US/Mexico Border with Arizona Sheriff – What’s It Like Now? 🇺🇸🇲🇽

US/Mexico Border with Arizona Sheriff – What’s It Like Now? 🇺🇸🇲🇽

Chet, welcome back. Round two. Round number two. I was looking at the video we posted. It was just over two years. Like two years and two months ago. A lot of changes that have happened here lately. Let me put on my seatelt. We wouldn’t want to break the law. The main thing is I don’t have people dying in the desert right now. Nobody’s signing up there. We haven’t had any calls for people that were abandoned and left in the desert or people that we’ve had to go out and recover because they died on that truck across the desert. So, to me, that’s a win-win. And as a refresher from last video, 140 countries crossing, you’re getting the world here. Yuma sector is known for that. Getting Russians, getting Middle Easterners. Oh, we getting uh Indians. We saw the Indians last time on the desert. hospitals, the family advocacy centers, the mission, they were all impacted with all of that. So now their focus is turned back to the community, the folks that need it here locally. And the food, 90% of the leafy greens for the whole United States comes from Yuma during the winter. Lettuce, celery, you name it. Those individuals were going into those fields and defecating and the trash was being left there. as a farmer because of food safety, it’s now contaminated. They just have to plow it under. That was the only thing that got the farmer administration to come down and actually do something to protect the farmers and the food because it’s all about food safety. Okay. So, that’s what it came down to. So, this white looking wall, that’s a Biden wall. That’s Biden. Interesting. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand is like, yeah, he put up fencing, too. Unfortunately, what I couldn’t figure out is we already had the fencing laying there, but instead of utilizing what was already purchased and laying on the ground, they come up with this different design cuz I’ve seen them saw through these, right? Well, we saw that last time. Yeah. But each one of those is filled with concrete. They can cut the metal, but they still have to chip out the concrete, which slows them down. Okay. This would be a little bit different. and you just cut through it with the salt. The other side is the Colorado River and then across the road where all the houses are, that’s uh Mexico. So, a couple years ago, these parts of the fence were open. The brown parts were up and then you had these big open sections. And for those that want to see the sheriff and I did one of my favorite videos all time, sheriff was with you was it was awesome. I’ll make sure I put that link below uh this video. But, uh it was chaotic. It was wild. It was We actually had the sheriff, I think it was up here where you you chase someone back into the river. Yeah. And Border Patrol apprehended another one that was over here in the farm field. Right. Right. So, it’s first impression, bit of a different vibe this time. Different vibe. Fact is, you’ll see a lot more Border Patrol agents compared to last time when we were out here, too. What’s up, bud? What are you doing? Living the dream, huh? That’s right. Pretty much. I was lost for words there for agree man. How you guys doing? Good. Good. This is Peter. Sounds a good guy. Okay, sir. How are things these days out here? Better. Able to be in the field. Yeah. Well, you know how it is. Oh, yeah. All it takes is change of administration to make things happen. So, yeah. You really didn’t need Congress to act after all, did they? Yeah. I could say that. Yeah. I could say too much more, you know. I get it. I get it. That’s why I’m with the sheriff, not you. No disrespect. These guys say everything. Oh, yeah. You guys have a good day. You, too, buddy. Stay safe. I know I’ve mentioned this in past videos, but the the beauty of American law enforcement uh with the sheriff’s departments is you guys can speak openly. And you were the spokespeople for this whole situation during the last four years. Yeah. You can’t get in with those guys. No, you can’t get with any DHS guys. No, there’s no police department you can talk to. No. So, there was a for some they said a gag order on some departments, right? Yeah. Basically, it was a gag order. I mean, they’re they’re told basically that if you get any inquiries from the media that you need to get it approved first, ascertain what the questions are and then they will give you what your response should be. Right? So, see this? All this fencing was still sitting here when the other administration built that new section. I don’t know how much that cost, but to have all this stuff just sitting there at that time, it would have made more sense to me to use what you already spent taxpayer money on. Yeah. And what gets misrepresented at times with border content is, oh, it’s an anti-immigrant look at things. The average American, I’m all over this country, most Americans are all for legal immigration. Absolutely. I’m saying 90 plus% are all down with legal immigration. It was the chaotic illegal immigration that flooded cities that made it a huge problem here that made it so women couldn’t go give birth at the local hospital. all the trickle down and then the money involved obviously in topics like agriculture where it’s like this does not make sense. It doesn’t this is chaos. This was not even humanitarian much was happening. I mean we were out here trying to make sure people didn’t die you know and they weren’t victimized along the way and that was the messaging that we was trying to get out is like no don’t don’t make that track here because you know your kids are going to be violated. You possibly could get violated. You’re going to be robbed. The criminal element is waiting to prey on them folks. We’re going to go up to that area where the cartel was putting people under the bridge. But before we get there, what’s that situation? Obviously, you’re not on the Mexican side, but yeah, they’re moving less product as in people. It It’s So, are they are they getting hit financially pretty harder? They’re getting hit financially and they’re trying to do uh so like Coochis County where they had uh they were recruiting juveniles on social media to come down pick up groups of individuals. They’d pay them a certain amount of money. I think it was minimum of $500 per person to pick them up to take them into the large cities. We’re we’re starting to see a little bit of that here, but fortunately with Border Patrol now being out in the field, they’re able to catch them before we end up with all the pursuits and stuff like Coochis County was having. So, Border Patrol sector just had that experience here recently with a juvenile that went down by the border, was picking up a group, they ended up arresting that juvenile. Most of the time, a US attorney wouldn’t charge a juvenile for doing that type of activity. But now that the policies have changed, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an adult or a juvenile. If you get caught smuggling people or narcotics, you’re going to get charged. We’re still getting the uh the smuggling of individuals through the remote desert. And that’s kind of what we equated to the gotaways last time that you and I were out there was border patrol is so tied up with dealing with the giveups that they couldn’t go out and try to track down the individuals being smuggled through the uh remote part of our desert and that’s where unfortunately the people are dying. So now with Border Patrol out there, they’re actually intercepting those smugglers and apprehending them and prosecuting them as well. Okay. Yeah. And so it is a bit complicated for people that aren’t down here dealing with this every day, right? But you had the give ups. They would come across the border and be processed by customs order protection and absorbed into the interior of the country. Correct. And so buses, planes, a lot went to New York, Chicago, California, Wisconsin, those places. So what was happening, guys, is the the migrants were coming over and actually giving themselves up, wanting to be caught, right? Because they were in they all claimed asylum, right? Nobody knows for sure, but all the research I’ve done, all the people I know that know this topic very well said one in 10 were legitimate asylum claims. And we’ve heard that from not only the previous administration, but this one. Okay. So that that number is confirmed. One in 10 was legitimate, right? So most were economic migrants saying, “I live in Honduras. I’m making 6,000 a year. I can live in America and make $38,000 a year. Why am I not going to do this? If I just walk over the border, they take me in.” So is an incentive to come here. And then the Godways are the ones that know they will be sent back because they have a criminal record, right? Or they’re from Mexico. There was an other than Mexico policy. Mexicans couldn’t just come over, correct, and absorb into the country. They were sent back. They were sent back. They were repatriated. Repatriated. Yeah. There’s sort of two groups, the Godways and the Give Ups. And now the giveups, that door has been closed. The cartel can’t set them up at a gap in the wall up here and and send them over and we’re going to take them in. They’re getting repatriated immediately. Right. Right. Okay. It’s complicated. And so like and it gets pulled apart. whatever side someone’s on, the information gets cherrypicked, right? And then you make your case, right? And the story we’re not getting today is the migrant story. Like I’m not we’re not meeting up with a migrant. And there’s a perspective on on on that story, too, right? Well, you know, all the ones that I talked to whenever we would run into them down here. The majority of the folks that were coming here, when you talk to them, they weren’t fleeing violence. They wanted a better way of life and to be able to make money to help their families out back home. And that is not a legitimate asylum claim. Yeah. And that’s what they wanted was to come here, they knew it was an open door because once one person comes across, if they’re able to do that and they see there’s no consequence and then you’re given a plane ticket to go to wherever you want to go in the US, that word travels fast. Now, if you were from Mexico and you were caught, you’d be sent back right away. That’s why we were picking up a lot of the passports and the identification cards last time is because those individuals had already left the country of violence and Mexico was allowing them to live and work in Mexico. So if that individual, no matter what country they were from, actually possessed that identification when they were a give up here, they would have been sent back into Mexico as well because they’ve already fled that country of violence and they were allowed to live and work in Mexico. So that’s why they were given a different name, different date of birth when they were a give up so that it couldn’t be tracked down and be sent back. So a lot of it was financial. There are some down here that we did see, you know, that had legitimate concerns and those are the ones that needed to go to the port of entry to do that paperwork right then and there. So, we’re actually meeting up up here a guy that was in Customs Border Protection but retired. Yeah, Hector is going to meet us right here. Remember, we had the cover here, the dumpsters. That’s right. That’s all gone now because there is no more really that much activity. So, yeah, all this has changed. The foot traffic for giveups was right here, right? So, they’re just coming over from Mexico. Yep. Through native lands. And so the natives, they won’t allow a wall to be built. Is that what’s going on? So when you look at tribes, you have to understand that with tribal land, it’s sacred land to the to our our tribal nations in Arizona and I’m sure throughout the whole of the United States and everywhere. Cocoapa is a river tribe. So having access to that easily, okay, is is part of that tribal nation’s history. So the federal government, the border patrol, obviously works with the tribe to try to stop some of this activity because it impacts their lands, too. The amount of litter and garbage that was being dumped along the river is not good for the tribe nor the wildlife in this area. Yeah, it’s cleaned up a lot here. It has. And a lot of it had to do with uh I would say pressure because we had exposed what was going on here to media outlets. A lot of the nonprofits actually came down here and cleaned up all the trash. But you also had all the litter down here and all the pharmaceuticals that were being dumped down here along the riverway. Well, this is where a lot of wildlife is. So you don’t need pharmaceuticals from all over the world, right? Being dumped on the ground. Yeah. And look at this. compared to last time. Last time there were all those IDs in the dirt. There was the money, the euros. Oh yeah. Money was blowing towards us. And I mentioned the fact that, you know, I had not seen any money from Russia. We had two people, one from back east and one from California sent me Russian rubles. So, thank you for for sending me some Russian rubles to add to that. Uh you have a money collection. Pretty big one. Yeah. No kidding. So, how does this make you feel as someone that lives here? You’ve been a sheriff for a long time here. What are your feelings right now? Well, it’s nice to see that law enforcement can get back to doing what they need to do for the to improve the quality of life of the people we serve and not have to try to battle this problem as well along the border, which that’s not part of our responsibility, immigration. That’s federal government’s responsibility. They said it. The judges have said it. The judges don’t even allow us to even enforce any of that. all the way up to the United States Supreme Court says anything to do with immigration, federal government’s responsibility, not local law enforcement, you’re not allowed to do it. But but we had to curb the criminal side of it. So the rapes, the robberies, the homicides, the assaults, not only on individuals that were coming here, but on border patrol agents, we would end up taking those cases, the deaths in the desert, those investigations, working with other countries to kind of get the victim back to that family that’s back there in whatever country that was where they were from. My county is 5,500 square miles. I’ve got 95 deputies to patrol that, right? So when you add on this added amount of work onto whatever, you’re already full case load. It strains your your law enforcement. When the new administration came in, did did it just change in one day or how was that? Because of So you got to look at the messaging and that’s something that we talked about before is the messaging vitally important. So everybody, cartels, everybody throughout the world was hearing what Trump was saying was going to happen if he got elected. Once he got elected and he said he was going to secure the border and there were going to be consequences, it stopped. Right? It’s as simple as someone gets across and they talk to their cousin down in Honduras and be like, “Here’s here are the steps. You got ABC. You get over. It’s super easy. It’s great here. Yeah, I got a job day one getting some free stuff, too. Healthcare is awesome. And then why wouldn’t you? The incentive is there. Keep coming. Is it super frustrating for you that it was really that easy? Like you guys had to endure some some chaos for very frustrating because it it’s hard for us in law enforcement that we know what works and what doesn’t work. When I get asked all the time about what’s the harm, well, how many do you let across and what’s the threshold? Yeah. That this country can afford. I mean, you looked at it, the numbers were they had spent in one year roughly $246 billion on welfare and assistance to all the immigrants that they led across in one year. Now, when you put it on a local perspective for Yuma, so Border Patrol had to put up tents to be able to house them. Okay, those tents had to contain not only a place for them to sleep, but also had to have a laundry facility. It also had to have a cafeteria so they could cook the food for everybody. And they also had to have storage to be able to outfit them with clothing. So, Border Patrol was spending tax dollars buying anything from baby food and diapers on up to clothing for adults for them to wear. Now, when they looked at the contract price just here in Yuma, we were one of seven locations along the border that Border Patrol had to have these tent facilities, right? Those tents, each tent was half a million dollars a day taxpayer funded for that tent. Wait, how is a tent a half million dollars a day? Because it’s through a contractor and that contractor has to provide the employees to be able to maintain that tent and the facilities within it as well as all the other entrances. How many people under a tent? Yeah, you’d have to ask Hector on that. Okay. You know, when you when you when you think about it, when they were apprehending almost 1,500,500 individuals a day, that tent had to hold all those people and the kids. Now, unaccompanied kids, that’s even worse because then you have to have them out of sight and sound and held separately from the adults, right? So, half a million dollars a day per tent. They had, I believe, five tents here in Yuma sector. So, and because the electrical grid at Border Patrol could not handle the power that was needed to run those, they had to run that facility on generators, which was over $100,000 a week in diesel fuel. So, it doesn’t end. So, when you when you when you look at all these numbers, we don’t spend that kind of money for our veterans. And why not? Three years. Well, you didn’t get the memo. We’re We’re flushed with money. We’re doing so well with our budget that we have excess funds to spend on anything. I don’t know. We do line item budgets every year. I’ve not seen any of that. And for your listeners out there, cuz I know they’re probably wondering why a sheriff is driving a Raptor. Yeah, I saw a lot in the comments about that. Yeah. So to give you the history behind this, when all this was started, that truck was donated to the sheriff’s office for a program and he also donated to Coochis County Sheriff’s Office. Okay? Because DHS back then, this was under uh the prior administration before Biden. So that was donated back in 2017. And DHS was actually bringing folks down to the border to tour it to see what the actuality was. And these were people from back east, either sheriffs, elected officials. So that truck was donated to be able to do the what we called borders in your backyard. Okay? And it was to educate other sheriffs and and other electeds on what the reality of the border was so they could actually see it in person and then take that back to their communities throughout the interior of the United States. So the sheriff’s office didn’t buy that. It was donated. Okay, that’s that’s good to clarify. Well, because people are like a $90,000 truck, so you guys are flushed with money. Yeah. Well, actually, the first generation Raptors when they came out, we actually purchased some on a grant because my guys are out in the desert all the time. Yeah. And a regular four-wheel drive gets tore up where these don’t. under state contract. That Raptor, the first generations were only $34,000 under state contract. Okay. We can’t touch that now. So, you don’t you don’t see any brand new Raptors at my agency because they’re just out of out of boundary for us. But, as you can tell, that one’s got 112,000 miles on it and it’s been outdoing the borders in your backyard. Sheriff, scale to one and 10, how much do you love your Raptor? That’s a 10. So, and that thing is we don’t ferously spend money and it you can tell it’s got desert pin striping all over it. That thing’s the boss though out in these washboards and we just flew over them like they were nothing. Well, here’s my deal. It’s like when I have to send my troops out there and it’s 120° ambient temperature and the ground is like 140°. I want my guys to be able to get out there and also get back. and I want something that’s going to be reliable for my personnel to go out there and do that that job that they need to do. So there there is no amount of money that you can put on the safety of people that are going out there and serving that that area. You know, this video is Get in the shot. Oh, you got to be in the shot. I need the director to tell me when. Oh, uh, sheriff’s a pro at this. He He is the new director. Let’s see if he’ll do that. Border Patrol jump or is he going to walk around like I did? Oh, he’s going to Oh, yeah. He knows what he’s saying. Oh, look at you. That’s how I got hurt actually once. Oh, is that right? How you doing, Hector? How’s it going, guys? Yeah. Thanks for meeting up. Going to see you. It’s uh great meeting you. What’s up, buddy? It’s a It’s a very rare Well, at least for me, I haven’t had any luck getting through with uh Customs Border Protection people. Definitely not on the job, but you’re recently retired, so you can speak openly. Is that what is that what that is? Absolutely. Okay, cool. Cool. Sheriff, I I hate to do this to you, but I’m going to take the candy. Unmike me. I’ll go in the background. Get a break from me. Yeah. Wh Why don’t we We can walk this way, Hector. Does that work? Cuz that’s in the shade. It’s sort of nice. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Sheriff, will we come back in a couple minutes? Is that cool? You take your time. All right. Yeah. It’s been a while since last time I was here. I worked for 23 years. Wow. Started out in Texas Eagle Pass station. Uh shout out to my Eagle Pass people. And uh in 2005, I transferred here when uh started getting really really uh busy down here. I retired in 2021 with 23 years. My plan was to go 25. Okay. But uh I just couldn’t do it. I mean, it took less than a year for me to realize that I wasn’t being I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t uh fulfilling my obligations as you know when I swore my oath and uh yeah, we started I mean I couldn’t take it. I I I mean truly I believe that we went from being an enforcement agency to being part of a smuggling organization. Really? Yeah. I mean, and I wasn’t going to be part of it. And I feel bad for the people that didn’t have the opportunity to to to leave like I did, you know, because they still have years to go before they can retire. I would have been a lifer. They would have had to drag me from the station at at 57 years old, which I’m now, you know. I ran a shift. I was a a watch commander when I first started. I mean, I would put put 40 50 guys on the field and then, you know, start going getting smaller and smaller. The amount of people that I could put in and the height of the mass migration that we saw, we called it a skeleton crew, which was the bare minimum. I’m talking, you know, two people here, two people there just to say that we have some type of coverage because everybody was inside processing. Okay. Yeah. So, all your resources went to processing, not to securing. Mhm. Okay. So, watch commander, say you have 50 guys. How many of those 50 do you think were for the policies of that time? Was anyone for them? None of them. Nobody. Nobody. Oh, no. Okay. Oh, no. Nobody. And that I mean and that that brings another uh another issue another subject. You have 4 years of guys not being properly trained in field. So that takes a toll on border patrol operations and border patrol culture. You’re a trainee. You have your journeyman. He takes you out. He shows you around. He shows you how to work traffic. But when all you know as a border patrol agent, all you know is to sit around at the station, wait for the next call of, “Hey, we have uh 100 people waiting down by uh in San Louis. I mean, these people are not there to run. They’re not They’re just waiting to get picked up.” Yeah. Yeah. I saw So, I shot that video a little over two years ago here. We were way out in the desert. the sheriff and I and uh there was this Indian family out there looking like they just got out of the shopping mall because they probably did. From my understanding, they flew Delhi, Mexico City, Mexico City, Mexicalei. Cartel arranged their ride to the gap in the fence where there was a gap. Sent them on their way to the American side. Gave him a phone, said, “Call 911 when you get there.” our customs border of protection came in with the helicopter and all the resources, processed them. Then a quarter mile down or a half mile down is when the dirty stuff goes through, the sex trafficking, the fentanyl, the the highly illegal stuff that’s going to be sent back, right? Is that is that how that game was played? Is that how you saw it? Yeah, that is how it’s played. If they’re going to give up, why all the way out there in the middle of nowhere? Because they want to draw resources over to that site. Right. Right. Right. You know, so we were way out in the middle of nowhere. I saw the video. I remember it. Oh, yeah. No, I remember. I mean, you guys were by monument 198, you know, that’s way out there. Yeah. So, draw resources from the urban closer, you know, where it’s a quick jump and they’re in the houses. They don’t want you close to that, you know, they want you out there so you can’t respond to what’s going on in the urban areas. Okay. So, did you guys when you were working right before you retired, did you feel like you just had no control of the border? I mean, definitely not. Definitely not. You know, cuz you’re supposed to dictate the operations. Operations were being dictated by the illegal aliens. I’m the watch commander. I tell my guys, you’re going to be here, here, and here. But I c I couldn’t do that as a watch commander because they would do their thing and then you know like operations had to move wherever they went. So they were dictating our operations which is crazy and one of the big reasons why I said I can’t do this anymore. During that time I got a call in from the United Cajun Navy to go down to the border in Texas. And that was four years ago. Right. Okay. And I, as your average American, I had no clue what was going on at the border, right? Or understanding of the border at all. Right. So, what’s the why? I’ll preface this real quickly here. I saw in Charoy, Pennsylvania, Mon Valley, a lot of Haitians there. Mhm. They’re chicken. I I think it was chicken. It might be chicken or something else. They need workers really bad. South Florida sugar, big sugar needs cheap labor. So I it’s not just the types that are like we need no borders in this world, everyone is human, nations don’t mean anything. It’s actually big business interests too. So it’s coming from both sides from what I’ve seen, right? Why do you think that the policy was the way it was for those four years? Uh I mean first of all I think that the whole thing was done purposely. Uh, I don’t think this was a fluke or incompetence of Mr. Mayor. They’re not that stupid, right? No, they’re not. I’m sorry. You know, like you don’t get to that those positions by being stupid. This was a concerted effort. My opinion, not Border Patrol. I don’t even work for Border Patrol anymore, but um it was a concerted effort to do I mean the the candidate when he was candidate, President Biden said it, you know, this is what I want, you know. and it happened, you know, and it’s uh as far as the uh you mentioned the American people, I have to apologize to the American people on behalf of I mean Border Patrol when I was in there because when I saw your video with the sheriff uh two years ago, I remember him talking about the possible things that could happen. I remember him saying something specifically like this is going to your town. Yeah. And then you have the lake and Riley’s and then you have all this all this crime. And I hate when I when I hear people, well, not all illegal aliens are, you know, most crime is committed by US citizens. Okay, I understand that. But we have US citizens committing crime. Do we need to import more? I mean, is that even does that make sense? Right. Right. So any type of crime committed by a person that shouldn’t be here in the first place is outrageous. Yeah. Especially when he was like, “Go.” Yeah. You know, it’s it’s it’s it’s criminal in so many ways. You You know, I would like to say though, the vast majority of people are coming here. They’re getting into restaurants, landscaping. Yes. Oh, no. Absolutely. House cleaning. And they’re good people that want a better life. Like the mass majority. But when you hit such scale, when you put millions of when I have millions of people watching a video, you’re getting all types. I can be called everything. Even though the vast majority love the video, 99% say, “Great video. That was awesome. I learned something.” 1% of a million is a lot of people. 1% of 10 million. Wow. Now we’re talking numbers. Right. Exactly. And so I think that gets misrepresented, too. Like, yeah, the average person wants a better life. Okay, got it. But at scale, you’re getting a lot of riff raff in. And that’s just the way it is. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. It’s the nature of the beast. One of the most beautiful things that I I remember seeing when I was in in, you know, in the field was whenever I worked midnights in San Louis, Arizona. We have that port of entry there. And every morning at 4 in the 4:00 a.m. during uh crop season, it was droves and throws of people coming in legally to come work. It can be done. Yeah. You know, they come in legally. They they work and kudos to them. I mean, I I I love that they can come in and do that. Yeah. It is just that when it’s uncontrolled, unfettered like that, you can’t control who comes in and who, you know, you can’t weed out the bad element. That’s that’s it. Yeah. I think 95 plus percentage of Americans are pro immigration, right? And I always want to pe see people thrive. Most immigrants love America more than a lot lot of Americans. Some abuse it, but some really love it. And you want those A players that really love it. No matter if they’re in kitchens or mowing lawns or the top brains of whatever field, you want to take the best, right, from around the world. That’s the luxury we have as America cuz it’s a nice place to be. Absolutely. I just don’t understand if most Americans are on board with that, why the federal government wouldn’t set up a system for more work visas, more path to citizenship, but that’s with solid vetting. And that’s a carrots and sticks approach. you commit a crime in the country, then well, we don’t want you here. You know, if it’s like a violent crime on an old lady, you’re, you know, bashing her head on the streets or something like we don’t want those people here if they’re not citizens yet. But most Americans would be so on board with Yeah. more immigrants. We have to figure out a number. That’s the t that’s the sticky part. How much do we want to immigrate a year? But vet everyone properly, right? And it also gives the immigrants security knowing that they’re here legally. Mhm. And also, they’re not paying off a cartel. The cartel, right? A lot of these people, what what people didn’t get, and if if for some of you that didn’t see my earlier videos on the border, no one just gets over the border, right? How much were they paying to get here from say Honduras back in the day? Thousands. I mean, I was like 6,000. I remember when I was here. 6,000. And they enforce that. You know, you try to come in without going through them, you’re in trouble. I mean, you’re you’re going to get robbed. You’re going to get I mean, you’re going to get killed. Yeah. You know, by the cartels, you know. So, they control the border. They have what they call the plazas, and each plaza has a plaza boss, and they they set the What’s the plaza? Territory. Plaza is a territory. Yeah. So, Yuma sector, how many plazas? I don’t know. Plazas are subdivisions of whoever, you know, whatever cartel is the one dominant on the Mexican side. And the plazas are little subdivisions of that main cartel. All right. So, illegal crossings are down 93%. What do you think the cartel is now doing for money? I don’t know. I think they’re going to have, you know, they they have to go back to old drugs. You know, we’ll start seeing attempts again to do the remember the the the tunnels and, you know, into the chicken place into that KFC and uh yeah, straight out of Breaking Bad. There’s always games that they play. You still got the drones that they deal with that are bringing in the narcotics. They’re GPS control. They can drop all that stuff at a certain location. So, you’re still going to fight those fights, but you’re not having to deal with the humanitarian aspect of it here and all the stuff that Border Patrol agents had to deal with that was not part of their training at all. They didn’t sign up for it. No. Well, they their their law enforcement is like I would equate it to a sheriff saying to the city police, “I’m not going to hold your people in my jail no more. You’re going to have to hold them in your police station and put them through the process.” Right? That’s what they did with law enforcement for border patrols. Like they took them from being cops out on the street to being jailers and housing. Someone comes in from Liberia, Africa, right? Mhm. They have no ID identification when they come over. They get processed in. Mhm. There’s no background check happening. They can only take what they tell them verbally is their name and their date of birth. Yeah. They can only try to do fingerprints, but if that country doesn’t share their criminal history database or fingerprints, there is they’re going to come up clean because that country won’t share that information with with our law enforcement anymore, right? So, Venezuela and the US don’t have tight relationships politically. So, you wouldn’t think that that information would be going back quickly. And so, when we were told that everyone was being vetted when they were coming in, that was BS, right? Yeah. Totally. Yes, cuz we saw the IDs in the dirt over there. Yeah, IDs were here. I’ve heard different takes on this, but I thought say you’re coming from Haiti, right? And you go through Mexico first. Isn’t it the first country you step foot in that’s you’re supposed to claim asylum in for a valid asylum claim? For a valid asylum claim. Yeah. Yeah. So, obviously they want to come to us, not Mexico. No, it was never in their mind. The whole asylum thing is just gaming the system to make it all the way here. And they’re coached. They’re coached by the cartels. They’re coached by people that have been let in on what the process is, what’s faster, what’s not faster during that whole period of time. So, they were gaming the system to get in and the administration was allowing that to happen. Even though those boots on the ground were saying, “Stop this.” We were still concerned like we were under Obama about the kids. How do you really know that that kid belongs to that person who’s portraying themselves as family unit, right? And under Obama, they actually started doing DNA rapid right there at Border Patrol with that star. Thanks for bringing that up. Hundreds of thousands of kids with no family were were lost, unaccompanied kids, and they were getting them here, too. and they would have to have to deal with that absorbed in the interior all parts of the country. They can’t find them. They don’t know where they went. There was no actual tracking that happened. So whether it’s 300, whether it’s 10, it really doesn’t matter. You lost that kid. You lost the kid is being victimized somewhere. And this turned totally political. So depending on what media someone watches or reads, they’re not going to get any of that information. And I made these videos cuz look, every American should know this. It’s a problem and it shouldn’t even have a political stripe to it. It should be like people are dying. Well, you know, when we talked with Holman, the sheriff’s dude, because we were concerned, all right, what’s your plan? What’s going to happen? And Holman met with us down there in Coochis County. And he mapped it out. He goes, “Look, we have already 1.5 million people that have gone through the system through the courts. The courts have had told them they are to be removed from the country. They didn’t have a legitimate asylum claim. Mayorcas during that period of time, didn’t deport them. So Homeman’s first thing was he had 1.5 million people that have already been ordered to leave that are still here. 300 kids that thousand kids that he’s got to try to find. That’s that’s a beast in and of itself with the limited manpower that they have to try to catch up. So they’re tied up already trying to deal with that. And plus now you’re dealing with the TDA which is a beast. I mean we’ve dealt with the MS-13 Mexican mafia here over the years forever. Mhm. TDA was a whole different ballgame. Why? Because they’re they were actually born in a prison and they took over that prison in Venezuela. So TDA they’re they’re all about violence, extortion, rape, robbery. They don’t care. They don’t value human life at all. How many TDA guys do we have in the country or no way of knowing? I have no clue. I haven’t seen a number on it. And they all go towards your major metropolitan areas because why? It’s easier to hide. A good guy. He’s down to earth, solid, and he doesn’t have an agenda. It’s all about doing what’s right. You have to be fortunate to be in your branch of law enforcement where Yeah. you could do your job the whole time even though you were stretched thin and put out on this stuff. Yeah. We we can uh we we don’t have somebody pushing political ideologies into public safety as far as the sheriff goes. Sheriffs are a constitutionally elected position. And the whole idea behind it was that that is the chief law enforcement officer for that county that speaks for the people as one voice. And that’s why like the Arizona Sheriff’s Association, we are the one united voice representing the people of the state. When people are mad at the elected officials that are in Washington DC or even at the state level, we’re the one that’s usually in the community all the time that the people run into and they tend to grab us by the throat to pass along their message that they’re not real happy with the electeds either in the state or the the federal level on what they’re doing. I can never be elected back in Washington DC. There’s no way, you know, because there’s just too much political ideologies that are put into there and then there’s too much deal making going on back there. Well, if you don’t support my bill, then I’m not going to support yours and all this gamesmanship. It’s like, look, you were there to represent the people of your community and do what’s right, not what you personally feel, right? I mean, I personally don’t think they should have made marijuana legal, right? Just as an example. Okay. But it is legal and it’s recreational now. So, okay, even though I don’t like it, it’s the law and that’s what we’re supposed to enforce. And they lose focus of that because they get into office and then they want to push a bill or push something that uh gets their name on a bill, makes it look like they’re doing something. But in reality, that law that they’re trying to push, they never consulted with anybody that’s going to be impacted by that certain law. Right. There’s a disconnect between what’s going on on the ground. Huge disconnect. Yeah. That’s And then we end up wasting our time fighting them that this is wrong. You’re going to create a whole different issue for everybody by doing that. So, even though we’re on the Mexican side of the wall now, we’re still in the US, right? But Mexico is way over yonder. Okay. But it’s easy to walk over to here. Oh, yeah. You can walk right across right here, right? The only reason why this was put here is because anything on the right side of this levey is in the flood plane. Okay. And we have had those 100red-year floods where excess water they’ve had to release from Morales dam down this way and the river could come up to this level. Gotcha. That’s why you’ll see fencing put in different areas even though this is the US. When you look at the heritage, right, of the Hispanic, it’s all about hard work, dedication to the family, right? That’s what their main focus is. When you hear about democracy, right, a lot of that I’m told anyway from some folks, they assume that democracy Watch your mirror. Okay. I’m here because I believe in democracy and hard work and and taking care of family, then it should be a Democrat. A the old Democratic regime is now being pushed out by liberal thought, right? you got this new everything for free type thing and you don’t have to earn it. They should just give it to you. The government should take care of you. That was in response to it was off camera, but you said Yuma County traditionally was very blue and now it’s gone red. Gone red and it’s very Latinod driven here, right? Oh, absolutely. So, the Latinos here sort of like Star County, Texas. I think that was 95, don’t quote me on this, but 94 96% Hispanic. Hispanic. Yeah. One heavily red. And I think it’s because of what you’re saying, right? They they most of them want to work hard, take care of their family, be left alone. Well, especially the Cubans came from a system where the state controlled everything, and they want the opposite of that, right? I think they’re looking at the new policies in the direction of the the party is not the direction that they truly believe in. They think it should be the other way. And unfortunately, those electeds aren’t listening. Yeah. It’s interesting how the parties have changed in so many ways. Yeah. And don’t get me wrong, I mean, I don’t vote party. Me neither. I’ve always been an independent. I vote for policies. I I vote for policies. It’s like the former sheriffs that hired me, they were both Democrat. You know, I’ve always been a Republican. Okay. But, you know, in my line of work, it’s not about party. It’s about character of the person. I can care less about race, religion, any of that. What we care about is the character of the person that’s out there doing what we do each and every day. And I think Martin Luther King is the one that actually put that in his speech. Right. When I went to the FBI National Academy, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read his speech. Wow. That guy was a visionary and you listen to I mean the media used to talk to his niece and then they slowly because it didn’t meet their narrative the media started walking away. You notice that? It’s a shame. Well, there’s this battle between color blindness, which is the MLK vision, content of character, not color of skin, right? Exactly. And then there’s identity politics on the other side, which it’s all about the color of your skin and your identity. And you have to identify with your group. And we have to pit groups against one another, you know, and it’s used as division. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are in the major metropolitan areas, but rural communities, we all work together, right? Yeah. Yeah. We we we’re with each other all the time. We don’t care about the color of your skin. We care about doing what’s right and get and making things happen. Yeah. Like the sweet little lady working for you in your office. Yeah. That you said she was unbelievable. Couldn’t imagine working without her. Oh yeah. Honor. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, she runs that jail and I put 100% faith in her. Yeah. Because of her work ethic. Yeah. and she believes in honor, integrity, and honesty. You know what I mean? Okay. So, where were we last time, Sheriff? That road was closed. But we were out there. Yeah. On the corner. I’m going to take you down that way. Okay. Okay. Cool. I remember this 2 and 1/2 years ago. We’re on the other side of the fence here. But, uh, you were saying the cartel was letting migrants out under that bridge, right? Mhm. Yeah. And they were doing it right up to the last day. Right up to the last day. right up to when uh the election happened and they named who the uh who the new president of the United States would be and then it stopped. And then over here there was a tent. There’s a cover where that blue barrel is. Remember there used to be a shade structure there and that’s where they would all pile up to be processed and then transported from here to Border Patrol’s headquarters. Right. And then I remember the buses. There were all these school buses coming down up and down this road to transport everyone in. Yeah. processing. This gate was actually used most of the time to bring in the bus, load it up, and then take it back out and close the gate. And I remember just having this weird uh this weird visceral feeling of something’s really wrong about this cartel is there dropping coming over just waiting for the school bus to pick them up. Oh, yeah. And then they’re off to interior wherever in America. Well, and the ones that would come around the corner down here, if you remember, the cartel guys were actually videotaping the people getting across and then going to border patrol, right? Because that was their proof because it was like a travel agent, right? Sending that video to the family members going, “Hey, I got your family member into the United States, so now you need to pay.” I mean, that’s how bad it was down here. And so yeah, it it was all contrary to the rule of law, you know, and I remember you saying like, you know, you feel sympathy for these people. And I also remember I said, “Don’t litter here cuz there’s litter on the ground.” I said, “We’re in America now. Don’t just throw your trash on the ground.” Right. Yeah. Oh, wow. Well, interesting to see that development. It was a week after the election. I just happened to ask the deputy chief. I said, “So, how many, you know, what’s the impact now?” They said, “I think we got nine in custody. Versus they’d have two, three, four up to 1500 a day. They were down to nine apprehensions. Yeah, that’s quite the drop. That’s huge. Yeah. And that water set up there is for the workers out here on that road, right? Not for migration. They still do get a few that come across. Okay. They still do get a few. Okay. So, you don’t want to stop that, you know. Right. You don’t want people getting hurt or How’s it been? Pretty quiet. I’m sorry. It’s all right. That’s all right. I’mma blow right by you when I leave. Sure. How are you? How are you? He’s good. Peter Santanelo, when you don’t have to worry. Yeah. She couldn’t talk on camera, but saying, “Well, when you better nobody’s coming over.” You know, like uh like he was telling you, it’s going to take a while for Border Patrol to get back to Border Patrol. Most of them started under the last administration. So she was scared of saying anything that might mess with their career. One thing you say bad could impact your future. That’s your mortgage, raising your family, your pension. You got to take care of the family first. You know, that’s why you do what you do. But I Okay, I do to be devil’s advocate. I do understand policies that say, “Hey, don’t just talk to anyone that shows up with a camera. There are people with bad intention. I can cut this a million different ways. make make her look terrible. Mhm. When she’s just a sweet woman doing her job. So Oh, and that’s what they worried about, too. Yeah, I get that. It’s like, you know, and then they see me down here and I take anybody. It doesn’t matter what media outlet they want to see it. I don’t mind taking them if I have that time. Y to go out there and show it to them and then explain the impacts to us. It’s not a narrative that, you know, it it’s just the facts. Yeah. I’m not trying to spin anything anywhere for anybody, you know. So these are new these shade structures for the trucks. No, they were there. There were just no truck. There were no trucks. Yeah, that’s right. That’s why it doesn’t stick out compared to now. All this was all here. They just didn’t have anybody that they could put out here to Manny. You said the cartel had a tunnel going under into the chicken restaurant, right? That’s on the first video. That’s a major undertaking to build a tunnel underneath all this. Right. That would come out into the kitchen. Now they’re building a brand new port of entry here. They’re widening it. Oh, right here. And making it larger. There’s all kinds of activity down here. And what do cartels like? They like to basically clone the construction companies, trucks, and everything else to try to make it look like they’re part of that. Are you serious? To get their Oh, yeah. All that border patrol. They’ve cloned border patrol trucks over in California and all that stuff. This is a busy port of entry. Fair to say. Oh yes. This place is always busy. This is San Louis, Arizona right here. And that’s San Louis, Mexico right there. People coming over for the day, working, families on both sides, that sort of thing. Yeah. So I’ve heard that a lot of Americans lower on resources and finances go over the border for dental work and things like that. Oh, yeah. That’s common place, huh? That’s common retirees. Okay. Yuma 200,000 roughly full-time. Okay. During the winter, we end up with another 100,000 in Yuma between agriculture and winter visitors. So we get folks that come from Washington, Oregon, Canada, all coming to Yuma to stay for the winter down here and then they go into Algadonas for the most part to get medical issues addressed, get their prescriptions, have dental work done. And you got to remember too, there are 800 kids that cross that border every day to go to school here and then they go back every night cuz one parent lives here. because the kid was actually a US citizen and they were born here. Okay. So, they’re entitled to that education. A pregnant woman can come into the country and then have their kid and their kid is going to be an American citizen and and like many people across the world will do that. I met a a girl from Taiwan and her mom flew in before pre pregnancy to make sure right that she got American citizenship. Well, that’s what inundated our hospital. That was all part of the game, right? Especially with all the Haitians. Every one of those women were obviously almost at the end of their term. And that’s what impacted the hospital. It was $24 million in a sixmonth period impact on a nonprofit hospital. We only have one. We’re going there today, too. Yeah. you’re going to you’re going to be able to talk to them and ask them about, you know, what was the impacts to the neonatal ward, what was the impacts to the budget of the hospital, you know, because anybody that was hurt coming across too was impacted by that. And a lot of folks from different countries, you would run into individuals that had health issues that would have to go to the hospital. If they were brought there by border patrol, then obviously the federal government paid that bill. But if like some of them they just walked to the hospital from the border because there were no agents then the community ends up fussing the bill because they don’t have any money. Right. Right. So that’s where when you find out that you pay that absorbent amount when you go to the hospital, that’s because they have to stay in business and somebody’s got to pay the bill. Yeah. So that is Mexican highway 2 on the other side of the fence. That is the main highway that goes from one end of Mexico to the other. What is that technology up there on that pole? So that pole has cameras on it that border patrol monitors and all along this area right here are sensors in the ground that will detect any kind of activity. So a lot of this is new to you. A lot of building over there, huh? Yeah. So close but yet so far. Yeah. We would get called by the Mexican authorities to go down and dive to recover a victim of a drowning over there in Mexico. So we would go down there off and on and we’d be hosted by the fire department down there cuz that’s who we were helping. To be quite honest with you, the families over there treated us better than we get treated here doing that same service. So, give you an instance, we spent two days diving over there in Algadonas for a victim that had drowned. Okay? That whole time the family was there and they were cooking lunch for us and everything. You don’t get that here, you know? So, that’s what I say. It’s it’s the character of the people. They’re hardworking, familyoriented people and they were so appreciative, you know. So, and you got to look at border communities, okay? Most of my employees have family and friends that live right over here in Mexico. They go back and forth all the time. Yeah. So, they don’t want this in their backyard anymore than we do. They were having to deal with the same conflicts from all these other countries in their backyard just like we had to deal with it. You know, that’s because the cartels were running the show. So, do you think their neighborhoods have gotten safer across the border now that the cartels aren’t pushing us through as many people as far as that goes? There’s less of an impact on their community, I would assume. But yeah, the cartel impacts have not stopped over there. Yeah. For them, it’s all about control, right? So, here we start two walls, right? This is where it was uh changed when Biden came in. Okay. When Biden came in, what happened? It all stopped. Are they going to get back to building it or No, I know that they were supposed to be addressing some of the gate openings cuz there’s a checkpoint right here. It’s where the National Guard and all them are at or the Mexican military. Yep. Looks like they’re finishing putting up the fill in the gap. Oh, cool. That was a whole gap that we had right here. Remember? Right. So, that’s good to see that they’re actually coming down here to finish all that up. The other gap where you had the monument, you could actually walk to it. Yeah, we had that in the video, right? That’s all changed. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You could just walk up here before. Yeah, this is an interesting part of the border, guys, because you can see so much. What are we looking at? 30 m that way. It’s 20 m to San Louise from right here. And then how far to those mountains? It’s another 20 m to the mountains up there. So, okay, this is that stretch that I took you on before where about 10 miles we ran into that group from India. That’s right. that was abandoned by the cartels back in here. This was one of our smuggling routes that we were having a lot of problems with. He had a pathway. Yep. That came up because the cartel and you’re right there at Highway 2 in Mexico. So the cartels would all sit down there in those buildings during the day and then at night they would bring them up and then walk up cuz this was all open. But now they’ve changed it. So that’s right, the border marker. I have it in the last video and I went right up to it. Yeah. Okay. But you said this is Biden wall. Yeah. Biden put this part up. I understood what you said earlier. Biden put it up near the agriculture because it was posing a problem with the farmers. But he actually was putting up wall in the middle of nowhere too. Right here. Okay. So why did why did we not hear anything about that? I don’t know. So they were caring a bit about the border. Fair to say a bit. Yeah. A bit because we exposed this is part of it. And when you’re talking about cartels exploiting a weakness and then people dying, that’s not a good message. Okay. So that’s a story that’s new to me today is that Biden was putting up wall. Yeah. And so it turned so political that for his party it would have been looked at as a weakness maybe. And then the Republicans wouldn’t want to show it because it would show well he’s actually putting up wall and that’s what we want to do. So that’s not good for us. Part of your politics. Yeah. You know. Okay. But you know when you got what I tell you in 2022 there was 70 in one year that died out here. 70 70 22 and then over 35 in 2023. Yeah. In that Indian family that just got off the plane that just looked like they got out of the mall. Yeah. They weren’t going to make the night out there in the clothes they had. They didn’t have anything on there cuz it was cold at that time. And you’re talking 3540 miles to go from here up to anything where civilization would be. And you’re going right through a bombing range. So you got military. This is all Brym Goldwater bombing range. So the military’s out here training all the time. So you got troops on the ground. They’re doing live fire. You’ve got aircraft doing live fire. The cartel doesn’t care. They got their money. Here you go. You’re in the US. Go that way. Yeah. And you don’t need a gallon on water. You’ll be okay. Is it good to have TV back? It’s good to see you again, Tvette. You couldn’t have done it without me. Couldn’t have. Well, you know, here’s the deal is like it’s like I told you about that truck. It was donated for the borders in your backyard for not only sheriffs but other media outlets to come out here. I’ve taken them all out here. I’ve done the same thing with you that I did with them. But apparently they they didn’t put the messaging out there because obviously they changed it to meet their narrative. And that’s the problem with media nowadays is they have to push a narrative. So they have to spin whatever you say. And I’ve seen it many of times myself where I’ve said something and they take that little snippet of it, but when you take the whole context of the conversation out of that little snippet, it makes it sound bad. You said off camera you brought a New York Times journalist out here. Yeah. And spent a full day and she didn’t write anything really about what you guys We spent till late at night and we were out here in the middle of the desert at night Uhhuh. with her and she got to see a lot of this stuff that kind of like what you saw. Yeah. And it’s like, okay, you know, that ought to be an interesting article. We spent a lot of time. I did it. Sheriff Danos did it with Coochis County down in his county. Same thing. And we were kind of, okay, let’s see what comes out of this. And it was just a small little paragraph in a whole huge article about down here on the border, but it really didn’t cover all the impacts that we discussed on the hospital, the the family advocacy center, the mission, the on law enforcement, you know, it didn’t cover any of that. And then she calls back later after they wrote that article and wanted more info. was like, I’m not going to invest any more time that I’m never going to get back, you know, for for what you’re doing because you’re just spinning an article for a political narrative. And I think we talked about that when we were out there in the middle of the desert when you found that that that radio system. Yeah. It’s like, you know, get your personal and political ideologies out of public safety. Period. The first time that we met Mayorcus, the sheriff’s when Mayorcus was sworn in and we gave him a 16point plan of success. A year later, we asked him, why haven’t you implemented any of this? And then his response was, “Did you give me something?” He didn’t even remember our conversation. and he had actually removed Sheriff Dan who was supported by national sheriffs, western state sheriffs, Arizona sheriffs, southwest border sheriffs to sit on the Homeland Security Council back then. And when he came on, he he he wrote Mark Donald’s letter saying, “We no longer need your services, sheriff.” He was the only sheriff or law enforcement person on that Homeland Security Council. Period. That was it. He removed that when Mayorcus came down here. In fact, his one of our board of supervisor even called him out because we were trying to get him to understand the the complexities of what we were dealing with here. And he lied to Jonathan Lines, our our board of supervisor, who Jonathan Lines even testified when they had a hearing here how Mayorca said he was going to take care of this and he was going to fix all the problems that we had down here. And Jonathan Lion said he didn’t do And I was testifying too at that field hearing and basically explained to him that he wasn’t doing anything. And the second time I met my Orcus, I told him he’s full of cuz he didn’t do anything that he said he was going to do. You said those exact words. Yeah. What’d he say? He just Well, Sheriff Well, do your job. Why are you creating these issues? you haven’t fixed any of these problems that we’ve showed you. And he was at a round table. He was with NOS’s, with the hospital, with the farmers. I mean, he sat there and listened to every one of them and didn’t do nothing. So, yeah, I told him he was full of he didn’t follow through on anything that he said he was going to do. He just did the narrative that his bosses told him to do. So, there’s that. They’re the Federalis. Do you know any of those guys over there? So, the Mexican government, I’ve heard, has stepped up with protecting the border also. So, the Mexican president actually sent law enforcement and the military to the border. Okay. For us here, you didn’t see any military, did you? No. No. US military? Yeah. Or Mexican. Or Mexican. Yeah. You see them? No. They’re working the ports. Okay. So, the Mexican military is actually doing the inbound stuff from the US into Mexico. What’s the inbound from US to Mexico? Guns. Guns, ammo, money. So all these years they’ve been complaining about guns being smuggled into Mexico from the US, right? Why weren’t they doing that before? You see what I’m saying? Well, there’s no but you couldn’t do it before. But you’re working on the US for smuggling guns into your country, making life miserable for the people. Why weren’t you doing inbound border checks back then? Why? Because the cartels would probably threaten their life. It’s a whole different ballgame in Mexico. The cartels control the officials and everything else over there because if you don’t, they kill you. It’s pretty easy. So wild. Just the rules of the game. 10 ft away over in that dirt. Night and day. night and day. God bless the the honest cops over there, there are some, but they they they live dayto day. They really do. Okay. So, when you talk about law enforcement and corruption, Mhm. humans are human. There’s a certain percentage that are going to try to get away with whatever they can get away with. But what would you say? Nobody knows this. What percentage of law enforcement in the United States is corrupt? That’s a tough one. I mean, there are bad cops. Obviously, whenever you put thousands of people Yeah. under one label, you’re going to get some bad apples. You’re going to get bad apples anywhere. Yes. It’s easier for us here to call that out, right? Is there any cartel on the Yuma side that controls anything or not really? It’s just all underground. So, it you look at the cartel people. Yeah. They probably live in the US versus living in Mexico. some of the the higher ranking ones or their family lives in the US so they don’t have to worry about any kind of retaliation from the rival gangs on their family over there in Mexico. Right. So you’re right anywhere you go. I mean everybody has experienced bad apples. Yeah. In their agencies. The thing is though is you know we police ourselves especially here. I can say that for my agency that anytime anybody has done something that’s out outside of what we should be doing, my own troops call them out. And we have not ever hesitated to hold those people accountable because like I’ve always said, I don’t care who you are or how big you are, you’ll still fit in my jail. And we put our own in jail. Honor, integrity, and ethics. You can never compromise any of that because once you do, you’ll never get it back. You won’t. And Americans that if they haven’t been in law enforcement or seen what you guys deal with on a dayto-day, they haven’t lived abroad or been to a place like Mexico, right? Though it’s not perfect, it’s amazingly good with law enforcement. I can never pay off a cop, hey, here’s 20 bucks. Nope. Let me go. No. Right. And I’m sure there are a few examples out there, but for the most part, for the most part, that is a true blessing. That is to have your basic day-to-day interaction not laced in corruption. Yeah. And that’s where there’s certain politicians that like to bring that part into, well, those people that are here illegally are going to lose trust and they’re not going to want to go to them to report a crime. You know, I’ve been doing this almost 40 years now. There are routes that law enforcement and those folks know that if we have a victim, even if they’re in the country illegally, we can get them a B visa to stay in the United States, so we can address that assault, that rape, that robbery, that homicide, that domestic, whatever the case may be. So, those cops are bought in that country. They’re already scared of law enforcement as it is. So, it doesn’t help for a politician in the United States of America trying to push that agenda off on us when they know well that that’s not how we operate that we’re there to serve the people no matter where they’re from. So, that part kind of pisses you off too because they’re trying to spin another narrative. That’s false. Anyway, there’s another ramp. I like it. Hey, it’s the place for it. long form video. I’m not cutting it all up. So, well, that’s it’s gonna be a long one. So, this was YMC, but is now on Vita Medical Center. This is where you’ll get a chance to talk about the impacts that we were experiencing here. Do you know how to parallel park here? Oh, yeah. You’re pro. I have a commercial driver’s license. I can drive a semitr. Where do you want me to park it? And I don’t rely on that. There you go. You got the sheriff with you so you know where to go. Yeah, you can you can pick him out of a group. He’s got it. How are you, dear? Good. I couldn’t just meet you. I know. Pleasure. Sorry about that. You have another hand. There we go. All right. Cool. How are you? Come out of this. Let’s do that. So, we just just walk beside me and All right. So, the average American doesn’t understand, you know, we we heard a few things about the border. They’re not thinking about like the second, third, fourth order effects of like how it affects schools or hospitals, right? And I just wanted to get your guys’ perspective because I tried to get it last time. I had too little time in town to to get it, but you guys because of the policies on the border, it affected your operations here. Can you walk us through that? What that was like? It does. Um, I I think the biggest thing to remember, I think for most people, um, this where we are geographically located, we’re the only hospital for 180 mi radius or a 3-hour drive. So, we’re it for our community and we’re it for anybody who comes into our door. Okay. In 2022, we were seeing, you know, sometimes 900 people to where we are today. The last 6 months, we’ve seen about 76 patients in a six-month period coming over the border that over the border and and um I think the difference today than what we saw before is most of those 76 patients, all of them but four, came in with border patrol or like an ICE or government agency. Okay. Our entire focus throughout this has been to make sure we provide the same level of care for every person. Okay? And as a hospital, that’s regardless of their ability to pay, but that left a bolus of $26 million unpaid in charges in 2022. um today if they’re coming because they’re coming in border patrol, we will get reimbursed. It takes a while, but we get reimbursed for a portion of that, the emergency care. Okay? So, somebody comes in and h delivers a baby, we get paid for those government rates for the delivery. Okay. But the care after that, so the care of the mom, if the baby has to go to the NICU, it’s not an emergency anymore. Okay. We would still be we would still have that. You have to pay for that. We would still have to pay for that. Yes. which means other patients pay for it in the long run. Right. Right. All of us with commercial insurance, those people in the community would pay for that. But that is that’s really the function of a nonprofit hospital. You are here to provide for the needs of whoever presents to our to our door. Okay. So, I heard last time I was here of a woman who was going to give birth, but there was just no room here, so she had to go fe to Phoenix to do it. Was there much of that going on? I think in the very peak of those times and it wouldn’t be that we would be transferring to people to Phoenix, but they might have had to wait. So if you have a delivery that’s a scheduled delivery, they might be asked to say come in at 1:00, they might come in tomorrow at 8 or so I think some of those things were happening. You know, when you have a large bolus of people come in and they come on their own. So in 22 they were coming on their own and they had no resources. So by the time they’ve made whatever journey they’ve made, they didn’t have any resources. If you know, if they were delivering a baby, they didn’t have anything for the baby. They didn’t have car seats. They didn’t have the means to care for a baby. So all of those things we needed to do. If we had an orthopedic patient who needed to leave, maybe they needed crutches or some kind of medical equipment, we would need to make sure they had that before they left. So a safe discharge is our requirement as a hospital. If you came a patient here, we would want to make sure you had a safe discharge. you make sure you had all the resources you needed to do that or your and your follow-up care. You need dialysis, you need some something followup after your surgery. I think the difference of what we see today and what was there is those patients then um and you have a language barrier many times too. But the patients today because our patients now that you know the large percentage of them are leaving with under border patrol or ICE custody. Yeah. That next step of coordinated care, we make sure that they’re discharged to them. They’re not going to a hotel or we don’t need to find them a hotel. You had to find them a hotel. We were finding hotels. We were coordinating. Who was paying for the hotels? Uh we were in the beginning. Yes. Because I mean a hotel is much less expensive than a hospital bed, right? Jeez. All right. Um, and you know, for a mom who delivers a baby, if the baby’s in the NICU and they have nowhere to go, putting them in a hotel allows that connection with the baby and to make sure that the mom is able to see the baby and Okay. feed the baby and all of those kinds of things. Let me get on the other side. I’m putting your eyes in the sun there. I can take Yeah. Yeah, that’s better. I got a lid. Okay. So, what I I think a lot of people don’t understand definitely overseas. My audience is worldwide, right? But everyone gets healthare in America. Absolutely. If I have zero health insurance and I come in here stumbling with a broken leg, right, you guys aren’t going to send me on my way. You’re going to take care of it, the emergency room. And that is also for migrants coming over the border. Anybody who comes in that any border and you’re going to go to the most acute care, right, first, right? The most severe severely injured are going to go first. Okay? If you were in there and you were there with your broken toe and somebody comes in with a broken arm, even if they can’t pay or even if they are not a US citizen, they are going I mean that that care will be goes first. Okay. So, did that anger some of the locals here if their care was pushed down? Sure. I think I think it certainly created a voice of concern across our community and that was frustrating for you guys. Yeah. And I it’s hard for it’s hard for clinical care providers too because a like I said a nurse to a nurse when a patient’s in a bed they are patient. Y is a human on the other side. And so you don’t want to be No, you’re right. Right. Which is what you would want, right? When you come in, you don’t want us to say, “Well, wait a minute. How about this guy?” Like, “How much how much money does he have first?” And so our job is to make sure that you’re getting the best level of care for your particular needs at that time. Okay. Either that or I’m going to trade you shoes and we’re going to do this. You want to trade? Okay. You won’t be as styling as you are now. So, you’re feeling good about the policies here now? Yeah. I think we’re in um a better position. It’s like we can’t continue to foot the bill for particularly a large group of patients like that in numbers and volumes. It’s just not sustainable for our organization for a long period of time. It’s just not sustainable. So to pay your nurses, keep everything going, keep the lights on, you need to have certain profits. And if you’re paying out that much amount of money, that risk the operation, let’s say. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. And the sheriff gets along with everyone. Fair to say? Of course he does. He’s loved here, huh? Yes, he does. Yes, he is loved here. Do you know where I can find some security around here? He’s She’s the one. Yeah, I recognized you. Oh, you did? Oh, thank you. Walk. I’m like, that looks like Peter. I heard you and I’m like, “Wow, that nice. What’s your name? Nice to meet you. My name’s Carolina.” Carolina. Oh, thank you. Great job, Carolina. Like this when she walked by. Yeah, cuz I was telling my So, you saw the first video I did with the sheriff. Okay. What did you think of that? It was great and really insightful. I loved it. It was great. Okay. And were you here nursing at that time? A few years back? I wasn’t. Oh, you weren’t new to the community. So, I felt like it kind of gave me an introduction to the city. So, you didn’t have to deal with like the the huge influx here? No. No. Okay. Well, thank you cuz without nurses, we’d all be suffering cuz I wouldn’t want to rely on the sheriff when it comes to my fixing my Not for that. Not for that. He brings a lot of skills. Anything else you want to say, Michelle? So, the last six months, um, we’ve incurred in those costs I talked about with those 76 patients, the build charges for those are about 1.5 million. So far, we received like 56,000. We project that we’ll probably get 181,000 from those, but at least we’re getting reimbursement for the patients, right? And not getting zero. So, so that comes from the federal government. that comes from the federal government through but that’s because they’re coming into the border patrol. They are typically in custody, okay, when they come in. The migrant story has been told many times, but a lot of the stories that aren’t told are the ones of the school systems or the hospital systems having to deal with this problem. And there they’re stories that need to be heard because we all pay for it, right? Of course. And it’s only through messy, chaotic policies that we got to this point. Right. If it was done more orderly, then we wouldn’t be in this position. Right. Right. So, right. If I can bring light to that, cool. Absolutely. You are great. Thank you. I’m gonna take this. Yes, please. Give me that. What does that say? Dead cat. It’s called a dead kitty. Scary cat. It’s a dead kitty. I know. Well, now he’s going to wire me back up again. Well, you got a cool community. I like it here in Yuma. Thank you. All right, Sheriff. We’ll uh finish up at the station. Yeah. Yeah. That’s an awesome looking badge, isn’t it? That is. That is all right. Sheriff, anything else? Covered a lot today. We did. And uh hopefully your viewers, I mean, I understand you’re here because they all wanted an update. They wanted an update. And hopefully we we gave them a true life update on what’s going on on our border down here in the our piece of paradise. Yeah. No, it’s cool to see. I didn’t TET didn’t find me any money this time. So, it’s sad. Walker, Texas Ranger for those uh from the ‘9s. When was that? that that was on air in the ‘9s. 80s and 90s on your walker on TV. Yeah, you’re um hopefully we don’t need to do an update anytime soon. Well, but if things change dramatically, let me know. Oh, absolutely. I’ll come back. I appreciate you uh keeping a pulse on what’s going on. It’s a good thing now. It’s like you’ve heard from I mean for your listeners, I think it’s great that you actually got to sit down with a recently retired Border Patrol agent and to actually talk to somebody from the hospital. Yeah. All too often I can talk about, you know, the farmers and the impacts there and the family advocacy, but for your listeners to be able to and your viewers to be able to hear it straight from them. Yeah. I think kind of adds to the validity of your your journalism and thank you for doing what you do. I appreciate it. Because to get the message out, it’s got to be where they make that decision on what’s right and what’s wrong, not us. Yeah. Yep. Someone can like this, they can dislike it, but they’ll learn something definitely on this journey. Well, and there there’s no politics involved in this. It’s public safety. Yeah. And like I said before the first time, get your politics out of public safety. Let us do our job. You know, if you don’t like the law, change it. Otherwise, we have to do what we have to do. Well, Sheriff, all right, we’ll do fist pumps cuz I got my wrist taken out. And thanks guys for coming on that journey. Until the next one.

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► Video with the Sheriff I shot 2.5 years ago: https://youtu.be/GdYAYgbf5Uc

A little over two years ago, the US/Mexico border was chaotic, with record numbers of migrants crossing it. So what’s it like now? Join Yuma County, AZ, Sheriff Leon Wilmot, and me for a deep-dive update on what’s happening

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