Miller on border crisis: 'These choices have consequences'

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Miller on border crisis: 'These choices have consequences'

Former White House Adviser Stephen Miller on the illegal impact of the border crisis.

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," May 2, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everyone. Welcome to SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. I'm Maria Bartiromo.

Today, an exclusive on the Biden administration's biggest problem, the one that he does not want to discuss, the Southern border, where 162,000 people were apprehended in the month of April, after 172,000 in the month of March.

The president said very little about the elephant in the room this past week during his joint session to Congress, while we were viewing the crisis from the air, the land and the water, at the epicenter of it, McAllen, Texas.

Coming up, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who showed us the Texas border with Mexico from a Black Hawk helicopter, Attorney General Ken Paxton, who showed us the crisis from the river during a boat ride, and, from the land, a ride-along with the president of the National Border Patrol Council, Brandon Judd.

Under the Trump administration, apprehensions were at a 45-year low.

Coming up the policies: that reversed everything, causing the worst breach, one of the worst, on record, with former Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

All that and more, as we look ahead right now on "Sunday Morning Futures."

And first up this morning: Texas Governor Greg Abbott took us on a Black Hawk helicopter ride above Texas to view the 1,200-plus miles of the Texas border being breached every single day.

Smugglers and criminal cartels are the biggest winners, transporting 2,000 people every 24 hours in rafts and boats and helping some through gaps in the unfinished wall. Most of the people coming in want to be apprehended, so they can get processed and eventually assimilate into America.

But there is another group that are criminals who got away and ended up in the interior of our country. The governor, along with the heads of the National Guard and the Department of Public Safety, walked me through it all while we toured from above.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): There are some people who cross the border who do want to get apprehended, so they can get processed, and hopefully assimilate.

The people that DPS arrests are the people who don't want to be caught. They are known criminals. And they would wind up back in jail.

The white tents here are the Donna facility. And there's almost like two different sections. One of these tents that are nearest to us right now, they were not there two months ago. When I came here two months ago, that was just dirt.

And then you had those other white tents on the other side. And they were there when I first came. But you can tell they're all relatively new.

The action picks up at night. The stunning thing for me is that it used to be that most of the illegal crossing of the border would occur at nighttime. But, under this administration, it occurs in high volume during the daytime.

BARTIROMO: Have you spoken with the president, the vice president? Do they reach out to you to get an update on things?

ABBOTT: No. In a word, no. Very different from the prior administration.

So, this part right here, was that intended for wall construction? You see all the equipment there? Yes, this is part of the wall that was under construction, and they just stopped. You're going to see right up there they picked it back up. They just didn't connect the two locations.

BARTIROMO: And it was all paid for?

ABBOTT: It was all paid for.

The Texas border with Mexico is about 1,250 miles. To be precise, I want to say is 1,264. You can Google it. But it is just -- if it were a straight- line desert, like in Arizona, it'd be one thing. This is far more difficult to patrol and to protect.

BARTIROMO: Is all of Mexico run by the cartels or just the border?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They -- unfortunately, there's systemic corruption throughout Mexico, that no one's safe. They have undermined the rule of law everywhere. And there's no place you can get away from the cartels right now.

It's a domestic security threat to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Since the crisis spiked after January 20 of this year, President Biden and Vice President Harris have yet to visit the border, and the governor has not heard from them.

After our Black Hawk tour, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sat down with me for this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBOTT: Well, first, about the president not mentioning the border in his State of the Union address, I think it shows that, candidly, he doesn't care about the border.

And they do not want to resolve the challenges that we have on the border. But I will tell you this. The first 100 days of the Biden administration, they have been great for the cartels, for the gangs, for the human traffickers who have been exploiting the border, because what happens is, you have all these young migrants surge the border, and the Border Patrol officers are occupied in dealing with those who are surged in.

And that is when the cartels and gang members, they're able to use the open spaces to sneak across the more high-value people, such as terrorists, such as people with criminal records, and as well as fentanyl, the drugs and things like that. And that's exactly why we have all of these Department of Public Safety officers down here, because we are working to -- for Texas to deploy resources to secure the border.

BARTIROMO: So, what kind of a cost does this represent for the state of Texas?

ABBOTT: Yes, it's big.

BARTIROMO: Because we're not talking about the cost very much of this.

ABBOTT: Good point, because this doesn't come free.

So, our state legislature, they allocate about $800 million every two years for the state to pay for this. This year, because of the extended time that we will have the National Guard on the border, it likely will clearly exceed a billion dollars for the state to have to secure the United States of America.

So here's our goal. We're paying for this. But I want to have Texas secure the border and have the Biden administration pay for it.

BARTIROMO: You know, we're going to talk with A.G. Paxton later on in the show.

But he made a point, saying Texas is a launchpad. But once they come in through Texas, illegals are going all across the country. Drugs are going into the interior of the country.

Tell me about that, because one Border Patrol agent told me that the numbers for fentanyl up 5000 percent year over year, heroin up 4000 percent, in terms of drugs seized.

ABBOTT: No, you will have people in the country, in the Midwestern part or the Northern part, think, well, that's a border issue. We don't have to worry about it.

The border comes to them every single day, because, as people cross the border, they take -- the gang members will export the drugs to Chicago, to New York, to North or South Carolina, or even up to Washington state or other places like that.

And so every state is affected by the people who are coming across the border illegally. And that's exactly why all of us need to join together in this process to make sure that we are securing it, so that we are stopping the drug traffickers, and, Maria, the human traffickers.

Human trafficking is one of the most vicious and serious crimes that takes place across the country. And the way that the people come across the border is through human trafficking, and then those human traffickers in the United States, they continue that practice as they exploit people wherever they may send them to across the country.

BARTIROMO: The other thing that really struck me was, once they are released, after they get processed, once they're released, they get legal status.

ABBOTT: It shows the president's, President Biden's approach to this, and that is to abandon the rule of law.

What they're supposed to do is to detain them, to cite them, to require that they show up for a court hearing. And they have even abandoned the practice of requiring citations and of requiring an appearance at courts to show up.

And so that does mean that all you have to do is get across the border, and you can do anything you want to do. And, of course, that means it's an abandonment of the legal immigration laws passed by the United States Congress.

BARTIROMO: Why is the Biden administration allowing this?

ABBOTT: What you're asking right now is the most important question in the United States that too many people are not asking, not enough journalists are asking, not enough members of Congress are asking, about why the Biden administration is doing nothing to stop this from happening, and not even acknowledging what the consequences are going to be to the United States of America, because you mentioned one thing about the cost.

And that is the cost that we are incurring with regard to securing the border. But we didn't talk about the health care costs, the education costs, the law enforcement costs, all these other costs that will be incurred not just by Texas, but by all these other states that the gangs and the human traffickers eventually go to.

BARTIROMO: And it seems like the cartels are really winning and making big money here.

Someone told me this week that they're making $400 million monthly. I mean, the numbers -- because they're charging $4,000 a head. They're taking 2,000 people a day into America. And, depending on where you come from, the numbers are even higher.

One guard told me that they apprehended a group from China, and the group from China told them that they paid $50,000 a head. And, by the way, these were scientists and doctors and engineers from China.

You have to ask why the CCP is sending these people through the border? Obviously, they don't want to be noticed. What are they doing when they get here?

ABBOTT: Could be espionage.

And so -- and there again, this shows the danger of the Biden administration not doing anything, because we need to debunk that there's anybody out there who thinks that these are still just people coming from Mexico or Central America coming here to engage in agriculture or something like that.

They're forgetting about the people from China, or from Iran, from terrorist-based nations. It could be espionage.

BARTIROMO: So, what's your reaction to what V.P. Harris said, that she wants to send $310 million to the Northern Triangle countries to encourage them not to come? Is that going to work?

ABBOTT: And she also talked about planting trees, I think something like that. I can't remember what all they're planning on doing.

But let's talk about what they're not doing. They're not coming down here to the border. So, they have had 100 days in office right now. And this is the biggest crisis they're dealing with. And they have failed to even acknowledge that it's a crisis, don't even come down here to address it.

Until they come down here and see exactly what's going on, on the ground, see how porous the border actually is, see who is coming across the border and how dangerous they are, they're not going to solve the problem. They need to come to grips with the magnitude of the problem, and they need to step up and address it.

BARTIROMO: Well, she said she's looking at the root causes. And she says the root cause is poverty.

What about the root cause of why they decided now? Because, under President Trump, we were seeing apprehensions at a 45-year low.

ABBOTT: Let's be clear. The root cause is lack of border security.

If they secure the border -- here's -- let's step back. Most Americans -- and will put myself in this class -- most Americans believe in legal immigration. And if you believe in legal immigration, you need to support enforcing the illegal immigration laws.

And it's the illegal immigration laws that the Biden administration is abandoning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: And legal immigration, we issue one million green cards every year.

Coming up, more of my exclusive conversation with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Open borders just one part of Joe Biden's radical agenda. We will talk about the rest of it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. We continue now with our exclusive coverage.

The state of Texas has sued the Biden administration five times over its immigration policies. Governor Abbott has demanded the administration shut down at least one unaccompanied minor facility in San Antonio because of allegations of abuse, including sexual assault taking place there.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBOTT: There were multiple concerns I had at that facility, and -- but, candidly, other facilities that we have had in the state of Texas.

There were allegations that were filed with two state agencies in the state of Texas. There was sexual assault taking place, with very grotesque and very disturbing allegations that were made.

But these are not new. People need to understand, this is not a one-time- type allegation. Allegations like this have occurred over the years. And one reason why they do occur is because you have an inadequate number of personnel and staff overseeing it.

From what I observed myself in going into that facility, I saw no law enforcement. I saw no security whatsoever, either inside or outside of that facility. I have seen these facilities across the entire border region. And at none of them have I seen any type of security to make sure that people would not be able to escape or engage in other acts that could endanger either people inside or outside of the facilities.

BARTIROMO: Governor, I want to move on to the broader agenda.

The border policies, or lack of policies, it's one part of a -- what has been a radical agenda. The Democrats are pushing H.R.1. They're pushing to get rid of the filibuster. They want to pack the Supreme Court. President Biden says he's going to put a commission together.

What are you seeing, from your standpoint, from the federal government in terms of taking -- taking power away from the states?

ABBOTT: Right.

And you said it perfectly, because what the Biden administration wants to do is completely redesign the United States of America in a way that's contrary to the Constitution. The United States was designed so that each state would be able to have its own design. Texas is the perfect example of why we need to have states be different, because Texas ranks number one in pretty much every economic category.

BARTIROMO: Have you seen a big movement in terms of people moving to Texas right now?

ABBOTT: You have no idea.

Well, it's one thing to happen in the census. Texas added more people over the past decade than any other state. People are moving here right and left. However, what happened this past year, the year of COVID, really accelerated all of that.

BARTIROMO: Tell me about the lawsuits. I mean, Texas has been suing the federal government for a number of reasons. A number of states have, by the way.

But the XL Pipeline, this is something, I know, that's very important to you. This was a real growth story for Texas and for the country.

ABBOTT: Well, listen, the XL Pipeline is a subset of a larger agenda for the Biden administration, and that is to crack down on fossil fuels.

And let me tell you, he's hurting down here in the polls because of that. And it's one reason why President Trump in his reelection campaign did so well in the Rio Grande Valley.

BARTIROMO: Yes. What about the census?

I got two more items to talk to you about, census and the COVID, what's happening here in Texas, because you're -- you're open for business, obviously.

But we saw changes in the census, and the Republicans are looking at investigating this. Did you lose a congressional seat in Texas? What happened with the census numbers?

ABBOTT: I think an investigation does need to be done. And so they need to do it very quickly, because the time clock on this is short.

But if you look at all the numbers of many red states, the initial assessment of the numbers of what the population growth was, was reduced by the final numbers. And then other blue states, they were supposed to be losing population, and, suddenly, they were not losing as much as what had been prognosticated.

And so there is something fishy about the final census results. And it's right that there will be an investigation and maybe even litigation to clarify exactly what's going on. Who changed the numbers? Why did they change it? Was it a valid change? Things like that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: My thanks to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Coming up: the journey migrants and criminals are taking to the U.S. border, landing some of them in your neighborhood. Who's funding the flight?

Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Well, welcome back.

More of our exclusive this morning from the border, a look at the dangerous, sometimes deadly track thousands of migrants make every day, some looking for a better life in America, others up to no good, and the ruthless Mexican cartels running it all for a profit.

In the past, smugglers would transport drugs and people across the border in the dead of night to avoid being detected. Today, they are doing it in broad daylight, because they know Joe Biden reversed all of Donald Trump's immigration policies. They won't have to remain in Mexico any longer.

And there are wide-open gaps along the border with Texas. They also know there are no consequences to breaking into America and cutting the line for those trying to do it legally.

President Biden has made it clear, if you have a child 6 years old or younger, you will likely stay here in America. So, unaccompanied minors are flooding in, in March, 20,000, unaccompanied minors apprehended.

Most of the people apprehended just want to get apprehended and processed. The latest numbers we have, in April, total apprehensions 162,000, on top of 172,000 in March. But look at the got-away numbers. Border agents say they're more worried about the ones who got away.

In the last three months, based on surveillance video, at least 108,000 people crossed into America and then kept going, many believed to have gone on to travel throughout the country to big cities like New York and Chicago.

Agents tell us Tucson, Arizona, has also become a major destination for these so-called got-aways.

We took a trip with the National Border Patrol Council president, Brandon Judd, to learn more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: So, let me ask you about the three types of scenarios.

Number one, you have got people coming here who want to get apprehended. They know, once they're apprehended, they're going to stay in the country. Then there's the second group that are trying to evade apprehension. Those are the people you really want to get.

BRANDON JUDD, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: They are. They are.

BARTIROMO: Because if they're wanting to evade apprehension, they must be up to no good.

JUDD: Exactly.

So, you just tweeted out the numbers, the apprehension numbers and the got- aways. Those got-aways, those are the individuals that there's a good chance, a high likelihood they have criminal records here in the United States. We apprehend a lot of people that have criminal records in the United States.

Those are the ones that the -- they pay the cartels more money, and they're going to actively try to get away from us, because they know, if they are caught, they're going to be subject to different laws than just a person that crossed the border illegally and gives themselves up.

So, they're going to actively evade. And that's the dangerous situation that we face. So, not only are we letting people that cross the border illegally, not only are we letting those people go under -- with notices to appear, or without notices to appear, under the catch-and-release program., but then there's the other segment that are able to evade apprehension.

And those are the people that we don't know who they are, we don't know where they're coming from, and we do not know what their intentions are here in the United States. And that is what scares most Border Patrol agents.

BARTIROMO (voice-over): The pace of smuggling people and thousands of pounds of heroin, fentanyl and methadone picks up at night on the shores of the Rio Grande, where we witnessed what sounded like a well-oiled machine just 40 yards away in Reynosa, Mexico.

Here's what we learned after the sun went down.

(on camera): The smugglers and the cartels get the people that they want to send across who pay them at that ranch, and they just load them up in the rafts.

And one by one, the rafts, groups of a few people, coming across. Like I said, they heard us, so they quieted down, but they're right here. And more will be coming. We're hearing it.

(voice-over): Once the migrants, often traveling in groups, reach the shores of America, their journey continues, with signs like this, pointing them in the direction of Border Patrol agents, who will apprehend them, and, astoundingly, give them legal status until they get to see a judge, which might be never.

We encountered one such group.

JUDD: This is a group of illegal aliens who just crossed the border right now. They're headed towards what we call the temporary processing facility, or TOPs (ph).

They know that, upon arriving at TOPs, they are going to be processed, and then most likely they are going to be released in the United States. This is the catch-and-release. This is what is driving so many people to cross the border illegally.

BARTIROMO: From there, they will get help from Catholic Charities and other NGOs who are privately funded. They can organize their travel to sponsors or -- quote, unquote -- "family members" in the interior of America.

But, first, those picked up in McAllen will spend time here at this massive facility in Donna, Texas, which has been built out significantly in just the last 30 days into a massive complex with several buildings.

The cost to taxpayers? More than $700 a head per day, almost $400 million a year to spend time here. The original tent at this location was run by Customs and Border Patrol. It was named the Donna holding facility.

This is the same site that Senator Ted Cruz tweeted about, saying there were 4,000 people crammed into a space designed to hold 250. Since those pictures went public, the administration has built out the complex and tried to quicken the pace of processing immigrants to get people on their way.

We asked HHS to provide us with an updated picture of that Donna holding facility to see if it was still crammed. But we haven't heard back. The entire facility is run by the Department of Homeland Security and HHS, not the state of Texas. In fact, even the attorney general, Ken Paxton, was denied access at one point.

But, this week, Paxton went back in to get in to see the conditions. And we tagged along. We got to see one of the newer facilities called Delphi located within the Donna complex, becoming the first national media to get a glimpse inside the complex, outside of the pool camera that was allowed in when Cruz's pictures first went public.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will just do a walk-through through the facility. Is there anything specific that you need us to show you, that you're looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just want to see how it operates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the triage unit.

So, if a child comes in and is showing symptoms of COVID, we immediately give them a rapid COVID test. If it tests positive, we put them in the triage for intake.

OK, this is our initial intake site. So, the children arrive here, come off of the bus, and then are immediately seated down on these benches. This facility has four dorms. They're very large, A, B, C, and D. Each dorm has eight individual pods. And they're all color-coded.

BARTIROMO: Due to consistent overcrowding, Health and Human Services placed its own tent adjacent to the Donna holding facility tent.

This tent, named Delphi, is run independently by HHS. And, here, we saw young boys between 13 and 17 on bunk beds in holding areas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: More of our exclusive coverage.

Coming up: an exclusive boat ride with the attorney general of Texas along the narrow and winding river that separates Texaco (sic) from Mexico.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Well, welcome back.

The Texas border near Mexico is more than 1,200 miles' long, but less than 20 percent of it is covered by a wall.

The Biden administration ordered all wall construction to stop, leaving major gaps on the ground along the Rio Grande border.

We got an exclusive look from a boat ride along the Rio Grande with Attorney General Ken Paxton. We suited up in bulletproof vests and got aboard boats with .30-caliber machine guns, automatic guns, to see just how narrow the river is and who's on the other side.

Private landowners on and near the river new to protect their land, or they will get hijacked by the smugglers. We heard stories of cartels putting private homes on fire, ripping through fences, threatening kidnapping of their families, all to get control of people's property and use it to transport illegals across.

One sugarcane farmer built his own fencing along the river some three miles' long. It costs him $15 million to protect his property from being used as a transporting launchpad for smugglers and illegals.

A.G. Paxton sat down with me for an exclusive interview after that boat tour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEN PAXTON (R), TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: They are the ones benefiting the most.

Whether President Biden has explicitly known that, he should know that, that what he's doing, in removing Border Patrol to cover logistics and transportation for all these immigrants, while cartels have more opportunity to come in, they're making more money.

They're charging a lot of money for these people to come across, a minimum, we were told, of $4,000 up to $50,000 per person. Plus, they're running more drugs because the border is more porous. It's a real problem for our state. And it's a real problem for the country.

BARTIROMO: I don't understand why Kamala Harris has not been here yet.

PAXTON: I don't know either.

The only thing I can say is, she -- they don't want to draw attention to the fact that there is a problem here. All you have to do is be here. And it -- all you can see is problems, right? It's not normal. The people here know it's not normal.

Even when we have had other incidents like this, this is probably the worst that we have ever seen. And so everybody here knows it. And maybe they just don't want to highlight that.

BARTIROMO: So, one thing that came out of your press conference with the various local sheriffs that you were featuring is the fact that this is not just a Texas problem.

I know you're fighting for the people of Texas, but you're talking about narcotics coming in, smuggling of humans coming in. And, eventually, where are they going?

PAXTON: Yes, we don't know. They don't tell us.

This is just a launching point. Obviously, the cartels are not going to tell us what the drugs are going, and the human trafficking, where that's going. It's going all over the country. And we know that these kids and these families are being sent everywhere. And they may be sent there with COVID or some other transmittable disease.

And every state is going to start having to deal with these problems. And the cost of that is enormous, both from an economic standpoint and a social cost.

BARTIROMO: But before they are being sent somewhere, they are first being processed.

And you and I had a chance to get into the Donna facility. Initially, they told you couldn't see what was going on in the Donna facility.

PAXTON: The locals were very cooperative, but they went and checked with the Washington sources. I don't know whether it went to the White House. We're not exactly sure.

But the communication back is, they didn't want me to see what was going on because of COVID. They allow other visitors in. They allow federal visitors in. But, apparently, if you're from the state, COVID is an issue, even though we had masks.

So, ultimately, as you know, we both got in, and the local people were very cooperative, and we got to see the facility firsthand.

BARTIROMO: So, tell us what your takeaway was.

I know that there has been a movement on the part of those running those facilities to get people through the process quickly, so it doesn't seem as overloaded as it did. But what's most important for us to understand about the people that are getting processed and staying at that facility?

PAXTON: I think what's most important to understand is that a lot of these are kids. And we don't know where they're going, where they're being sent. These are kids that their lives are on the line.

And I don't know if they're going with family or friends, or who knows where they're going. There's no information being transmitted, but also just the fact that citizens are having to pay for this. This is a very expensive process. I think you and I calculated almost $400 million a year just for this one facility.

And that doesn't count the other facilities in Texas or around the country. We're talking billions of dollars. And who knows when that's going to end.

BARTIROMO: And it was very similar under the Obama administration, by the way, as well.

All right, let me switch gears and ask you about election integrity. This is a subject that has become taboo. We're not allowed to question the 2020 election. We're not allowed to question what's going on in Arizona or in Georgia.

What do you say to what is going on in Georgia and how Texas is similar to that situation around election 2020?

PAXTON: Yes.

So, if you look at election results from four years ago, Georgia and Texas were very similar. We fought off 12 lawsuits. We were sued 12 times over mail-in ballots, by -- it was Harris county, it was Travis County, these big urban counties that wanted to mail out all these mail-in ballots, in violation of state law, clearly what was not allowed by the state legislature.

And so we fought these off. And they didn't want signature verification. We were told by a federal judge that was -- that was unconstitutional. So, we had state lawsuits, different counties, federal lawsuits. We had 12 of them. We won every single one of them.

Had we not won every single one of those lawsuits, I'm convinced that those ballots would have gone out, and we would have been just like Georgia, who decided to capitulate and sign consent decrees and say it's OK, we're going to let these mail-in ballots go out, we're not going to -- we're going to allow no signature verification, we're going to allow drop boxes.

All those things had an impact. And instead of Georgia and Texas having similar results this time because we defended those lawsuits, Trump won. We were able to have a Republican legislature here. And, in Georgia, it was completely turned.

BARTIROMO: So, are you saying that because of what we saw in mail-in ballots in Georgia, you're questioning the results?

PAXTON: I absolutely am questioning.

I know what would have happened here. They would have stopped counting, just like they did in those states. And they would have been counting mail- in ballots until they get the right number of votes, and, suddenly, Trump loses and we lose the state House here, we lose some of our Supreme Court justices.

And it wouldn't have been a legitimate count, because they wouldn't have followed state law.

BARTIROMO: So, are you questioning what happened in the 2020 election?

PAXTON: Absolutely.

They didn't follow state law in these states. It's clear, whether you think there was fraud or not. It's almost impossible to prove the fraud because they separated the ballots. They never -- they never did the signature verification.

So, the proof, the evidence is gone. But we do know they didn't follow state law. And I know that, in Texas, had they not followed state law, that we would have lost the election, because there would have been more opportunity for fraud.

BARTIROMO: And what recourse would you have? I mean, let's face it. The Supreme Court did not want to hear any of these pushbacks and arguments against the election results.

PAXTON: If you're a state, and you want to sue another state, we don't have any recourse. There's no place to go, because I...

BARTIROMO: You only have the Supreme Court.

PAXTON: That's right.

I cannot sue in state court. The founders made sure that we wouldn't have an unfair advantage because we're suing Pennsylvania and Texas. So, I can't sue in federal district court here. I have to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, if they don't hear my case, we're the only entity that does not have a place to have our case heard.

BARTIROMO: Well, this is quite extraordinary, that that's all you have got, and you didn't have the Supreme Court to hear the cases after the election.

PAXTON: Right.

We never got to present our case, whether they thought we were right or wrong.

It's -- our founders set up a system where there were three branches of government, and the third branch was supposed to settle disputes, so we didn't shoot each other, going to have wars.

Well, guess what? If you're a state is suing another state, the Supreme Court has now decided it's discretionary as to whether they have to hear your case. So, if we have a case, we don't necessarily have a chance to be heard.

BARTIROMO: So let's -- so, let's end on H.R.1, then, because one of the tenets of H.R.1, which the Democrats are pushing, that they will -- that passed in the House, is that they want mail-in balloting to be the standard.

And they don't want I.D.

PAXTON: Yes.

So, basically, H.R.1 is enshrining the voter fraud. It guarantees voter fraud. And it's, I think, illegal, because it's forcing states to accept federal law for our state elections. But all those things are things like, they don't want a photo I.D., they want felons to be able to vote, they want to mail -- they want harvesting of votes to be allowed.

Pretty -- pretty much anything that would protect the integrity of elections, they want gone. Well, why? There's only one reason. They're going to -- they want more fraud to be available to people, because there's no other reason for not protecting the integrity of our elections.

BARTIROMO: Is there also a similar end point when you say there's no other reason to allow open borders? I mean, so many people who've come on this show have connected the dots from open borders to a voting population to immigration.

PAXTON: Well, a voting population, I think, is obvious.

But I think, also, they're imposing costs on states, red states particularly. We're having to pay for this. They're not giving us a lot of money for this. We have to educate these kids now. We have to take care of these families.

It's going to cost us, Texas, billions of dollars, and it's going to cost the states where they're taking these families a lot of money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: Coming up next live, an exclusive: Stephen Miller will connect the dots, reacting to the crisis at the Southern border and the Biden administration's unwillingness to act.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

What is coming into Texas is not staying in Texas.

Border Patrol Chief Brian Hastings told me that officials have seized 70 pounds of fentanyl since October, 100 pounds of heroin, 1,000 pounds of meth, all since October. These narcotics make their way into the interior of the country into places like New York and Chicago. It happens within two days. It gets to those destinations.

Joining me right now to discuss the impact of all of this illegal activity because of these open border policies is the architect of President Trump's tough border policy, former White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Stephen, it's great to see you. Thanks very much for being here this morning.

STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thanks.

BARTIROMO: I hope you got a chance to see our exclusive coverage this week.

MILLER: Yes.

BARTIROMO: And I'd like you to connect the dots. Give us the impact of all of this illegal activity.

MILLER: Thank you.

So, I think the fundamental issue for the country is this. You can either have a large, stable and growing middle class, or you can have unending illegal migration. You can't have both.

California used to once be the true Golden State, the place everyone wanted to be, the place everyone wanted to live, the place where you would go to pursue your middle-class dreams, and where you could live, in a very real sense, the American dream.

But decades of unending illegal migration shattered that dream. It's not the fault of the illegal immigrants. It's a reality of what happens when you have massive supplies of illegal low-wage labor coming into any one place in a concentrated fashion. It pulls wages down.

It deteriorates the middle class. It inevitably leads to more poverty. It strains social services. It overcrowds educational services. It breaks down the machinery of assimilation. And within that flow, yes, are drugs, are criminals, are gang members. Innocent people get killed as a result.

We dealt with this in Long Island. The flow of unaccompanied alien minors during the Obama administration, within that were MS-13 members. So, we would do large busts, large arrests, large indictments. You would see over and over again that MS-13 members had entered the country in the first instance as unaccompanied minors.

So, if you look, we have 500, 600, 700 unaccompanied minors a day. That's the size of one large high school graduating class every single day showing up at our border. Who's paying for the health care? Who's paying for the education? Who's paying for the housing? Who's paying for all of the needs attendant with that?

The answer is the taxpayers are. And they're going to come into the job market, because they -- they're less skilled and less educated on the whole, illegal immigrants are, than the existing U.S. population. They have less job training. They're less likely to have a college degree.

That's going to pull wages down.

BARTIROMO: Right.

MILLER: So, that affects our own immigrant community that's here lawfully and our own U.S.-born community as well.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MILLER: So, it's deeply tragic, and it hurts everybody.

BARTIROMO: It's tragic, but there's also the story of those people evading apprehension.

You just mentioned those MS-13. In other words, when you would do the busts under the Trump administration, you noted that some of those people were able to come into the country during the Obama administration because of these opening gaps.

So, who's coming in now that will cause damage later in America?

MILLER: Well, so, on the gang side, again, you have MS-13 that takes advantage of the unaccompanied minors program. And that's been a major pipeline for them to get gang members into the country.

But then you also have this phenomenon known as got-aways that should alarm every American to the core of their bones. Every single day, you have over 1,000 people coming into the country that Border Patrol never even apprehends.

Why is that? It's because the Biden administration has made the decision to order border agents to process unlimited numbers of families and minors for release into the country. So, instead of doing a security mission, instead of doing a protection mission, they're doing a resettlement mission.

That takes them off the line. That degrades our operational security, our operational awareness.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MILLER: And then it allows criminals, weapons traffickers, labor traffickers, drug dealers, and contraband to get into the country.

That will cost them thousands of American lives. These choices have consequences.

BARTIROMO: All right, we want -- yes, of course.

We want to take a short break.

But you are partnering with A.G. Paxton on their latest lawsuit. I want to talk about that and your America First legal organization.

We will be right back with more with Stephen Miller. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

And I am back with former White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.

Stephen, tell us about the lawsuit, the two lawsuits that you recently filed. You are also the outside counsel and partnering with A.G. Paxton on the catch-and-release situation. Walk us through it.

MILLER: Yes, so we filed two lawsuits, one lawsuit to ensure that farm aid is delivered irrespective of one's race and ethnicity.

The Biden administration has specifically excluded people solely based on skin color. That's outrageous.

As with our lawsuit with Ken Paxton, the amazing Ken Paxton, we are suing to end the catch-and-release policies on our Southern border that are spreading the pandemic in a way that not only violates federal law, but violates the administration's own COVID regulations.

Let me just make this point to your audience. Imagine you were living in an apartment building, and a new landlord came in, and he ripped off all the doors, he ripped out all the windows, and he said that any law breaker, any trespasser, any vandal, anyone, even criminal, who wants to come into your building and your unit is free to do so.

That is what President Biden has done to the country. It should outrage every single person. I don't care if you're a Democrat. I don't care if you're a Republican. The only thing that Joe Biden is doing on the border is not trying to stop illegal immigration. He's trying to accelerate it.

They're building more facilities for the sole purpose of expediting the release of illegal migrants into the interior. He is the first president in our lifetimes, indeed, in the history of the country, who has ever attempted such a program, the large-scale resettlement of illegal border crossers into our country, including limitless numbers of unaccompanied minors, who, as you mentioned earlier, impose extraordinary financial burdens on U.S. taxpayers.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MILLER: So, alongside ken Paxton, we are taking this administration to court, and we are declaring that, yes, we are a country, yes, we have sovereignty.

Go to AFLegal.org to find out more. That's AFLegal.org, and you will learn all about it.

BARTIROMO: And I know that you want to make sure this issue doesn't leave the front pages.

You're afraid this goes away, in terms of talking about it, as they try to make it look better, building out more facilities in that Donna holding facility. You have got Delphi and many other buildings now.

MILLER: Therein lies the danger.

BARTIROMO: Real quick, Stephen. We're out of time.

MILLER: Therein lies the danger for pro-border lawmakers.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MILLER: As they build more and more facilities, the media is going to say, oh, there's not a problem because they're not as crowded.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MILLER: They're not as crowded because they're releasing faster.

That means the burdens on our U.S. communities are multiplying more quickly.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

All right, Stephen, good to have you connect the dots for us.

MILLER: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Stephen Miller, thank you so much for joining us on this exclusive.

I will see you tomorrow with more exclusive coverage on FOX Business.

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