I was out to dinner with my wife when my phone rang. The caller ID said “POTUS.” My wife muttered, “Oh, s**t.” President Donald Trump told me he wanted me to take care of three things: secure the border, run a mass deportation operation, and find hundreds of thousands of missing children. Those were his instructions when he offered me the job as his border czar.

As of today, we have the most secure border in the nation's history. I don’t take credit for that. The credit goes to President Trump for signing the executive orders that ended catch-and-release, reinstated Remain in Mexico, and put into place the agreements and policies that worked. And the greatest credit belongs to the men and women of the United States Border Patrol, the finest I’ve ever met.

Every day I look at the numbers: criminals arrested, terrorists stopped, children rescued. It makes me proud — proud of ICE, proud of Border Patrol, and proud of the president who made it possible.

Under Trump, Border Patrol brought down illegal immigration more than 90% in just seven weeks — even faster than I thought possible. I expected it would take 120 days. That’s what happens when the men and women of Border Patrol are allowed to do their jobs.

A border crisis by design

For the last four years, I’ve been raising hell about the open border intentionally inflicted on this country by the Biden administration. This wasn’t mismanagement or incompetence. It was by design.

I know because I was there under President Barack Obama. Former President Joe Biden was vice president, and former Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas was deputy secretary. We faced a family surge back then. We stopped it by building family residential centers, detaining migrants until they saw a judge, and then deporting the 90% who lost their asylum claims. It worked.

But when Biden and Mayorkas returned to power, they did the opposite of what they knew worked. They refused to detain. They refused to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement do its job. They created chaos by design. Every day the border was open, women were raped, children died, families were trafficked, and terrorists slipped through. A harrowing 31% of women who cross the border through cartels are sexually assaulted. That’s horrendous.

Trump’s policies cut illegal immigration by 96%. That meant fewer rapes, fewer deaths, fewer trafficked children, and less fentanyl poisoning Americans. Trump’s policies saved thousands of lives every week. But you won’t hear that from the media.

Nothing about Biden’s border was humane

The Biden administration called itself humane. That’s a lie. Under Biden, a record number of migrants died — over 4,000. A quarter-million Americans died from fentanyl crossing an open border. Sex trafficking hit all-time highs. Cartels made record profits smuggling people and drugs.

Compare that to today: Trump’s secure border has reduced crossings from 10,000 to 15,000 a day under Biden to as few as 162 — all arrested, all returned, zero releases. That is a secure border.

Biden’s so-called humane approach killed more Americans and more migrants, and it enriched cartels. There is nothing humane about that.

Enforcing the law saves lives

ICE removals since January are approaching 400,000. About 70% of arrests are of criminals — and yes, DUI counts. Ten thousand Americans die every year from drunk drivers. The other arrests include gang members and even suspected terrorists. ICE is enforcing the laws Congress passed.

But sanctuary cities stand in the way. They release criminal aliens back into neighborhoods instead of handing them over to ICE. They call themselves “welcoming.” In reality, they are sanctuaries for criminals. Victims in immigrant communities don’t want predators back in their neighborhoods. Sanctuary politicians know this, but they put politics above safety.

So we’re flooding the zone. Chicago’s mayor said I wasn’t welcome. I went anyway. In one day, ICE arrested child predators, gang members, drug traffickers, and murderers. Chicago will be made safe again.

Attacks on ICE, silence on missing children

ICE agents are under attack like never before. Assaults against agents are up 1,000%. Their families are being doxxed. Members of Congress call them Nazis and racists, even though all they do is enforce the laws Congress wrote. It’s disgusting.

Trump also tasked me with finding hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children. It’s the hardest job, because kids don’t have digital footprints. We rely on the so-called sponsors who took them in — many with fake addresses. Too often, these children end up in sex trafficking or forced labor.

We’re trying to reunite kids with their parents. We even had agreements to return children safely to Guatemala. But liberal judges blocked us. These same people accuse Trump of family separation. Yet Biden’s failures have led to half a million separations and more than 300,000 missing children. Who are the real masters of family separation?

The stakes

Biden released millions into this country because he wanted to delay their hearings for years. Why? To buy time for amnesty and to gain political power through census reapportionment. That’s not just cynical — it’s selling out America.

Trump’s policies, by contrast, work because they follow the law. If you enter illegally, the law says you shall be detained. That law is saving lives today.

I took a pay cut to come back under Trump because I respect him as much as I respected my father. He’s not perfect — no man is — but when it comes to border security, there’s no one better.

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Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Every day I look at the numbers: criminals arrested, terrorists stopped, children rescued. It makes me proud — proud of ICE, proud of Border Patrol, and proud of the president who made it possible.

To those agents on the front lines: Thank you. You are making this country safer every day.

And to the politicians, judges, and media who attack us: Shame on you. We’re not going anywhere.

Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from remarks delivered on Wednesday, September 3, at the fifth National Conservatism conference (NatCon 5) in Washington, D.C.