STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): A Fox News alert. President Trump threatening to shut the southern border as soon as today, cutting aid to three Central American countries over the surge of migrants flooding our system in unprecedented numbers. Here to weigh in, our panel of experts. 

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DOOCY: Brandon, let's start with you. Do you think it's a good idea for the president to close the southern border? No doubt there is a crisis there, but should he, you know, essentially just say you know what? We're closed for business now.

BRANDON JUDD (NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL): It sends the right message, it let's Mexico know that if they do not actually do something, if they don't play their part, then we're going to stunt their economy, basically. Look, there's a lot of trade that goes through those ports of entry and if you shut down those ports of entry that's going to hurt Mexico's economy. And if you punch somebody in the pocketbook, you're going to get a reaction. 

DOOCY: Right, but there's going to be a price because it's going to punch us in the pocketbook. 

JUDD: It is. It is. But, we can make that back up. But again, you have to do -- these are extraordinary times and you have to take extraordinary measures. Look, there's another way -- Stephen Miller, a great policy adviser for President Trump, he's actually proposed a new initiative. I've got an op-ed in the Washington Times that explains what this initiative is. We can do it with our current laws, as long as you train the border patrol agents to be asylum officers, to do that credible fear interview. We can get them through the process. Right now it takes about two to five years to deport somebody. If you train border patrol agents to be asylum officers and give that credible fear interview initially, we can get the deportations done in 10 days, rather than two to five years. 

DOOCY: Well, that would be great. Tom, you're a little tougher than Brandon is. You say close it now. 

TOM HOMAN (FORMER ICE DIRECTOR): I say, look, I think that's what makes this president such a great president. He's going to do whatever he can to secure this nation and protect the American people. And he has done it. Look, he has tried to stop asylum seekers from entering illegally between the ports of entry, of course the Ninth Circuit shut that down. He declared a national emergency and he even had to fight some within his own party to do that. And now he will close the border down. Look, President Reagan did it over the death of one DEA agent which is a terrible tragedy, but how many American citizens have died at the hands of criminal aliens? 70,000 overdose deaths last year from opioids that come across that border. You know, this president is going to act, and I think he is doing the right thing. And as Brandon said earlier, yeah, it's going to hurt. But, you know, these types of actions are necessary to secure the border. Congress has let this president down. Congress has failed the American people for three decades to secure this border. This president made a commitment to the American people, “I will do what I can to protect America.” He is doing exactly what they elected him to do. He is doing exactly what a president should do. 

DOOCY: Mark, as a former ICE guy, you know that in many cases the agent's hands are tied because the laws need to change. And it seems like -- the president is probably more likely to get Mexico and the triangle countries to do something before he can get his own U.S. Congress to agree to change the law. 

MARK KELLY (FORMER ICE AGENT): That appears to be the case. And you clearly -- I defer to Tom and Brandon, have a lot more experience on the border. But, I think it's obvious to anybody that there is a problem here. There is a huge problem, it's a national security problem. And there has to be action taken. And, to me, closing the border might be a drastic method, but I think we may be at a point where we need to be drastic. 

Previously: 

Lou Dobbs guest: Americans “are getting raped by all of the expense of” immigration

Steve Doocy says Trump needs a wall “because he needs to start running for re-election”

Fox & Friends host: Trump will “look like a loser” if he doesn't shutdown the government over border wall funding