The former chief of U.S. Border Patrol hit at CNN reporter Jim Acosta for claiming earlier on Thursday that the Rio Grande Valley region of the U.S.-Mexico border was a "safe" place.

"I hope the American people aren't lost on the irony that he's standing behind a wall saying it's peaceful. Because there's a wall. Think about that, right? The irony there," Mark Morgan, who led Border Patrol from mid-2016 into early 2017, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham late Thursday.

Acosta visited McAllen, Texas, Thursday as part of the White House press pool that accompanied Trump on the trip.

"The steel slats don’t run the entire length of the border in the McAllen area," Acosta tweeted along with a photo of himself standing by the steel-bollard barrier. "We found one part where there is a chain link fence. Occasionally migrants come thru but residents say their community is quite safe."



The steel slats don’t run the entire length of the border in the McAllen area. We found one part where there is a chain link fence. Occasionally migrants come thru but residents say their community is quite safe. pic.twitter.com/ivpPl0XT48 — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 10, 2019



Chris Cabrera, National Border Patrol Council spokesman for agents in the Rio Grande Valley, dared the Washington-based reporter to stick around when the Secret Service leaves town.

"What he fails to realize is he's out there with cameras during the day. Everything is pretty nice and calm during the day," Cabrera told Ingraham. "If he sees it as so safe out there, why doesn't he just pitch a tent by the river and hang of the for a couple of days and get back to us on how safe he feels?"

Cabrera said his fellow agents were happy to see Trump in McAllen.

"CNN, put on their news feed, not two weeks ago, 'border crisis.' Now there's not a border crisis. We catch the equivalent of one of those caravans they talk about per week in McAllen. We see 5,000; 7,000; 10,000 a week just in our area. Those are people turning themselves in and people trying to get away," he said.