we cover all of each size programmatic
areas in Arizona but our focus really as
a border state really is on drugs and
people unlawfully coming into the state
and money and guns unlawfully moving out
of the country you recently had the
largest fentanyl bust here in the state
of Arizona what does that tell you about
the infrastructure in that network that
exists just south of the border in
Sonora certainly you know the cartel and
strong infrastructure in Sonora is
entrenched Sinaloa cartel has owned that
plaza for about forever
and you know the advent of fentanyl
coming into the US has been a game
changer for law enforcement and it's a
trend that I think is only gonna get
worse I think you know Mexico has shown
more and more ability to produce
fentanyl it's more fentanyl does get
produced in Mexico versus having to come
in from China or being more dependent on
precursor chemicals from China I think
that'll be a game changer because of our
proximity to the source of supply why
have we continued to see the smugglers
try to bring fentanyl through ports of
entry when they know the infrastructure
they know the technology the manpower is
there simply put it's an opportunity to
blend with legitimate traffic if you're
coming through a port of entry you're
coming through with the vast majority
people that come through with a hundred
percent legitimate reasons for what I
need across the border with no ill
intent with no contraband and again
we're only able to search just by
resources a small number of those
vehicles or a small number of those
peoples if they if they're pedestrians
if you're coming through the border at a
place other than a port of entry already
you're up to no good and if you're
detected and we're getting better and
better every day it detecting people
coming between the ports of entry you're
going to get searched no matter what HSI
has agents embedded along the border to
investigate family fraud and CBP's
Tucson and Yuma sectors the agency says
between October and March agents
investigated about 700 cases in the Yuma
sector alone we've had two different
types of family fraud one which is the
far more rare which is an adult
traveling with a child that's
actually part of their family the times
where they have no relation to off time
it's an aunt or an uncle claiming to be
the parent there's been a handful of
instances where there's no familiar
relationship whatsoever and that's scary
you know there comes a fart we're on us
you know there's called ability - how do
we you know let a person in with the
child where there is no familiar
relationship and what's our culpability
down the line if something happens to
that child what we're more commonly
seeing is young person's been honestly
children oftentimes adults you know 20
to 23 years old claiming to be children
knowing that our ability to detain
families is difficult we don't really
have three sources to be able to work
this aggressive is what we'd like to
biometric certainly do play a big part
of it we are doing some work with DNA to
make sure that we are establishing for
meal research we've piloted that in
outside of Arizona but I think that
testing will be coming to Arizona in the
very near future
ice recently moved additional agents to
Arizona Brown says the agency is working
around the clock to ensure it can
adequately provide a safe space for
migrants to be processed while DHS
facilities I don't think anybody likes
the perception of you know we're people
keeping people in inadequate facilities
certainly that's not what we want what
we'd like to do is have the funding that
lets us provide humane safe and
appropriate detention facilities what
would you do if you could wave a magic
wand and just tackle one of these
problems you know I think in terms of
migration problems largely it's
economically driven so I think you know
we need to be working you know with our
partners at State Department to figure
out how do we get those countries to a
stable economic place to cut down on
that you know draw of of coming to the
United States and I think part of that
is we also have to hold ourselves
accountable you know we have to make
sure that we're not employing
unauthorized workforces in the US which
frankly isn't done out of the goodness
of people's hearts that's done out of I
want cheap labor and it creates an
unfair marketplace for US businesses
that are trying to do the jobs the right
way same thing on the on the drug side
you know there's a part of that where we
as Americans who are consuming these
drugs have to take some responsibility
for you know providing the cartels any
profit according to brown seizures of
hard narcotics like meth and fentanyl
are up along the southern border the San
Ysidro Port in California leads the
nation for narcotic seizures followed by
Nogales in San Luis in Arizona
but something else troubles this agent
of more than 25 years arise in the
exploitation of children and migrants
certainly the proliferation of child
pornography surprises me and scares me
the number of people willing to engage
in exploiting children and and view
child exploitation material it's a
frightening number I could keep every
agent in HSI in Arizona busy full time
just working child exploitation leads
Brown also expresses concern for the
violence and neglect women and children
face when they make the journey to the
border often with the aid of human
smugglers the frightening fact is if
you're a female coming into the country
unlawfully there's a very very good
possibility you're gonna get raped and
potentially raped multiple times along
that journey if you're a child you're
probably not going to eat or not gonna
drink enough to be safe during that
journey you know the dangers are coming
into this country illegally our
multitude do you foresee an end in sight
I think we're going in a lot of ways in
the right directions I think we are
getting some additional resources again
we are going to expand our DNA testing
to make sure that families that are
claiming to be families really our
families you know hopefully you know
Congress in the administration can sit
down and come up with some good
long-term solutions to our current
immigration situation because as it is
now it's not working and has been
working for quite some time from the
outside looking in it appears there's
been a spike in violent activity just
south of the border does that put you
and your agents on high alert for the
possibility of seeing something on this
side associated with a crime sure
these spillover violence is what we
would call that certainly that's
something we're always vigilant for
particularly when you get heightened
acts of violence on the Southside
fortunately that's very very rare but
certainly when there's a spike as the
recent spike in Agua Prieta and NACO
have been we do start making sure that
we're out there gathering intelligence
we're providing that intelligence where
it can help our counterparts with the
government of Mexico where it can help
us better align resources that were
making sure were communicating potential
threats you know to the ports of entry
to our partners and Porter patrol and
then the Sheriff's Office's