Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Border Security
Interview
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INGRAHAM: A House oversight subcommittee held an emergency hearing this afternoon titled "A caravan of illegal immigrants, a test of U.S. borders." Why was that necessary? Why, because there are new reports that MS-13 members are posing as minors traveling with the migrant caravan. Lovely.
As if that weren't enough, this week in the Jacksonville, Florida, area, a twice deported illegal immigrant from El Salvador was charged with manslaughter over the 2016 death of the officer trying to track him down. Deputy Eric Oliver was a Navy veteran and described as a hero in his community. He was 32-years-old and his daughter was six when he died.
Joining me now is Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis, who chaired today's hearing. He is also running for governor of Florida. I endorsed you so long ago it's not even funny. And let's talk about the caravan crime and our open border. Congress, good to see you.
REP. RON DESANTIS, FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Hey, how are you?
INGRAHAM: Great. This was wild because we see reports of large numbers of people, forget the caravan, crossing the border all together at one time. Then they are taken into custody, and they are like, who are you, who are you. One guy is like, well, I'm being recorded for MS-13 in Los Angeles. It's wild. We need this wall. Not funded in the omnibus. We need the wall.
DESANTIS: And I think the consensus amongst most of the witnesses today was one Trump ordered the catch and release to be done, but yet they are still --
INGRAHAM: That's what I'm saying. They are still doing it.
DESANTIS: They are still doing it. And the other thing is when you have the massive border searches, that really is a Godsend to the drug cartels and the amount of fentanyl and all this junk that they've been able to bring into our country that has caused a lot of people to lose their lives. And so we have got to get this under control.
INGRAHAM: And what does it mean without a wall? I keep going back to the wall. It's not everything, but it's a big deterrent.
DESANTIS: And walls do not have prosecutorial discretion. So if a bureaucrat doesn't want to enforce the law, if they want to do the old Obama policies, or if you have an administration like Obama where they basically just give up on enforcement, then you don't have your laws being enforced. But the wall is a wall, and the places where they have it like San Diego, it works.
INGRAHAM: I want to read this to people so they understand the numbers we are talking about again. Agents assigned to the Yuma station in Arizona came upon a large group of 61 illegal immigrants who crossed the border Monday afternoon, this is from Breitbart, near the San Luis Port of Entry in southern Arizona. The illegal border crossers consisted of a single Mexican national and 59 Guatemalans and one Salvadoran who claimed to be an unaccompanied minor according to the information that they received. Then they questioned them, and it turned out, as I said, that the one supposed unaccompanied minor was an adult who was an MS-13 recruit from the L.A. MS-13.
Do you know, when they come in, then what happens to them? Because we have gotten a lot of the detention centers, didn't we, along the border? So then what happens.
DESANTIS: It depends on what they say. We have asylum laws that people know what to say to claim asylum. In almost every instance it's pretty obvious when they are coming from Guatemala that they are not necessarily qualified. Asylum is like you are being persecuted because of race, religion, political opinion.
INGRAHAM: you could say that life in Guatemala is persecution.
DESANTIS: Those countries have problems but that's not enough. But what happens is once they do that, they get a trial in like two years. Guess what, they get released into our country.
INGRAHAM: So what you are saying tonight is despite with the administration has said, catch and release is still happening.
DESANTIS: It is still happening against the wishes of the elected president. And that's the problem. You have caravans coming, they should be stopped at the border and turned away.
INGRAHAM: They should not be allowed to cross the border. People watching the show now are why is this happening? It is infuriating. They know they can do it. And by the way, the Yuma sector in Arizona is reporting that they are seeing a surge in larger groups. So now they are not doing the trickle through. They are doing large groups moving en masse across the border. You use the word invasion, people say that is so mean. What else do you call this?
DESANTIS: And the large groups, you have human trafficking, drugs. It really is a boon for the cartels.
INGRAHAM: There is an ad that is being run about you that makes you look like a combination of Dr. Jekyll, Frankenstein, and a terrorist. You'll see it in the background. Oh, we can play it. Let's watch it.
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INGRAHAM: Hardly part of the president's plan. It's so ridiculous. Adam Putnam did that add?
DESANTIS: I think his supporters. It's the Florida swamp.
INGRAHAM: So this is -- you have been one of the most stalwart supporters of this president on almost every issue that I can think of, which is why months ago I endorsed you. And how do people even get away with saying that?
DESANTIS: Actually they are running on radio. Some of the radio stations have had to take it out already because it's false. When they say voting for food stamps, and then they cite a bill where I voted against the farm bill that had Obama's food stamp policies in there. So I voted against all the food stamps, certainly wouldn't do it for people here illegally. So It's 100 percent false. Radio stations have taken it down. We're working with the TV stations. It's just absurd.
INGRAHAM: How is the race looking in Florida? Rick Scott, he was a force in Florida. Now Rick Scott is moving on.
DESANTIS: The fact that they are running ads against me, dogs don't bark at parked cars. So I am on the move. They see that. That rattles a lot of people, so I'd say we're doing what we need to be doing.
INGRAHAM: I want you to continue to educate the people on what's happening at the border, because I think Americans, when they hear catch and release is still happening, are infuriating and shocked, and the president needs to step up and take members of Congress for allowing this to happen to task. Ron DeSantis, thank you so much.
DESANTIS: Thank you.
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