Border under siege

Simon Rosenberg and Chad Sweet on Texas authorities overwhelmed by the illegal immigration crisis

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 31, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!

O'REILLY: "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight. New report from the Texas Department of Public Safety's border security operation center. It says that state authorities in Texas are being overwhelmed, overwhelmed by problems on the border. Two Texas peace officers recently shot dead by a Mexican gang member. The Salvadorian gang MS-13 has seen dozens of its members apprehended trying to cross into Texas. And the illegal alien children situation totally out-of-control. "THE FACTOR" has called for Americans to boycott Mexico because that country is allowing drug smugglers and human traffickers to pretty much run wild. And has incarcerated U.S. Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi on dubious charges when he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Joining us now from Washington Simon Rosenberg president of the New Democrat Network, a liberal think tank and Chad Sweet who used to work at the CIA and Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Sweet, to begin with you, what is Mexico's culpability here in your opinion?

CHAD SWEET, FORMER DHS AND CIA OFFICIAL: Well, as you know, I have been on Fox before and praised Mexico when their former president Calderon had an extremely aggressive anti-smuggling and counter narcotic program, but as we have seen under President Nieto, a very different approach. He's taken his foot off the gas. The flood of unaccompanied children who are coming into the United States is directly as a result of their willingness to be culpable. They don't swim here. They go across Mexico and they are turning a blind eye towards this.

O'REILLY: How do you know they are turning a blind eye? How do you know that the Mexican - Mexico City authorities are aiding and abetting this flood of human beings mostly children right now, 100,000 this fiscal year, how do you know they are doing that?

SWEET: Well, the math speaks for itself. If you look at the largest part of the southern border of Mexico is Guatemala, that's 577 miles. There are only approximately 125 law enforcement officers and they don't even have their own border patrol. So, the fact that we are seeing over 100 percent increase in unaccompanied minors this year alone is a direct mathematical function of their turning a blind eye.

O'REILLY: All right. Mr. Rosenberg.

ROSENBERG: Sure.

O'REILLY: If it's true and it is that we have confirmed that, that there are less than 200 Mexican authorities on their southern border, that's a choice that president Nieto is making. And he knows that the flood of migrants coming from Central and South America is impacting us in the United States negatively. So he is making a choice not to secure the southern border. So shouldn't Americans be furious about that?

SIMON ROSENBERG, PRESIDENT OF NOW AND FORMER CLINTON ADVISO: Well, the Mexico is taking responsibility for the first time in their history to fortify the southern border.

O'REILLY: How?

ROSENBERG: They are moving far more resources down there. They have committed publicly to work with the United States over the next two years.

O'REILLY: Well, how many guys are going to be moved down there, Mr. Rosenberg?

ROSENBERG: No, no.

O'REILLY: How many have been moved down?

ROSENBERG: Bill, there have been many reports now that the largest number of people being returned into these three central American countries are being returned by Mexican officials of capturing people when they're coming across the Guatemalan border.

O'REILLY: But you don't know how many are down there.

ROSENBERG: No, no, what we do know is that the largest number of kids going back into these three countries are coming from Mexico and not from the United States.

O'REILLY: OK.

ROSENBERG: There's been ..

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Coming out of Mexico I don't know if we have been able to confirm that stuff.

ROSENBERG: No, no, but that's absolutely the case. The second thing is what we know is that the flow coming into the United States, the migrants is down. Third, what we know is that ten years ago, 700,000 Mexicans were coming, unauthorized Mexicans were coming into the United States every year. That number last year was 100,000. The flow was way down.

O'REILLY: I don't think it was that low. But that was - that's an economic deal.

ROSENBERG: The Mexican flow.

O'REILLY: Mr. Sweet, do you want to reply to Mr. Rosenberg?

SWEET: Well, the absolute number of apprehensions is down. But if you look at what we are talking about here, is, since 2008, cocaine is up over 232 percent according to the D.A. Meth is over up - over five fold, and if we look at the unaccompanied minors issue, we see already that there is an over100 percent increase. So the math at the detail level actually doesn't support his argument.

O'REILLY: OK. Let me .

SWEET: The second point .

O'REILLY: OK, let me .

SWEET: Let's be honest about our own - our own southern border. When we were in office when I was chief at Homeland there were only 73 miles of fence under 2,000-mile southern border. Under President Bush, we had to build 670-miles of fence and double size of border patrol from 9,000 to 18,000. That's real progress. When you look at - what are they doing, you asked the right question, Bill, as show us the action? Not just rhetoric, but action. And as you said, he could not actually supply me and .

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Outside the big crossing - wait a minute, outside of the big crossings in Tijuana and Tucson, doesn't seem to be any Mexican presence on their northern border to stop these coyotes from bringing the kids and other people over. I don't see that down there. Why not?

ROSENBERG: Can I respond to this one?

O'REILLY: Yes. Go ahead.

ROSENBERG: So, first of all, the U.S. and Mexico announced last summer that they're going to be having the first set of joint border patrol activity on the northern border of Mexico.

O'REILLY: Has that happened? Nobody has seen it.

ROSENBERG: No. There have been, there have been now many joint patrols that have taken place since last summer. The second thing is let's be clear about the flow, right? Under Bill Clinton it was 600,000 a year. Under George Bush it was 400,000 a year, under Barack Obama it's down to zero. The flow of undocumented immigrants into the United States has gone to zero way down from when Mr. Sweet was in office with the .

O'REILLY: What do you mean zero? I mean there are millions of people coming in here.

ROSENBERG: That's wrong. That's simply wrong. The net flow of undocumented immigrants .

O'REILLY: That - border patrol - the United States.

ROSENBERG: Hey, Bill, happy to show you all the data? And the second thing is .

O'REILLY: But I mean your data is going to go up against other people like the border patrol that contradict it.

ROSENBERG: Yeah. They are wrong. They are wrong. No. That's not true.

O'REILLY: Yes, it is.

ROSENBERG: And the crime is down on the U.S. side of the border dramatically from when Mr. Sweet was in office a few years ago.

O'REILLY: I will give you the last word, Mr. Sweet.

SWEET: I would say one point. Number one his point about joint operations is critical. There hasn't been joint operations. Part of the problems .

O'REILLY: That's false.

SWEET: Marine initiative ready with that - the Marina Initiative $2.7 billion allocated, there is an opportunity to deploy that to help Mexico when they let us, there is success. We helped them capture Guzman. We helped them capture Miguel Morales. These are two of the largest drug lords. So, if they let us help them together we can solve this problem.

O'REILLY: On Monday we are going to give you the U.S. border patrol stats and we will see if Mr. Rosenberg is correct. Gentlemen, thank you.

Content and Programming Copyright 2012 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2012 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.