“HHS has lost track of around 40,000 kids. I mean, think about that. We have no idea where they are. We don’t know who they’re with. We don’t know what they’re doing.”

Today, I sit down with Julio Rosas, a senior writer for Townhall and a U.S. Marine in the Reserves. Since 2020, he’s been traveling to the middle of the action to report on chaotic, and often dangerous, situations.

“These are big stories, and we can’t rely, unfortunately, on the rest of the media to accurately relay the importance of it or tell the story,” says Rosas.

We discuss the recent hearing on the border crisis in Yuma, Arizona, in which the House Judiciary Committee spoke with local residents about how mass migration has affected their community.

“The only major hospital for many, many miles around … they’re out $26 million dollars because of medical care that they’ve had to provide to illegal immigrants. But they’re not paying them back, the migrants,” explains Rosas.

We also discuss his book, “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful: The 2020 Riots and the Gaslighting of America,” and how well-intended policies and our obsession with race have ended up exacerbating racial tensions, enabling crime, and stoking further division.

“There are so many parallels between the border crisis and the crime crisis because just like with the cartels, the criminal elements are more emboldened than ever,” says Rosas.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Jan Jekielek:
Julio Rosas, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Julio Rosas:
Thank you for having me.

Mr. Jekielek:
I have to call you a genuine field reporter. Whenever I see your work, you’ve gone into the middle of the action and you’re there reporting. To start, tell me what drives you to do that? What is your operating principle here?

Mr. Rosas:
One of the reasons I do it is because I see field reporting as one of the purest ways to do actual journalism. One of my heroes is Ernie Pyle, who was a combat correspondent during World War II, and he was super famous back then. The joke was that you would have rather get a feature by him in the newspaper than get a medal. That’s how cherished his work was, and that’s how important his work was.

Because it wasn’t just about the combat, it was about the actual person, about the American GI that was actually fighting. I see his work and compared to the work that’s being done today, it’s just so completely different. When it comes to chaotic situations, stories that are uncomfortable or inconvenient to get to or report on, people get lazy, and the mainstream media generally gets lazy.

I like that Town Hall allows me to get to the heart of it and to actually see what’s going on for myself, so that I can have a better idea of how to relay it back to our audience. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the riots back in 2020, or what’s happening now at the border. These are big stories. Unfortunately, we can’t rely on the rest of the media to accurately relay the importance of it or to tell the story. Therefore, it has to be conservative media picking up the slack.

Mr. Jekielek:
I can’t help but notice that you were a Marine, looking at your lapel pin here. How does your hero, this embedded military reporter, figure into your philosophy here?

Mr. Rosas:
As, ”embrace the suck.” Don’t get me wrong, some of the work that I’ve done has been tough and taxing, both mentally and physically. There’s one thing that we were always told, especially during bootcamp, they always said, “Someone has it worse than you right now.”

Today, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s especially true with just going to the border. Sometimes you do five, six drives back to back. You wake up early and go to bed really late, just because there are different things happening at different times. You can’t slack off. You have to actually put in the work, or all of a sudden, you’re wasting a trip.

You’re there, you do the work, and you can rest later. Being a Marine definitely made me want to do the more crazy things. Because obviously, you have to be kind of crazy in order to join the Marines in the first place to want to willingly go through something like that.

Mr. Jekielek:
You went down to the border just recently and you were actually reporting on something a little less chaotic this time, the first House Judiciary hearings at Yuma, Arizona. Please tell me about that. This is a different story for you, isn’t it?

Mr. Rosas:
Yes, and it’s because we’ve had Democrats who obviously weren’t going to do something like that. The House Judiciary Committee had their first field hearing in Yuma, Arizona. It’s a place I’ve been to many times. It’s a community that’s been heavily impacted by the influx of illegal immigration.

None of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee showed up. It was only Republicans. The Democrats said, “They didn’t consult us on the trip,” which is a lie. The GOP side was telling them about it for over three weeks. They didn’t want to see the reality of what was happening.

One of the things that really stuck out to me was that the hearing was held at the Yuma City Hall Council Chamber, and it was open to the public. They reached capacity from the local community because that’s how obviously invested they are. One of the things I’ve always heard time and again from Texas to Arizona is that the locals feel abandoned by the federal government. They’re accurate and they’re right to a certain extent. They’ve been abandoned by the executive branch.

To have pretty prominent figures like Jim Jordan, Matt Gates, Dan Bishop, come to their town and talk to them about this issue that they’ve been raising the alarm about for over a year-and-a-half now means a lot to them. It’s a small gesture saying, “We’re here. We want to help you fix this problem, and we’re going to try to do our best. We’re going to come to you to try to solve this problem.”

I talked to a few of the residents and they were very happy to have Congress there. Understandably, people can be cynical about congressional hearings. In the past, we’ve had hearings and they’ve made a big scene, and then nothing’s done about it afterwards. That might happen.

Mr. Jekielek:
This is my next question. It seems like the people appreciate it, but Congress doesn’t have a good reputation on taking action at the moment, certainly in the mind of the populace.

Mr. Rosas:
During my panel today with the Homeland Security Committee Chairman, Mark Green from Tennessee, he was saying that they have the most conservative border security bill ready for markup by the end of March, and they’ll put it on the floor by April. There is going to be follow through. The Republican Party really understands that they can’t waste this moment. They can’t waste the small amount of goodwill that they got from the midterms, and so they’re actually going to make an effort to solve the problem.

Even if it’s a slim majority of Republicans, the border crisis hasn’t stemmed from the legislative branch, it has stemmed from the executive branch. I don’t think anything is going to be solved until there’s a change in the White House. At the same time, we can’t just say, “We’re going to wait until 2024,” because what if 2024 doesn’t go the Republicans way? Then, things are going to continue.

It’s a tough topic, and it’s a tough challenge. We’ll see what happens. But I can tell you that the locals really appreciate politicians getting out of DC and seeing the problem firsthand.

Mr. Jekielek:
There were some powerful testimonials given. Tell me about some of those that you witnessed.

Mr. Rosas:
The Yuma County Sheriff told them, “We’ve always had problems with the cartels, but it’s gotten worse than it’s ever been in our county’s history.” The president of the local hospital, the only major hospital for many miles around, said that they’re out $26 million because of medical care that they’ve had to provide to illegal immigrants. The migrants are not paying them back, and they’re losing out on all this money. Because they prioritize care on who needs it the most, a lot of times illegal immigrants get the priority.

Understandably, that has caused a lot of frustration in the local community. The hospital system is only designed to accommodate a population size of around 140,000 between Yuma, San Luis, and Gadsden. Over 300,000 people illegally crossed into Yuma since late 2021. That is almost three times the number of people, and a lot of those people need significant medical care.

We’re not even talking about broken bones and bumps and bruises and some dehydration cases. We’re talking about people that need heart surgery. We’re talking about mothers delivering, taking up space in the maternity ward, and then their babies need to be in the NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] because they didn’t have prenatal care during their pregnancies. Obviously, a lot of the places they’re coming from have no opportunities for this.

That’s the thing, we’re a compassionate nation, as we should be. We also shouldn’t forget the fact that it is also negatively affecting the taxpayers, the people who are American citizens. We need to also make sure that we’re not leaving American citizens behind either. It’s a balance. They’ve had to contend with that while the Biden administration just says, “It’s not a big deal.”

Mr. Jekielek:
Just a few days ago, the New York Times published a piece about the children that were in the cages during the Trump administration. Then, they talk about how a lot of these kids are now basically doing child labor as a matter of course. It’s a scathing indictment of what’s happened at the border. It was fascinating to read this piece because there haven’t been many on this topic or anything remotely related that criticize the administration’s border policy. What do you make of that?

Mr. Rosas:
It became too big of a problem for even the mainstream media to ignore. It’s insane that in 2021 Secretary Mayorkas said, and I believe it was from the White House podium, “Any child that comes by themselves to the southern border, we’re not going to turn away.”

What do you think happened after he said that? Parents willingly separated themselves from their kids to send them on a very dangerous journey, if they made it to the southern border. Then, they continued to get exploited after they get released because HHS [U. S. Dept. of Health & Human Services] and DHS [Dept. of Homeland Security] are not doing the full background checks. They’re not checking up on them.

Tom Holman, former ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Director in the Trump administration who was on the panel today said that HHS has lost track of around 40,000 kids. Think about that. We have no idea where they are. We don’t know who they’re with. We don’t know what they’re doing. Some of them have ended up at pretty dangerous jobs working in meat processing plants, and working in packaging facilities. Honestly, as bad as it sounds, those are the lucky ones.

Because the alternative is sex slavery. That’s why I get so fired up about the issue, because it didn’t need to be this way. Of course, if you say, “We’re not going to turn away unaccompanied minors,” they’re going to send them across by themselves. I’ve seen kids as young as six, seven crossing the border by themselves without their parents, going who knows where, to who knows who.

The Biden administration has the gall to say that this is a more humane approach to the border and to immigration. It’s a complete lie. It is not humane in the slightest, and it’s avoidable. But they say, “No, we’re going to do it this way.”

Mr. Jekielek:
What are the options? This article intimates that the state should be taking care of all these kids. That’s another curious thing.

Mr. Rosas:
Again, they think that their way and their approach to trying to help the less fortunate is the better way. I have to go back to the ripple effect that this will continue to have for years. Even if they were to completely reverse the border policies that they’ve been pursuing, starting today, the secondary and tertiary effects are going to be with us for a very long time.

We’re going to be basically in another DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] fight. We already had the dreamers from the first go-around back during the Obama administration. There’s been so many kids who have been born during this new surge. Now, there’s going to be another fight about this next generation of dreamers. It’s all self-inflicted.

That’s why reporting on it is important. I’ve been covering the border since 2019 and things were radically different. Moving forward on this issue is a matter of political will. Obviously, that changes as easily as the wind. We’re setting ourselves up for more dysfunction. We’re setting ourselves up for more polarization on this issue.

The Biden administration is willing to take those political hits, because they think that this is what needs to be done. I don’t know what the future is going to hold. But this is going to be something that we’re going to have to deal with for a very, very long time.

Mr. Jekielek:
How do you view the incentive structures from all the reporting that you’ve done that are getting so many people coming across, using all these different mechanisms that exist?

Mr. Rosas:
It’s everything from start to finish. If you illegally cross, you’re not going to be turned away. You’ll get processed and released. You’ll get a work permit. Even if you lose your asylum case, we’re not going to deport you, because you’re a low priority to us under this administration.

I really don’t fault people for taking advantage of that if you’re in a less fortunate country. It doesn’t even have to be Latin America. I met people as far away as Uzbekistan, India, and Russia.

Mr. Jekielek:
China.

Mr. Rosas:
China.

Mr. Jekielek:
I have reports about Chinese migrants.

Mr. Rosas:
When I was in El Paso in December, I met a family from China. They’re just responding to the incentives that the Biden administration has put forth. “You can skip the line, you can get in, and you probably won’t be deported.” To a lot of people that’s a no-brainer.

I feel bad for the people who went through that very lengthy, very expensive process to come the legal way because now they’re thinking, “What was the whole point of all that?” It’s not just about Americans who were born here. It’s also about the Americans who actually did it the right way.

Mr. Jekielek:
A lot of people don’t understand the traumatic reality that a lot of the people that are coming through have to face at the hands of these coyotes and the cartels.

Mr. Rosas:
I’ve gotten some pushback from the Left and they say, “What about your family? You’re just one of those people who slams the door once they get in.” The reason why illegal immigration shouldn’t happen is precisely because of what happens to the migrants.

At best, they just get into massive amounts of debt that they have to pay off to the cartels. At worst, they have to go into slavery. The vast majority of the people that are coming across, they’re not coming across unscathed. They get victimized in some way.

I was in Eagle Pass, Texas, and I found it was a spot where people had been picked up by Border Patrol. They discard most of the things that they don’t need anymore. One of the things that I saw was a used package of birth control pills. It’s because they know that they were probably going to get raped on the way over.

There have been National Guardsmen, and there have been Border Patrol who have been shot at from the Mexican side. That is a really big indicator where the cartels feel more emboldened than ever. They know that if they were to actually shoot or kill a member of the military or American law enforcement that we’re going to come down hard on them. But they don’t have that fear. Why should they? The Biden administration is really not going to do anything.

Some of these organizations have shifted their focus from drug smuggling to human smuggling and human trafficking. Because with drug smuggling, there’s a chance that your product is going to be intercepted, so you lose out on that money. From a business standpoint, who could fault them? They’re just making money, right? They’re going to do the thing that makes them the most money. It’s very telling that some of these groups realize the value in shifting their focus from drugs to people.

Mr. Jekielek:
Not to mention that when there is a flood of people coming across, it means that it is a lot easier for the drugs to come across.

Mr. Rosas:
Yes. One of the talking points from the Democrats is, “Most of the fentanyl that’s seized, it’s seized at the ports of entry, and it’s mostly being smuggled by American citizens.” Statistically, that is true. But why is it true? It’s because when you have a controlled access point that’s monitored with technology and agents a hundred percent of the time, you’re going to intercept more people and drugs that are trying to sneak in.

But when groups send out 500 people at one time in one area, the Border Patrol that’s already stretched thin has to then focus on that group to take care of the transport and process them. That takes them off the line from the rest of the area. There are hundreds of miles that are not being patrolled. What do you think the cartel’s doing with that open border? They’re smuggling the people who are paying to not get caught.

We’re not talking about giant sacks of marijuana, which actually still happens, don’t get me wrong. But we’re talking about something that can fit into a backpack and make more money than a giant bundle of marijuana. Fentanyl has completely changed the game when it comes to drug smuggling. They make more profit. It’s more powerful. It’s not limited to a growing season. Of course, the numbers are going to be skewed.

Although recently, for this fiscal year, Border Patrol has been able to— Border Patrol, not customs agents. Customs agents are at the ports of entry. Border Patrol is between—Border Patrol has been able to seize dozens of pounds of fentanyl this fiscal year. Because they’ve been able to get agents back out into the field, they’ve been able to do more of their real job, instead of processing people.

That’s why Fentanyl seizures have gone up because they’re back on the line. This idea that, “The fentanyl smuggling and the human smuggling are two separate issues.” No, they’re one and the same. It’s dumb to think that they wouldn’t take advantage of an unsecured border.

Mr. Jekielek:
You wrote a book not too long ago, Fiery But Mostly Peaceful. That’s the title of your book about protests from that infamous CNN chiron. In the subtitle, you talk about the gaslighting of America. What do you mean there?

Mr. Rosas:
It was just the fact that we had cities on fire. We had mass chaos in major American cities, and the mainstream media and Democrats were saying, “It’s mostly peaceful.”

Mr. Jekielek:
The statistic was that something like 8 percent were violent.

Mr. Rosas:
Like 93, 92 percent were peaceful, and 7, 8 percent were violent. The overwhelming majority were peaceful. You know what I said to that? I said, “Thank God that only 8 percent were violent.” When you talk about the money aspect, billions of dollars in damage were caused by these riots. Could you imagine if 50 percent were violent? That’s probably a civil war-level of destruction. But again, it’s skewed because al