What Role Can Mexico Play In Preventing Illegal Immigration?

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," October 3, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Welcome back to our special edition of "Hannity & Colmes." We're glad you're with us. I'm Sean Hannity, reporting live tonight from the San Diego border with Mexico.

And last night while out surveying the Mexican border, our cameras caught the apprehension of several illegal Mexican immigrants by border patrol agents. Now, the incident took place around 8 p.m. Pacific Time last night when border patrol agents monitoring the border with night vision glasses spotted five individuals crossing from Mexico right here into the United States, and the agents radioed two agents already out in the field who then proceeded to intercept the illegals less than a quarter of a mile from the border.

And there are our cameramen and producers. Well, they caught up with them. They shot the exclusive video that you're looking at right there. And later on I was out with them when they caught four other people.

Now joining us now with more details about what the Mexican government is doing to prevent these incidents from happening — from happening again, with answers to what will happen to these five immigrants when they are sent back to Mexico is Mexican counsel general for San Diego, Luis Cabrera.

Mr. Cabrera, thank you for being with us. Appreciate your time.

LUIS CABRERA, MEXICAN COUNSEL GENERAL FOR SAN DIEGO: Thank you for having me.

HANNITY: I was just out, and we're going to show this in our next segment.— I was just out with the border patrol and they just apprehended four people entering the country illegally. It's happening by the hundreds every night in this area. It's happening all along the border.

What can Mexico do now to help prevent that from happening?

CABRERA: Well, first of all, let me say that we want Mexicans to remain in Mexico. And we want Mexicans, if they come to the U.S., to cross in a legal, orderly and safe manner.

But we are facing a very complex phenomenon, which is migration, which is the labor market that exists here, and it's happening regardless of so many efforts that the U.S. government has done, here in this area, for example, to impede the people from crossing.

HANNITY: Mr. Cabrera, I had President Vicente Fox on this very program just a couple of years ago. And I said, "Mr. President," I said, "we have a serious problem with illegal immigration.

He would not admit there was an illegal immigration problem. He said they're not illegals. And then he went on to talk about how people are mistreated, et cetera.

I don't think — look, America is a country of immigrants. My grandparents came here from Mexico.

CABRERA: Yes, definitely.

HANNITY: It's not — I think what most Americans are concerned about is the fact that it's happening illegally, that people are circumventing our laws, not respecting the laws of the United States.

CABRERA: But the main — the main issue concerning migration, is first, it's a very complex phenomenon, based on economic factors, with differences between the economies of the two countries, differences in income, differences in age population. You have an older population. We have a younger population. And it's an America that needs that labor.

HANNITY: But you agree that there is an illegal immigration problem?

CABRERA: The problem is that the legal framework...

HANNITY: No, no, no. You agree that there is an illegal immigration problem?

CABRERA: There is a problem of, ultimately...

HANNITY: No, no, no. I'm asking — this is an important question. You admit that there is an illegal immigration problem that people are not respecting our laws and sovereignty?

CABRERA: The problem is — that's not the problem. The problem...

HANNITY: It is a problem. Look at the video. These people are here illegally.

CABRERA: Those are one of the many consequences of not having a legal framework according to reality.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Mr. Cabrera, it's Alan Colmes. You can hear me for a second. I want to ask you, we mentioned the people that Sean saw, he was doing some videotaping of five illegals being caught. What should happen to those people? What should happen to them next?

CABRERA: Normally, 95 percent of those people return voluntarily to Mexico. And then many of them try to cross again. So what recent history has shown for example, in this region, is that the Operation Gatekeeper has been very successful in this area but not in decreasing the flow of migration.

COLMES: What can Mexico do?

CABRERA: It continues to increase, even, now.

COLMES: Is there a responsibility in Mexico, sir, that they do something to help to make sure that those who are caught and must go back don't try to get back into the United States again?

CABRERA: The only answer to the solution to this is twofold. First, create jobs in Mexico with an investment. We need to create more jobs. And second, to have here in the U.S., because we have to recognize, it's a shared responsibility that both countries have on this issue.

COLMES: But don't the Mexican authorities have responsibility to make sure that if someone is caught going over the border and sent back to Mexico, don't the authorities of Mexico have a responsibility to make sure that person, or those people don't try to get back into the United States?

CABRERA: Well, that's been an effort that has been done in the Arizona region, to send people back to their places of origin if they voluntarily want to return there. In order to save lives, that's the main purpose of that.

HANNITY: The last point we've got to make is, if they come here illegally, they should be punished?

CABRERA: Listen, you have to recognize that there is a reality.

HANNITY: We're making excuses for law breaking, then. That is an excuse for law breaking.

CABRERA: No, it's not an excuse. It's a reality. You have 11 million undocumented persons here at the moment. Not all of them Mexicans. Half of them may be Mexicans. That's something that has to be at risk.

HANNITY: We have to stop it now.

CABRERA: First, you have to create first — you have to create a legal framework according to reality. Otherwise, it will continue to happen that people that come to work here, and they will do everything because jobs are offered.

HANNITY: We've got to run. Thank you for being with us. Appreciate your time tonight.

Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!

Content and Programming Copyright 2005 FOX News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, L.L.C.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.