© UnknownHolding facility for migrant children
Two days after leaked audio revealed a heated exchange between Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Border Patrol agents in the Yuma Sector of Arizona, the fresh footage shows Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz in Laredo, Texas, responding to agents accusing Biden administration leaders of hampering their ability to do their jobs and keep people safe.
"We don't give up. We stay focused. We continue to do the job and the mission we all signed up for. We all raised our hand," Ortiz said.
Among the group of agents in attendance, people could be heard getting restless, saying, "It's kind of hard to say that," with another retorting "to defend the Constitution."
Comment: The video offers a rare glimpse of the turmoil within the Border Patrol and the extreme frustration of the agents who obviously do not agree with Washington's policies.
"It's not hard to say that," Ortiz fired back, raising his voice. "It may be hard for you to say it, but I've been doing this for 31 years. It's not hard for me to say it. Every day, I wake up, and I'm committed to this organization, and I'm committed to each one of y'all," he continued, talking over someone in the crowd.
The crowd shot back with claims that the policies don't match the rhetoric. One appeared to complain about the release of criminals into the country.
Ortiz said the agents were getting too focused on the policies and politics of the administration rather than the mission of getting drugs and criminals out of the country.
"You're getting bogged down in the policies and the politics," an increasingly frustrated Ortiz said.
One person claimed they can't even say "illegal aliens," to which Ortiz spat back that he
"just said it. See? Is anything going to happen to you? Why are you so caught up in the semantics, right? There's a mission out there to be had guys. We can sit here and argue until we're blue in the face. I've been doing this job as long as y'all."Someone in the crowd said:
"That's a problem. For evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. That's exactly what's happening here. Good men are doing nothing. You're allowing illegal aliens to be dropped off in our communities."Ortiz insisted that the agents are still doing good work every day by making arrests and getting rid of drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine. One of the crowd rebuffed Ortiz, saying "under this administration" over the past year, there was the "highest [number of] fentanyl deaths in the history of our country."
A final heated moment in the nearly four-minute video, in which someone lamented a "lack of results," was quickly defused when another shouted a question that led to a wave of laughter and applause in the room.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the video.
The Biden administration has begun tracking all illegal immigrants released at the southern border into the United States, seeking to reverse course after losing track of nearly 50,000 migrants let go from Border Patrol custody under chaotic circumstances.
Ortiz and Mayorkas spent a good chunk of this week traveling and talking to Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border. A DHS spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday that the purpose of the secretary's trip was to hear about the experiences of agents and their needs.
Mayorkas was similarly pressed in the Yuma Sector on Wednesday when agents vented about what they conveyed to be a lack of effective actions to help them handle an influx of illegal immigrants at the border.
Mayorkas said he knows the Biden administration's policies "are not particularly popular with U.S. Customs and Border Protection," the DHS subagency under which Border Patrol is the law enforcement arm, but that it was "the reality."
"Let's see what we can do within that framework," Mayorkas added, referring to Biden's policies. "I don't expect people to hold back."
Comment: America has been compromised and betrayed by Biden's policies - the ramifications to unfold for decades.