Biden’s Border Patrol Chief Warns Illegal Alien Population is ‘Much Higher’ Than Reported 20 Million People (VIDEO)

 

Joe Biden’s former Border Patrol chief has warned that the illegal immigrant population is likely “much higher” than 20 million people.

On Wednesday’s edition of the Will Cain Show on Fox News, Raul Ortiz was asked about the scale of the challenges faced by President Trump and his administration.

“I’ve seen varying figures,” Cain remarked. “The one that’s always quoted is something like 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States.”

“Do you have any sense, how big is the population of illegal immigrants in the United States?”

Ortiz responded:

I would estimate it’s much higher than 20 million people.

When you think about, just even over the last ten years, how many folks that actually got away from the Border Patrol, and then those unknown gotaway numbers, that we [were] never able to manage because the Border Patrol agents were conducting other duties outside of their enforcement duties.

And so, what we’ve seen over the last five, six years, I think is really just a telltale sign of what happened over the last 20 years.

I can remember when I was a young agent in southern California in the early 1990s, there were droves of people walking up the interstates day in and day out. Those are those populations that have embedded in southern California.

1992, during the L.A. riots, we had to send Border Patrol agents up to L.A. to help support the men and women up there, and what that does is create this environment along the border where [you] diminish security both at the border and in these communities along the southwest border.

Watch the clip below:

Former U.S. border patrol chief Raul Ortiz on how many illegal immigrants are in the U.S.:
“I would estimate it’s much higher than 20 million people.” pic.twitter.com/b8acO86C4G

— The Will Cain Show (@WillCainShow_) June 11, 2025

His comments underline the massive challenge faced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in deporting a sizeable amount of America’s illegal alien population.

Even if the figure is as low as 20 million people, that would mean that nearly six percent of the total U.S. population is residing in the country illegally.

During the Biden administration, over 10 million migrants were allowed to enter the country, many of whom were convicted of crimes in their home countries or had links to transnational gangs such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.

The issue of mass deportations has come into particular focus over the past weekend following the riots in Los Angeles, where far-left protesters have taken to the streets in opposition to Trump’s policy of enforcing immigration law.

Media Coverage of ICE Operations: Disconnect Between Headlines and Facts, The Cary López Alvarado Incident

 

Photo courtesy of La Prensa

 

On June 8, 2025, multiple news outlets reported the arrest of Cary López Alvarado, a nine-month pregnant U.S. citizen, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Hawthorne, California. The mainstream media portrayed the ICE raid as either inhumane or a mistake, or both. However, the reality is that López Alvarado was arrested for attempting to prevent ICE officers from arresting her undocumented husband. She was held temporarily and then released with no charges filed.

The takeaway most people received from the headlines and superficial news coverage was that ICE had accidentally or maliciously arrested an American citizen and held her for hours. The media reports implied she was detained on suspicion of being an illegal alien, rather than being held for obstructing federal law enforcement officers. News coverage also concentrated heavily on the fact that she required hospital treatment for stomach pains, while ignoring the fact that a nine-month pregnant woman should not have attempted to physically interfere with federal agents conducting a lawful arrest.

This case provides a clear example of how media framing can obscure the factual circumstances of immigration enforcement operations. Major news outlets characterized the incident with headlines emphasizing López Alvarado’s pregnancy and citizenship status, including Rolling Stone’s “Masked ICE Agents Detain 9-Month-Pregnant U.S. Citizen in L.A. Crackdown,” Newsweek’s “ICE Detains Heavily Pregnant US Citizen, ‘Shield My Stomach’,” and NBC’s “Pregnant US citizen detained by ICE.”

However, according to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, López Alvarado “was arrested because she obstructed federal law enforcement by blocking access to a car that had two Guatemalan illegal aliens in it.” The DHS statement provided additional operational context that was often absent from initial media reporting: ICE agents were conducting a targeted operation following a vehicle with two undocumented Guatemalan nationals. During the incident, federal agents were reportedly assaulted, and a third individual was arrested after allegedly pushing an officer. Projectiles including wrenches and batteries were thrown at the agents during the confrontation.

This case represents part of a recurring pattern in immigration enforcement coverage, with headlines and reports designed to portray ICE as jackbooted Nazi thugs while omitting important details, such as the fact that the operation was legal, planned, and warranted, and that during the course of the operation, officers were attacked. All persons arrested or detained were done so with proper justification. Furthermore, it is important to note that the media consistently tries to portray ICE as having made mistakes, whether through accidentally raiding the wrong location, detaining or deporting citizens, or wrongfully detaining citizens or legal immigrants and then only releasing them when pressured to do so.

However, in most of these cases, no mistakes were actually made. In the Colorado claim that ICE had raided the wrong house, it turns out that they absolutely raided the right house, which was leased to a gang leader, just that the gang leader was not present at the time. No U.S. citizens have been deported, although reporting on several recent cases left readers believing that they had been. And in this case, López Alvarado was not held by accident, but because she broke the law.

These articles often stress the fact that the person was arrested in front of their children, or in this case, that a pregnant woman was arrested. There is no law preventing the arrest of a criminal in front of their children, neither is there a law that prevents a pregnant woman from being arrested if she breaks the law. In this particular instance, media outlets kept stressing the fact that she was a U.S. citizen, but being a U.S. citizen does not exempt someone from arrest, particularly if they broke the law.

Some media outlets claimed that she was wrongfully detained until ICE was pressured to release her, which is inconsistent with the facts. The Supreme Court has consistently held that brief detention for identification purposes during lawful enforcement operations does not violate Fourth Amendment protections. In this case, López Alvarado’s prompt release upon verification of her citizenship status aligns with established protocols for such situations. Additionally, ICE could have pressed charges for her attempt to interfere with the arrest but chose not to do so.

In other cases, news outlets have shown what they describe as “horrific” or “terrifying” footage of ICE agents smashing car windows during an arrest “in front of the couple’s children.” The reason officers smashed the windows was because the couple refused to open them or step out of the vehicle, and responsible parents would have considered how their illegal actions could impact their children. The same is true of the videos of children being “traumatized” or “terrorized” because their illegal alien parents are being deported. The parents should have considered how their disregard for the law would impact their children.

Finally, the fallback argument following most of these ICE arrests is that Trump had promised to rid the streets of violent illegal alien offenders; however, the media claims the people being arrested were hard-working or law-abiding. This argument ignores several key facts. First, 100% of those arrested have committed the crime of entering or being in the country illegally. Second, neither the media nor witnesses know whether the person being arrested has outstanding warrants or a criminal record at the time of the operation. Additionally, arrests often target one person who has a warrant, but when other illegal aliens involve themselves in the situation, as in the López Alvarado case, they are also arrested, which can skew statistics on the percentage of arrestees with criminal records.

However, according to the Department of Homeland Security, almost 75% of ICE arrests in the first 50 days of the Trump Administration were of accused or convicted criminals, demonstrating that enforcement operations primarily target individuals with criminal backgrounds rather than conducting random sweeps as media coverage often suggests.

D.C. Judge Sides With Trump In Lawsuit Over Control Of Corrupt Foreign Aid Agency

 A Washington, D.C., judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s control of the African Development Foundation, a small federal agency that locked its doors to prevent Trump’s staff from entering and had to be physically taken over by U.S. Marshals.

The suit was brought by Ward Brehm, a former member of the agency’s board of directors, which is appointed by the president. On February 24, the White House notified Brehm that he was fired. But Brehm later insisted he was not just on the board, but had become president of the agency — not Pete Marocco, the architect of the USAID demolition, who Trump also named as president of the similar African aid group.

Senior Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that Brehm “never lawfully held the position, and the Court is not at liberty to unilaterally install him as president. The Court therefore finds that summary judgment is warranted for the defendants.”

“The ‘President may remove anyone he appoints,’ unless Congress ‘wishes to restrict the President’s removal power,’ which it ‘must make clear in a statute,'” he wrote, citing precedent.

The White House removed all five board members on the same day, but ADF staff would not share contact info for the board members with Trump staff, and notifications to members besides Brehm were sent to invalid email addresses.

On February 28, the White House wrote to the African Development Foundation’s Chief Financial Officer, Mathieu Zahiu, that the agency had become “Board-less” and Trump had temporarily appointed Marocco as acting chair.

Zahui consulted with the fired board members, then told the White House that agency staff would not recognize Marocco as their boss because “a board nomination requires Senate confirmation.”

On March 3, the old board held a meeting that purported to appoint Brehm as the chair. They notified Congress that they had seen the February 28 email, but that Brehm was the new president.

Marocco then held a board meeting with only himself and terminated Brehm. “Since then, both Brehm and Marocco claim to be USADF’s president,” the judge wrote.

Judge Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that Brehm could not be president of the agency because he had been fired from the board before it supposedly elected him president. Even the other board members, whose emailed termination notices were bungled, knew they had been fired, he said.

“President Trump removed the board prior to Brehm’s appointment, and thus Brehm was not lawfully appointed! Brehm’s removal claims must therefore fail.”

He noted that chief financial officer Zahui consulted with the previous board members before refusing the accept the White House’s appointee, and that “Zahui effectively notified the Board members of their terminations.”

A Daily Wire investigation found that, according to the USAID Inspector General, Zahui received secret payments to his personal bank account after improperly steering contracts to a friend. One of the contracts was for travel during COVID, when no one was traveling. A search warrant was executed on Zahui’s phone in November, but as of now, he has not been criminally charged.

The Daily Wire’s investigation found that the African Development Foundation affirmed many of the fears that critics expressed about USAID, particularly that money advertised as going to poor people in third-world countries was being rerouted to D.C. bureaucrats and their friends.

The African Development Foundation sent “grants” to African groups on the condition that they send part of the money to American groups affiliated with agency officials and even wire money directly to the personal bank accounts of Foundation employees in Washington, the investigation found.

By law, the group is only permitted to give aid to African groups, and the maneuvering allowed Congress to think it was a low-overhead charity sending the bulk of its money to Africans, when in reality, it was essentially cooking the books.

“The grant was provided to an African organization … a grant can pay for people,” Zahiu told the Daily Wire about one instance of the agency forcing an African group to use part of its grant to pay the salaries of D.C. staff. “Yeah, granted, they were in D.C.” He also said that after DOGE changed the office’s locks, he gained access through a back door.

One longtime employee said the agency’s staff locked DOGE out because “the contracts don’t make sense, and they know [DOGE] will find lots of wrongdoing and illegal activity.”

“I’m not a fan of DOGE, but some of the things they’re doing need to be done. They have been operating like this for years, and no one did anything about it,” she said.

Another employee, program manager Kate Ristroph, explained in a videotaped internal investigative interview obtained by The Daily Wire how an agency official gave a grant to an African group on the condition that it route some of the money to his former employer in D.C. “We’re in that murky territory of like, is this legal?” she said.

Mateo Dunne, the agency’s former lawyer, said he was summarily removed from his job by CEO Travis Adkins after sounding the alarm about lawbreaking.

One piece of misconduct he raised involved one of the now-fired board members, John Agwunobi.

Agwunobi was the CEO of Herbalife, a company accused of being a pyramid scheme, and used the federal agency to push the multi-level marketing firm in Africa months after it paid a $122 million settlement to the Department of Justice to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ADF misrepresented the partnership as being with a nonprofit when it was actually with the for-profit company, and connected Africans with the company’s reps, he said.

Adkins also bragged about concealing operations from Brehm and other board members, saying “them white motherf***ers, they don’t need to know … I don’t think I should tell them s***,” his former assistant told The Daily Wire.

The assistant, who is black, said in a sworn affidavit that “On at least three occasions, Mr. Adkins told me that he wanted his entire team (to include the General Counsel) to consist only of Black people. He wanted all of his direct reports to be Black.”

Republicans Push Federal Ban On Blocking Interstates After L.A. Riots Cause Highway Chaos

 Congressional Republicans are advancing a bill that would make it a federal crime to block interstate highways after mass demonstrations in Los Angeles caused major backups on key roadways.

Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia reintroduced the bill, the Safe Passage on Interstates Act, in February after it stalled in the Senate last year. The legislation would create a federal law against the intentional obstruction of interstate highways.

“There is nothing ‘peaceful’ about the riots and looting we’ve seen in Los Angeles. Blue states and cities have shown that they would rather have lawlessness and disfunction over law and order, and we need to get these people off our streets and in jail where they belong,” Collins told The Daily Wire in a statement. “The Safe Passage on Interstates Act would give [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and [FBI Director] Kash Patel the tools to put an end to highway protests and lock these criminals up.”

The push to give more tools to federal authorities comes after demonstrators have repeatedly flooded the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, stopping traffic and causing backups. Protesters again took over the freeway on Tuesday evening, until Los Angeles Police Department officers pushed the mob off the freeway onto a parallel road.

Similar demonstrations could break out in major cities across the United States. Protests took place in at least two dozen other major cities on Monday, from Seattle, Washington, to Jacksonville, Florida. Demonstrators marched in opposition to federal authorities enforcing immigration law and deporting illegal aliens.

In statements to The Daily Wire, co-sponsors of the bill and members of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, of which Collins is a member, are pushing Collins’ bill as an antidote to the flashes of anarchy that have broken out on interstate highways. The bill is needed sooner rather than later to prevent riots from spreading throughout the country.

California Rep. Tom McClintock said the bill “will save lives.”

“All Americans have the right to peaceful protest, but when cars are lit on fire and ambulances are blocked on major roadways, it is no longer peaceful,” said McClintock.

Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice blamed the chaos in Los Angeles on “local leaders” such as Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Bice called Collins’ bill “a step towards restoring law and order and safeguarding communities from radical protestors intent on sowing chaos throughout the country.”

Ohio’s Dave Taylor said that “From families driving their children to school, to truck drivers transporting goods, to law enforcement responding to emergencies, we all depend on our Nation’s roads being clear and safe every day.”

Texas Rep. Andy Weber called the bill “more critical than ever.”

“Blocking our highways and disrupting the daily lives of law-abiding Americans is not a form of protest – it’s lawlessness, and it must not be tolerated,” he said.

Hamas Kills 5 Workers For U.S.-Backed Gaza Aid Program In Bus Attack, Others Feared Kidnapped

 Hamas attacked a bus on Wednesday night, killing at least five Gazans working for the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — and injuring several others.

A bus carrying two dozen members of GHF was en route to one of the aid distribution centers west of Khan Yunis when the attack occurred, according to the group. There is a fear that other workers may have been taken hostage, in the assault which the group is calling “an attack on humanity.”

GHF confirmed to The Daily Wire that none of the American contractors were present on the bus during the attack.

 

“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” GHF said in a statement. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others. 

The attack comes after days of Hamas threatening the group’s aid workers and civilians accepting aid. 

“The GHF holds Hamas fully responsible for taking the lives of our dedicated workers who have been distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people at the foundation’s sites in central and southern Gaza.”

GHF called on the international community to condemn Hamas for the “unprovoked attack” against their workers “simply trying to feed the Palestinian people.”

 

Earlier on Wednesday, GHF announced that it had its largest daily food delivery total since it began operating about two weeks ago. 

“Today, our team delivered 2.5 million meals to the Palestinian people, our single largest daily food delivery total to date,” interim executive director John Acree said. “My hope is that we will maintain our momentum and continue to provide additional food aid to Gazans. Our operations are improving and I’m encouraged by our ability to provide a significant amount of aid on a daily basis.  It proves that our system is working.”

To date, GHF says it has distributed approximately 16,041,982 meals via about  271,200 boxes.

 

GHF has been tasked with implementing President Donald Trump’s aid initiative, designed to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches Gazan civilians while preventing Hamas from seizing supplies — a problem that has persisted since the war began following the group’s October 7, 2023, massacre.

GHF plans to continue scaling up its operations and hopes to collaborate with traditional aid organizations, including United Nations-affiliated groups, by offering its delivery infrastructure to help ensure aid is distributed safely and protected from misuse or theft.

GHF has also faced attacks for the security contractors helping with the aid, who are American military veterans affiliated with Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions. Both companies helped Egyptians with supervising the checking of vehicles passing through southern to northern Gaza in January when the ceasefire went into effect, The Jerusalem Post reported.

GHF is operating as an apolitical group in Gaza that works with the IDF and Israeli government for security and logistical purposes to help it distribute the aid.

“GHF is in communication with Israeli officials solely for the purposes of deconfliction and to ensure aid can be delivered safely,” according to a GHF statement. “IDF will not have a presence within the immediate vicinity of the distribution sites.”

Plane With 242 People On Board Crashes After Takeoff, ‘Many Killed’

 Many people are believed to be dead after an Air India plane carrying 242 people crashed just after taking off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday.

The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was headed to the Gatwick Airport in Britain, Reuters reported. According to Indian authorities, the aircraft crashed into a civilian area near the airport in Ahmedabad, striking a doctors’ hostel at a medical college.

“At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates,” Air India said. “The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals.”

Of the 242 people on board, 11 were children. Most of the passengers were Indian, while there were 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, according to Air India.

Videos circulating on X show the Boeing plane slowly descending over a residential area before it disappears, and then a massive fireball is seen.

Ahmedabad Airport air traffic control said that the plane transmitted a “Mayday” call shortly after takeoff at 1:39 p.m. local time, but there was no response from the aircraft after the emergency signal, according to Reuters. More videos from a hospital in the city showed injured people being wheeled in on stretchers after the crash, according to The New York Times.

While the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft has experienced issues in the past, including forcing passengers to evacuate and suspending flights, there have been no fatal crashes reported until Thursday’s tragedy in India, according to the Times. Boeing has faced increased scrutiny recently over safety issues and deadly plane crashes. Last month, Boeing reached a deal with the U.S. government, agreeing to pay around $1 billion to avoid prosecution over two crashes involving Boeing’s 737 MAX 8s that killed a total of 346 people.

One of the passengers on the Air India flight was Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat, the state where Ahmedabad is located. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is from Gujarat, said, “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with Ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected.”

Democrat Indicted Over ICE Facility Clash, Faces Up To 17 Years In Prison

 A federal grand jury indicted Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) in connection to last month’s scuffle outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba announced on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Habba revealed that the three-count indictment charges McIver with “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers.”

McIver said she will be entering a plea of not guilty.

“The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation,” McIver said in a statement. “This indictment is not more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump’s administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do. But it won’t work — I will not be intimidated.”

On May 9, McIver and other Democrats from New Jersey demanded they be allowed to conduct “oversight” of the ICE detention facility at Delaney Hall. A confrontation between them and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents ensued, as shown in ICE body-cam footage.

According to a Department of Justice press release, the indictment says McIver forcibly impeded and interfered with federal officers amid their efforts to arrest the mayor of Newark, who had entered a secured area.

 

“Someone in the crowd yelled ‘circle the mayor,'” the DOJ said. “McIver then faced the Mayor and placed her arms around him in an effort to prevent HSI from completing the arrest. During her continued attempts to thwart the arrest, McIver slammed her forearm into the body of one law enforcement officer and also reached out and tried to restrain that officer by forcibly grabbing him. McIver also used each of her forearms to forcibly strike a second officer.”

McIver, initially charged a few weeks ago, faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted.

“As I have stated in the past, it is my Constitutional obligation as the Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer for New Jersey to ensure that our federal partners are protected when executing their duties,” Habba declared in her post on X. “While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve.”

Habba added: “Today’s decision by the grand jury is the next step in a process that my Office will pursue to a just end.”