Luke Barr, ABC News justice and homeland security reporter Interview

Luke Barr joins Mendte in the Morning to talk about the immigration crackdown we’ve seen from the Trump administration and Tom Homan’s comments at the White House yesterday.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk to Luke Barr, who is ABC News Justice
and Homeland Security reporter in Washington. Luke, thanks so much
for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning, Good morning for you.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm doing well, Luke. I was fascinated by Tom Holme
in front of the media yesterday. The Trump administration could
have chosen anybody to celebrate their one hundred days they
and they chose Tom Holman, who I would describe as
fierce and combative. Is that accurate?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, he does like to mix it up with reporters
and members of the media like and he you know,
has a lot to say, especially given that the administration
has prioritized immigration. Honestly, the president ran on and they
are are obviously taking a lot of action on immigration.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
So if you agree with that. With fierce and combative,
it seemed to me that he is sick and tired
of the media, that he's sick and tired of not
getting enough credit for securing the border, and that the
Biden administration wasn't criticized enough, so he took it upon himself.
It seems like to do that criticism. Talk about some

(01:12):
of the things that he said about the border, and
was he accurate on everything?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
What he said was that basically it's time to pack
up and to go. You know. He urged migrants who
in the country legally to self deport. He said they
cannot hide. They will be prosecuted if they remain in
the country. And he also talked about the man who
is deported to l Salvador Kimar Abrego Garcia. He says

(01:43):
it wasn't a mistake or that they deported him despite
the court record and the court filing thing otherwise. And
he also defended deporting those US citizen children, saying that
basically the mother had requested the children to come with
her when she was deported, and then it was her choice,

(02:06):
not the choice of ICE agents or any other person
in the administration.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
I get that he gave some of the numbers. I
know he was talking about on some days there was
fifteen thousand a day under Biden coming across the border.
But then he said something that I have heard people
talk about. And when I talk about people, I just mean,
you know, callers calling in or in conversations privately. But
he made the accusation that the Biden administration left the

(02:33):
border open purposely. Was what was he saying would be
the reason for that.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Why, Well, look, it remains to be seen what the
reason is, but I think you know, at least now reporting,
it doesn't appear that it was purposely left open. But look,
the administration is taking action on the board. If you
just look at the numbers, right, I mean eleven thousand,

(03:01):
over eleven thousand encounters per month, excuse me, between February
and March respectively. You know, total of twenty two thousand
over two months is a huge decrease, right, It's again
ninety three percent decrease in those encounter at the border,
given you know the over one hundred thousand that were
in the last administration February and March of twenty twenty four.

(03:26):
So the numbers are are striking to see that level
of decrease in such a short amount of time.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
And he fixed it, Donald Trump, I'm talking about fixed
it so quickly. It does make it suspicious as why
it took four years. They kept saying they needed a bill.
Obviously they didn't. They could have secured the border all along.
So the question remains, and I think he tried to
give an answer, The question remains, why on earth would
you allow that to happen?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
And you know that. I think it just remains to
be seeing why the motives for the Biden administration is
something that has been discussed, you know, at length by
by others. But you know, I just think that the
administration is it's ran on this issue. It's something that
they want to count especially given one hundred day of

(04:19):
marketing administration that voter numbers of down deportations are being
carried out by you know, this administration. I think you
know it it is. It is obviously something that they're
going to talk about and look at as a success.
And if you look at just the numbers of the deportation,
the one hundred thousand going to the Secretary of Homeland Security
in three months, just over three months, isn't isn't a

(04:42):
bad number of town.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
No, he said he was very happy with that. Luke Barr,
ABC News Justice and Homeland Security reporter, thank you so much.
I appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thank you, Thank you, Luke