Border Patrol agents need more barriers and a wall to help them keep people from entering the United States illegally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Monday.
"It's called impedance and denial," McAleenan told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "If someone can run across and disappear into a neighborhood it makes it a lot harder for agents to do their job...Border Patrol agents have always wanted more barriers on the border to help them do their job. It's the only way you can stop large groups from flowing across."
Out of the first investments that have gone into building and repairing the wall, a big difference is being seen in California and other locations, but more is needed.
Detection devices also are needed to help prevent illegal drugs from coming through the nation's ports of entry, and President Donald Trump's budget requests both, said McAleenan. Often, large groups of families are being used to divert agents, while smugglers come in with hard narcotics, and that's a "phenomenon that we need to stop," he added.
Families also are going to remote parts of the border and crossing in places where there is no wall, said McAleenan, but "any time we have a barrier it prevents that kind of activity."
Having troops at the border is also "tremendous," said McAleenan.
"They are a huge help," he said. "They have extended our surveillance capability, and provided us backup to prevent a large group from rushing the border. We really appreciate them there as the holiday approaches."
If the $5 billion Trump wants for the wall is approved, construction can begin quickly, as it is going through the Army corps of Engineers, McAleenan added.
The main priority sectors are in the Rio Grande Valley, which is the main crossing point for human smugglers, and "$5 billion would extend all the way into Laredo and help us shutdown the south Texas corridor and bolster El Paso, El Centro and California," said McAleenan.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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