The head of the Border Patrol on the most dangerous part of South Texas has told DailyMail.com that he needs Donald Trump’s wall.
Manuel Padilla Jr, the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector Chief Patrol Agent, said that the wall was ‘critical’ to stopping illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico and Central America.
He praised the ‘Trump effect’ which caused illegal immigration to drop by 30 per cent and said that President’s tough talk had scared away the cartels.
Padilla made his comments in interview with DailyMail.com as Congress tries to work out a deal on immigration reform.
Democrats want protections for DACA recipients, young people who came to the US illegally, and Trump wants $18bn funding for the border wall, his signature election campaign pledge.
Speaking out: Manuel Padilla Jr, the Rio Grande ValleyBorder Patrol Sector Chief Patrol Agent, tells Dailymail.com the border wall is a must
President Trump dismissed the latest bipartisan effort on immigration to come out of Capitol Hill and dug in on his wall demand on Monday
Easy crossing: This is one of the spots where Mexican cartels and coyotes can make a short crossing into the United States – part of the top Border Patrol agent’s case for a wall
Entry by land: This is the scene from hundreds of feet above the Rio Grande where a raft has been spotted by the crew of an AStar helicopter – allowing them to alert a Border Patrol agent to its presence and get ready to arrest them
Left to die: These seven migrants were dumped just 200 yards from the border by smugglers who were using them in a bait-and-switch to get drugs across. One had blue lips when he was found by Border Patrol agents in 30f conditions, crossing from the most dangerous part of Mexico. Padilla says his sector needs a physical barrier
Sweeping scale: The vast Rio Grande valley is split by the river, which makes it an easy target for border crossers. Padilla says it needs a physical barrier to keep the border secure
Partial barrier: This is part of the Rio Grande border which is already fortified, near Mission – but Padilla tells DailyMail.com he needs much more of the border covered by a wall or fenbce
Speaking at the Rio Grande Sector headquarters in McAllen, Texas, Padilla said that border enforcement required three elements to be successful; personnel, technology and infrastructure – by which he means a wall.
His 3,000 agents – aided by aerial support including helicopters, blimps and planes – face illegals and drugs coming in from Tamaulipas, a part of Mexico the State Department says is so unsafe that U.S. citizens should simply never go there, like Syria or Afghanistan.
Padilla said: ‘It doesn’t matter how much technology you have, if you don’t have that wall working in conjunction with the technology and the people, there’s no way you can get those results.
‘Down here if we deploy technology it’s going to help us a lot and we are going to be able to see what’s happening but we’re not going to be able to stop what’s happening.
‘We’re going to know what’s happening but not be able to do anything. You need that physical barrier, whether it’s a wall or a fence’.
Padilla has since 2015 been in charges of the Rio Grande Valley which is number one in the U.S. for drug seizures and migrant apprehensions.
Last year in this area the size of South Carolina some 260,020lbs of marijuana were seized, 30 per cent of the national total, and 137,562 people were caught, 42 per cent of the total across the US.
Padilla said that he sees the Rio Grande Valley as the ‘last stand’ against illegal migration.
He said: ‘Now this [Trump] administration is focused on border security the Rio Grande Valley is the focus of deployment.
‘We know how to do it, we’ve done it in different places, we just need to get it done here’.
Build this wall: These are the prototypes the Department of Homeland Security has had built in San Diego, the opposite side of the country from Padilla’s Rio Grande command. He says they are needed to be put in place urgently
To illustrate the ‘Trump effect’ on immigration Padilla shows me a set of statistics for the Southwestern border with Mexico.
They show that in October 2016 just before Trump won the election there were 66,708 apprehensions.
By January last year, the month Trump took office, that number was 42,463 and in April it reached a low of 15,766.
But since then it has crept back up and in September it reached 31,155 for the month.
In December last year 40,513 people were apprehended trying to get into the US from Mexico.
The figure is a 30 percent drop from the 58,412 detentions in December of 2016, but it is the 11th month in a row that apprehensions have ticked up under Trump’s watch.
Padilla said: ‘The President is very focused on border security. He said we cannot tolerate illegal immigration with no consequence.
‘I’m in total agreement, there’s no way you can manage this… all the talk and all the rhetoric had an effect but time has gone by and people who are still being released from this population are getting a bit bolder.’
Hi-tech deterrent: A Border Patrol Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) tower first saw service in Iraq – but now it is used to monitor the border by camera and infrared technology. The operator sits inside the bullet-proof shelter
Watching eye: Border Patrol have a network of cameras on the ground and in the air, with blimps used to keep a constant presence above the valley
Off to detention: Border Patrol agents caught this illegal near Mission – last year they made 200,000 such detentions
On the ground reality: Agents during a search for illegals face bush, thorns and thick vegetation – with these two agents involved in trying to find a group of immigrants as they flee
Illegal cargo: As the helicopter stayed overhead the raft turned round and headed for the Mexican shore of the river, taking the at least ten packed on board back
Padilla has spent 40 years with the Border Patrol and is considered one of its brightest and best commanders.
He was previously in charge in Tucson, Arizona where he oversaw huge reductions in cartel drug activity and illegal migration.
Padilla said: ‘Our mission throughout the year [as Border Patrol] since 1924 has been border security, that hasn’t changed from admin to administration.
‘When you have policy that supports the enforcement of immigration laws that are on the books you have good results.
‘When you have policy that does not support the laws that are on the books you find yourself going both ways and that’s what happened to us to be honest in 2014, all the years we did not have a policy that supports the laws’
Padilla said that he needs more technology and manpower to keep the numbers down – Trump has pledged to hire 5,000 more Border Patrol agents.
He also needs to tackle what he calls the ‘tumor statistics’; the Rio Grande Valley leads the nation in stash houses, failures to yield – trying to stop a vehicle and it takes off – and migrant deaths.
Padilla says: ‘The reason I call them that is because a chaotic border is like a tumor, you want to make it go away, you want to reduce it in size from year to year’.
What especially worries Padilla is the 300 per cent increase year on year in the number of MS-13 gang members being apprehended.
There has been a 66 per cent year on year increase in assaults on Border Patrol agents which Padilla suspects is due to the cartels becoming more desperate.
He admits that when it comes to drugs, intelligence estimates that they only stop 10 per cent of what is coming through.
But Padilla says: ‘I see it as a challenge and an opportunity to bring this border to levels like we have in San Diego.
‘At some point drug reduction in demand is going to be needed because if you have an insatiable hunger for drugs it’s going to come.’