By David Brody

WASHINGTON – The hot issue of immigration is now even hotter after the alleged El Paso, Texas shooter confessed to targeting Hispanics invading the country.

"Let's make no mistake. This was done by an individual who was sick, who was evil," Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection said.

Morgan spoke with CBN News about the tragedy and whether the rhetoric from President Trump is to blame.

He said the shooter is the only one to blame. "He is the one responsible for the murder of those individuals and nobody else," Morgan explained. "I think rhetoric is in one category and then the acts that this individual, this depraved coward, is in another category."

For the former Marine and FBI agent, the deadly shooting just adds to his busy and controversial list. Recently, he's had to deal with accusations from far-left Democrats that the border detention centers are more like concentration camps.

"I was just outraged," Morgan told CBN News. "It was just unbelievable to me. That's not just rhetoric. If anybody says we're running concentration camps, that's just a lie. That's a flat out lie."

He says another flat out lie is the notion family separation is an official administration policy.

"There's never been a family separation policy," he noted. "It doesn't exist. It never will exist. It was a zero-tolerance policy which meant that if you came here under Statute 1325, you came here illegally. That is a crime. Just like we do in the interior of the United States, if someone commits a crime and they go to jail, child protection services take the children."

Morgan says roughly one million people will illegally enter America this year. The challenge is the US system isn't equipped to deal with the increase in migrant families.

"Back in the 1990s and 2000s, we reached over one million but the majority of those were adult males and we sent them back right away," he explained. "Now the majority, 65 percent, are family units and children. And because of our broken laws, they're released into the interior of the United States never to be heard from again. That's what we have to focus on."

Morgan says Congress must fix certain loopholes to discourage the heavy influx of migrants.  

"They could pass legislation in 15 minutes and 85 to 90 percent of this crisis would go away," he added.

When asked if he has any hope that Congress will step up to the plate on the immigration problem, Morgan responded: "None. They're not going to pass any meaningful legislation to address the loopholes in our legal framework."

Despite Congress' inaction, Morgan, who also worked for President Obama, says President Trump has been a man of action.

"This president and this administration has done more to address this crisis than any other administration before," he continued. "The government of Mexico has stepped up and they are supporting this as a regional crisis in unprecedented ways like they have never before and that's a direct result of this president."

And speaking of Mexico that brings us to the subject of -- the wall.

"Is the wall being built?" CBN News asked. "If so, how much of it and what are the plans for the future?"

"So the answer to that is yes," Morgan responded. "Absolutely, the wall is being built. Right now, I think we're up to 54 to 55 miles of new wall that is being built."

A recent Supreme Court decision allowing the administration to use Defense Department funding for construction will ramp things up.

"That's probably going to give us the ability to build in excess of 450 miles," Morgan told CBN News. "The majority of that we're going to have that done by the end of 2020."

In Morgan's busy world, he just focuses on one day at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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