Join TendingBar for Part 1 of an eye-opening and energizing conversation with Peter Vincent, General Counsel to ICE during the Obama administration, one of America's chief experts on criminal enterprise and terrorist organizations operating in Mexico and Central America!

In Part 1 of Peter Vincent's interview with TendingBar, he recounts his role in apprehending one of history's most notorious narco-traffickers, El Chapo Guzman.  He also shares his thoughts on public policy related to immigration across American's Southern Border, and he opines on current events.

Our interview of Peter Vincent occurred just days before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle DACA.  Peter predicted that the Supreme Court would let DACA stand.

Part 1: Key Topics

6:12: Helping Colombia from falling into a narco-state-type dynamic

8:19: Tracking down ultra narco-trafficker, El Chapo

14:10: “Tacos, tequila and chicas”

18:29: Made in Hollywood, tracking El Chapo through Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo

21:55: A narco-trafficking game of “Whack-a-Mole”

28:26: Thoughts on today’s political environment

31:47: Why the Law, Peter? / Thoughts on lawyers as public servants...

In Part 2 of Peter's interview, we discuss controversial immigration policy issues like Jeff Sessions' "zero tolerance" policy and the separation of immigrant children from their families within U.S. detention facilities at the Southern border.  Peter speaks candidly about challenges to immigration policy, and about the thought that went into creation of the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" program (DACA) - a program for which Peter was among the principal architects.

More about Peter Vincent

Peter Vincent has been serving the American people in various law enforcement and diplomatic roles for decades.  You may know him as the man in charge of the U.S. task force that worked with Mexican authorities to capture infamous narco-trafficker "El Chapo."  But Peter's career has been far-ranging, and his insights are important.

As a judicial attache for the U.S. Dept. of Justice in Bogota, Colombia, Peter became a top expert on criminal enterprise and terrorist organizations operating in Mexico and Central America.  Even before becoming a lawyer, he had developed an appreciation and love for the people and culture of Central America, while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in war-torn Guatemala.

Peter brought his cultural understanding and law enforcement expertise to the Dept. of Homeland Security, where he became the top lawyer in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, overseeing more than 1000 attorneys charged with enforcing immigration policy during the Obama administration.

During his tenure at ICE, the U.S. witnessed large groups of migrants fleeing terrible violence in Central America's "Northern Triangle" region (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala).  Faced with large inflows of undocumented immigrants and overwhelming backlogs in the immigration courts, under Peter's leadership ICE implemented processes that prioritized cases related to safety threats (e.g., alleged drug traffickers) over cases that posed no safety threats, like families seeking asylum.  Amazingly, such prioritization had not previously been the practice within ICE, and Peter's team reduced backlog from more than 1,000,000 cases to ~350,000.

Peter and a small administration team relied upon the same philosophy of prioritization to create DACA, which offered protected status to young immigrants who had grown up in the U.S., while permitting ICE to focus on more critical cases and to increase enforcement, leading to Obama's nickname as "Deporter in Chief."

Be sure to look for Part 2 of Peter's interview, coming soon.