National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd warned on "Dr. Phil" Wednesday that the crisis at the border is costing American lives.
In an episode on the instability at America’s southern border, Dr. Phil McGraw turned to Judd for his expertise.
"When you encounter these people at the border what's your experience of them when you meet them?" the host asked.
Judd explained that while that entirely depends upon the person, these encounters can often be fatal for American citizens, "it depends on what we're dealing with, if you're dealing with drug smugglers they're going to be very, very dangerous."
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He followed by explaining a specific kind of encounter that routinely endangers bystanders.
"When you look at what's taking place in Arizona right now, the vast majority of times that a border patrol agent tries to pull over a vehicle in a smuggling event, that vehicle will abscond; they will not pull over," he said. "Those vehicles are causing a great many accidents in Arizona."
Judd followed up with a dire warning.
"We are paying for this in United States citizens’ lives right now because these people don't just pull over, they continue to drive, they drive at high rates of speeds, they will cross over the median and drive into oncoming traffic," he said.
Judd then cited a specific incident that caused multiple deaths.
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"We just had two United States citizens in the area that I work at, just two United States citizens just died, just a month ago, because of these high-speed chases," he said.
He added that border agents "deal with an awful lot, and we have to make a split-second decision on what we're dealing with. We must be able to enforce the laws properly."
In December, a Border Patrol agent was killed in a high-speed chase of a group of illegal immigrants in Mission, Texas.
"The death of an agent who died while securing our nation's border is a tremendous loss for our organization and our nation," U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said in a statement at the time. "Our prayers are with his family and co-workers during this difficult time."
