Photo of Zack Taylor courtesy of Tom Vaughan of FeVa Fotos

By Mary Alice Murphy

A forum on border control and immigration, hosted by the Grant County Federated Republican Woman, took place Tuesday, May 23, 2017 and featured retired Border Patrol agent Zack Taylor.

Don Luhrsen, president of the Grant County Republican Party, introduced Taylor and said he had served in the Border Patrol for 26 years.

Taylor asked the attendees, of which there were 75 to 85, to pick up a copy of the Plan for Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement and Reform, which was created by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, a national, non-profit, public interest organization of concerned citizens.

The message from the chairman of the NAFBPO stated, although the officers are retired, "we recall our oath of office and we share a common bond and heritage with our brothers and sisters who still serve our country as members of the Department of Homeland Security. With that oath and bond in mind, we submit to you" this proposal.

Taylor suggested those who read it compare it to the Republican Party platform and the Trump campaign to see the similarities.

"Closing the barn door after the horse is gone is where we are," Taylor said. "In 2014, it was estimated that 20 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S. We've gained about 3 million since then."

He also suggested that if people have not seen his videos on Facebook, he would give the audience this evening the words he sometimes offers in pictures in the videos.

"When I recorded my videos on asymmetric warfare, I spent 8 ½ hours in front of the camera, although I had pneumonia and kidney stones," Taylor recounted.

He presented some history on immigration laws. "In 1952, when Korea was going on, we had a minimum of refugees, because we were still implementing the Marshall Plan in countries where the damages of World War II has occurred. We weren't dealing with refugees here."

In 1952, the Immigration and Nationality Act was created to protect national security and public safety. "In 1952, most people came from a family unit. The soldiers came back from World War II and some, including my father, had liberated concentration camps. My uncles served in Midway, Bataan and the Battle of the Coral Sea."

He alleged that people today are learning to live in the moment. "When they do, history becomes lost, so it gets revised and sometimes becomes disinformation. Things with immigration laws right now are disinformation and misinformation. Disinformation is put out with the intent to mislead."

Taylor said in 2014, he heard from Border Patrol agents that most people coming across the border were males from age 18 years to 30 years. "That is not at all what was represented as. These men were put on an Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, but what you were told on TV, and you've been conditioned to believe what you see on TV, was disinformation, which today is called fake news. The purpose is to get you to believe something that is not true. False information's purpose is to influence public opinion and the public votes."

He said the language of politics is emotion. "As soon as you use words like children, adversity, inclusion, you are appealing to emotion. It's psychology in action. I know. I studied it. I took a journalism class on how to influence people through the press."

Deflection is changing the subject. The use of the word children is the best of deflection. "That's what was on TV, pictures of children drinking milk, when in reality it was young men coming across the border illegally."

"When you can use the media to make sure the article is focused on what you want to talk about, not what's important, that's deflection," Taylor said. "It's hard to filter this. It's why I'm here. I understand what is going on in America that is difficult to see."

He asked how many had heard about Seth Rich. "It has been said that Seth Rich was the one who leaked items to WikiLeaks. The press has said that he was killed in a robbery, but his wallet was not taken; his watch was not taken. Doctors said he had three bullet wounds, and none was life-threatening. One hour after he came out of the operating room, the hospital was flooded with lawyers. They kicked everybody out of the ICU. The next morning Seth Rich was dead. His computer is with the Washington, D.C. police department. John Podesta's brother is on the D.C. police advisory board."

Taylor said he gets much of his news from the UK Daily Press, the BBC, Canadian press sources and, every once in a while, a blog.

"You've heard of the fourth estate?" he asked. "The first three are the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The fourth is the press, which has power. It's one thing to have power and another to use it."

He often asked questions and waited for responses before giving the answer.

"What is the basis of American Society?" Taylor asked and answered. "We are a nation of law."

He then asked what antifa stood for and explained it meant the person was anti or against the first amendment.

"Everything this president is doing is positive," Taylor stated. "But the media is 97 percent negative. People who have a stake in power are resisting what Trump is putting forth. It's his first rodeo, and the first time a rodeo rider grabs a bull, the bull doesn't like it. In Trump's case, he twice attempted to mitigate the immigration crisis. Twice it was blocked. It's like gator hunting, first you have to find the gator and bring it to the surface. He's trying to bring the gators to the surface, identify them and take care of them."

"You've probably heard that illegal immigration is down 73 percent," he continued. "The truth is that apprehension is down 73 percent. It doesn't mean necessarily that 73 percent decided not to come in."

Mexico has two borders, he noted. The southern border is small, with a detention capacity of 1,200. If that many cross the border illegally in three to four hours and are apprehended, the capacity has been reached. He alleged most have counterfeited U.S. passports or altered ones. "For the rest of the day, a little over half that come from outside Mexico are given Mexican tourist visas and they continue their journey to the U.S."

Taylor asked if anyone knew how much it cost to cross Mexico. He answered it: "If an illegal immigrant from Central America wants to go to Phoenix, for example, it costs $2500 to $3500. If they are coming from Saudi Arabia or Yemen, it costs $75,000 to $100,000. Those numbers are not coming through the fourth estate."

He alleged since Napoleon's time, no one has kept track of the 'got-aways.'

In 2014, the Texas governor and Sean Hannity went to the border and talked to Border Patrol agents. The Border Patrol told the governor and Hannity that they were catching about half of the ones they see cross illegally, and that's different from catching half of those coming across the border.

When Taylor served as supervisor in Nogales, Ariz., he had a lot of trainees. What's happening is that 62 percent of the border in Arizona is public land." This 62% of land is virtually uninhabited and goes with the mention of a tree falling and no one hears or sees it. Same with what aliens cross on uninhabited and unpatrolled public land are not seen or heard.

Another one of his questions: "What happens when a tree falls in the forest when no one hears or see it? It's a non-incident. Nothing happens until the illegal crosses the border. Intelligence is determining through facts what happens rather than what you're being told."

"Those who are pro-immigrant are telling us there are about 20 million illegal immigrants in the U.S," Taylor said. "If they are saying that, how many are here?"

He noted that many came on legal visas and never returned to their home country. "When they violate a law it is discovered they are here illegally. Many are Canadian, who are acculturated and don't cause any problems."

Sometimes, it is thought that everyone that is caught by the Border Patrol is from Mexico, so the story is: "You are anti-Mexican. But many are from Central America, China, Middle East and other countries."

In Oregon, as of May 20, 2017, 962 foreign nationals are in the prison system. 457 are in prison for sexual abuse, rape and sodomy. Where are they from? He listed several countries including Marshall Islands, England, Cuba, Russia, El Salvador, Mexico and others.

"If you make a law giving Mexican aliens amnesty, you will have millions come out of the woodwork," Taylor said. "It's the same thing with refugee resettlement. The law says once you're outside the country that was persecuting you, you are no longer a refugee." He suggested looking at Ann Corcoran on Refugee Resettlement. "She is on top of it."

She alleges that almost all refugees that are coming to the U.S. are Muslim and don't meet the definition of refugee.

Taylor said the demographics of the United Kingdom have completely changed. "More are not native British than are native. What happens here when the majority here is not native?"

He said the Mexican cartels are doing the filtering of what people are led to believe. "They are doing it right here, right next door."

Taylor cited several news articles, talking about the "rule of 28s," that said 28 were arrested in FBI drug raid in Cleveland. "That's where John Boehner is from."

Another one in El Dorado, Kansas in Dec. 2016 where 28 were caught in drug operations, mostly in methamphetamine.

"I have dealt with meth," Taylor said. "I tried to arrest a man for meth. We got into a fight. I whaled on him, with a self-defense baton to no effect. Finally got him into my truck, after he fell when his shorts fell down. I put my knee on his solar plexus. I had to take him to the hospital, where they found he had been sniffing glue, taking cocaine and meth, marijuana and alcohol."

He noted the area around Nogales has deep canyons where Border Patrol agents can't get cell phone service or even radio service. "You're 30 minutes from a paved road. If you get in trouble, like a fight, who's going to take care of you? If you don't, no one does. The idea is to control the one you're trying to arrest."

Taylor said "la ley del monte," the law of the brush, worked for 22 years, until the Department of Justice said Border Patrol agents were using excessive force. "I hate to tell you, but some of them don't want to get caught. So sometimes, we have to assume he's armed and his friends will help him. Necessity is the mother of invention. Border Patrol agents want to go home safely to their families at the end of the day. It's like the Marine Corps motto: adapt and overcome."

He continued with the "rule of 28," with more articles about 28 arrested for drugs in Sarasota City, Florida, 20 in Albuquerque, and 28 with 30 kilos of heroin, cocaine, meth and marijuana. "That's at least $102,000 in cash."

Taylor alleged those smuggling drugs are also smuggling illegal aliens. "In Cochise County, Ariz., right across the border from Hachita, the Border Patrol was having trouble with drug and alien smugglers who were miners. They grew up on the streets of Juarez; they're dangerous."

Taylor told a story of a man working at Burger King in New Mexico. He was a kidnapper and was one of the head honchos in the U.S. for the Juarez cartel. "They kill each other to make money. The cartels have to have complete control of the drugs in Mexico and have to deliver them to someone over whom they have complete control in the U.S. Sanctuary cities plus illegal aliens equals transnational crime.When Taylor served"

He said it was like a needle in a haystack, with 20 million illegals. "If we are accepting of them, we are unlikely to recognize they are under control of a cartel. In one instance three groups were caught in the same place, and none knew the others were there."

About sanctuary cities, he said if in Silver City law enforcement takes someone into custody and puts them in jail, then finds out they are illegal, they can call ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which will come to pick them up. ICE wants to know when the person will be released, so they can come get him, before he is let out. "If a large percentage is in the drug business and they get put on the street and not to ICE, they will just go back to dealing drugs. Protection of illegals and aiding and abetting them is already against the law."

He said the Davis-Oliver law is going through Congress. The Drug Enforcement Agency has designated hub cities where the cartels, or transnational criminals, have been able to operate freely within the U.S.

"If they are not allowed to operate freely, how can they get from Nogales to Cleveland?" Taylor asked. "The person in the U.S. that the cartels give the drugs to likely has family in Mexico and the cartels know exactly where and who they are." He recounted a story about a family member in the U.S. who let slip a detail when he called his family in Mexico. The cartel got him, called the family and told them how much they had to pay. Then the cartel cut off one of his fingers."

Taylor alleged there are more than 3,000 sanctuary cities in the U.S. where transnational criminals operate freely.

He noted the further from the border, the higher the prices for the dugs. Where the supply exceeds the demand, the prices go down.

According to the UK Daily Mail, Atlanta, Ga., is a cartel hub city. A middle school teacher, 28 years old, was caught with 61 kilos of cocaine and assault weapons at her house. "If people are not here, if the cartels didn't have safe havens, they couldn't bring in drugs."

Taylor stated that organized crime cannot exist without political protection. "What class of people did President Cliinton pardon at the end of this term? Close personal friends who were involved in drugs. Lassiter lives in Angel Fire, New Mexico. There is not a state in the U.S. that is not involved in the drug trade."

He cited statistics that in 2015, there were more than 32,000 opioid overdose deaths; in 2016, more than 60,000. "Not all jurisdictions test for opioids. It may look like a heart attack and they may not know it was caused by an opioid overdose."

Officials weren't separating illegal drugs from prescription drugs. How does a medical examiner know if it's a legal drug the patient has a prescription for or if it is illegally possessed or counterfeit? He said there was no scientific study on the 50,000 suspected overdose deaths in 2016 "and even that number may be understated due to non uniform reporting of results and it is curious that the official number has not yet been reported."

Taylor said the government is clamping down on pharmacists and physicians. "You can't go to Walmart and get heroin. You get heroin on the street. The opioid crisis started in 2009. The trend line stops in 2015 and then took a large tick up in 2016. The government says it's because of prescription overdoses and gets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involved."

He alleged drugs were hitting Janesville, Wisc., hard. That's where Paul Ryan is from.

The CDC started having town halls and with grants will pour money into places. "I betcha it follows the narrative that it's caused by prescriptions. Then Wisconsin says it's 80 percent from Mexican heroin. So is the government paying with taxpayer funds to keep the focus away from the border."

Even if the government is willing to spend millions of dollars, the elected officials don't want to hear it. "So what kind of resistance are they getting? You would think they would want to know how Mexican heroin gets to Wisconsin. It's called plausible deniability. When I was in Nogales, we invited a senator to go up in a helicopter to see the situation. He didn't want to see it. I have had representatives and senators who do want to learn about it and tell about it come back to me and say: 'They don't want to know about it."

He said the country now has an attorney general who knows about the real drug situation. "Tom Colburn came down. He knows. But we keep electing the same people and expecting different results?"

"This whole immigration thing is being orchestrated and used for two things," Taylor alleged. "One, to dilute our society and two, keep the conversation on an emotional level instead of a factual level. Ever had law enforcement come to your door and say: 'We want to talk to you about your son?' Before they come to your door, you need to take care of it. You can't think: 'OK. It's after the election. I did my job. I can go back to the golf course.'

"It will never end; it will not quit; and they get paid well," Taylor said. "We've been there, done that. A lot of agents say they did their job. I couldn't do that. I felt like it was my job to tell you what's going on.

He presented a metaphor of trees in the snow, where all you see are trees and snow, until you look more closely and behind the trees and see the wolf and the bear. " I want you to be able to look at what is going on around you and see the wolf and the bear right before your eyes."

He said once one realizes how Washington works and that they know how to modify people on how they vote, one has to do something.

"When you see the media and the legislative branch work hand-in-hand, don't you wonder if something's up?" Taylor asked. "It took me three days to find the information on Seth Rich. Then you get the facts, take them to someone and they say it's fake news."

Taylor described himself as the canary in the mine, "trying to tell you they have adopted the smuggler's approach. Convince you it's something else that is going on. It's disinformation and deflection."

He mentioned two books, Interrogation and Deception, which outline the system. "Remember Khalid Sheik Mohammad? He confirmed the plan to defeat America through the media through deception and flooding America with Muslim immigrants and using our own laws to defeat us."

"What did God give us to make men out of?" Taylor asked one of his questions. "Little boys. We are the product of the America we grew up in. Remember when the Boy Scouts put pressure on troops to have gay leaders? I was in the Boy Scouts. We had gays and knew it, but the Scout rule is to always have two leaders with any group of boys. That's one of the reasons it's important for 'them' to defeat the Boy Scouts. LDS has pulled all of its troops out of Boy Scouts. Our culture is under attack. Rape is up 100 percent in the military, but it's not male on female. So many places are under attack. It's asymmetrical warfare. That's how Asians fight wars. The Viet Cong were led by the Chinese. They could not believe the bravery of the American soldier. Americans fight because they love what's behind them. Our generation is depending on those who brought us up. Once the Boy Scouts go through political indoctrination, what will they believe when they are 12 years old? 'They' are going for the long plan and what the young men will believe at 20 years old.

"Border Patrol agents in my generation became part of the communities they lived in.," he continued. "We were an integral part of the community. You see a difference in schools now; a difference in Boy Scouts; it's not accidental."

Immigration is a way to transform the U.S. "My grandfather raised a bunch of kids and ran three businesses during the Depression. He had a bakery, a fish market and a grocery store. He sold on credit. Instead of individuals feeding you now, it's the government saying: 'I'll feed you.'"

"If we don't push back hard on the refugee situation, it will get worse," Taylor opined. "A lot of people are making a lot of money. Do you know about the environmental movement? I was a game warden with a degree in wildlife ecology. It became so polarized, I quit and became a Border Patrol agent."

A questioner asked about the cost of smuggling. "These people come from impoverished countries. Where do they get $75,000 or $100,000?"

"It's quid pro quo," Taylor alleged. "They pay them to be drug pushers in the U.S. and they work it off with their family still in the foreign country. They have to owe it and work it off. The MS-13 gang out of Mexico has the most members in D.C. But the Washington, D.C. police department will not assist ICE. Organized crime cannot exist without political protection. "

A man asked where a person can start to solve the problem. Taylor thought about it and answered: "I'm doing my part. You have friends on Facebook, other social media. You can't believe anything in the press or on TV."

Another questioner asked what Taylor's "Rule of 28s meant?" He explained that it seemed coincidental that the number kept coming up.

"But is it a coincidence?" Taylor asked. "In four or five jurisdictions, law enforcement caught large amounts of people with cocaine and heroin. It begs the question of how many times smaller amounts don't get caught. How many times were the people caught this time not caught, so they could be trusted with smaller and then larger amounts." He said these larger amounts could equal $250 million worth of drugs. "People in the foreign country have leverage over them."

An audience member noted that, "looking around, in five, 10 or 15 years most of us will be dead. If we cannot interest the younger generation in taking care of this problem, what can we do? We were brought up post World War II. I don't see a lot of hope because of education, which now teaches socialism. Do you think Trump can begin to scratch the surface before he is subverted or done in? The education here at Western New Mexico University and at every other college uses nebulous words. Can Trump help us? Bottom line?"

Taylor said he didn't know, but "it's instructive to see my peers. I'm 70 and I don't have to do this. In fact, I pay to do this. It's important my peers know what's going on. I believe I've been chosen to do this."

He said one day he was having breakfast at McDonald's in Madison, Wisc., "when a fellow comes up to talk to me about his immigration problems and how an illegal had hit him. He had no idea who I was. I don't think it's coincidence. Do you feel blessed?"

He said he had deep roots in America, with his family having arrived in 1767, with some members having come in 1610. He said he has some indigenous roots, too.

Taylor told a long story about his son, who told him from the time he was 8 years old that he was going to be a doctor. His son is now a vascular surgeon with a Veterans' Administration hospital. Taylor's daughter is a doctor in a migrant clinic in Tucson. "Is that a blessing? That's what America can produce. It is our children that grow up to be Americans."

Another audience member asked about sex trafficking of kids across the border and being sold. "If there is no border security how can we control it?"

"What I'm hearing is that the surge in 2014 was that some children were sent to stay with 'aunts and uncles,' who were not aunts and uncles. The person in the foreign country sent a photo of a child to a person who said they would take care of the child. That person sent a photo back to the foreign country, so the child could carry it. The Border Patrol completes the smuggling act unknowingly when they combine the incoming alien with the person in the United States. People that do this don't do it out in the open. Where there's smoke there's fire. Someone is covering something like pedophilia, I believe. This is what appears to be happening. It has to be desperate in the home country. Do you blame the parent? It's like organ harvesting. People have to be high up in society to make such arrangements, especially if it's done outside the U.S. With the Patriot Act surveillance, if it is happening, the government knows about it."

A woman asked about communication between government agencies and immigration law. She read part of the immigration law, saying: "No one may restrict the following immigration status" and cited them.

"About a month ago," she said, "the Silver City Town Council proclaimed they still stand by the 2003 resolution. The mayor said the Police Department may not ask a person their country or origin when they are arrested, because illegals have constitutional rights, the same as U.S. citizens. Isn't the Silver City Police Department violating the law?"

"Or is it a Silver City councilor breaking the law?" Taylor asked. "Davis-Oliver tightens the law."

He said corporations that process meat bring illegals in because they are cheaper, work faster, and the corporation boards can control them. There are so many reason politicians are fighting Davis-Oliver. If it goes through, they will go after the mayor and he will be hearing the rattle of handcuffs. It might change his mind."

A man said he would guess that Davis-Oliver is not going anywhere, since there is no Senate version. It criminalizes illegality. The CATO Institute delivered against it, saying it says the opposite of what people say it's for. In this particular instance, if the person is following public law, enforcement and getting people to cooperate disrupts and makes them go underground. What is the priority? Is it for federal government to do it?

Taylor said if an agent does a background check, all he has to do is call ICE and that's all. ICE then takes control of the illegal. Tucson is a sanctuary city, but an ICE agent is in the jail and takes immediate custody of the illegal. ICE pays the jail for the office space, water and utilities and the city or county has no additional cost. Saying it is an unfunded mandate is a straw man argument because it does not have to be.

He continued that all major drug busts are made with multi-agency task forces. "The locals get RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) money. It doesn't cost the agency anything."

"There's got to be a way to make it happen," Taylor concluded. "Talking about illegals, cooperating with law enforcement is an unfunded mandate. The state is taking those afore-mentioned minors and putting them into state prison."

The audience members had refreshments in the mall outside Miller Library at Western New Mexico University after the discussion.