News from the border. The message has changed a bit

NBC's Rory O'Neill reports that while deportations continue, US officials are simply stopping people at the border, plus a crackdown on Fentanyl coming in from China

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are at six forty five now, Chuck Douglass in
for Mike Elliott and and the one my mother warned
me about Roy O'Neil from NBC News standing by right now. Roy,
there is there's some news, I guess from the southern borders.
Everybody's concentrating on ice raids and people being grabbed and
deported here within the States. Something apparently hopefully good going

(00:21):
on down at the southern border.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now, yeah, very good. Some of the numbers reported this
week from Customs and Border Protections show that the border
crossings are way way down. Illegal crossings now are at
their lowest point in decades. In fact, CBP says on
June twenty eighth, just one hundred and thirty six people
were stopped crossing the border. That used to be tens

(00:44):
of thousands of people.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
In a day. Now these people were Are they taken
somewhere and then sent back home or are they just
turned away? Do we have to I'm thinking about how
much money do we have to spend a process them
once they're caught. Quite honestly, well, right, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Going to be a mix. So they'll have these encounters
that they say, you know, for the month they'll call
them encounters. So there were more than twenty five thousand
total encounters nationwide. Most of them are turned around right
there on the spot. Others are processed and allowed into
the country. But that number, with the policy changes by
the administration, that's the number that's been falling off. They're

(01:20):
not being allowed to come in and that's why we're
seeing a lot of these apprehensions fall off.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And that's good news on all levels. I mean, you know,
it's for our immigration situation, it's good news and frankly
for people of you know, countries that don't want criminal
records or whatever, that's a good thing too, because they're
not even bothering to try. Now, is this is this
all just because of reputation in what's going on, or
have there been any new barriers put up or anything

(01:47):
like that that's dissuading people as well.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
So the administration has tweaked some policies, nothing really major though,
But what's really changed is the messaging, right, a message
of don't here, we're going to find you, we're going
to kick you out, or we're going to send you
to Alligator Alcatraz or send you to a you know,
countries that other countries that not even ones you're from,

(02:11):
and when we deport you to some of these prison
facilities that we've seen. So it's really a lot about messaging,
and that's also changed the cartel's behavior. That's really what
we've seen is the big change. The cartels have really
hit the brakes on this business model because many people
are now afraid to try to make the trip from

(02:32):
their home country and b they also fear what could
happen to them if they are removed from the US.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
That was kind of my next question is now, should
we anticipate or do it just your instinct? Do you
think we can anticipate a lowering of you know, the
drug trafficking in the US, the imported stuff that has
been coming in. If the numbers are that low as
far as the number of people, then the number of
drugs has to be substantially lower too. I would think right.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
The amount of fetanol entering the country tree is coming down.
We've heard President Trump try to have more agreements or
more discussions with Chinese leaders about stopping the flow of
the chemicals used to make fentanyl that come from China
they ship to Mexico. The ventanyl has made there and
then it's brought into the country. One of the problems,
one of the issues that's often overlooked though, with the
fentanyl trafficking is that it's Americans who leave from the

(03:22):
US go down to Mexico to pick up the fentanyl,
and then as Americans bring it back over, not necessarily,
not always. I'm not saying it's always. There are no
absolutes here, but one of the big issues is at
the border, it's Americans who are doing a lot of
the fentanyl trafficking. You can't assume that someone just walking
over the border illegally may be a mule.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
I tell you that that whole We've got international markets
for drug trading now, and it's just amazing. China brings
the chemicals in Mexico, process of the Gemmick goals and
then they get swept in here. Go to Google, look
up opium wars. This is just history marketing itself, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, different drug, same.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Pretty much exactly. Yeah, the same goal and hopefully a
better outcome.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Being from New England. I can also tell you you know,
we also had the molasses to run to slave trade
system going as well. So I mean these triangles of
nasty trade have been happening for centuries.