00:00Mr. Garris, you know, it's been said that the Mexican government has been very helpful.
00:05Have they really been helpful in regards to illegal immigration and this drug problem?
00:14They have, sir, and a good example is, so, two of our top ten fugitives were captured by Mexican law enforcement this year alone.
00:23It was January and, I believe, March, don't quote me on the months.
00:27That is a massive, that has massive impact and huge success for our collaborative efforts with them.
00:36I'm going to ask you both this question.
00:38Now, I think, as Mr. Anderson, you brought up the Tohoto Odoms.
00:42Isn't that also a problem because they have basically an open border?
00:46And there's been a lot of suppositions about what that tribe has been doing with the cartels.
00:51Can you address that, that it's a possible positive, negative, how that works?
00:55Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we work hand-in-hand with the tribe to make sure, you know, what their needs are.
01:01There are some cultural issues down there, you know, with putting barriers and different things along the border
01:07because it does mess up some of their cultural activities and things down there.
01:13So, we have to work hand-in-hand with the tribe to make sure that we're being sensitive of those areas.
01:18So, we work with the tribe to make sure we're providing whatever resources that we can to make sure that we're keeping those areas safe.
01:28And Border Patrol, I know, has worked with them to keep the roads down through there graded and different things
01:37so they can travel along the reservation to patrol those areas as well.
01:41So, they work hand-in-hand with the tribe.
01:43And then our drug agents, like I say, work hand-in-hand with the tribal police department
01:47to make sure if the tribe has a need or if there's something going on where they have activity across
01:53because they can go back and forth across the border.
01:56We keep that intelligence flowing between our agents and the tribal police department
02:03so we address any illegal activity down there.
02:06Mr. Gareth, do you have anything to add to that?
02:11I would just go back to partnership, sir.
02:14And I'd like to say that the, to reiterate what I said in my opening statement,
02:18the FBI prioritizes providing support to combat cartels, specifically as it pertains to Indian country.
02:28We've, we've increased our Safe Trails Task Force.
02:31We have 28 total.
02:33That encompasses 500 task force officers across 200 local, state, as well as tribal partners.
02:43And then we also have seven federal partners on that.
02:46Well, you know, the one reason I brought this up is,
02:49is the total don't believe in their southern border.
02:53They believe that that's part of Mexico.
02:55And that to me seems like that's kind of a stalwart, kind of a problem that you have to mix up.
02:59Because every time we go to the border down there in the total area,
03:02there's, there's kind of some chaos always going down there.
03:05So that's why I brought it up.
03:07Because if you have a weak link in it, that seems to be a weak link.
03:11Would you agree?
03:11I mean, there's vulnerabilities everywhere, sir.
03:17I don't know if I'd, I'd single it out on the Tohoto Odom.
03:21I would defer to BIA to, to maybe give more insight to that.
03:25Gotcha.
03:25What would you say, sir?
03:26Yeah.
03:26I would, I wouldn't say it's necessarily a weak link.
03:30I think there's weak links all along the borders.
03:33And, you know, it's just like a balloon when you, you put enforcement in one area, you squeeze it,
03:38it's going to go to the next vulnerable area.
03:41So I think working hand in hand with the tribe, we reduce and remove those vulnerabilities.
03:47And I think the tribe has done a really good job of working hand in hand with the BIA
03:51and with Customs and Border Patrol and stuff to remove those vulnerabilities down there.
03:56I'm over my time.
03:57Well, you'll bet.
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