Extra: The Logistics Of The Trump Border Plan
18:37 Share

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Forget the frustration of picking commerce platforms when you switch your business to Shopify, the global commerce platform that supercharges your selling wherever you sell. With Shopify, you'll harness the same intuitive features, trusted apps, and powerful analytics used by the world's leading brands. Sign up today for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash tech, all lowercase. That's shopify.com slash tech.

This is the Fox News Rundown Extra. I'm Lisa Brady. Much like he did in 2016, President-elect Trump made border security the centerpiece of his 2024 campaign, promising to stop the flow of migrants coming in, but also handle those who are already here illegally. On the trail, he said he would implement mass deportations and ban sanctuary cities. So how might the logistics of his handling of the border work?

This week, host Jessica Rosenthal spoke with Charles Marino, who was a senior advisor in President Obama's Homeland Security Department. Marino discussed the current state of the border crisis and the challenges the incoming Trump administration will face. The nationally recognized security expert also discussed what actions can be done to address the reported thousands of convicted criminals who are on Immigration Customs Enforcement's non-detained docket.

We often have to cut interviews down for time during the week and thought you might like to hear the full interview. Thanks for listening. And please follow the weekday rundown podcast if you haven't already. Now here's Charles Marino on the Fox News Rundown Extra. You worked at DHS, as you just noted. So I think you might have among, I guess, some of your former colleagues, you guys might have some insight into

into the logistics, what might be required to engage in some of the promises the former president made on the campaign trail. We know we've heard terms like mass deportation. What logistically might that look like, or at least what might they have to consider?

Well, I agree with you that this will be one of the top issues that's addressed by the incoming administration first, based on the fact that it was such a top concern in this election for the American people as it's tied directly to their safety and security and that of the country.

Yeah, we hear things like mass deportations. The reality is deportations will only be one element of what will ultimately be a multifaceted plan. Deportations, to be realistic,

would need to focus in a prioritized manner on national security threats, criminals, those that have overstayed visas, those that have failed to show up for their immigration hearings. And that's how it should be prioritized, to think that we have the resources in this country to find 10 to 15 million people who have entered the country illegally is just not realistic.

I also expect that there's going to be significant engagement with our international partners, something that's been missing the past four years. I expect pressure to be put on Mexico, for example, to immediately restore remain in Mexico, as well as other countries along the migration path in Central America, for example. The U.S. gives a lot of aid to these countries. Mexico, for example, is our number one trading partner.

So I expect President-elect Trump to come in, use money as a key negotiating tool, as he has historically done, and say, look, if you're not going to be a part of the solution to this problem in this hemisphere,

then we may withhold U.S. aid. We may add tariffs, for example, to things coming from Mexico into the U.S. And lastly, I expect the president-elect to address sanctuary cities. You know, sanctuary cities receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public safety federal grants.

And yet they thumb their nose at law and order on a daily basis. They don't work with ICE when those in the country illegally commit crimes. But Charles, didn't we go down this road? They release them back on the street. Didn't we go down this road in the first administration and there was a whole legal fight over it and it ended up that you had to tie federal

to the specific issue at hand. It couldn't just be like, well, all federal funding to you, regardless of the issue is pulled. It had, so they ended up tying it to like cops grants, right? And law enforcement related funding. It sounds like they would be limited in scope to some degree.

It would be limited in scope. You would not have. You're absolutely right. You would not be able to withhold all federal grants going to these cities and states that claim sanctuary status. However, it can be very targeted to things related to public safety since, you know, what sanctuary cities do.

fly in the face of common sense when it comes to working with officials from ICE, for example, to get very dangerous people prioritized for deportation. You know, you're going to see programs like Secure Communities make a comeback, 287G, which was used by the Obama administration and the Trump administration.

This is where they take advantage of the 800000 state and local law enforcement officers on the ground that when somebody in the country illegally is encounter committing crimes, they're immediately turned over to ICE or deportation. I also expect a lot of the technology to go away, like the CBP one app.

which has been highly criticized and rightfully so as some type of concierge service for those wanting to come into the country illegally to exploit claims of asylum to make their way into the country. I expect that to go away.

uh and i expect overwhelming support for the men and women of both cbp and ice to finally be allowed to do their jobs i expect to see an implementation of a layered approach to security again down at the border that means continuing to build the wall expanding technology and again allowing the men and women of cbp to do what they signed up to do

Is your cold making it hard for you to get to sleep and leading to a bad morning? Switch to Mucinex Night Shift for fast, powerful nighttime multi-symptom cold and flu relief. Mucinex Night Shift fights your worst nighttime symptoms to help you get to sleep and wake up ready to go. Mucinex Night Shift. It's comeback season. News is directed.

Charles, the big the big thing that the former president has said that's received a lot of attention and pushback is when he says he will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. He said it most recently before winning the election that he would use it to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil. I've done a little bit of reading. Can can this be enacted or used without a declared war?

Yeah, that's a great legal question. I like to think that the program I just mentioned, Secure Communities, would greatly enhance the capabilities of the administration. Obviously, to enact what you just mentioned would require review by the Department of Justice to see if, in fact, it could be used. I get the point that the

is making, and that is some very bad people have been let into the country.

tied to the cartels who have never been as powerful as they are now because of the policies of the last four years. You know, we have this fentanyl crisis here in the United States, which is going to require engagement and handling of not only the cartels, but also of China, who provides the overwhelming majority of the synthetics used to produce this drug.

So there's a lot that needs to be done. The administration is going to hit the ground running. They have no choice. They're going to have to walk and chew gum. They're going to have to do a lot of things at once. And exploring some of these, what I would say, unique laws and authorities may be one of them. But I think the message here is that President Trump is not going to leave anything on the table. He's going to leave it all on the field.

in terms of getting these very dangerous people out of the country. It's got to be done. We know we're vulnerable, not just criminals, suspected terrorists.

And look, we've got a caravan coming to the United States right now through Mexico. Ultimately, that is keeping an eye on the clock right now because they know things are going to change. And now is their best chance to get into the country. Do you anticipate if he doesn't find success with Mexico?

some of the ways in which he promised he would do this, that he would, to your earlier point, use things like tariffs. I think he said that he would put a 25% tariff on everything imported from Mexico if they did not stop influx of migrants and drugs. So if you can't do it one way, you do it another way.

Yeah, I do. I think there's a lot of ways to implement an effective strategy to address all these. You know, the U.S. government has a lot of means at its disposal as part of a strategy. As we know, President Trump sometimes likes to negotiate out in public.

He's a big fan of what I call the information campaign. I expect that to continue as he stands up the office of the president-elect, the transition office, and is talking about these policies, making appointments to his cabinet.

at places like the Department of Homeland Security and DOJ. And I also think we're going to see a new approach to how the cartels are being handled. And I think that'll be part of the demand to Mexico is, look, if you can't handle this situation on your own, we're more than happy to help you. It's impacting hundreds of thousands of Americans each year.

And look, at some point in time, the problem of the cartels needs to be handled. They have morphed beyond just being criminal organizations. They operate like terrorist organizations. And we need to bring some of the tools that we use to fight terrorist organizations around the world.

This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination-focused dining, and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all-inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover more at viking.com.

Interesting. The state government might have something to say about this. I saw an interview with Massachusetts Governor Healey, and she said that they would use executive power to block the Trump administration if they tried to do any of this, if they tried to do a mass deportation program. Might his efforts meet legal action or meet states that just simply refuse to cooperate here?

They anticipate that they will certainly get some pushback on what he wants to do. Sanctuary cities have proven that they will go above and beyond to provide a safe haven, not just for those in the country illegally, but those that go on to commit additional crimes, which is no way to keep the country safe. Flies in the face of common sense when it comes to homeland security. But yet they will...

file, in my opinion, some legal challenges to whatever it is that the president tries to do. But that's why you go after the money. If you recall, during the Trump administration, he briefly withheld money from New York City.

along these lines of their sanctuary status. And very quickly, New York City changed some of their policies. So money has a way of changing positions rather quickly. A lot of this money is used to fund law enforcement. It's used to fund counterterrorism. But look, if they're not looking out for the overall safety and security of their citizens, then why should they be receiving all this federal taxpayer money?

And Charles, finally, just another sort of logistics question. You know, a lot of people who are here say,

do have some status, right? They have asylum paperwork. They're waiting for their cases to be adjudicated. I imagine those folks would not really be a part of any sort of program. At some point, if they are ordered deported, if they lose their asylum cases, that's a different story. But in the meantime, if they don't have a court case until 2027, they're here and they're probably allowed to work here.

Well, under asylum, they're not being given the work permits. They are under parole. That is also another program that I expect President Trump to look at. It's exclusively temporary protective status. I think it's hard to find a country

uh around the globe that the united states has not offered temporary protective status to uh they're far uh and few between so you know i think he's gonna look

programs like asylum and parole and temporary protective status, I think he's going to look to shrink those down and get those back to the way that they were intended to be. And that is where you have claims such as asylum that are filed, but they are quickly heard and that they are heard

before somebody makes it into the country and a decision is made. I don't know if that group you just described with hearings six, seven years down the road would be exempt from being removed. They may actually be removed back to Mexico where they can await decisions on their asylum claims. And Charles, just one more finally for you. We have

Is it more than 400,000 convicted criminals, 13,000 of whom have been convicted of homicide who are here on ICE's, they're on the non-detained list right now? We've been talking a lot about the border, border security, migration, immigrants here. How are we going to see changes to ICE and how some of those folks maybe are handled, like why those folks are still here?

- Yeah, you know, it's not only CBP that has been prevented from enforcing the law and changed to more of an administrative function tied to processing. We've also seen it with the interior enforcement operations of ICE the last four years.

And that is they just simply put have not been a priority for this administration. So I do expect to see ICE become more aggressive in line with the policies and the executive orders that were stood down by the Biden administration, which worked very well in the first Trump administration. I expect.

those to be re-implemented on day one and ICE being more assertive in doing their jobs on the interior of the country. This is challenging. This is not going to be easy. But for the national security of the country, it needs to be done. Charles Marino, former Department of Homeland Security advisor during the Obama administration. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks, Jessica.

I'm Benjamin Hall, Fox News senior correspondent and New York Times bestselling author. Join me every Monday on my podcast as I speak with silent but noteworthy heroes. Make sure you subscribe to my podcast, Searching for Heroes with Benjamin Hall, wherever you download podcasts and leave a rating and a review.

Jason in the House, the Jason Chaffetz podcast. Dive deeper than the headlines and the party lines as I take on American life, politics and entertainment. Subscribe now on Fox News podcast dot com or wherever you download podcasts.