A retired Border Patrol agent said the Laken Riley murder exposed serious vulnerabilities under the Biden administration’s border policies.
Christopher Harris, a retired California-based Border Patrol agent and former New York police officer, told the Washington Examiner the problem goes beyond releasing immigrants into the country but more toward the little vetting of those who cross the border illegally.
“That’s terrifying because we have no idea who we’re letting into this country,” Harris said.
Texas has made progress. It granted authority to police to arrest those who are crossing the border illegally. Arizona Republicans tried to pass similar legislation, but Gov. Katie Hobbs (R-AZ) took executive action and vetoed the Alien Invasion Act.
This all comes at a time when Harris says that U.S. Border Patrol agents are leaving their jobs at an unprecedented rate.
“I don’t support partisanship,” Harris said. “I will say, though, under this administration, I didn’t want to say this, but I think it’s being done with malice and aforethought.”
While out of the force now, Harris has 36 years of law enforcement experience and remains active in discussing solutions. He said he just recently met with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to discuss tactics to work with Mexican authorities over the border crisis.
“When I would meet with officials, as a union official, one of the things I would tell them is this shouldn’t be a bipartisan issue; this should be a nonpartisan issue, and most agreed a few years ago,” he said.
Immigration has dominated the 2024 election cycle. According to a Gallup poll, 28% of voters said the southern border has an impact on their vote. In the same poll, the economy ranked 12%, and inflation came in at 11%.
Border agents have reported a surge in fake documents being used during processing or none at all.
Jose Ibarra, 26, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was charged with the murder of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student. He reportedly gave his Venezuelan identification number to authorities. It turned out to be incorrect.
This is usually not caught by agents unless their fingerprints are already on file, according to Harris. In most cases, foreign countries do not share their databases with the United States to research an immigrant’s potential past criminal records, he said.
“Yeah, we fingerprint them, and we take a photo,” Harris explained. “When I did that, I would say give me the name you want to use. If you want to use Mickey Mouse, that’s fine. They’re going to go with these fingerprints from now on.”
Harris said one day, after all record checks came back clear for a man who claimed asylum, as he was walking out the door, in Spanish, he said, “I thought those five homicides would show up.” Agents stopped him, and, through the El Salvadoran Consulate, agents found out he was indeed charged with five murders in his country.
Recently, Harris said he’s noticed more Asians at the border.
“If you’re from Japan, a first-world nation, why are you coming here and claiming asylum? If you’re from Nepal, why are you claiming asylum? We’re letting in Chinese nationals, and a lot of these men are military-aged men by the thousands,” he said.
Harris said he also worries about terrorists infiltrating the border.
“We know Hamas and Hezbollah have training centers in Mexico. We’ve always had a hands-off gentleman’s agreement with Hezbollah, but they could do anything they want to this country, at any time,” he claimed.
On Tuesday, Hobbs vetoed a bill that would have granted authority to Arizona state police to make arrests for illegal border crossings.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) enacted a similar law, but the Supreme Court temporarily barred the border state from implementing Senate Bill 4 on Monday. The bill would have allowed Texas authorities to make arrests for those who cross the southern border illegally.
Harris said if the Texas law goes into effect, it would cause the cartels to move their efforts over to the Arizona and California borders.
“I think it’s much harder for Border Patrol in particular, but also for all law enforcement,” Harris said. “It’s kind of scary that a state has to go out of its way to pass a law like this.”
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Harris said he believes it’ll be a long time until the border is seen as a nonpartisan problem.
President Joe Biden is set to address the southern border during the State of the Union address on Thursday. He faces mounting pressure to enact new policies for the surge in crime.