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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to this Sunday edition of Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're talking about the crisis at the southern border. Joining us is Virginia Allen, a senior news producer with The Daily Signal. Virginia recently visited multiple border towns and talked with locals, law enforcement, and migrants to get a firsthand account of what's happening. Welcome to the show, Virginia.
--:-- Virginia Allen: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Virginia, tell us about your trip to the southern border. What did you see and experience?
--:-- Virginia Allen: I went down to the southern border, specifically to San Antonio, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Kinney County. These are communities that are dealing with illegal immigration day in and day out. My focus was to see firsthand the impact of illegal immigration on these communities.
--:-- John Bickley: That's fascinating. You spoke with local sheriffs, a rancher, an attorney for Kinney County, and even migrants themselves. What did you learn from them?
--:-- Virginia Allen: I spent about half a day outside of a migrant processing center, and I asked folks why they decided to come to America. Why come now? And so many of them had a very similar answer: they wanted the American dream, a better life for themselves and their kids.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's interesting. You also mentioned that you saw firsthand how the process of illegal immigration works. Can you walk us through that?
--:-- Virginia Allen: I was in Del Rio and visited with a woman who lives a mile from the border. She said, "Just drive down the road and see what's going on." So, we went down there, and sure enough, there was a small group of maybe five or so illegal aliens who just crossed the Rio Grande and were being picked up by Border Patrol.
--:-- John Bickley: That's incredible. You mentioned that NGOs are giving these illegal aliens bus tickets and plane flights to go into the interior of the U.S. Can you elaborate on that?
--:-- Virginia Allen: Yes. We know that they're going to New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. in great numbers, and potentially to several other cities across the U.S. Now, there's been a lot of outrage among Democrats over Republican governors busing migrants, but you're saying that the standard process right now is to let them journey into the interior of the U.S., often to these same cities.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a great point. You also mentioned that the Border Patrol has had to figure out a system to deal with the sheer numbers of illegal migrants coming across the border. Can you describe what you saw?
--:-- Virginia Allen: One, we don't have a border. For all intents and purposes, America has no southern border right now. And two, this process of illegal immigration under the Biden administration runs very smoothly because it has to in order to support it, in order to have these sheer numbers coming across and have it not be total and complete chaos.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a sobering reality. You also spoke with locals and law enforcement. What did they tell you about the impact of illegal immigration on their communities?
--:-- Virginia Allen: They were very open and said that they feel safe. The woman I mentioned earlier, Teresa Esther, described her house as looking like Fort Knox at night. She's purchased all these lights and put up around the outside of her home. She's bought a guard dog. She put a fence in her backyard because she's only a mile from the border.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's terrifying. You also spoke with the sheriff of Kinney County, Sheriff Coe. What did he tell you about the situation on the border?
--:-- Virginia Allen: He told me that between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. that morning, they had apprehended five different human smugglers who were trying to sneak individuals into the county, into the country. And what often results in those situations of human smuggling is high-speed chases.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a sobering reality. You also mentioned that the cartels are playing a big role in illegal immigration. Can you describe what you saw or heard about the cartels when you were visiting these border towns?
--:-- Virginia Allen: There's a lot of concern, both from Border Patrol and locals, about the role that the cartels are playing in illegal immigration, in the sheer numbers that are coming across, in the drugs that are being smuggled. And certainly concerned for the safety of both the aliens themselves, who are often dependent on those cartels to come to America, and Americans themselves.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a great point. Finally, is there anything that particularly stuck out to you that defines the situation on the border?
--:-- Virginia Allen: By the fact that the Biden administration's policies are actually facilitating illegal immigration. And that's both from my words, what I gathered, and from the words of the Kinney County attorney, Brent Smith. He told me that. And it was evident, I think, to actually see with your own eyes, oh, this isn't just something that's happening in the dark or that they're trying to hide it. It's wide out in the open and nothing's being done to stop it.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, Virginia, thanks for joining us today and sharing your insights on the crisis at the southern border.
--:-- Virginia Allen: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Virginia Allen, senior news producer for The Daily Signal.
--:-- John Bickley: And this has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire.
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