Kelly File: Marine jailed in Mexico

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Kelly File: Marine jailed in Mexico

Megyn Kelly reports on American hero caught in harrowing ordeal

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," December 13, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly. In "The Kelly File" segment tonight, we have a lot to talk about, beginning with the terrible ordeal of 27-year-old, Jon Hammar.

He is a former Marine Lance Corporal from Florida, now incarcerated in Mexico. Mexicans put him in prison after he registered an antique gun with the U.S. Border Patrol.

Then he crossed into Mexico. Apparently, the Mexican authorities saw the paperwork and immediately arrested Corporal Hammar on gun charges. That was four months ago and he's still in prison. Senator Bill Nelson from Florida said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL NELSON, SENATOR, FLORIDA (D): Bring this marine home, Mexican government. And now that you have a new president just installed in Mexico, the relations with the United States are especially important to treat the United States citizens who are peaceful in their intent, innocent in their observation of the Mexican laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: All right. Here now, Attorney and Fox News Anchor, Megyn Kelly, as we look into this story. This is really ridiculous, right.

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Totally ridiculous. Why didn't they just turn him away at the border. Just send them back over the border --

O'REILLY: All they had to do was that. Because he was taking the antique gun to Costa Rica to go hunting.

KELLY: Right.

O'REILLY: Now, that wasn't smart move on his part. And I've said this many times, if you go to Mexico, don't do anything, don't take anything, don't drive there, just fly in, go to your resort hotel --

KELLY: You know what --

O'REILLY: -- and get the hell out.

KELLY: -- I mean, you really have to think -- don't bother going until Mr. Hammar gets out of prison.

O'REILLY: Well, I don't think anybody should go anyway. I just said it like that.

KELLY: You know what, I'm just saying, this guy serves our country honorably, gets honorably discharged. He had to go on a post-traumatic stress disorder treatment, which he did because, you know, his buddies had gotten killed during service.

He gets out of that and he goes just to have a surfing trip, just to have relief.

O'REILLY: Yes, just to go down and have a little fun. And these guys --

KELLY: He registers a gun. It's not like he's trying to pull a fast one.

O'REILLY: Right. KELLY: He registered it with U.S. Customs. And, now, the Mexicans say, "That's it. You're going immediately to jail." Here's the irony about it. OK, so, what has our State Department done.

Well, we've made a few phone calls. The parents are very upset that the U.S. Consulate hasn't done more. But, really, typically, the way this works is our State Department calls their State Department.

And then it funnels on down the line until they get to the local police and they s state police and they say, "Don't be ridiculous."

This isn't one of those situations where somebody goes hiking over and then accidentally crosses into Iran.

This is Mexico. That's an ally of ours --

O'REILLY: OK. Well, here's -- let's just cut through it --

KELLY: -- wait. We give them hundreds of millions of dollars a year, Bill. Why isn't it just a phone call.

O'REILLY: Let's be honest. They disrespect us all the time, Mexico, all the time. Number one, Hillary Clinton should be involved in this herself. We haven't seen any sign of that.

Number two, President Obama should be involved. We haven't seen any sign of that.

Number three, the new Mexican President Nieto, I think his name is, all right. He -- there's no way that this guy shouldn't let this marine out tomorrow.

Christmas is coming up. We called the Mexican Embassy today. Those people are totally chaotic.

KELLY: They're very busy.

O'REILLY: They don't know what the hell is going on. They don't care, all right. So, I think, now, we're going to have to squeeze. We're going to have to put pressure.

KELLY: Here's the irony. Here's the irony, Bill. Let me just -- let the viewers know. So, we have this $1.9 billion assistance program that we help Mexico with to fight their war on drugs, among other things.

And we've been sending down like, money, for Blackhawk helicopters and so on. But, recently, our effort has shifted to more of a law and order assistance program.

And we have had -- the head or the Former Director of Colorado's Penitentiary system has trained more than 5,000 Mexican prison officials in recent years.

Mexican jurors are running mock trials with visiting American judges. And what are they training for? To try our marine. I mean, it's ridiculous.

We're going down there to revamp their law and order system. And who are they going to use it against. Not their own cartel members but our military.

O'REILLY: You know, the marine's parents are going on "Hannity" after this program. So, I want you to stick around for that.

KELLY: And on "America Live" tomorrow.

O'REILLY: Here's what we're going to do. We're going to do a story on it tomorrow. Mexican Embassy, again, we asked you all day long to comment. You're hiding. You can't continue to hide.

And, Hillary Clinton, you know what? You've got to get involved. All right, Ms. Secretary, you've got to get involved. That's it.

And if President Obama has to get involved, he has to get involved. This is a Marine corporal. This is an American. Four months for nothing.

KELLY: He didn't do anything wrong.

O'REILLY: That's it, all right. So --

KELLY: He is facing up to 12 years in prison, essentially.

O'REILLY: Well, he's going to get out soon. I have confidence the new president of Mexico is going to do the right thing.

KELLY: Well, it's a sketchy situation down there. They're calling the parents from the jail and they're trying to extort thousands of dollars from them --

O'REILLY: Of course, that's what they do.

KELLY: -- that theyhad to have him move to solitary confinement which is a shed next to the prison guard.

O'REILLY: If the parents had paid 10 grand, they probably could have gotten him out.

KELLY: They say he has been chained to the bed. Apparently, we were able to stop that from happening, so --

O'REILLY: All right. Enough is enough. All right, Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey, apparently, had an immigrant who was in the country

-- not an immigrant, an intern who is in the country illegally, all right.

KELLY: Right.

O'REILLY: And a registered sex offender to boot. Pick it up.

KELLY: Well, then, that intern just got arrested. He's only a young kid. He's 18 years old. He got arrested.

O'REILLY: What was the -- you know what the sex charge was against him.

KELLY: No, because it was, apparently --

O'REILLY: Sealed?

KELLY: Yes. Because it happened when he was a juvy but he still had to register as a sex offender. I'm very confused about this case because it happened here in the United States. And, yet, why was he still here.

O'REILLY: Because they don't deport people, you know --

KELLY: They say it's the illegal immigrants who make him register as a sex offender and then they let him go get a job in the senator's office?

O'REILLY: The "Boston Globe" of tomorrow on the FACTOR, The "Boston Globe," has done a big investigation on illegal immigrants committing horrendous crimes and nothing happens to them. We'll have that tomorrow.

But you shouldn't be surprised about this. You've seen this before. Well, what about Menendez. What does he say.

KELLY: So, the allegation is, the "Associated Press" claims it has one U.S. official familiar with the case who is telling the AP that ICE snuffed out the guy, went to the Department of Homeland Security and said, "This is going to be a high-profile thing because he's an intern for a senator.

And this official claims that Homeland Security told Ice, "Don't make the arrest until after the election," because this was really October.

ICE and Homeland Security are denying that categorically, on the record, they claim no politics were involved in this --

O'REILLY: Right. And Menendez, what does he say.

KELLY: And Menendez says, "I was shocked. I've just found all of this out."

And his office is saying, "Well, look, we couldn't have known that he was an illegal immigrant because -- how would we check that."

O'REILLY: Well, when you're an intern, aren't you supposed to check the resumes and stuff and figure out where he comes from.

KELLY: It's the federal government or like, I know, he was an unpaid intern. Maybe, after --

(LAUGHTER)

O'REILLY: You just run a little check on him because, he's right, he's a busy senator. You run a little check and see where he is.

KELLY: So, that is the status of our offices --

O'REILLY: OK, OK. Megyn Kelly, everyone. Keep your eye on this marine, OK?

KELLY: His parents are going to be on "America Live" tomorrow as well.

O'REILLY: Oh, you're going to have them, too?

KELLY: Yes.

O'REILLY: OK. This is it. We just can't -- and we're going to hold the President, the Secretary of State, and the President of Mexico accountable for this if they can't get him out tomorrow.

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