Customs and Border Protection (CBP) senior adviser Ron Vitiello told Newsmax Friday that, under President Donald Trump, “the nonsense at the border is over.” He urged Congress to “solidify the gains” that have been made by passing a budget bill to fund the president’s border security priorities.
“This is an opportunity for the Congress to backstop the ideals of the president: securing the border; making the streets safe in America; giving the men and women of the front line the tools, the resources, the equipment that they need to continue to be successful,” Vitiello said on “Wake Up America.”
He outlined a number of things that CBP has done since Trump took office, including shutting down the CBP One app that helped migrants schedule asylum appointments; collaborating with the Defense, State and Justice departments to secure the border; and prosecuting and removing criminal migrants.
“It's time for Congress now to act, to solidify the gains that have been made and allow the front line to continue to advance with border infrastructure, with additional boots on the ground, with agents and officers,” Vitiello said. “Those are the kinds of things that will put this on a sustainable path in the long term.”
Vitiello said that the Trump administration is “advancing on the president’s aspirations for a secure border,” which includes “going after these cartels, hammer and tongs, to make sure that they can't continue to ply their trade across our borders and in our cities and towns in America.”
“That's now being backed up by resources — effective deployments in Mexico of over 10,000 National Guard troops, the allowance for the Department of Defense to help them in intelligence and reconnaissance in Mexico, with the approval of the Mexican government,” he said.
“That has never happened. I was on the border for 33 years — in the uniform of the Border Patrol — I've never seen us fly over Mexico to the degree that we are now, open and in public, sanctioned by the president in Mexico. This is the kind of thing that you get with good leadership and an aspiration to protect America and make the streets safe again,” he saod.
Vitiello added that “the left has succeeded” during former President Joe Biden’s term at “allowing people to come into the country unfettered.”
“The nonsense at the border is over,” Vitiello said. “Now that's translating into the men and women of the front line, like ICE, who are going out each and every day finding criminals in communities who have committed crimes against the citizens in those communities. And so, it's unambiguous that we're going to secure the border and we're going to make America safe again and now the tools are in action. The front line has been empowered to do their job in the way that they have not been able to in the last four years.”
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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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