Live from Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed National Border Patrol Council Vice President Hector Garza to the microphone to weigh in on Joe Biden’s false attack on horse patrol and their diminishing morale.
Leahy: We now welcome Hector Garza, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council. Welcome, Hector.
Garza: Well, good morning, Michael. Thank you.
Leahy: What’s the moral like out there with the border patrol folks?
Garza: Well, I think it’s at the lowest we’ve ever seen in a very, very, very long time. Just recently, Joe Biden came out and pretty much publicly attacked our horse patrol unit. That was the topic of sensation for the past two weeks.
And part of the problem with morale is that when you have agents with such low morale, that equals low production in the workplace.
And when you have low production in the workplace that means that you’re not being an effective worker. And unfortunately, in our line of business, which is patrolling the border, we can’t afford that.
Leahy: Let’s talk about this. There was an image of a border patrol agents on horseback. A couple of them are on horseback. They had some rains, and the image was designed to create the impression that they were whipping a Haitian illegally trying to cross the border.
The photographer said, no, that’s not what happened. Tell us about that incident and tell us about how it’s been reported and how Joe Biden, the legal but not legitimate occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, has taken that in a very dishonest way to criticize hardworking border patrol agents?
Garza: Yes. Unfortunately, in this incident, we were given an impossible task. In the border patrol, we have a horse patrol unit. And this horse patrol unit goes out there and they patrol the border, and they conduct rescues.
They conduct different operations along the border. And as you remember, last weekend, we had a disaster in Doria, Texas where over 15,000 Haitians, Cubans, and Venezuelans came across the border illegally.
Leahy: They were hiding under a bridge and then came across illegally. And now Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas says, yeah, about 12,000 have been shipped throughout the country. I can’t tell you where they went.
They weren’t vaccinated. They weren’t tested for COVID, but they’re out there in the country and we’re going to I don’t know. We’ll have some hearings about them at some point in the future. Yeah, right.
Garza: Yeah. And in that case, unfortunately, there was one image that caused a lot of controversies that showed our agents with split rains while they maneuver this horse around. And our horse patrol agents, they’re one of our best-trained agents on horse patrol in the nation.
As a matter of fact, they go across the country and they conduct a lot of training in different police departments. And in this case, Joe Biden, they come out and he said, I promise that those people will pay referring to our agents.
Leahy: So he sees an image that doesn’t accurately describe the situation. Is misrepresented. And he to the entire world says those agents who, by the way, are just doing and not violating any rules, they will pay the price. What a jerk!
Garza: Pretty much.
Leahy: You’re laughing because, you know, every border agent thinks that about the current occupant of 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue. What a jerk!
Garza: And we actually used a different term, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for your radio show. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: At the break, I want to hear what the term is because I probably heard it before, but we can’t use it on the radio.
Garza: That’s right. (Leahy chuckles)
Leahy: So let me step back. Back to this bad term. I got to get this. I got to get this! What percentage of Border Patrol agents, if you polled them, would say this bad term should apply to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania?
Garza: 100 percent.
Leahy: Absolutely. How many Border Patrol agents are there?
Garza: So we have over 21,000 agents here.
Leahy: 21,000 agents and they all think that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is worse than a jerk. (Chuckles)
Garza: Yep. Oh yeah. And the reason for that, Michael, is that when you have a President that’s implementing policies that are making our jobs that much more dangerous, where our brothers and sisters in green are being attacked on a daily basis, being shot at, and you know some have been killed, unfortunately.
When you see that, you see this president that is making our job that much more dangerous, that’s where you refer to this term. And then you have him saying that our agents that did nothing wrong, that they will pay. It kind of reminded me back to 2009, when Obama talked about that Cambridge University officer.
Leahy: Yeah! The police officer just doing his job. He misrepresented it. Hold it. When it became clear that Obama had misstated that situation entirely, he decided to invite the police officer into the White House for a beer.
So the professor at Harvard, who was the subject of this arrest, and then the police officer and the President all had a beer at the White House?
It was a bit of a PR thing. Is it the case that the current occupant of 600 Pennsylvania Avenue is going to invite this agent who he defamed improperly? Is he going to invite them into the White House for a beer?
Garza: I don’t see that happening anytime soon. And I don’t see our agent ever accepting a beer from Joe Biden. I will make that very clear.
And unfortunately, it creates that same anti-police movement that was created in 2009 by President Obama wishing the same thing.
Leahy: Hector Garza, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council. Thank you so much for joining us today. Good luck. And best of luck to all those 21,000 agents.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Hector Garza” by Hector Garza.
