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Published January 08, 2015
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 25, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER, R-ARIZ.: Arizona did not ask for this fight nor did it seek out the task of having to confront illegal immigration. We cannot forget that we are here today because the federal government has failed the American people regarding immigration policy, has failed to protect its citizens, has failed to preserve the rule of law, and has failed to secure our borders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: That was Gov. Jan Brewer earlier today reacting to the Supreme Court's Arizona immigration law ruling. Now, the court struck down much of the law but upheld a key provision that allows police officers to check the immigration status of those that they suspect may be in the country illegally.
And now, outrage is growing over reports that the Obama administration has suspended existing agreements with Arizona police. And according to an anonymous officials quoted by the Washington Times, the Department of Homeland Security will not ignore calls from local law enforcement who report illegals.
Joining me now with reaction to the ruling today, is Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Robert Gilbert is with us, former Department of Homeland Security and border patrol official. Thank you both gentleman for being with us.
Sheriff, let me I guess start with you and ask you, you know, what does this mean if the Department of Homeland Security, if you guys do your job and this has now been upheld by the court, and you seek information from the government and they aren't going to cooperate, what does that mean? Ostensibly, in reality doesn't that mean you have to release the people that they are talking about?
SHERIFF LARRY DEVER, COCHISE COUNTY, ARIZ.: Well, Sean, four things have happened over this brief period of time. Fast and Furious, which is a huge travesty, then you have the Obama administration announcing they are no longer going to deport a certain category of illegal aliens that they haven't been deporting anyway. That's the joke on you and the American public. Then the Supreme Court ruling where they are claiming that the Arizona law was gutted.
The cornerstone as you said earlier was left in place, it's the most important part. And then today, suspending and pulling away the 287-G agreement and then stating that they are not going to respond to lawful requests, requests that they are required to respond to under the law, is not just a slap in the face to the American public and the law enforcement in general, specifically in Arizona, but the Supreme Court as well.
HANNITY: Mr. Gilbert. Let me go through this. Governor Brewer was very clear here. The only reason this came about is because the federal government failed the people of Arizona and failed the people of this country, and especially people in border states. It's impacting our criminal justice system, our educational system, our healthcare system, and you are on the front lines of all of this.
Now as a result of this, the president's executive order, he's not going to enforce the law, and now he's saying our federal agencies are not going to cooperate with local law enforcement. In all practical terms, what does that mean?
ROBERT GILBERT, FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICIAL: Well, Sean, it looks like a huge opportunity being missed here. If you look for the first time in history the law enforcement community, whether its federal, state, local or tribal, was going to be able to coordinate and actually work together in a cohesive manner to work towards securing the border. Because border security started in Arizona but it impacts the entire United States. And if we don't secure the border here, we're going to continue to have that trickle through that's going on in other states. And the law enforcement community, the public expects us to work together. We work together in everything except this one issue.
HANNITY: All right.
GILBERT: And why is that?
HANNITY: Sheriff, let me go back to October of 2010. And this is President Obama talking about how Hispanic Americans were being harassed under the Arizona immigration law. And I want to ask you if this is true or not. Here's what the president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, OTTUMWA, IOWA, APRIL 27, 2010)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If you are a Hispanic American in Arizona, your great-grandparents may have been there before Arizona was even a state. But now suddenly if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you are going to be harassed. That's something that could potentially happen. That's not the right way to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, the president totally misrepresented the law. Because law enforcement was not allowed under the law to ask people for, quote, "their papers." They would have had to have had some contact with law enforcement ahead of time. What do you make of what the president said and is any of that what he said true?
DEVER: Well, Sean, that's just an absolute insult to the professionalism of the men and women that work in this industry day in and day out. Thirty six years, I've been in law enforcement and Cochise County. We had one racial profiling complaint in that period of time and it was unfounded. To suggest for a second that this law would change that culture in law enforcement for a second is, again, just a huge insult.
HANNITY: What about this Justice Department hotline that has been set up for Arizona immigration enforcement concerns? What does that mean for you and those that work in your agency?
DEVER: Well, that's expected. You know, the ACLU lawsuit is still sitting in district court in Arizona and that was the first lawsuit filed. That has yet to be heard. And that's where they sued each sheriff, myself and every other sheriff in Arizona and county attorney individually to enjoin us from enforcing the law should the Supreme Court rule as it did today.
HANNITY: All right.
DEVER: So, we are going to be back here and going through this all over again. And they are -- they have lined up and they are waiting for the right case to come along to try to bring us back. So, the battle is still to be waged, and that's why we started this border sheriff's project some time ago and you can go to bordersheriffs.com and get the info, but in order to -- because we anticipated that this battle would be waged beyond the Supreme Court's ruling.
HANNITY: I'm not so sure if the president decides that he's not going to enforce the laws that have been passed by Congress and ruled by executive fiat. And then they are not going to cooperate with law enforcement if any of that matters unless you get a new president. But gentlemen, thank you both for being with us.
DEVER: Let me just tell you what we do, Sean. If ICE or Border Patrol won't come get them, we take them to them, dump them on their doorstep and say, you figure it out.
HANNITY: All right. We'll going to watch very closely. I think there's a lot of challenges that comes to this. I appreciate you being here.
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