John Torres, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, told Newsmax Monday that the hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested so far during Operation Tidal Wave in Florida will help secure the United States' borders for years to come.
"That's some of the things that aren't really reported is that there's data collection ongoing," Torres said on "Wake Up America." "You've got pocket litter, as we call it. There's a lot of information that you can gather from these networks — phone numbers, names. It allows the agents to do a further, deeper investigation where they might be using wiretaps, where they can use undercover agents, for example.
"It goes beyond just arresting somebody at a location. You really want to dive down deeper and take a look at the infrastructure that is supporting this entire network, and it allows the agents to go after the cartels and use racketeering type of investigations."
Working together with Florida police, federal officials launched Operation Tidal Wave at the end of last week in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to find and deport approximately 800 illegal immigrants. Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Stuart, Tallahassee, and Fort Myers were included in the sting operation.
The Trump administration highlighted its successes over the weekend, pointing to a 95% reduction in the number of border crossings in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term in office.
Speaking more broadly, Torres said that the administration's action on the southern border since taking office in January has shut down illegal border crossings "incredibly quickly."
"We've always said, and from my experience over the years, that illegal immigration will take the path of least resistance," he said. "It's like water. If you put an obstacle in front of it, it will try to go around. So if you actually enforce the law on the southwest border, they will stop. It will close the border from illegal crossers.
"Now, that doesn't mean it's going to stop overall – they'll try to get across the northern border, they'll look to take boats across the West Coast, for example, or they'll even dig tunnels to go underneath – but really, what you're seeing is immediately by enforcing the laws and by sending a strong message of deterrence, [Trump officials] have gotten control of the border fairly quickly, incredibly quickly," Torres said. "And that's something that could have been done in the last four years but wasn't."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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