Sputnik: In your personal opinion, why is the mainstream media not focusing on the fact that children are being used as human shields by parents to cross the border illegally?
Glenn Spencer: They don't really want to focus on the border, they never have. Their reporters will do a good job if said to report; but they will not allow their reporters to really focus on the issues of the border. I've been here, on the border, full-time for 17 years; I have been interviewed personally here, at my border ranch, by more than 26 foreign news organisations, but not one from the United States.
READ MORE: Migrant Caravan Suffering Mass Outbreaks of Tuberculosis, Skin Infections
Sputnik: Why is it that this issue has blown up right now? Obviously, this is a different situation that we are witnessing with thousands of migrants massing at that particular part of the border; why only now are we talking about it?
Glenn Spencer: I believe that President Trump is serious about securing the border, and the forces who are open borders advocates know this. They want to defeat his efforts to secure the border.
Sputnik: Why aren't we hearing more from activists or children's rights groups? You'd think that they'd be very vocal in raising awareness of the situation and the plight of those migrants.
Glenn Spencer: As I read the story about this recent unfortunate death of this 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who was in custody and then when they saw he was ill, they took him to hospital where they treated him and then discharged him. And a short time later he became stressed and they returned him to the hospital where he passed away.
READ MORE: Second Migrant Child Dies at US-Mexico Border
There may be an issue where they had him in custody a little bit longer than necessary or than is prescribed; however, nothing that I can see in the story suggests that there was negligence on the part of the border patrol. The issue of using children as shields by the cartels is not something they want to shine a light on.
Sputnik: We've been hearing Katie Waldman,Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, [who's been] very vocal about as they call it "massive loophole" that allows alien family units to illegally cross the border and enter the United States after a short detention. Is this causing a problem? Is this part of a bigger problem?
So, a lot of this problem has been essentially solved by this agreement with Mexico. Hopefully, we will see a reduction in the number of people who have been drawn by this magnet that is essentially an open border, and then this will result in the reduction in these tragedies.
Sputnik: Thousands of migrants have been travelling from the Central American states, from Guatemala and Honduras; they say they're fleeing prosecution, poverty and violence in their home countries. Has there been any reaction from their home countries?
Glenn Spencer: There's not much coverage of that. I believe that the performance of the mainstream media on this whole issue has been abominable. They have not told the truth about the border; they do not send their reporters down to tell the truth. They essentially are ignoring the problem and letting the things wallow in this political argument. It's just an unfortunate chapter in the history of American journalism.
Sputnik: Do you think that if the reporters were either given a chance or themselves wanted to report from a different angle and actually raise awareness and let more people know what's happening at the border currently, this would be leading to a certain chain reaction and things would start happening and someone would finally deal with this situation?
Glenn Spencer: I'm certain of it. We have very good reporters. They are professionals. But they are not given a chance; they aren't given any assignments to go down and tell the truth about the border.
They just are hiding the truth from the American people which is one of the reasons President Trump is having such a tough time; and that is why he goes to this Twitter thing that he uses. He tweets these stories because the media are not covering them.
Sputnik: It seems like a bit of impasse at the moment, what we are seeing at the US-Mexican border because nothing is happening; there're masses of people there, I'm guessing more people are going to die. Incidents like this one, unfortunately, will happen. What has to happen to finally alert people that are responsible for the situation to take measures?
Glenn Spencer: Battle is going on right now in Congress. Nancy Pelosi is, I think, holding up a decision to support Trump's wall. Three-and-a-half years ago my website that said Trump is wrong, we don't need a wall; you'd have to be able to see through it, it should be a fence.
It should be the same fence that Pelosi, Schumer, Obama and Hillary Clinton voted for back in 2006. What has to happen is they have to reach a settlement. I'm just befuddled why he doesn't use some of these arguments, and he makes people angry by calling it a wall.
It's not going to be a wall, it's going to be a fence. So, there's a lot of confusing misinformation and once again the reason for this is the lack of proper coverage by the media.
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.