Chicago’s Morning Answer host Mike Koolidge, filling in for Dan Proft, welcomed former U.S. Border Patrol Chief, Deputy Commissioner, and ICE Director Ron Vitiello into the studio to discuss the current state of border security and a major hiring initiative underway at Customs and Border Protection. Vitiello, who noted he is the only person to have led both CBP and ICE, said the physical border is now safer than at any point in his roughly four decades working in the field. He said construction crews are on pace to complete more than fourteen hundred miles of border wall by the end of the Trump administration, adding new mileage to the roughly seven hundred miles that existed previously, and said the project remains ahead of schedule and under budget.
Vitiello said CBP is in the process of hiring eight thousand new employees, including five thousand net new Customs and Border Protection officers and three thousand net new Border Patrol agents, and encouraged interested applicants to visit joincbp.gov. He described the wall as more than a physical barrier, explaining that it also serves as an anchor for sensors, lighting, and other technology buried underground or mounted along the structure, all intended to make agents both safer and more effective at detecting crossing attempts.
Asked about water barriers along sections of the border, Vitiello described the deployment of roughly two hundred miles of floating buoy barriers anchored with chains and steel in rivers such as the Rio Grande, often paired with a secondary wall structure further inland. He also credited recent Supreme Court rulings with strengthening the administration’s ability to end so-called catch-and-release practices, arguing that the court affirmed the president’s authority to use emergency powers to secure the border after facing early setbacks in lower federal courts.
Reflecting on the broader arc of border policy over the past decade, Vitiello said illegal crossing attempts have dropped by roughly ninety five percent compared to recent years, while seizures of illicit narcotics at and between ports of entry have increased. He said the scale of migration during the Biden administration, which he estimated brought roughly twenty million people into the country illegally, many without ever being encountered by law enforcement, remains an ongoing challenge that continues to occupy ICE’s interior enforcement efforts, including the removal of individuals who have exhausted their immigration court proceedings or committed crimes.
Koolidge asked Vitiello to weigh in on how durable the current border security gains might be under a future administration with different immigration priorities. Vitiello said the constitutional separation of powers between Congress, the executive branch, and the judiciary provides some structural protection, but acknowledged that a president opposed to strict enforcement could significantly hamper the ability of frontline agents to do their jobs, as he said occurred during the Biden administration. He expressed hope that the operational successes of the current approach would serve as a point of comparison for future policymakers and the public, while cautioning that continued vigilance will be necessary when the country selects its next president. Vitiello closed by again directing listeners to join.cbp.gov for those interested in a career with the agency.