Extended interview: Former Border Patrol chief on changes at border under Trump, more
Channel: CBS News
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Read a transcript preview of “Extended interview: Former Border Patrol chief on changes at border under Trump, more” from CBS News, uploaded on 2026-11-05.
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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] Just maybe three years ago, we were
[0:01] talking about how chaotic the border
[0:03] was. What changed?
[0:06] >> Well, I would tell you that the Trump
[0:08] administration,
[0:09] uh, the current commissioner and the
[0:11] chief of the border patrol now, they
[0:12] have done a phenomenal job on the
[0:14] border. You've seen less than 300
[0:16] apprehensions a day on average. Um, they
[0:19] have uh great cooperation with the
[0:22] Department of War. You have great
[0:24] cooperation with the government of
[0:25] Mexico. and it's a fullcourt press
[0:28] against the cartels and the smuggling
[0:30] organizations that were operating here
[0:32] in the border environment. Um, I've
[0:34] never seen this type of effort in the 33
[0:37] years I wore the uniform uh the Trump
[0:41] administration has truly dedicated to
[0:43] making sure our border is secure and
[0:45] that I mean we've seen the border wall
[0:47] infrastructure uh continue. We've seen
[0:50] technology uh they're adding more agents
[0:54] to the payrolls upwards of almost 24
[0:57] 25,000 agents. Um when I was the chief
[1:00] of the border patrol we had 19,000. So
[1:02] those 5 6 thousand more agents are going
[1:05] to make a huge difference and impact on
[1:07] making sure this border stays secure
[1:08] like it is.
[1:10] >> Have you ever seen the border this
[1:12] quiet?
[1:12] >> No. Never. Um, you know, even after 9/11
[1:17] when we pushed resources to the border,
[1:20] airports to make sure that we didn't
[1:22] have another terroristic threat, we did
[1:24] not see the level of security that we're
[1:26] experiencing right now. And it just goes
[1:29] to show that when you have consequences,
[1:32] when you repatriate people, return
[1:35] people back to their home country,