cops are going to allow me to go 10 miles over the speed limit, i will go 10 miles over the speed limit. i will stay just below with the cops are going to enforce. it is the same thing with any law. if are not enforcing it, people will look at it as a suggestion and blow it off. host: donald in kalamazoo, michigan on the republican line. caller: good morning.

i have a couple of questions. i would like to say these people who call and talk about how little money they make in mexico and how much we make here, that is true. but five dollars is a lot more money in mexico that it is in united states. a lot more. as far as separating the children, i would like to -- hopefully this meant can tell me about the orphan trains. when we had children running loose like stray dogs in the street that were picked up like stray dogs, shipped out west, southwest, and given away like stray dogs. that is separation. thank you. west: what we saw in 2014 is had this huge problem of unaccompanied minors coming up to the border without parents, without any sort of guardian. there was nothing that broke our hearts more than seeing that. you want to talk about misery.

when we took people into custody that worked their way up through mexico and they were 3, 4, 5 years old, that will break your heart. that was true misery. that is the idea that we have that if you don't come to united totes, you are not going have the same opportunities. we don't see that anymore because what happens is you deal with issues. he put certain policies in place. we dealt with the issue and we don't see it anymore. host: anthony from staten island, new york on the republican line. caller: there is a reason why foods are not of allowed from different countries ended the united states -- into the data states. -- into the united states. certain bugs can cause major damage to crops. there is a coronavirus and other

viruses that are now spreading everywhere. how do you control immigration or you don't know who is coming over the border and what kind of viruses or what kind of sicknesses they might be bringing potentially? there is also terrorism. there is also drugs coming in from the border. if you find yourself in the middle of the desert, how do you know you have actually crossed the border? i'm talking about u.s. citizens and mexican citizens, if there is no physical barrier? host: we have not talked about the coronavirus. what has the border patrol been told about keeping an eye on this? guest: we are the first line of defense from allowing viruses to come in or different jesus to come into the united states. we have to be vigilant taking individuals in the custody

anti-medical screening on these individuals to find out if in fact they are contagious with a certain disease. if we find they are contagious, we immediately transport them to the hospitals to take proper steps. we are the first line of defense, which is one of the reasons is important we do detect at every hand every single person that crosses the border illegally. host: have you or your fellow agents gotten help from viruses, illnesses, diseases -- gotten ill from viruses, illnesses and diseases from immigrants you have arrested? guest: there have been many agents. as we see different illnesses spreading, we deal with that. we dealt with sars and ebola. now you're dealing with -- i think it was a week in africa we arrested two chinese -- we agost -- a week and half we arrested two chinese.

they were sick. we had to determine whether or not they didn't fact have the coronavirus. we are the front line of defense and have to deal with that. host: scott in new york on the independent line. caller: hello. scott the human. back if you years ago i was living in louisiana. there were five or six illegal aliens i worked with. number one, on the west coast, canada to mexico, marijuana is legal. in mexico it is illegal. have done more damage to the cartels than the dea could think about doing because legal andshould be monopolize on it for our country. host: some final thoughts from brandon judd. guest: as far as drugs, we

enforce the law. we don't determine what the laws are. if congress determines it is legal, we will not seize marijuana. when he points out certain states have legalized marijuana, all the cartels do is they just transition to another drug that creates more profit. even if you legalize marijuana, it does mean drugs. . they will start smuggling the opioids, the fentanyl. it has increased exponentially. host: brandon judd meeting today with the president at the white house. >> c-span "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, we will discuss election security with catherine waldron. also, a look at efforts to ratify the equal rights amendment with someone from the

independent women's forum. watch washington journey live at seven clock eastern saturday morning. join the discussion. be sure to watch washington journal next week for museum week. we will discuss several museums. >> politico hosted governors at its annual conference in washington, d.c. in this portion, we hear from rhode island governor gina raimondo.