President-elect Trump’s plans to curb illegal immigration will lighten the load of Border Patrol agents and local police across the southern U.S. border, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told Fox News Digital.

Trump won 14 out of 18 counties within 20 miles of the U.S. border, challenging Democrats’ traditional hold there. Among Latino voters in those counties, 55% voted for the president-elect – a 55% increase from his numbers in 2020.

Trump has pledged to target noncitizens who have been convicted of crimes and the 1.4 million immigrants who are still in the U.S. despite receiving a formal order of removal from a judge.

Among his pledged policy changes, Trump has stated that he will declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military to assist with deportations; eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, despite the fact that he was blocked from doing so by the Supreme Court in his first term; and end birthright citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.

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Trump has also said he will reinstate his “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires migrants entering from the southern border and seeking asylum to remain on Mexican soil until their U.S. court date. President Biden’s administration ended the policy in August 2022. 

Judd, a former Border Patrol agent, said the reinstatement of the policy would be a boon for police in border towns. 

“Once you have that drop in illegal border crossings, then local law enforcement in border towns, now they’re free to actually do their job,” Judd said. “Whereas right now, so much of their time is being taken up, having to deal with illegal immigration, having to deal with the drugs… you’re freeing up local and state officials to actually do their job and protect their citizens.”

Curbing border crossings would also hinder cartels, which make an estimated $13 billion per year smuggling people into the U.S., according to a New York Times report.

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There are fears that cartels are pushing in additional migrants ahead of Trump’s inauguration, with Arizona’s Cochise County seeing an increase in smuggling pursuits – up to 10 each day, per News Nation.

“They’re going to push hard right now. The cartels, they know they have to. They have a president coming in who’s made it very clear, and based on his track record, he will secure this border,” Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told the outlet. “He’ll declare it an emergency.”

After working as a Border Patrol agent between 1997 and 2003, Judd was president of the NBPC, the union for border patrol officers, from 2012 until May this year. He told Fox News Digital that, although each president during his tenure was different, the Trump administration’s border policies were the “most effective.”

“When you look at the Bush administration, we had huge numbers of people, but they were the same people over and over and over again,” Judd recalled. “Then under the Obama administration, we were dealing with less people, but we were releasing people into the United States at a level that was unprecedented and that’s what caused what we saw, the huge spike during the second term of President Obama.”

“What I can say is by far the more impressive administration was the Trump administration, and the numbers bear that out. Also, the [amount] of drugs that were coming in the United States… was a lot less,” he continued. “We saw that on the streets. We saw that in our cities, in our communities. But [for] local law enforcement, [there are] a lot less drugs on the street under the Trump administration than what was in the previous administration.”

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During Biden’s presidency, there have been 8 million migrant encounters nationwide, 6.7 million of them at the southern border, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security.  

The foreign-born population hit a record high in March, in large part as a result of the flow of illegal migrants into the U.S. over the last few years. The population of foreign-born people living in the U.S. hit a new record high of 51.6 million in March, raising the percentage of foreign-born residents to 15.6% of the total U.S. population, according to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

“If you go back to the Clinton administration, [border crossings were] centered in San Diego and El Paso. Then the Bush administration, San Diego and El Paso became non factors. It was all the Tucson sector. Then after the Obama administration, we saw Texas, you know, the Rio Grande Valley. So there’s always ebbs and flows,” Judd said. “The difference with this administration is, is whereas under Obama, under Bush, under Clinton, we had two to three hot spots [along the border], with the Biden administration… it’s basically across the entire southwest border.”

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Judd continued. “And we went from two to three hot spots to seven to nine hot spots. And it was just completely undeniable because it was across the [entire] border. We were getting flooded everywhere.”

Local law enforcement agencies nationwide are also planning to pair up with ICE officials using the 287(g) program. Added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996 under then-President Clinton, the program authorized ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers and give them the ability to act as immigration officers. Trump has said that he intends to lean on local law enforcement in his effort to carry out the “largest deportation” in U.S. history.

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Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told NBC News that “this isn’t stopping people on the street saying ‘show me your papers.'”

“If they’re brought in – they’re arrested for something that they have committed, an act they’ve committed against the citizens of our community. And at that point, they’re held accountable for the action of being in the country illegally,” Gahler said. 

But it is not yet clear whether local police departments will receive additional funding to assist immigration authorities.

As Democrats, we are deeply disappointed in President Joe Biden’s decision to offer a full and unconditional pardon to his son Hunter, who was convicted on multiple tax and gun charges.

To be clear, we do not deny the president’s absolute right to pardon anyone – including his son – nor do we necessarily dispute the president’s logic, but there are a number of reasons we, and many other Democrats, feel this way.

Politically, as the nation’s highest ranking official, what President Biden did undercut the Democratic Party, as well as Democrats’ objections to what President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are planning to do with the federal government.

What do we mean by this?

FEDERAL JUDGE ACCUSES PRESIDENT BIDEN OF ATTEMPTING TO ‘REWRITE HISTORY’ IN HUNTER BIDEN PARDON

On the most basic level, Democrats have long maintained that Trump and Republicans have undermined the rule of law, both during Trump’s first term and thereafter. 

Indeed, the alleged threats Donald Trump poses to democracy were a large part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful campaign for president.

And while voters clearly did not consider this a make-or-break issue, this argument does have great appeal to those who support and want to strengthen our democratic institutions.

President Biden has now significantly weakened that argument, in no small part because it also broke the president’s own repeated vows that he would pardon his son.

Moreover, by reinforcing the idea that there are two standards of justice, one for the president’s son and one for everyone else, Biden has also given credibility to Trump’s claims of a politicized justice system, further weakening Americans’ trust.

ANDREW McCARTHY: THE REAL REASON HUNTER BIDEN’S PARDON GOES ALL THE WAY BACK TO 2014

Put another way, Biden’s pardoning of his son puts the lie to claims that Democrats stand above Republicans in their commitment to the rule of law and being honest with the American people. 

To that end, this decision was unpopular even among President Biden’s own party. Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis criticized it, saying, “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his (Biden’s) reputation.”

Similarly, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennett argued that “it further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” while fellow Democratic Senator Gary Peters called the pardon “an improper use of power.”

That being said, this is more than just an argument over the impact of Biden’s actions or the differences between how the two parties approach our democratic institutions.

It fundamentally hampers the ability of the Democratic Party to attack the way the President-elect is approaching his second term. 

BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE

For example, it is now hard for Democrats to argue against Trump’s plans to appoint controversial nominees to his cabinet via recess appointments when a Democratic president just undermined the fabric of our democracy with a full and unconditional pardon of his son, who was duly convicted on a dozen criminal charges.

It would have been much easier, and we dare say defensible, had Biden commuted his son’s sentence by dent of Hunter’s addiction and historical precedent. There was a basis to do this.

We are not sure this would have received widespread support. But it likely would not have received the same pushback as a full pardon for crimes Hunter committed over the span of a decade. 

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This strikes us as broad overreach and undermines the core of the Democratic argument.

What President Biden has basically just told the American people is that he can do what he wants, when he wants, even if he promised not to do it. 

By using the president’s unlimited pardon power in an overtly personal way, Biden has signaled that Democrats’ supposed commitment to democratic values is situational, rather than a commitment to the rule of law however it may apply.

Let’s hope the Hunter Biden pardon recedes into history and President Biden does not continue to use the pardon power indiscriminately. However, if President Biden wanted to issue one more pardon, one suggestion which Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., offered, would be to pardon Donald Trump.

Of course, this would mostly be symbolic, as the cases involving Trump are in the process of being dismissed, but if Biden wants to heal rather than divide, this would be a good place to start.

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Further, ending the cases involving the former and past president would put the country in a position to go forward and address more significant challenges such as an increasingly aggressive Russia-China-Iran axis, the Middle East, inflation here at home, and more.

This would also display a level of equality and parallelism that would suggest to the American people that our elected leaders are capable of cooperation and working in the country’s best interests, two qualities Americans deserve.

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For much of the early 21st century, “Girls Gone Wild” sold itself as a carefree, pop culture phenomenon that profited on the vulnerability of young women as a source of entertainment. Now, the franchise’s darkest secrets are being exposed in a three-part docuseries titled, “Girls Gone Wild: the Untold Story.”

The series, which premiered on Peacock on Dec. 3, details the dark reality of what was really happening behind-the-scenes, including allegations of child abuse, rape, prostitution, exploitation and a string of legal scandals all allegedly orchestrated by its founder, Joe Francis.

Featuring various emotional interviews from Francis’ alleged victims, former employees and others, the disgraced franchise owner – who has been living in Mexico for close to a decade – also shares his side of the story with his first in-depth interview in years. 

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Here are six bombshells from “Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story.”

UNDERAGE GIRLS

At one point in the documentary, Francis puts things bluntly about the women he films.

“I don’t want f—ing minors in my s—.  I don’t wanna go to jail. There’s no difference between an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old. But, you know what? An 18-year-old girl is legal, so, it can go in the video,” he told journalist and co-executive producer of the docuseries, Scaachi Koul. 

“Am I totally misunderstood? Absolutely. You know, I was an owner of a company. You can’t hold Jeff Bezos responsible for what one of his hundred thousand Amazon delivery guy[s] does. If he pees in somebody’s lawn, and that’s basically what we’re talking about right here.”

‘GIRLS GONE WILD’ FOUNDER JOE FRANCIS PLEADS NO CONTEST TO CHILD ABUSE, PROSTITUTION CHARGES

However, underage girls were allegedly a dime a dozen in “Girls Gone Wild!”

A young woman named Lori spoke about her filming experience, admitting she was only 16 when she flashed the camera in Lake Havasu, Arizona.

“These guys walked up. They asked me to flash my boobs. And they had the beads in their hands. They were shiny disco-ball beads, too. And I flashed the guys, real fast, it was like quick. And I remember it was in the clear, nobody else could see, so I was good to go. And then, I got the beads. I thought the guys were filming because they’re, you know, like perverted guys. I thought nobody would ever know,” she recounted.

Lori ultimately sued “Girls Gone Wild!” and received a small settlement. “The company removed me [from the video], but there’s so many girls on that tape that are underage. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Trista was not a minor when she was filmed, but describes being taken advantage of. 

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“Back then, you didn’t think about social media, you didn’t think about the Internet. You could do what you wanted, without having to worry about it coming back. I remember them buying shots for all the girls. I think I lost my friends at that point in time, so I started looking for them. And then I was approached outside by one of the camera crew.  It felt like a spotlight kind of shining on me. I’d had a few drinks. I thought I could hold my liquor, but at that point of time I was 19, and it got dark after that. And I don’t remember much after that. And the next morning, I knew something happened. I didn’t like that things were fuzzy.”

‘GIRLS GONE WILD’ FOUNDER JOE FRANCIS PLEADS GULTY IN TAX CASE

“I don’t think it’s ethical,” she said. “I think it’s immoral. And I feel like they think it’s okay ’cause Joe Francis and his team at ‘Girls Gone Wild’ tried to make it okay.”

Several women recall being significantly inebriated before filming. “I definitely think that ‘Girls Gone Wild!’ was looking for naive women. I just was so naive. I didn’t realize I could say no,” a woman named Danielle noted.

NOT TAKING ‘NO’ FOR AN ANSWER

The environment of “Girls Gone Wild!” and Francis’ company Mantra Films was apparently framed around the concept of not taking “no” for an answer. 

In one episode of the documentary, the vice president of Mantra Films can be heard praising a cameraman who persuaded a woman to bear more than she originally wanted to.

“I love see guys take a girl who wasn’t going to do anything and all of a sudden, get’s them to pull down a thing and, ‘Ok, I’ll show you my thong.’ And the next thing you know, ‘Show me your thong and flash me.’ And the next thing you know, now they’re kind of loose, and the next thing you know, it just goes on and keeping going. Don’t take no for an answer.”

In another clip, guidelines that were presumably written for producers were shown on screen. They read, “At the same time, it is important to be aggressive. The cuter girls/hotter chicks naturally are less inclined to flash for the camera. DO NOT give up and move on to someone else[s] girls. BE PERSISTENT and more times than not it will pay off.”

FIRST ARREST AND FBI RAID

In 2003, Francis and his crew took over Panama City, Florida, filming all over public property, which greatly upset the police chief at the time, Lee Sullivan. As a result, Francis was arrested for racketeering, but that charge was eventually dropped. 

That same year, members of the “Girls Gone Wild!” crew faced charges related to child prostitution and child pornography after filming several women, who ended up being underage, during spring break in Panama City. 

When the FBI infiltrated his building in 2005 to look for more evidence, employees thought there could be a litany of reasons as to why they were there. 

‘GIRLS GONE WILD’ FOUNDER JOE FRANCIS BREAKS HIS SILENCE

“I’m not a criminal. I’m an innocent person. They didn’t have anything on me,” Francis reflected on the situation. 

In the Mantra Films office, they had a vault of unreleased footage with underage girls, former production supervisor Solo told the camera. “Before the FBI came, we got rid of any title that was problematic,” she explained. 

“Just destroy ‘em. Just get rid of ’em. Take them out of existence.”

In 2006, Francis pleaded guilty to three counts of producing visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct without keeping records of each performer. He was given 200 hours of community service and had to pay $2.1 million in fines.

FRANCIS CLAIMS HE WAS ‘VICTIMIZED’ 

When Koul asked the embattled businessman if he felt badly for the women that were in his films, he said, “no.”

“Because I don’t think they were victimized. I believe they victimized me.”

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Koul pointed out that the women at the center of the Panama City case were “pretty young,” too young to legally be held liable for their actions. Francis was not happy.

“No, they were 17, just shy of 18,” he claimed. “They’re the ones that victimized us. I believe- and we all believe that they were put up by the Panama City Police, and it was all an operation. So I believe that was quite orchestrated. I walked into a f—ing snakepit.”

RAPE ALLEGATION

Claire Hoffman, a journalist who declined to be part of the docuseries, interviewed Francis for the Los Angeles Times in 2006. Initially invited to Francis’ compound in Mexico to stay and write the profile, Hoffman’s editor would not allow it, cognizant that young women could be taken advantage of in this industry.

Francis later suggested she come to Chicago to watch the filming for a new “Girls Gone Wild!” to understand how the show operates, and her editor agreed. Hoffman alleges that she was pinned against a car by Francis, leaving her covered in bruises. She was ultimately able to free herself but was completely disturbed by the incident.

Since she continued to go forward with the profile, where she would include what really happened between them, she needed to corroborate her story. A woman named Janell confirmed Hoffman’s account, saying she was there that night. 

The same night, she went onto Francis’ tour bus, where she alleges Francis raped her. Although she filed a police report, Janell did not press charges.

“Trust me, by now, there would be so many other girls saying that I raped them, if I had,” Francis told Koul in retrospect. “I’ve never raped a woman, ever. Ever. Or a man,” he said with a laugh. “Or a child.”

FRANCIS FLED TO MEXICO AFTER ARREST

After being arrested in 2011 for imprisoning three women at his Hollywood home, assaulting one of them, Francis was sentenced to serve 270 days in prison in 2013 but was released pending an appeal.

Francis fled to Mexico with his girlfriend at the time, Abbey Wilson, in 2015. The former couple had two daughters together. 

Ronald Richards, an attorney for Francis’ now ex Wilson, said, “999 of 1,000 people would not flee the country to just avoid serving a misdemeanor sentence for assault at the county jail. Now he’s looking at two years to three years in custody if he ever came back.”

While living a luxurious lifestyle on an oceanfront property, Wilson eventually accused Francis of rape and physical assault. She, and their two daughters, moved back to the United States. 

Francis is currently living in Punta Mita, Mexico, and has no plans to return. He has vehemently denied all allegations against him.

Representatives for Francis did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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