OAN’s Neil McCabe on Back Story of Decision by Obscure Agency to Open Gate at Privately Built Wall on Border

 

On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with special guest and his former Breitbart colleague, Iraq war veteran and current Army Reserve Sergeant Neil McCabe.

Now a Washington-based reporter for One America News Network,  McCabe spoke to Leahy and Gill about current efforts at the We Build the Wall site to keep the gates open by an obscure group called the International Boundary and Water Commission led by Jayne Harkins.

Gill: We’ve been keeping an eye on the whole order dispute particularly down in the El Paso/New Mexico area where Kolfage and the We Build the Wall crew built about a mile of wall and one of the guys that’s been keeping his eye on that has been Neil McCabe from One America News Network.  And Neil good to have you back with us.

McCabe: Hey good morning good to be with you.

Leahy: Neil can you explain to us apparently what appears to be an entirely crazy decision by the commissioner of the obscure agency I had never heard of, the International Boundary and Water Commission of the United States and Mexico and the US Section headed up by Commissioner Jayne Harkins. So our guys down there with Kolfage and We Build the Wall and Steve Bannon’s group. They built 2300 feet of the wall from El Paso Texas where the US Border Wall ends. They built 2300 feet west up to Mount Christo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Now we see last night this Jayne Harkins who I was telling Steve kind of looks like she just got out of a Bernie Sanders rally, but was appointed to be commissioner of this obscure agency. She has ordered the Build the Wall guys to open the gate permanently until they finalize some of their disputes about permits etc. So now they built this wall and now the US Government says you’ve got to open the gate permanently. What is going on here Neil?

McCabe: This commission really sort of came out of the unwinding of the Mexican war.

Leahy: Back in the 1840s?

McCabe: Back in the 1840s, and you know the Rio Grande is the boundary for much of the border between Mexico and the United States, maybe half of it. The border is actually the middle of the deepest channel of the river according to the treaty so that changes right there maybe a harking changes where the boundary is.

Leahy: The Rio Grande is this particular case, that river runs from Texas to and when it gets to the New Mexico border it turns North and then it forms the border between New Mexico and Texas is no longer the border between the United States and Mexico and the Build the Wall guys built the wall just to the west of the Rio Grande. Is that not correct?

McCabe: Right and so there’s actually right at that point. They’re not really locked but there are some mechanisms in the river to handle flooding and that’s controlled by the commission. And the commission has its own sort of police force to look after it’s installations. And so right before you get that 30-degree slope that’s going into the river there’s a relatively flat area and that’s where when I was down there the commission people were sort of hanging out. And now because they had the diplomatic status they go back and forth in and out of Mexico all the time.

And they’re hanging out with Mexicans. The whole time they were watching and at one point this woman wearing one of the vests from the commission challenged me and asked who I was. Asked for my identification. I assume she was some kind of law enforcement officer. Turns out that she was the public information officer for the commission. And then when I said I was. So basically this group is there with a purpose to make sure people clean up the trash in the river. To make sure like that if there’s some kind of environmental problem on the river they work it out with Mexico. The River is a living moving thing and things change there all the time.

But they also, these guys also have the keys to all the fencing and the wall up and down around their territory where the river is from the border patrol. And they are are the ones who have been leaving the gates open. (Laughs)

Leahy: So that’s on the Texas side they’ve been leaving the gates open.

McCabe: Yeah.

Leahy: Ok, why? Under what authority?

McCabe: I think its all very, “Oh, did I leave that open. (Leahy chuckles) Oh, I’m sorry.” And so this gate that they built wasn’t complete when I left. It’s like this door in the wall that allows border patrol and law enforcement to pass in and out and the commission didn’t get a key to it. Basically, Harkins wants to leave this thing open. I don’t know Harkins. Harkins hasn’t been responding to my requests.

Leahy: I’m shocked. I’m shocked she doesn’t want to talk to you, Neil.

(Leahy laughs)

McCabe: Yeah, it’s interesting. She was put up for this job in late 2018 by Senator Cortez-Masto from Nevada. From Dean Heller of course. The late of the Senate and also from Nevada. And John Barrasso. She worked for the state of Nevada before getting this gig and so it wouldn’t surprise me if they knew exactly what she was trying to do.

She’s very active ever since this wall thing started with We build the Wall the weekend of Memorial Day. Her people have been climbing all over the place watching it, walking around. And she’s been communicating with people from We Build the Wall, who I think she’s from North or South Dakota. . .

Leahy: Is this a section built on private land or public land where the gate is? The gate that they opened last night. Buzzfeed you know that very reliable Buzzfeed says it was actually built on the federal property but that’s conflicts with what I know about it. But maybe Buzzfeed is right.

McCabe: It could be that it’s on the federal land but it would have been at the direction of the border patrol and ICE guys.

Leahy: Ahh, ok. Ok.

McCabe: Who said, “Hey, can you add this section for us.”

Leahy: It’s a little tiny piece of land like 33 feet that this gates built on that may arguably be federal land. I don’t know Steve Gill this sounds kind of crazy to me.

Gill: Well I mean if you have a 33-foot gap in a wall you don’t really have a wall. You just have a large entry area that’s not secured and that’s been the problem with this whole border area. You’ve got parts that are completely open and parts people can literally climb over a 6-foot chain link fence. And that’s why there’s been no stopping the people coming across. Again as we’re finding out the cartels that control so much of Mexico. Control so much of the border area on both sides of the border don’t want to stop the gravy train of drugs and sex trafficking and human trafficking pouring back and forth. You mentioned something Neil I want to ask real quickly.

McCabe: Yeah. If this border agency is supposed to be making sure that the Rio Grande and those areas are clean of trash, are they applying the same standards to the illegals who are apparently (Leahy giggles) leaving trash and things traverse the Mexican dessert and then dumping it in the water?

McCabe: Absolutely not. (Leahy laughs) And you see the backpacks and everything else. Remember too there’s a lot of…

Gill: So they are selectively enforcing concern about the environment.

Leahy: Neil, can you hang with us over the break because this is like a fantastic story. Steve, you can’t make this stuff up.

If you don’t already have One America News Network, call your local cable provider and watch One America News here in Nashville, Middle Tennessee.

Listen to the full segment here:

 

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Background Photo “Border Wall” by Brian Kolfage.