In another major story this morning, the Biden
administration is deciding to send 1500 active duty
troops to the US Mexico border. All of in anticipation
of a migrant surge all coming before the title 42 COVI
restrictions and officially nex week, take a look at
this. It's behind the border wall at a port of entry.
Hundreds of folks camping out waiting for their turn to
come in even though even though several restriction
have been put in place to crack down on how many people
can enter the US. There has been a record number of
people trying to cross into America. The president has
created new pathways and migration processing center
as alternative ways for those seeking asylum. For 90
days. These 500 military personnel who will be sourced
from the active duty component will fill critical
capability gaps such as ground based detection and
monitoring data entry and warehouse support until C PV
can address these needs through contracted suppor
Retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore oversaw the
training and deployment of over 500,000 military
service members as commander of the first army and he
joins us now to discuss the biden plan. What was your
top line reaction How should we read the fact that more
troops now are heading to the southern border Do you
think it's an appropriate response Well, it's a
response that the administration deemed necessary
requests from the Department of Homeland Security which
is supervising this. It's, uh, it's a mission that's
been repetitive over the past decade of sending troops
as required, whether it was a channel with a surge or
was it a capacity problem with the border patrol to be
able to due to processing as well as the logistics, you
know, when you're dealing with the suspected numbers of
they are expecting some media reporting up to 10,000
the first few days. Uh Once the title 42 is lifted,
that's a lot of logistics. And that two itself, I'm not
sure if 1500 plus the 2500 you already have will have
the capacity to be able to feed house uh process and
contain. Uh So that number look low to me. Uh But uh
people on the ground have come up with that uh estimate
of what they need. I think you need to be prepared to
send more because the last thing we need is people
languishing and not having proper food and water once
they arrive. Because there's an expectation once they
arrive, this is a 2000 mile border with about 1200
miles of it in Texas. And the shortest point is up in
the San Diego area. So I'm sure they are doing uh the
head counts using overhead systems to see where the
surge is gonna be. But uh if it's gonna be as big as
the border patrol project up to 10,000 day, uh I'm not
sure if this is enough troops to handle the logistics
required to house and feed uh uh process and fly people
out. So I trust the people on the ground, but they look
like a low number to me. And again, these troops, th
White House is saying, will be armed for self defense
but will not have any kind of law enforcement role. I
heard a Republican politician say last night that he
did not support the move. He said we don't need more
troops there at the southern border. We need to send
judges to the border to speed up the processing so that
people aren't waiting weeks and weeks and weeks,
whether they're allowed in or turned down. We need to,
we need to, to ramp up the processing and as opposed t
ramping up security presence. D you, do you agree with
that And is the answer somewhere in the middle Yeah, I
think that's kept an obvious, uh, answer. Yeah, we need
more judges but you gonna need logistics to feed and
care for these people. We saw what happened in the
previous administration when uh as well as last year
when we didn't have the proper logistics to take care
of the people. Once they cross that border, uh we've
got to feed and house them and do medical checks and
process them. That's a lot of logistics. Uh Yeah, they
do need more borders and the immigration issue. That
beyond my uh area of expertise. But once they arrive
uh we've got to take care of them and that's why we
need the extra troops there. And the administration d
say this is a temporary fix to allow the border patrol
to issue contracts to be able to do this. This is not a
law enforcement mission. It's a more of a humanitarian
and a lifesaving mission to make sure we can properly
take care of people. Once they cross the border,
there's an expectation that the going to be in a
safe environment, they'll have food and water and
medicine and that's going to take a lot of logistics.
Do you take this at all as a signal that this is a
White House that feels politically vulnerable when it
comes to the immigration issue And now that, of course,
Joe Biden has announced officially, he's running again.
He knows this is a potential liability. And so thi
an attempt to look strong or stronger on this issue. I
I see it as a requirement for logistics. Not
because who's in the White House, if you're gonna start
taking in taking 10,000 people a day, you have to have
the capability to take care of them. And it would be,
uh, uh, malpractice not to put the resources there to
get it done until the DH S can get the contractors in
to take care of it. I mean, they'll meet many peopl
They'll find a way to read this. But again, as I said,
I'm not sure if the 1500 plus the 25 500 already have
on the ground will be able to help the border patrol
handle 10,000 people a day and open that number didn't
come to fruition, but they can see them across the
border. You gotta realize these people, many of them
have walked 3000 miles to come to America. They want to
come here, they want to go to work, they want to have a
safe place, but we got to follow the immigration rule
and something probably need to be done. But the
Congress for decades have faile to act. So this is
what we've got to live with. You know, by the way,
fences won't stop people from coming to America. You
build a 20 ft fence, people get a 20 ft and one ft
ladder. People want to come to America for jobs and
security. And again, just to let folks know the
calendar, the numbers we're talking about here title 42
ends on May 11th. A lot of these trips we're talkin
about expected to be in place the day before on the
10th and they are expecting illegal crossings to
surpass 10,000 per day once title 42 is lifted. Add to
your point. That is a huge number and will require
plenty of logistics there at the border. We will see
how it plays out. Lieutenant General Russell Hono
Always good to talk to you. Thanks for giving us some
time. Have a good day and God bless those people
crossing that border. That's a tough road. Thank you,
General Honore.