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 – Gill and Leahy talked to One America News Network’s Neil McCabe about the International Boundary and Water Commission’s demeanor towards the We Build the Wall team. McCabe also disclosed how American coyotes help migrants who get immediate legal status go wherever they want to go and receive government subsidies.
Near the end of the segment, Gill suggested that it might behoove the team at We Build the Wall to implement a PR strategy preventing opponents from receiving any more ammunition to rail against them.
Gill: Neil McCabe from One America News Network is on the line with us as he continues to keep his focus among other things on the build the wall group building that private sector wall on the southern border. And Neil, as the President announces he’s going to start deporting people if the wall’s not up, they’re going to come right back.
McCabe:  This revolving door that we set up is absolutely absurd and you know and I think a lot of people don’t appreciate that all of these migrants who are getting waved in who chase border patrol right? Border patrol doesn’t chase them. They chase border patrol. And they are given legal status. They’re not illegals. They’re given full legal status and they can work and they get food stamps and they get housing allotments. They tell them, “Hey, where do you want to go?” And I saw them, I call them these sort of American coyotes that work for these NGO’s and charitable organizations.
They take them to the airport and put them right on American Airlines. When I was flying back from El Paso after spending four days with We Build the Wall where they built that wall in New Mexico. There was this one American coyote and she had five young teenage boys with her that were migrants but they’re completely legal because they have asylum awaiting their hearing.
Gill: And they’re getting on airplanes without the photo IDs–the government issued IDs that they require of us. Why is TSA cutting them slack that they won’t cut to me if I forget my wallet?
McCabe: Because a lot of Americans are making a ton of money off of this crisis. And it’s very good for business to have these migrants in. There’s a lot of people in the government who would be out of business if there was no crisis and so they want to keep the game going. The dirty secret on these borders, I saw it when I was down in McAllen. And you see it down in El Paso.
The people on the border are making a ton of money on this. They’re shipping them to other parts of the country so it’s like other people are dealing with the problem. Or another example in El Paso, thousands of kids from Mexico are waved through the border, right? Waived right through. They attend El Paso public schools and then they go back to Mexico in the afternoon.
Leahy: Do they come through the gates that the International Border and Water Commission opens for them? Is that what happens?
McCabe: No it’s a legal gate.
Leahy: Holy cow. So what is going on with this war of words between the public affairs officer of this obscure, relatively unaccountable government agency, the IBWC, the International Border and Water Commission, that has control of this gate in the twenty three hundred feet of wall built from El Paso, Texas along the border up to Mount Christo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico? This public affairs official has been, I think, pretty, what’s the right word, pretty mean and nasty in terms of her comments about the founders of We Build the Wall. What is going on there Neil?
McCabe: One of the things that really bothers me about hacks is that a hack is ungrateful you know? She’s got one of these no-show jobs and one of these silly jobs where all you do is travel around the party. Or you work at the register of motor vehicles where your job is to sit at your desk and not answer the phone.
You should at least be grateful right? And you shouldn’t be mean to people. You should keep your head low and just collect your money and you shouldn’t be making things worse right? And she is absolutely horrible. She’s retired US Military. She was a sergeant first class in El Paso probably. Somewhere, Fort Bliss.
Leahy: Yeah, Fort Bliss.
McCabe: So she gets this gig with the commission. Just lay low. Take your silly social media pictures and whatever. And then she goes to war, she calls Brian Kolfage a fraud, and a liar. And she wrote it like…
Leahy: On her Twitter account. I mean is that an official government statement if she does that? How long can she stay in that job?
McCabe: It’s her personal Twitter account but she identifies herself as the spokesperson.
Leahy: Yeah, I’ve seen that.
Gill: You get teachers fired all the time fired for what they do on their personal Twitter account. You see politicians held accountable all the time for what they put on their personal accounts. There’s no real division there.
McCabe: Well, Jayne Harkins is a what I would call a reasonable hack. She’s the Trump appointed commissioner and she’s like saying, “Hey, I got a really good gig here. Nobody cares about my agency. I should just be collecting my check.” She’s trying to lower the boil a little bit. But I have arguments with reporters all the time because there’s a lot of nasty stuff written about Brian Kolfage. And it’s like, “Hey, I’m supposed to give him a break right?” He lost two legs and an arm. It’s literally a direct hit from a rocket when he was in Belarus, Iraq. You’re supposed to wait before you call him a conman and a liar. Liar lawyer same thing right?
Gill: You know Neil there have been a lot of questions raised about this operation. Where’s the money going? Who are they hiring? You talk about hiring hacks. There has been a lot of questions raised about the We Build the Wall crew. I’m not saying Kolfage is a crook. But they need to start answering questions about what they are doing with the money. They don’t address the issues. I mean somebody said they bought a yacht. Ok, they didn’t buy a yacht. But what are they doing with all these funds that are really kind of unaccountable?
McCabe: Well they did build the wall right? I mean you can see it.
Leahy: Right. Physically.
Gill: Half a mile.
McCabe:Â Well yeah but it was in a mountain right?
Gill: Yeah but they said it was a mile. And it was half a mile. Again they kill their own credibility when they can’t account for their spending. When they can’t account for their operations. They build half a mile and call it a mile. I’m just saying that just from a PR standpoint from their standpoint don’t give these hacks the ammunition to attack you by doing stupid stuff.
McCabe: I think part of the problem that you run into with the Trump administration. People in the Trump admin, they’re getting much savvier. But it’s like you know, their not seasoned hacks who know what to say. So yeah. If this operation is run by the law it would be completely smooth and seamless and the social media account would be perfect.
And all the right people would be saying all the right things. But there would be no wall. It’s not like they danced around it for a year. It’s less than a year in! It’s less than six months, right? And they built a wall into a mountain with real trucks and concrete and they built a wall. And they built a road.
Leahy: Sure.
McCabe:Â Let’s say they spent ten million dollars. They said six to nine. Let’s say they spent ten million dollars. What do you think the government would pay for that?
Leahy: Yeah.
Gill: I would agree with that but with their own accounts they have eighteen million in the bank. Maybe with 18 million, they could spend one hundred thousand hiring a competent PR professional.
McCabe: Well you know, what are you going to do?
Leahy: So Neil, what is project two? I hear project two is on the way. Do you have anything to tell us about that?
McCabe: I am not sure what project two is going to be because I hear different locations right? Obviously, Texas is a problem. The actual border is the middle of the Rio Grande River which changes every time it rains.
Leahy: Yeah.
McCabe: Once you go halfway cross you’re in. You don’t even have to touch ground. So that leaves Arizona, New Mexico and California.
Leahy: But it’s coming soon is that right? We have thirty seconds here Neil.
McCabe: I suspect it’s going to be in California.
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