'We Do Have A President Right now That Has An Open Border Policy': Mike Garcia

4 months ago

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) questioned DED Admin Anne Milgram about China.

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Transcript

00:00 >> Mr. Garcia.

00:02 >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:05 Administrator Milgram, good to see you again.

00:07 It dawned on me you have probably one

00:09 of the most unenviable positions in the country right now.

00:14 I don't envy you of your job.

00:16 It's like being a goalie

00:19 where your own coach is actually calling plays to score

00:21 against you right now.

00:22 And it's got to be very frustrating.

00:24 You don't have to comment on that.

00:25 But we do have a president right now

00:27 that has an open border policy.

00:29 You do work for an attorney general

00:31 that has effectively relegated the DEA to be, in his words,

00:37 the very end of the line

00:39 with a public affairs mission or campaign.

00:43 This has got to be very frustrating for you.

00:45 And what that inference is is that your job is to focus

00:49 on the demand side and not the supply side,

00:51 which is literally the opposite

00:53 of what the DEA is supposed to do.

00:56 Your job description has the word enforcement in it.

01:00 So we look forward as a subcommittee

01:02 to giving you the tools to do your job,

01:04 which is the enforcement side, to make sure

01:06 that we can catch the bad guys, stop the cartels,

01:09 and give you the resources despite the leadership above you.

01:12 And by the way, A.G. Garland gave himself an A in front

01:15 of this committee just a couple of weeks ago, which was,

01:17 in my opinion, offensive to the victims of fentanyl.

01:20 I was going to ask you if we're winning

01:21 or losing this war against fentanyl.

01:24 But I think that the metrics are self-evident.

01:26 We're losing this war right now.

01:27 And I think it's okay for you to say that you're not pleased.

01:30 I think the chairman asked that several times

01:32 because I don't think any of us are pleased with the number

01:35 of deaths that we're seeing as a result

01:37 of this poison coming across our borders.

01:40 Last year, you responded to Mr. Klein's testimony.

01:45 He asked if you would commit

01:47 to calling China a major illicit drug trafficking

01:50 or producing country.

01:51 I'm assuming-- and you answered in the negative

01:54 in that questioning-- I'm assuming now

01:56 that the PRC has been put on the major drug transit

01:59 and illicit drug producing company list that you would say

02:03 that PRC is actually a country

02:06 that we should be targeting as such?

02:08 >> Yes, Congressman.

02:09 The majors list was changed to include precursor chemicals.

02:12 And so Congress, along with the State Department,

02:15 has listed China as a source of fentanyl production

02:20 from those precursors.

02:21 >> We appreciate your support on the communication

02:23 of the chain of command for that.

02:25 We talked about the fact

02:27 that some Chinese companies have been charged to this date.

02:30 You have a $500 million budget footprint

02:34 for foreign international companies going

02:36 after those folks.

02:38 Can you talk about if that budget is fulfilled,

02:41 what does that mission look like and how do we continue on that?

02:46 And I use the metaphor, I think last year in this hearing

02:48 that if we had a small or a large ship,

02:52 a slow-moving ship crossing the Pacific full

02:54 of VX gas coming from China, we would stop that ship before it

02:58 got to the port of Long Beach or Mexican port inbound

03:01 for the U.S. borders.

03:03 Talk to us about the sort of TTPs and the policies

03:10 that this $500 million will enable for us.

03:13 >> Thank you so much, Congressman.

03:15 If I could start by just saying one thing about demand as well,

03:18 because I sit in a lot of rooms across the United States

03:21 and across the world where people talk about demand

03:23 and we very much understand substance use disorder.

03:27 What we are seeing happening

03:28 in the United States is not demand driven.

03:31 And I want to be really clear that this is the cartels

03:33 that are driving what we're seeing.

03:35 That's why they're hiding fentanyl and other drugs.

03:37 That's why they're pressing fentanyl into fake pills.

03:40 That's why they're not selling fentanyl

03:42 as though it were fentanyl.

03:43 So I think it is a really important point.

03:45 We do a lot of work around, we do do work

03:47 around public awareness, one pill can kill,

03:49 because the cartels are being so deceptive

03:51 about how they're trying to get these drugs to Americans.

03:55 Talking about, you know, your analogy

03:57 of stopping the ship I think is a great way

04:00 to think about the analogy.

04:02 What we have done over the past two years is try

04:04 to map these criminal networks so we can get proactive

04:07 and get in front of them.

04:10 I believe that we will not be effective unless we are able

04:13 to target these networks proactively.

04:15 We cannot wait until the harm has happened

04:18 or until there's a particular thing

04:19 that happens to galvanize us.

04:21 So what we do with the foreign work,

04:24 foreign work is vital to DEA.

04:26 We're in more than 69, we're in 69 countries right now,

04:29 more than 90 offices around the world.

04:32 All of those offices, their number one focus is the United

04:35 States of America and the harm happening to the US.

04:38 Of course we assist our foreign partners

04:39 with their local issues, but our prime work

04:42 across the globe is how do we stop the fentanyl threat,

04:46 how do we stop these two cartels.

04:47 So having mapped, and I see the map in the committee

04:50 and I look at it and I think about the map

04:52 that the teams have done showing 50 countries

04:55 that the cartels are active.

04:56 So we're working in multiple countries across the globe

04:59 and with many foreign partners.

05:00 >> I just want to thank you because in LA we have a district

05:03 attorney that won't charge fentanyl dealers with murder

05:07 if they deal known poisoned pills or corrupted pills.

05:11 So we are able to raise those at the federal level under the DEA

05:14 and we really appreciate the ability to do that.

05:17 And your comments that this is not demand driven is not lost

05:20 on us, this is policy driven and education is key,

05:24 but we appreciate everything that you and the agents

05:26 in the field are doing to mitigate this

05:28 as much as possible.

05:29 I yield back.

05:30 Thank you Mr. Chair.

05:31 >> Mr. Clyde.

'We Do Have A President Right now That Has An Open Border Policy': Mike Garcia

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