Del Rio, Texas ranchers on how the border crisis has affected them
Ranchers Dan and Susan Newsome on their home being burglarized by illegal immigrants and the impact of the border crisis on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," May 6, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: I'm in Del Rio. At the border. Right behind us is the border fence. We're going to talk about exactly where we are is incredibly challenging time. I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle" from Texas tonight on the U.S.-Mexico border. We're live along the Rio Grande in a place called Del Rio, Texas, where just this little spot on the border, there are over 250 crossings each day. And we've been covering this crisis from Washington D.C. as many of you know since our show began.
But when you come here and you see it for yourself, you see number one, the professionalism of the Border Patrol in every aspect of their jobs. And you see how challenging this is. This terrain, the job responsibilities and the political failures, a total outrage. It makes you more outraged than ever before.
You want to listen to every moment of the show. You're going to see things you've never seen before. We'll talk to the people on the frontlines. You'll see a lot of the photos. Some of them we've posted throughout the day, some we haven't had a chance to. We've been so busy. But I want to be very clear tonight. Whatever you thought of the border situation, it is actually worse.
We found Border Patrol agents putting their lives on the line every single day here to protect us and then something more. They're rescuing illegal immigrants who are breaking into the country via the river right behind me. And then the agents in some cases end up. Acting as temporary childcare providers, providing food, diapers when necessary, formula, medical care. It's something to see and I had read bits and pieces of this. But I didn't really understand the enormity of this crisis until I got here.
Now frankly, I am furious at the politicians who know damn well what's happening down here. And by the way, those of you who are watching, if you don't know what's happening here, you still think it's not a crisis. Get your butts down here, see what's happening and then go back home and tell the people, it's no big deal.
The media, all my friends, sisters and brothers in the media out there. If you're not talking the truth about this border, you are part of the cover up. Tonight, that ends. Over the next hour, we're going to show you who the Border Patrol really are. How far their mission has expanded. And while some on the left portray them as well just a bunch of jackbooted thugs. Well, what we're going to do tonight on this show is show you something that you'll only see here.
We spent the past two days embedded with the Border Patrol on the ground and in the air, and on the water. And you're going to be shocked by some of what the Border Patrol showed us and here's just a little of what we were able to see for ourselves
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the time that you can walk across this river in most places, but again that's where it is deceptive and dangerous. You see, I can walk on this and suddenly they reach a spot where they go for their head. The current is strong, and they get swept away. You'll have a mother come out and trying to hold her baby above her head for the small children above their heads. And then you'll see the mother is trying to struggle herself as she's fighting the current, trying to keep a child above our heads. And then they both just can't make it. If they're lucky they make it back to the island and wait for help. They're not lucky then they end up downstream. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could see the broken cane right on the bank and the cane is broken as you look up through there, you see the trash bags that they leave behind. We'll use those trash bags to keep their clothes dry. They also use trash bags is buoyancy when they come across filling up with air and not them. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, this is a landing area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Without that fence, it's an easy--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. What the fence does is it give us that break; they have to slow down to give our agents time to make first detected and to respond in order to effect that arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, these four, one and two up river and so, the boat unit had to go up there and rescue them as you can tell, they're all soaking wet. That little tube right there. These folks were just directed by the boat. Four people drowned the other day. Same circumstances.
INGRAHAM: So, how did they know to cross this particular--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see we've got almost every size of diaper you can imagine. We've got multiple kinds of formulas; we've got juices and snacks. We've got meals. We partner up with some of our non-governmental agencies and they will help donate some clothing. Also, a lot of this is brought in by the agents themselves. We are parents so a lot of the agents have two, three, four kids. When they outgrow, into the heavy dose INGRAHAM: Here we are in the Eagle Pass and Eagle Pass sector is 140 miles and this is two miles of the four miles of fencing. This is it for the fencing. I'll show you where it ends, you saw where it began. Behind us and here where it ends. That's it. That's the end of the border fence, Eagle Pass. What happens over here?
Here we are in the Del Rio sector of the border where the other two miles of fencing is. Remember, this whole area is 209 miles. It definitely helps. Nowhere near enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: OK. So, you can make that out, 209 miles, OK, along the border in this sector, only four miles of fencing. And that wasn't all. When I was surveying the border from the air. The illegal crossings and the rescues at the river exploded, luckily Raymond Arroyo and our staff were there with the Border Patrol to capture a lot of the drama. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jump in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're getting ready cross.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where will you intercept them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the minute they start getting into distress. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is unbelievable. You see a father and I don't even- -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The father and a child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flotation device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, he's in the water without - the baby has got the device on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to come this side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll get over here. This is terrifying. I mean if a man is separated, now you have a man separated from his baby here. The baby is crying on the other boat and. Border Patrol is left to have to fish him out of the river and this happens every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day all the time from sun up to sun down when the boats are in here and they're doing this pretty much non-stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why risk life in this way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of them just don't want to wait. There's a long way at the bridges. They can only process so many a day. Doesn't matter what bridge they are, but many of them just get tired and they don't want to wait.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The humane crisis and the crisis for humanity is what's forcing these people here and the entire cartel that has created a network to feel just what we're seeing. The risk to life and limb and to you guys. You all are risking your lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By going out of your way to protect and in some cases rescue these migrants, aren't you incentivizing more of them to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't incentivize it. We try absolutely not. We don't want to become a ferry service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that it's a daily struggle that these guys have. But you know you can't leave an infant in the water struggling, you can't leave small children living in the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go again, these migrants throwing themselves into the Rio Grande. The difference here contrary to a lot of the reportage, they know they're going to be rescued, because otherwise this current will carry them straight down. But Border Patrol always intervenes as they will.
So, this gentleman, this lady, they're from Honduras. Apparently, they are friends there on the Mexican mainland to help them get across Mexico and here to the Rio Grande and now they'll go in for processing.
The man and woman we saw here. The lady claims she's from Honduras. She showed us cuts on her arms, on her head. You believe this might be part of a script.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It very well could be. And we see a lot of the same story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think these people paid cartels to get here? They're from Honduras.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't move through here without the cartels knowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, you see the tragedy of this all around the square. A father and a daughter jumped into this river thinking they were going to get--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some clemency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A better life and they're now going to be taken in process and then eventually released here into the country because of the laws the way they are, but they put their belongings in a bag, and they jump in the water and take their chances. This is the situation here. And it really is not only risking their own lives, but the lives of these agents who are taking us out here
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: And Raymond will be back at the end of the show with more of what he saw. Unbelievably dramatic. But joining me now with reaction is Raul Ortiz who we saw featured in those packages. He's the Chief Border Patrol Agent of the Del Rio sector. Chief, I think you were with me all day.
RAUL ORTIZ, CHIEF BORDER PATROL AGENT, DEL RIO: Yes, ma'am.
INGRAHAM: I think I've got more and more angry as the day went on. Angry for the children. Their lives put in jeopardy. Angry at the system that seems to have broken down. I don't think most people know the responsibility of your agents, not just - I mean this is the action. But they're doing a lot of other stuff too. Tell us about it. ORTIZ: Yes, most definitely. The Border Patrol Agents in this sector of about 1350 of them are doing a tremendous job 24/7, 365 days a year. You know the compassion that they demonstrate for the people that we encounter on a daily basis, the fact that these agents are willing to risk their own life, you know to make sure that they are able to rescue these individuals that are really putting their lives in the hands and the mercy of the smugglers and these coyotes that are ferrying them across this river.
And as you saw firsthand, it's very treacherous right now. We're releasing so much water out of the dam that the river is flowing bank to bank. So, on any given day our officers are out there rescuing. I think today we witnessed about 35, 40 rescues. And so far upwards of 400 rescues just within the last several months.
INGRAHAM: Oh, my goodness. And you have decades of experience in Border Patrol law enforcement. You were deployed in Afghanistan I believe. And to hear people who've never been here, who've never bothered to talk to a Border Patrol Agent. Speak of the mission as something less than professional and compassionate. After seeing what your agents do, men, women, Hispanic, white, from all walks of life. I've got so enraged because of the maligning of your agents, your reaction to that.
ORTIZ: Yes, we hear quite often that you know that they demonize the Border Patrol and our agents that are performing this mission each and every day. We're vested in these communities all across the 2,000 miles of the Southwest border and on our northern border, in our coastal sections. And so, for us, this is what we live and breathe. I've been doing these 28 years.
I've been deployed to Afghanistan twice, have worked the southwest border from San Diego all the way to the mouth of the Rio Grande and Rio Grande Valley and I can tell you that I've never seen such a dedicated workforce. 19,000 strong, we're 2000 under where we need to be just to be able to perform that mission each and every day at the adequate numbers. And then when you see sectors that are overwhelmed and overcapacity, over 7,000 people in Rio Grande Valley right now. We have about 500 or 600 people in our custody here in this sector. It's just really taxing.
INGRAHAM: You don't have the facility for. We're going to get into this later in the show, but I was able to get into the processing center and seeing people being processed. There is no kids in cages. All of that a total lie, but I did see you know there is a period of time where they have to be processed. You have to know who's coming in. You can just like release them, but they are having to be released into the community. Correct? ORTIZ: Yes. So, the family units that we're encountering which is a big portion of the population that we're seeing across this river right now, those folks are going to get processed and potentially released within 48 hours or 72 hours. And so that's happening through most of the border communities along the southwest border. And it really is also taxing on the non-governmental organizations, these faith-based organizations and these communities because we are the entry point and most of the individuals that we encounter they're not coming to stay on these border communities, they're making their way inland into the interior.
INGRAHAM: Just so our audience has an idea of how all-encompassing your jobs are. Here's a list of some of the things that the Border Patrol is doing, OK. We have investigative Of course, we saw that enforcement. We saw rescue ops. We saw that today. Child care, that's because that's why you went into the Border Patrol, you should just open up a childcare, medical care processing and of course detainment. I also want to place - this is a tweet from a politician Joaquin Castro, his name is. We'll put it up on the screen. And this was quite a shock. There are no words for this horror. Our country will look back at this dark chapter in our history, when our own government disregarded the humanity of children, because of their race and national origin. And he was reacting to the horrific drowning that occurred just a few days back, and two children lost their lives. Others still missing. Again, these currents are very strong. We were on them today and yesterday, extremely dangerous. But he said, made a point. This is about race. Your reaction.
ORTIZ: Yes. So, you know obviously not really recognizing or understanding the sacrifices that our Border Patrol Agents make out there. In that particular incident, which happened about six days ago. A Border Patrol Agent in the middle of night at 2:30 disregarded his own safety and jumped in and rescued a mother and a six-year-old child that would have drowned had he not taken the quick decisive action that he did.
And so instead of commending our Border Patrol Agents for going out there and protecting this border, you do have some folks that will try and malign or maybe say some negative things about those of us that are performing this mission. But I can tell you that it's not going to deter us from executing what we think is probably one of the most important national security missions, certainly a border security mission and then a humanitarian mission that has to be done also.
INGRAHAM: I mean your agents have children of their own. They want to go home to their families at night and they're throwing themselves into the river, raging river now to rescue folks and for a Texas official, former or current or anyone who frankly lives in this to say that. Anyway, this is the video we shot today via cell phone. An apprehended illegal telling our producer where he learned to penetrate and how to learn to penetrate the U.S.-Mexico border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So, Chief, he can find videos on YouTube about how to cross. How to present yourself. They're waving at the border patrol. Hi. I'd like to come on the boat. So, this is how it worked. ORTIZ: Yes. Social media and certainly, we recognize that there are some organizations that are in Central America, in the Northern Triangle countries that are certainly propagating a lot of this information. So, when they come up here, a lot of the times when we encounter them, when we ask them questions about where they're going, how they got here. You know we hear the same rhetoric from the groups and the individuals that we apprehend, so we know that a lot of this has been fed to them by some of these smugglers and these transnational criminal organizations that are operating.
INGRAHAM: Really quick, when you're sending four and five and six agents to a river rescue with family unit, people say they're family unit.
ORTIZ: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Some of them aren't. But they say they are, that diverse your resources from where the cartels are bringing drugs into other parts of the sector. Four miles of fencing. 209 miles of the sector. How hard is that when you have to rescue obviously, you're never going to let anyone drown, if you can't but then you - the cartels know it. We see him up on the mountain tops.
ORTIZ: Yes, life and safety is going to be our number one priority as Border Patrol officers out there. But I will tell you that we do know and we do have intel sources that are telling us that these family units, these unaccompanied children that are coming across this river are a diversion for the cartels so they can smuggle narcotics in between the ports of entry and also at our ports of entry, because you've got to remember, we have customs officers that are having to help patrol agents process some of these family units. So, they also know that we're even taxed at our ports of entries.
So, this is an all-out blitz by these transnational criminal organizations to take advantage of this situation right here on the border. INGRAHAM: Chief, I learned more today with you and your agents and I've been covering this issue for 20 years. And I just want to thank you for your service to this country, for your service before you were even here and keep it up and Washington will listen to this. So, thank you so much.
ORTIZ: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: We really appreciate it. And I have to say this, we are going to bring you so much more. I want you to stay here. We have more dramatic video to bring you tonight. Plus, what it's like to be an American living in these communities that are right at the border. Some beautiful places, beautiful communities, but the challenges they're facing as citizens of the United States. We're going to speak to a few ranchers. And wait until you hear what they're subjected to on a daily basis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: That's the fence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.
INGRAHAM: That looks like my garden fence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Del Rio, Texas. We are at Del Rio Border Patrol sector covers 209 miles of border. We have nine stations. Couple of those stations further north are resident agents, but there is nine stations covering from Big Bend all the way over to Laredo sector.
INGRAHAM: So, this is the border fence. This is it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am. So, this right here in front of us is the border fence in Del Rio, Texas. Del Rio sector has approximately four miles of fencing. About two of them here in Del Rio.
INGRAHAM: Wait, four miles and the sector is 209 miles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am. There is 209 miles of border within Del Rio sector, approximately four miles of them have fencing, two here and two about two miles in Eagle Pass, Texas
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Well, it's pretty shocking also pretty embarrassing that we have such a little fencing for this huge area. You really see it when you're up in the air and of course when you're on the boat and it just makes it a lot easier for illegal immigrants, most importantly cartel members. People who are the bad guys trying to make it across, penetrate into the country. And it also kind of sends a stark message to the Americans in the Del Rio sector themselves. Now what the Washington elites don't get, or they just don't care about them.
So, how do we fix this problem. Joining me now is Hector Garza, Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council and Jon Anfinsen also with the Border Patrol Council and a Border Agent right here in Del Rio, Texas.
All right, Jon, this is your sector. You have two miles of fencing. Some of it's right behind us here. Family Unit apprehensions way, way up. They're up 636 percent.
JON ANFINSEN, BORDER PATROL AGENT, DEL RIO, TEXAS: That's right.
INGRAHAM: For this fiscal year alone. You say, there are things that can be done here that aren't being done because of what you don't have at your disposal. We heard from the Chief set up the facts and the professionalism the Border Patrol I saw it firsthand. But like this - I mean this is not a 40-foot fence here. I mean it's good and it slows people down. But isn't it = what about the river, isn't that just enough of a barrier? ANFINSEN: Well, the river's a big part of it. Ultimately, the water is it a turn in some areas. But as we saw in the raft that capsized last week and the rescues that we have to do every day practically it's not enough. Our agents are tied up doing those things, rescue people, taking care of people in the stations and they're not able to be out here. The fence that you see behind you here, it ends just up the road.
INGRAHAM: Right.
ANFINSEN: And it's effective to funneling people to certain directions. And at least gives us little time to respond to it. We could use bits and pieces of this in other areas, but every mile of the border is different. So, we may not need more of the fence for the down river.
INGRAHAM: You don't need it everywhere. Right. You don't need the fencing everywhere. And Hector as we discovered today. Most of the time the river is not raging. Most of the time, it's quite low. There are pockets of deeper sections of it, but most time people walk right cross or with a little swimming. But you can walk across lots of different sections of this border. That makes it really important that you have the manpower and the fencing where appropriate.
HECTOR GARZA, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: Well, first of all its manpower, infrastructure and technology. And when we talk about infrastructure we're talking about physical barriers, fencing, walls in strategic locations. Now think about it, four miles in the entire Del Rio sector. That's not enough when we're dealing with dangerous cartels. These cartels are bringing drugs, they're bringing dangerous people with serious criminal records and then now they're bringing these kids with fake families. So yes, it's a big problem and we have to address the situation on the border.
INGRAHAM: I want to play for you. This is a part of what we discussed with one of the other agents today about what this barrier actually can accomplish and cannot accomplish as it currently stands. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People crossing this river every day on rafts, on inflatable, on boats. And when the water is at its lowest, there are places where you can walk across it on foot
INGRAHAM: But without that fence, it's an easy disappear--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, once they get across the river, what the fence does is it gives us that break that they have to slow down to give our agents time to make - first, detected. And to respond in order to affect that arrest. (END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, I heard at nighttime things get real fun out at the border. I was talking to a friend in Laredo earlier today in the Rio Grande Valley. And at nighttime, the real fun begins in quotes.
GARZA: Well, actually it becomes very dangerous at night, it's a totally different ballgame. And that's when a lot of the dangerous criminals do come across because they have - they use the cover of the night. We also had ghetto family units during the day primarily, but a lot of the dangerous criminals and the dangerous drugs actually come in at night and those are the guys that have very serious records like murder, kidnapping, rape. Some of these people are the ones that just got deported after serving time in prison. So, very dangerous folks.
INGRAHAM: This is what the Chief said today about the families being used in using children. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ORTIZ: What'll happen is a whole family will make it to the border here and they'll break up. So, a father will take a child and mother will take a child, they'll cross different locations. They won't inform any of the officers that they are all one family unit. So that way they can each take advantage of the system
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Yes. And then Jon, he went on to say that's how they divert the Border Patrol's resources, so they're not just going to one pickup location. They're going to multiple, but it is one quote family unit. Meanwhile, we've got the spotters up on the hillsides and they're bringing the drugs in two miles down the road. It's all - I mean it's incredibly organized and well-choreographed as ragtag as it looks. Once we actually started asking questions of the migrants, we started getting real answers.
ANFINSEN: It is impressive and when they cross a group at a location, they're doing it at that location at that time for a particular reason. Either they're getting other people across who don't want to be arrested or they're bringing drugs or whatever across. So, they - it is impressive at times because they know exactly how to keep us busy. INGRAHAM: Now this is some of what including Presidential candidates are saying about you and your fellow agents. Let's watch
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Border Patrol has a history of using unnecessary force, using tear gas. There are women and children out there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop allowing the United States government to commit a human rights abuse at the border.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Young children who have been taken from their parents. Audio of their cries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A moral vandalism on the ideals of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: A moral vandalism on the ideas of our country. I don't know, has he been out here? I'm not sure.
GARZA: No. They like to demonize Border Patrol agents. In reality our agents do great work. They actually care for these kids that come into our custody. We treat everybody with dignity and respect, everybody. It doesn't matter if you're a dangerous criminal, if you're a child, unaccompanied children, it doesn't matter. We're going to treat you with dignity and respect. And it's very unfortunate these congressmen decide to say this type of stuff.
INGRAHAM: Jon, your quick message to Washington, D.C., tonight.
ANFINSEN: We need help. It's as simple as that. We cannot keep this up, and it's only going to get worse. And now that the summer months are coming, it's going to get hotter out here. And I'm afraid we're going to see more people die trying to cross here, especially out when it's going to be 100 degrees.
INGRAHAM: Thank you both for being here tonight, and this is a message that everybody has to hear.
ANFINSEN: Thank you.
GARZA: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: And up next, a couple who actually lives in this community sees illegals on their ranch every day, but there was one encounter they're never going to forget. The ranchers are here next with their story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: "The Ingraham Angle" is back live from the U.S.-Mexico border. We're just feet from the two-mile stretch, two miles, border fence here and Del Rio, Texas. It's easy to dismiss this crisis from the cushy confines of D.C. or New York, or maybe Brentwood, or even Brentwood tonight, and I don't know, Pacific Heights in San Francisco. But what about the folks who actually live here?
Our next guests say that they see illegals on their property all the time. Dan and Susan Newsome, they own a ranch a few miles from here, and they join us now. Both of you, thank you for being with us tonight. Dan, tell us about your experience here.
DAN NEWSOME, HOME BURGLARIZED BY ILLEGALS: Well, where we live, this was the first time we have been broken into, and that was in the first week of April or so. And I was coming home about 5:15 in the evening. There's three miles of dirt road from the highway to our house. And I was probably 400 yards from the house, and I thought I saw someone walk into our carport. And so I sped up a little bit, paid attention, and then I saw someone run from the carport to the brush. And so I sped up and got down there to the house.
And I noticed that underneath a live oak tree was a duffle bag. And so I knew that there was something wrong. And so I got on my cellphone and I called the Border Patrol checkpoint.
(LAUGHTER)
DAN NEWSOME: And they showed up and eventually caught --
INGRAHAM: It was just one person. People are watching, it's just one person, Susan, big deal.
SUSAN NEWSOME, HOME BURGLARIZED BY ILLEGALS: There were two.
INGRAHAM: OK. So tell us what you see on your property on a daily basis. Have we seen the results of the uptick in the border crossing?
SUSAN NEWSOME: Oh, yes, yes. They come through. The Border Patrol is basically on our property all the time, which we are very grateful for that. But they are always coming through. Most of them follow the high line. They are trying to go north and get past the checkpoint. The checkpoint is 27 miles north of Del Rio. So what they do is they follow the high line to get north of the checkpoint so then they can have arranged for transportation for people to take -- for coyotes to take them north.
INGRAHAM: What we were amazed by, it's all very well-choreographed. We had migrants, I was really working my Spanish today, but I was having conversations with them. And they were very pleasant. They were like, oh, yes, here's my address, where I'm going. And they were very nice, and they've been through a long journey. Mand of them had been traveling for four and five weeks. But they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew exactly where they were going. And most of them I talked to were just we're coming here to work.
SUSAN NEWSOME: Well, the ones that got into our house, one was a Honduran and the other was the guide guiding him through past the checkpoint.
INGRAHAM: Any idea, or do you have any thoughts about who is funding all of this? Just relatives here or organizations, criminal organizations? You just see the fact that they are on your property.
SUSAN NEWSOME: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Tell us the difference, Dan, between now and, let's say 10 years ago?
DAN NEWSOME: Well, when I was young, very young, he had the bracero program.
INGRAHAM: The guest worker program.
DAN NEWSOME: And it really was -- the people you saw were workers. And if they came to us and asked for water or food or whatever it may be, we accommodated them. These days, it's not the same situation at all. It's dangerous. And this experience that we have gone through, and of course the other house on the ranch has been broken into many times. And then we have another place on the Pecos River, and that has been broken into many times. And so what we do on the ranch is we are very careful. I throw the door open to the barn, and I look very carefully in the barn before I go in. and I conduct the rest of my life on those ranches that way.
INGRAHAM: So it is a new ballgame now.
SUSAN NEWSOME: Yes.
INGRAHAM: What are the politicians not understanding? Because I'm going to play something for you really quick and then get your reaction. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The president is distorting what's going on the southern border of the United States of America.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the crisis of the president's own making.
JULIAN CASTRO, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He claimed that we're facing an invasion at the border. The president called it a national security crisis. Well, there is a crisis today. It's a crisis of leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Political talking points. Your reaction?
SUSAN NEWSOME: That is a bunch of bull, really.
(LAUGHTER)
SUSAN NEWSOME: Really, they don't understand what's going down. Our lives are completely disrupted by all of the illegals crossing over. We can't even go to our ranch on the Pecos River because the Border Patrol has warned us to stay away because there's so much drug traffic going across the ranch that they are afraid for our safety to even go on our property.
INGRAHAM: And people -- and both of you, thank you for being here tonight. American citizens, their lives affected. And I think we show the humanitarian aspect of this, but we have to remember, everyone is paying for this. Taxpayer dollars are going to cover all of these costs. And individual property owners, ranchers, their lives, their families' livelihood also put on the line. And my question is, when are lawmakers in Washington going to do something about what's happening here on the border in towns like this? All across America we have to focus on this. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is here. He has a message to deliver. It is a 911 message, up next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAUL ORTIZ, CHIEF BORDER PATROL AGENT, DEL RIO SECTOR: Where is the rest of the federal government? We need more investigators down here. We need more asylum judges down here. Across the board I think you have to have this whole government approach from DOJ, DHS. The Department of Defense has done a tremendous job of helping out where the can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAUL ORTIZ, CHIEF BORDER PATROL AGENT, DEL RIO SECTOR: We work 50 hours a week, and then some. Is somebody going to come out and help us at some point? Is somebody going to change the laws so we're not having to deal with this? Is their going to be a policy adjustment?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Now, this is something I've been hearing a lot from the Border Patrol down here. They need help. And the Washington bureaucrats are doing nothing right now to help them. President Trump trying to get them more money. He's been trying to get something done on this, but deaf ears in the Democrat Party mostly. And men and women in the Border Patrol putting their lives on the line every single day.
Joining me now with his thoughts, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Texas Rangers have been helping out down here. Big, big instance of like 500 Rangers came down to try to disperse a caravan I know recently, Dan. But you can feel the frustration on the Border Patrol. They are incredible people, but they are -- they're not going to -- they're livid.
DAN PATRICK, R-TEXAS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: I don't want to say they are overwhelmed because they can handle it.
INGRAHAM: Yes, they're amazing.
PATRICK: But everything they can handle they are handling. Think about this, Laura -- and by the way, welcome to Texas. Welcome to the border, all those people in the background are trying to get in.
INGRAHAM: They're coming in. At least they're coming in the legal way.
PATRICK: They're coming in the legal way.
And so let's look at taxes. In El Paso we are apprehending in the El Paso about 930 people a day. We're going to approach 1 million people apprehended this year plus on the border from California to Brownsville in Texas. And I was talking to law enforcement. Do we get one out of every three or four?
INGRAHAM: That's what they were just saying, 6,000 they think in this sector alone have been, they call them got-aways. And there's probably more than 6,000. So the real number is much bigger than 1 million coming in this year.
PATRICK: That is why I said to you we have close to 10 percent of our population now is here illegally. There was a poll recently that 152 million people in the world want to come to America, and 40 million of those live in Central America. And they are coming.
Last month, Laura, out came Del Rio this sector 12 years ago for the first time, worked in the bushes at night with the Border Patrol with our local sheriffs and DPS. And at that time they were mostly single males crossing. Last month we had 30,000 single males we caught, but we had 63,000 families. And that is what is happening. And as we said on your show before, the drug cartels use these people to distract and take up time with the Border Patrol. And they run all the drugs and everyone else up the middle.
INGRAHAM: The politicians in Washington, give me a couple of ideas, solutions.
PATRICK: First of all, talk about politicians, I saw you had one of the Castro brothers on earlier. I could hear.
INGRAHAM: It's tape. They wouldn't come on.
PATRICK: So think about this. We have Republicans and Democrats in Texas. The Republicans come down and see this. The Democrats come here and ignore it. And that is what they are doing in Washington. So what does Washington have to do? Number one, we have to change the asylum laws. Number two, they have to give Trump his money so that we can fencing which this is higher. This is more here where we have a border crossing, but in the areas of no-man's-land, the fence is much higher, much tougher to climb. So you have to have the fencing. And you have to give these Border Patrol more assistance.
And by the way, to the Democrats, get off their back. That story you were telling earlier about the young one who drowned, and here we had an agent in the middle of the night putting his life on the line.
INGRAHAM: It was 2:30 in the morning
PATRICK: And you were on the river today. You saw that raging river today.
INGRAHAM: I'll tell you, the 21 days, you've got to be able to hold people longer than 21 days. We have one federal judge. I'm looking in the camera. One federal judge, Dolly Gee, or Gee, whatever it is, that one judge is responsible for much of this crisis. People dying, children being temporarily sometimes, because someone is down the river, another is up the river, separated. Looking in the eyes of the children today was a heartbreak. As a mother, it's a heartbreak for the children. And I also have heartbreak for the American people and the kids in public schools and overcrowded -- it is a heartbreak to see this happen to children, but they're being used.
PATRICK: That's why when I was on your show a few weeks ago I said that the Democrats I think are in charge of modern-day slavery today. And I bet you saw this. I bet you saw this. There were adults with children, and you could tell the children weren't really their children. They were scared to death.
INGRAHAM: There was one in particular.
PATRICK: You knew they were sex trafficking. Democrats have got to realize this is a national crisis. It's not manufactured. We are being overrun, Laura. But thank you for continuing this story and telling the truth.
INGRAHAM: I'm not going to stop, and Texas is on the frontlines of this.
PATRICK: We are the frontline state.
INGRAHAM: Dan, thank you so much.
And ahead, Raymond Arroyo brings us more dramatic footage from the border, and a major part of this story that you are simply not hearing. Stay right where you are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: As a father, I'm watching this, my heart breaks, but why would you subject them to this kind of danger?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: With me right here in Del Rio, Texas, Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo. Raymond joined all the patrols, the Rio Grande. He today was out with Border Patrol. A major part of the story that you didn't understand until you got here, Raymond. What is it?
ARROYO: I'm going to tell you, it's the way these cartels own and control this Rio Grande valley. They are along the hillside on the Mexico side. They're watching. They're watching Border Patrol. They know they are stretched thin as the chief said earlier.
Here is what they do. They send these families into the river. While the Border Patrol is distracted, they are running drugs. They're pushing their criminals in elsewhere down the river. I had no concept of that until you get here and you see it. Also, what you didn't see on camera, after we finished shooting, 20 people went in the water including a seven month year old baby.
INGRAHAM: Yes, seven-month-old baby, they were holding the baby as they were going across. I had the chance to talk to a number of the --
ARROYO: We went to the processing center.
INGRAHAM: We went to the processing center. I talked to a number of the migrants, and my Spanish was tested.
ARROYO: You did a good job. What did you learn?
INGRAHAM: They are going to Maryland. I saw the handwritten. They just have a piece of cardboard, going to Maryland, going to Houston, going to Austin, going to Las Vegas, going to New York.
ARROYO: So these are other illegal aliens.
INGRAHAM: This is the thing I learned that I didn't know. I said, where did you get the money? She said we didn't pay, in Spanish. We didn't pay any money. And then I'm like, wait a second, you got here for free? Then we found out that illegal immigrants already in the United States are wiring money back to Honduras. Most of them are from Honduras, although we saw some --
ARROYO: El Salvador, Nicaragua.
INGRAHAM: Some men in a holding area. It wasn't a pan. It was a room. And they were not Central Americans.
ARROYO: But they are sending money, and they get money grams here. Once they are released, they are dropped in a central location right here in Del Rio, and from there they take buses all over America.
INGRAHAM: And Raymond, again, the politicians who have downplayed this, I'm going to call them out. Cory Booker, the Castro brothers, Kamala Harris, you are lying to the American people. And you are doing a huge disservice to the men and women who are trying to keep this sector, and frankly our country safe. That is the one thing I'm going to say.
ARROYO: And they are incentivizing the human tragedy that they claim to care about. Stop -- change the laws so these people don't risk their lives this way.
INGRAHAM: Children are dying because Washington is not doing their job in passing asylum reform.
ARROYO: I agree.
INGRAHAM: My final thoughts. You don't want to miss them when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: I hope you all have a better sense of what's happening here on the border after tonight's show. We have a lot more footage we are going to share with you on Fox Nation also tomorrow, also on my podcast tomorrow.
I want to thank all of the brave men and women of the Border Patrol. They worked tirelessly to keep this country safe. And now, they're part-time child care providers, changing diapers, doing all that. They're outmanned, and overwhelmed and they're understaffed. They need help. Politicians, start telling the truth. Start doing your jobs. America, now and forever.
We're going to keep fighting for you. We're not going to let this story go. We'll be back tomorrow night from Houston. The Laura Ingraham team thank everybody here doing a great job. And we'll see you back tomorrow night. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team take it from here.
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