Obama border patrol chief on immigration crisis: Congress not 'looking at what they need to do right now'

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Obama's Border Patrol chief 'not optimistic' Congress that end immigration crisis on the southern border

Congress wants to 'eat the elephant in one bite' instead of taking an incremental approach to immigration reform, says Mark Morgan, former U.S. Border Patrol chief.

President Obama’s border patrol chief said Monday that he isn’t optimistic Congress can end the immigration crisis on the southern border -- or even wants to deal with it.

Mark Morgan told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom" that Congress has “shown again and again their failure to do what’s right” to fix the problem.

“They want to eat the elephant in one bite instead of looking at what they need to do right now,” he said.

Morgan said what Congress should be doing is fixing the so-called Flores Settlement, which prevents migrant families and children caught crossing the border illegally from being detained for more than 20 days.

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He said Congress also needs to amend the Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act, which prevents unaccompanied illegal immigrants under the age of 18 from being returned home to Central America when caught.

“If they would do those two legislative fixes they would end ‘catch-and-release’ and 85 percent of the humanitarian crisis would end immediately and the numbers would stem,” Morgan said.

He said he agrees with President Trump who has made much the same argument and said it would only take 15 minutes for Congress to do it.

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“The president is factually correct on this,” Morgan said.

Morgan agreed that the crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico is getting exponentially worse.

“Right now if you grab a kid and come to our country illegally you’re allowed in,” he said.

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“They’re not even asserting credible fear claims, they’re not even asserting asylum now,” he said. “They don’t need to because our laws are so broke.”