Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

Todd Bensman

Todd Bensman is the Center for Immigration Studies' Texas-based Senior National Security Fellow. He is the author of "America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration", the untold story of a secret American border program created to prevent terrorist infiltration over the U.S. Southwest Border.

Series

Federalist Radio Hour1 episodeHubwonk1 episodeParsing Immigration Policy12 episodes

Recent Episodes

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Panel: A New Database of Vetting Failures

Summary The Center for Immigration Studies unveiled a new database of national security vetting failures at a recent panel discussion. This database is the first known collection of preventable federal government vetting failures that enabled the entry of foreign nationals who threatened and harmed American national interests and public safety. The information collected in the database offers an opportunity to study and understand the failures, with an eye toward preventing such failures in the future. The number of visa security failures already in the database illustrates the link between national security and immigration policy. To discuss this, the March 8 panel was comprised of individuals with experience in three institutions involved in vetting those coming to this country: intelligence, DHS, and the State Department. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, moderates this rebroadcast of the Center's panel. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

February 2023

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Panel: OVERRUN - The Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History

Summary The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel discussion on February 21 featuring three reporters who have covered the border crisis from the frontlines. Their on-the-ground field reporting in Central America, Mexico, and along the U.S.-Mexico border – far from Washington, D.C. – reflects the stories and actions of the primary sources: the migrants, law enforcement, and the residents impacted by the millions of foreign nationals coming to America. The conversation centered around a new book, “OVERRUN: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History”, authored by Todd Bensman – the Center’s Texas-based Senior National Security Fellow and a former counterterrorism intelligence practitioner and journalist. Bensman writes, “Unfortunately, a fog of fierce partisanship in the media obscures that fact that the border crisis is even happening, as well as basic truths Americans desperately need to know about this historic event.”
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

January 2023

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

CIS Field Work Breaks Two Stories South of the Border

Summary The Center’s Senior National Security Fellow, Todd Bensman, traveled to Mexico to investigate rumors about a shelter in Tijuana serving only Muslim migrants and about thousands of illegal immigrants being funneled into the United States through ports of entry under a questionable program that makes border crossing legal. His trip took him to Tijuana and Mexicali. Given the large number of “special interest aliens” (SIAs), U.S.-bound immigrants from countries where Islamic terrorist groups operate, on the FBI terrorism watch list, Bensman wondered about the national security implications of Mexico’s first Muslim immigrant shelter, which shelters mostly SIAs. He visited the shelter and conducted the first interview of its director, who has never been contacted by American officials, about the sensitive national security issues the operation raises for the United States.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

December 2022

Hubwonk
Hubwonk

Immigration Unbound: After Title 42 Comes the Deluge

Joe Selvaggi talks with Todd Bensman, senior fellow at the Center For Immigration Studies, about the conditions for aspiring immigrants and border security officials at the U.S.-Mexico border and the likely effects of the expiration of Title 42, a policy that had denied asylum claims during Covid-19. Guest: Todd Bensman is the Center For Immigration Studies' Texas-based Senior National Security Fellow. He is the author of "Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History" and "America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration." Prior to joining CIS in August 2018, Bensman led homeland security intelligence efforts for nine years in the public sector. Bensman’s body of work with policy and intelligence operations is founded on more than 20 years of experience as an award-winning journalist covering national security topics, with particular focus on the Texas border. Bensman holds a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security; his thesis was entitled "The Ultra-Marathoners of Human Smuggling: Defending Forward against Dark Networks that Can Transport Terrorists across American Land Borders." He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University.
Host:
Joe Selvaggi

September 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

How Biden Sold Out Democracy in Haiti

Summary Images of thousands of illegal aliens, mostly from Haiti, camped under the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, last September created a serious political problem for the Biden administration, which feared it would harm Democratic prospects in the 2022 midterm elections. Despite the administration's hostility to border enforcement, the need to make the problem go away caused the White House to decide to deport some of the illegal aliens back to Haiti. To secure Haiti's approval, it made a deal with Dr. Ariel Henry, Haiti’s acting prime minister and acting president: Haiti would accept the deportees in exchange for the Biden administration allowing the acting president to cancel the upcoming elections and remain in power. This story was broken by Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, who joins Parsing Immigration Policy this week to discuss his front page New York Post story on the incident – adapted from a chapter in his upcoming book, "Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed The Greatest Border Crisis In U.S.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

April 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Mexican Border States Cry ‘Uncle’, Cut Immigration Deals with Texas

Summary Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered “enhanced safety inspections” of commercial trucking coming off the international bridges from Mexico in response to the news that the Biden administration would be lifting the Title 42 pandemic-related orders, causing migrant numbers entering the United States to potentially surge to 18,000 a day. Texas Department of Public Safety inspectors disrupted international trade at America’s busiest commercial ports of entry, sending a clear message to Washington and Mexico that Texas demanded action to stop mass immigration across the Rio Grande. Biden has not pushed Mexico to stop waving migrants from all over the world to the U.S. border, but Abbott now has and the results are in. The governors of all four Mexican states that border Texas have signed memorandums of understanding trading enhanced border security for the smooth flow of trucks across the border, upon which their economies depend.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

March 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

The Hijacking of Asylum - Responses in the U.S. and Europe

Summary The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a joint panel discussion with the Hungarian Migration Research Institute, examining international asylum law, its application in both Europe and the United States, and its impact on national sovereignty. With the Russia-Ukraine conflict raging and with millions of refugees potentially fleeing Ukraine, it is the perfect time for serious analysis and conversation about current policies that indiscriminately provide benefits to all border-crossing strangers versus more-targeted policies that would be more consistent with the spirit of the original international refugee agreements. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, moderates a rebroadcast of the Center's recent panel. Scholars from the Center and MRI examine immigration laws and policies that are being swallowed by the asylum exception and provide solutions to “The Hijacking of Asylum.” Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

January 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

The UN’s Role in Aiding and Abetting Illegal Immigration

Summary Nonprofit migrant advocacy organizations near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala are offering an unusual and controversial psychological therapy to enable migrants to continue on the trail north to the U.S. border. Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow, spent a week reporting from Tapachula, Mexico, where he found that at least two UN-funded organizations employ clinical psychologists to help migrants turned down for Mexican asylum to retrieve “repressed memories” of persecution and other hardships to help them in their appeals. The 90 percent who succeed in winning Mexican asylum with these newly discovered stories are then able to freely travel north and cross the U.S. border illegally. Bensman also uncovered that the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), which receives billions in U.S. taxpayer funding, is supplying cash debit cards to migrants all along the migrant trail, further abetting the mass migration crisis.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

December 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Panama’s Darien Gap

Summary The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel discussion exploring the remote area of the Darien Gap, the infamous jungle passage through which extra-continental migrants cross from South America to North America on their way to the United States southern border. International migrants are passing through the gap’s dense rainforest in record numbers. How is it impacting the indigenous people of Panama who have populated this area for thousands of years? Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, moderates a rebroadcast of the Center's recent panel. Todd Bensman, Senior Research Fellow of the Center for Immigration Studies and host of the live panel, helps overview the migration problems plaguing the Isthmus of Panama. The Honorable Francisco Agapi, Mayor of Cémaco, Panama and a member of the Embera tribe, flew in from Panama for his first visit to Washington, D.C. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), a member of the U.S.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

October 2021

Federalist Radio Hour
Federalist Radio Hour

The Story Behind Del Rio, The Face Of Biden’s Border Crisis

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Todd Bensman, a Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and author of "America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration," joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss President Joe Biden's Southern border crisis and why Haitians flocked to Del Rio, Texas.
Host:
Emily Jashinsky
Organization
The Federalist

September 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Del Rio: A Case Study of the U.S. Illegal Immigration Crisis

Summary Thousands of illegal aliens poured into Del Rio, Texas last week forming an encampment that eventually peaked with an estimated 15,000 migrants. Thousands of mostly Haitians, but also Cubans and other nationalities, waited for processing to enter the country as an overwhelmed Biden administration struggled to control the growing camp, and Texas moved to stop the numbers from going even higher. After several days of watching the numbers multiply, the Biden administration moved to control the political damage of the shantytown, and began deporting some Haitians to their native country; however, most of them had been living and working in Brazil and Chile for years, and fled to Mexico instead of risking deportation. But an even larger number of the illegal aliens were rewarded for their efforts and appear to have been paroled into the United States. Thousands more continue to wait in the shrinking encampment.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies
Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

20 Years After 9/11: Lessons Learned, Improvements Needed

Summary There is no more important tool for preventing future attacks on U.S. soil than the nation’s immigration system. The 20th anniversary of the attacks that claimed thousands of American lives is an appropriate occasion to reflect on the role immigration failures played in the 9/11 attacks and the progress made in limiting opportunities for future terrorism. Americans may disagree on the level of immigration, and its costs and benefits, but few would argue against the importance of keeping foreign-born terrorists out of the country and apprehending terrorists who have entered the U.S. In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow, discusses the role of immigration law in protecting the American people. He highlights the importance of the National Vetting Center and the national security implications of an open southern border. What further policy changes are needed to keep us safe?
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

June 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

D-Day on the Rio Grande? The Biden Administration Facilitates Mass Illegal Immigration

Summary Todd Bensman, the Center’s Senior National Security Fellow, traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas to investigate how the Border Patrol, Texas National Guard, and Texas Department of Public Safety are handling the influx of illegal immigrants. Having viewed this area – ground zero for illegal immigration crossings – by water, air, and land, Bensman shares his observations on enforcement at the border, where federal law enforcement has been ordered by the Biden administration to stand down, and now spends more time processing and welcoming illegal immigrants than apprehending them. Bensman and the host of Parsing Immigration Policy, CIS executive director Mark Krikorian, share their views on the normalization of federal agents passively observing and even facilitating mass illegal entry. Is the federal government in effect running an enterprise jointly with the Mexican smugglers? Krikorian concludes this episode by highlighting a recent push by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, possibly the most powerful lobby group in the nation, to expand the U.S.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

May 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

What I Saw at the U.S.–Mexico Border

Summary During his recent trips to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Todd Bensman, the senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, spoke with human smugglers and their migrant customers, as well as border agents and local residents. Bensman shares their stories about the consequences of U.S. policies that have caused the surge of illegal crossings at the border. They range from the smuggling cartels' sales pitches to potential migrants in Central America to persuade them to spend thousands of dollars on a risky journey to the U.S., to the dispersal of these illegal migrants across the country through Biden’s "catch-and-bus" policy of releasing these lawbreakers on the honor system. Related Reports: Inside a Cartel Smuggling Operation Into West Texas The Border Crisis Comes to a Once-Quiet part of West Texas Catch-and-Bus: Thousands of Freed Border-Crossing Immigrants Are Dispersing Across America Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies