Mark Krikorian
Appearances
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Yeah, I mean, it's not all going to get stalled, but I think your basic point is that maybe they've raised expectations too high is valid. That could be a problem. But, you know, as JD said, I think it was after the election or maybe even during the campaign, he said, look, let's deport the first million and then we'll work on the second million and then we'll work on the third million.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
In other words, one thing at a time. But yes, I think the presidents may have raised expectations higher than is realistic, but it's not even so much that there's Washington dysfunction and paralysis and all that. There is some to that. It's just that you know, how many people can you deport at one time?
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
I mean, this isn't, you know, a Cecil B. DeMille movie with Ten Commandments and everybody's, you know, masses of people crossing the Red Sea or something. I mean, this takes work. Yeah. And you know, a significant number will leave on their own because that's the insight is you have fewer people coming in and more people going out and so the number shrinks. Shrinkage
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
In other words, it's the vector, it's the direction things are going is the key thing to look at. And will they deport everybody by the end of this term? No, they're not going to. In fact, they're probably never going to be deporting everybody because I'm kind of a squish on amnesty eventually. They need to restore control, they need to squeeze the number down.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
get the enforcement systems in place, not just the commitment, but the systems, like E-Verify, like a proper check-in, check-out system for visitors. They have to get sanctuary cities under control. Once that happens, I'm willing to talk. But that's not something that should even be on the agenda now. That's like the second term of the JD Vance administration. We talk about that.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
You enforce the law, the illegal population shrinks through attrition. It's not going to get to zero, but nothing's perfect in the world. You know what I mean? You deal with reality as it is. And the main thing I'm looking for is that four years from now, the illegal population is smaller than it is now. No, no, that makes perfect sense.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Talk to me about that. Well, Trump said, you know, I will end it by, you know, executive order. He can't really end it on his own, but what he can do is start the litigation that will end it. Now, birthright citizenship means anybody born here, literally anybody, even frankly to foreign diplomats, let alone tourists and students and illegal aliens, automatically a kid's a U.S. citizen.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Every developed country in the world except Canada that had that policy has now ended it. Because in the modern world, it just is not sustainable. In the old days, you couldn't take a three-week vacation in another country because it took you three weeks just to get to the next, your next village. I mean, it was just different back then.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
We need to end it so that only kids born to US citizens and green card holders, permanent residents, I get automatic citizenship. But I like the way Australia did it. What they did is that's what they did, they changed the law but said if the kid lives his first 10 years of his life without interruption in Australia, then he gets to be a citizen. In other words, like a statute of limitations.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
It makes sense. We got to get to that point, but nothing's going to happen until we start the ball rolling. And that's what the president did with an executive order this week to say, federal agencies should no longer treat newborns automatically as U.S. citizens unless they can prove that they have at least one U.S. citizen or green card parent.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And where that plays out is the Social Security Administration and the State Department. In other words, don't issue passports And don't issue social security numbers to newborns unless, you know, one parent at least is a citizen or a legal resident. That's on hold. The judge just enjoined that or temporarily stalled it, which is fine, which is the way it should be.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Because it's got to get to the Supreme Court.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
But that's for passing it on. If you're a US citizen and have a kid abroad, and then that kid abroad as a kid, what we're talking about here is- That's right. born in the US, two foreigners, which ones get to be citizens and which ones don't? Yeah.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Well, no, he didn't rule on it. He just said it needs to be enjoined temporarily until we litigate it. So, he didn't even rule.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Right.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
I gotta say the end of catch and release where instructing the border patrol that they are not to be letting people go, period. You know, there are things that follow from that. They need enough detention space to detain people, but that's the fundamental thing is not letting people go once you have them in custody. Because if you do, it's game over.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
They'll send their selfies home and say, La Migra let us go, come on up, and they'll let you go too. So, that's the single most important thing to end right away.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Because nobody's going to spend all the money and take the risk if the odds of getting let go are low. When the odds are high, they're like, hey, it's worth it. Let's take the chance. When the odds are not that good, then some people will still do it, but it's not going to be as attractive, and so you're not going to have the huge numbers we've been seeing.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
There's two ways they used it, either at the Mexican border, like your footage is showing here, or people who flew over the border and came to airports. It's over a million people because there's different pieces of it, but it's well over a million people came in that way. And they got work permits too. They were paroled in. It's astonishing.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And the rationale from Biden was, well, this is how we reduce illegal crossings at the border. Well, sure, if you just let everybody in, there's no more illegal immigration. It was crazy. So that stopped right away. I mean, they stopped that at, you know, 12.01 on Monday afternoon.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Yeah, no, that was their rationale. Was this how we reduce illegal border crossings by just letting people line up and come through the ports of entry and schedule their illegal immigration? It's bananas. All right, so that's been kicked to the curb.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
That's one of the two uses of CBP-1 was this Cuba-Haiti-Nicaragua-Venezuela program where they didn't even have to go to the border. They just were able to fly over the border into the United States and They didn't have to come from Haiti or Venezuela. We actually got, we had to submit a Freedom of Information Act request.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
There were people flying in, they were nationals of those countries, but they were living in Fiji and France and Vietnam. And I mean, it's like, well, then why did they need to come here? They already were someplace, you know, not their own country. Yeah.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Yeah. That never, unfortunately, never really existed. It should exist, obviously. But no, we got people passing under Biden. We had people passing through 8, 10, 12 countries before they got to the U.S. border and they let him in anyway. It's insane. I mean, no one who gets to the U.S. border should even be allowed to apply for asylum.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
because they've, by definition, asked through other countries.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
As I understand it, the Pentagon has already assigned 1,500 troops, I think Army, but I'm not exactly sure, to the border. And it's not like they're going to be, you know, carrying rifles and patrolling the border. I expect they're going to be, number one, doing helping with transportation, helping with detention, and they may well, for this would be new, doing ride-alongs with the Border Patrol.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
So, you'd be able to have a Border Patrol agent and, say, a soldier, you know, instead of two Border Patrol agents. So, that way, it's basically leveraging the Border Patrol because those are the guys who know immigration law, not the soldiers don't. And the other thing that'll be new They've talked about using military aircraft to do the deportations.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
That's just a capacity question, but the point is we wouldn't have to charter aircraft. We'd be using military aircraft to fly people back to wherever, Central America or whatever.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Well, a lot has changed. That's what really needed to get done was change. Trump ended the Biden policy of catch and release, where illegal aliens crossed over, turned themselves in, and then Biden let them go. He ended these mass parole programs, parole in an immigration sense, which is basically just letting people into the country who have no right to be here, inadmissible aliens.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And there was like 2,000, 2,500 a day. They were just letting them schedule their illegal immigration. either at the Mexican border or flying into the interior and they'd let them go and they had work permits. It was just, it was crazy. So that's stuff they've just ended. The question is, of course, how much are they going to be able to unwind of what Biden did?
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And that's the kind of thing that's going to be, we're going to see how that works out. One of the big issues there is what are they going to do with all these Venezuelans? Because Mexico takes its own people back. Central American countries are going to take their own people back. We don't have any relations with Venezuela. We don't even have air travel there.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
That's going to be a harder nut to crack in the next few weeks and months.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Well, they're thinking outside the box. First of all, inside the box, there's a provision in the law that says, if a country isn't taking back its own people, we're supposed to stop issuing new visas. And that's the kind of thing that will get the CHICOM's attention.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
If we say, okay, well, we're not all, you know, no more student visas starting today until you start taking your people back, that'll get their attention. The interesting thing is they are thinking outside the box, too. And they apparently have a deal or are working on a deal with Mexico to deport the Venezuelans to Mexico
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
and then pay Mexico to deport them to Venezuela because they have relations with Venezuela. We don't. And so, that would be interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Somebody's thinking outside the box. And the Mexicans are willing to go along because next year, that free trade agreement we have with them is up for renegotiation.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And that's way more important to them than a bunch of Venezuelan scumbags protecting them. They couldn't care less about that.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Absolutely. And the issue isn't Mexican illegal aliens because Mexico always takes its own citizens back. They've never made problems there. It's Central Americans and others. And, you know, both out of fear of Trump,
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
mainly, I think, out of fear of Trump, they are saying, look, we'll play ball with getting rid of these non-Mexicans as long as you help pay the costs and we don't end up stuck with them here.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Our estimate is, and some of our allies don't like it because it's not high enough, but our estimate is at least 8 million, maybe 9 million illegal immigrants, most of them actually taken into custody and then let go on purpose.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
But then an additional two, maybe three million who got past the border patrol because the border patrol was busy being a Walmart greeter for all the other illegal aliens and they couldn't do their own job. So, eight to nine million, I think is a plausible number. And remember, some illegal aliens already here left during that time. So, that wasn't the growth in the illegal population.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
That was just a number of people who came in. And you've just pointed out that known gotaways could be upwards of two, possibly as high as three million. I mean, nobody really knows. Well, the known gotaways are, yeah, two, two and a half million, but there's unknown gotaways because the term gotaway is people that they know crossed. They have photographic evidence, sensor hits, something.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
There's people who don't, they don't know cross and we have no idea what that number is.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
It was less than four years of Trump, although it depends on how you count who was deported. And I don't mean to get into the weeds, but remember, there was something called Title 42 during COVID, where the border patrol could just bounce people back. Didn't matter whether you said asylum, schm-asylum, it didn't matter, they just threw you out.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
those bulked up the numbers for Trump, I mean, for Biden, frankly. So, we're going to see significant numbers of people, but it's not just numbers, it's who's getting deported. Because they're starting, they're pursuing a worst first policy, you know, the gangbangers and what have you. But most illegal immigrants aren't gangbangers, they're just regular working students. Right.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
Those people have to go, too. And that's going to happen once they start doing worksite enforcement, rains on factories and what have you. And that's coming. Oman said it's coming.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
The first thing to keep in mind is anything like that would be a process, not an event. In other words, it's not as though you're going to wake up one morning and all the illegal aliens are gone. It's going to be a process of sort of continual enforcement whittling down the illegal population and causing significant numbers of people to go home on their own so they avoid arrest.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
That's what happened during the big deportation push under Eisenhower. Most of the people who left, most of the illegals who left, left on their own. They weren't taken into custody by the Border Patrol. To get to the agricultural thing, only a tiny share of the illegal population works in ag. I mean, like, less than 5% of the illegal workforce works in agriculture.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
They're almost all in city jobs, you know, construction, services, you name it. And there is an unlimited guest worker program for ag. the H-2A program, which I'm not even a big fan of, but it exists. And the problem is farmers don't want to use it. They say there's too much red tape, what have you, too many requirements, you have to provide housing and what have you. Well, too bad.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
You know, use the program that's available. And the goal needs to be to wean those sectors off of the use of illegal labor, and even in agriculture, that's possible. Because let's face it, there's no illegal aliens harvesting wheat in North Dakota or corn in Iowa. They're working in fresh fruit and vegetable agriculture.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And even there, they're working in the portion that is for fresh sale in the supermarket as opposed to processing, like tomatoes. Tomatoes that you get tomato sauce, nobody touches those, all harvested by machine. It's fresh stuff. So, even there, technology advances and makes it possible for more and more labor to be replaced.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
And if we have to import blueberries, because there's just no way to grow, not blueberries, but blackberries, no way to grow them without massive, cheap third-world labor, well, then let's just import the blueberries instead of import the blueberry pickers. But The point is we need agriculture to evolve the way the rest of the economy has away from the medieval way that it's now done.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
They use modern technology, but the labor relations are medieval. It's just incredible.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | January 25th, 2025: The Border Crackdown Has Already Begun & Trump Cleans House in DC
All of which, there is real mechanization alternatives that cost money, and so employers don't want to pursue them.