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@iluminatibot - illuminatibot
This is the REAL TRUTH about human trafficking. The US Government works with the Mexican Mules
Video Transcript AI Summary
Tara Rodas expresses gratitude to Aaron Stevenson and Project Veritas for publishing a story that helped her uncover a large-scale child trafficking operation. She worked at an emergency intake site for unaccompanied children and reveals that the US government acted as a middleman, delivering these children to unvetted sponsors across the country. Tara emphasizes the importance of whistleblowers and encourages others to come forward. She vows to continue speaking the truth until children are rescued, criminals are prosecuted, and the government stops funding child trafficking with millions of dollars.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: My name is Tara Rodas and thanks to the bravery of Aaron Stevenson and thanks to Project Veritas and James O'Keefe for publishing the story, I was sitting on the Pomona Fairplex emergency intake site processing unaccompanied children. O'Connor. So, you may know that children were coming to this country from other countries. We were taking them into the care HHS Oakley and then delivering them to sponsors, sponsors, unvetted sponsors throughout the United States. O'Connor.
So because 1 whistleblower came forward, and because 1 organization was willing to tell the truth, I was able to then uncover and report Hooks that the US government is the middleman in a large scale, multi $1,000,000,000 child trafficking operation. Hook, we literally had government sponsored, taxpayer funded child trafficking. So, 1 whistleblower coming forward, telling the truth, Oakes, sets in motion a cascade of things that you could never imagine. So, I was very grateful for the opportunity for someone to tell the truth. O'Connor.
And who knows, maybe 1 of you could be the next person to come forward. So, along with my buddy Aaron, I'm going to continue to speak the truth O'Shea, until children are rescued, criminals are prosecuted and the United States Government no longer is putting 1,000,000,000 of dollars to traffic children.
@jeffcharlesjr - Jeff Charles, An Awful Pundit🏴
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the border: "And instead, we've got the Biden administration, as I said, aiding and abetting the cartels, encouraging the cartels to make billions of dollars and to bring as many people here as fast as possible and as soon as possible." https://t.co/5UVQNRIVTy
Video Transcript AI Summary
The speaker discusses the gravity of the problem in Texas caused by illegal immigration. They highlight the significant impact on crime, human trafficking, and drug trafficking, including fentanyl overdoses. They attribute the worsening situation to the Biden administration's policies, which have reversed the progress made under Trump. The speaker criticizes the immigration backlog and the unrealistic court dates given to immigrants. They express skepticism about the effectiveness of meetings with Mexico and the proposal of amnesty. The speaker emphasizes the increasing number of people crossing the border, including individuals from around the world, and the lack of knowledge about their intentions. They criticize the Department of Justice for suing Texas instead of seeking their help. The speaker also discusses the cartels' control over the Mexican border and their partnership with border patrol, enabling them to profit from human and drug trafficking.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Explain to us the gravity of the problem and the challenge that you're having to deal with there in Texas. I mean, it's hard to fathom how big a problem that might be.
Speaker 1: You know what? It's costing us 1,000,000,000 of dollars, but that that's not the most significant thing. The most significant thing is the crime, the increased human trafficking, drug trafficking. We have literally thousands of kids dying from fentanyl overdoses that don't have to die because we have the Cartels having an easy line into Texas and an easy line to get into the country. And so it is having a significant impact, and it is going to spread Beyond Texas, beyond the border states, it is an American problem.
And I I think it's clearly caused by the Biden administration. You can see that under Trump, These problems were were diminishing and now under the Biden administration who has basically struck down all the policies that worked, We have significant problems with all of these things, and they're getting worse every day, which is hard to believe. You'd think after 3 years, He would have figured out a way to make it better, and instead, it's getting worse.
Speaker 0: Well, you know, there's an immigration backlog in the Ports there of some 3,000,000 people. Some of these people coming across the border are getting court dates that are 10 years in advance. At least that's what some of the reports are saying. So I don't know how they proposed to do this, but, you know, they sent Secretary Mayorkas and Secretary Blinken down to meet with the Mexican president, But that seemed to be a meeting to just have a meeting, and now they're talking about actually actual amnesty. What's your take on what's going on there?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, this is a joke. There's so many people coming across the world. There's so many people in the legal system. There's no way they'll keep up with it.
Everybody knows how it actually works. They come in. They claim asylum. There's under Trump, they would have to stay outside of the country. Under Biden, they're allowed in.
They disappear. Most of them don't show up for their hearings. And and there's almost no expectation that they will given the numbers and given the backlog. It's not realistic to think that many of these people or most of these people are Evergreen actually had their hearing, they're here to stay. And that's and the Biden administration knows that.
They built a system to make it happen And this idea that somehow these meetings with Mexico where Mexico is now requesting that as as a fair trade for them stopping the the illegal immigration through their country into ours, That we're gonna somehow fund, dictators in South America and Central America. I mean, what could go wrong with that? It just seems like a really bad idea, and we've lost our leverage given the fact that the Biden administration doesn't enforce our own federal immigration laws.
Speaker 0: Well, and now we're getting reports that there's some 15,000 people in a caravan moving up and north. And look, these are like daily numbers now coming Out of Mexico, not all Mexicans, people from all across the world, we have no idea who these people are and what they're trying to do. So Texas, I feel for you because you're trying to do something, and yet the Department of Justice wants to sue you over it rather than ask for your help.
Speaker 1: Well, not only that, but you know, they're cutting down our fences, they're cutting down our wire. We sued them over that. I mean, they won't even let us like put up Fences. They they they damage our property. They come out of our property.
And then, of course, this this threat of a lawsuit because we merely want to protect Our own citizens from the crime and the cost of illegal immigration when it's really their job to do it. And instead, we've got the Biden administration, as I said, Aiding and abetting the cartels, encouraging the cartels to make 1,000,000,000 of dollars and to bring as many people here as as fast as possible And as soon as possible. That's what the Biden administration is doing. They're not just not doing their job, they're actually encourage encouraging the opposite.
Speaker 0: Well, it's interesting to me when they went down and met with the Mexican president, it made me wonder, are you meeting with the right people? Because it strikes me that the drug cartels, The mafia, if you will, is actually more in control of the northern part of the Mexican border than the Mexican government. And they could put troops up there. They could do things. But I just really wonder who's actually in control there in Northern Mexico.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you're right. I mean, there's no doubt that the Mexican government could do more to and they did under the Trump administration because President Trump insisted on it. But there is no doubt that the cartels Have been incentivized. They're making 1,000,000,000 of dollars. They make, you know, 8 to $12,000 a person that they bring.
So they're incentivized to bring as many people as possible. And remember, It used to be, the way border patrol worked, they were there to stop people from coming across the border. And now, the cartel doesn't try to Hide people. They don't try to sneak people across. They take them directly to border patrol.
It's like a handoff. So it's a partnership. It's not It's not the way it was supposed to be, but that's where the Biden administration has taken us. They've taken us to a partnership with the cartels, so the part cartels Have the opportunity not only to make as much money with importation of humans, but also the border now is clear for their trafficking of drugs and other things that make money off of it. So they're building this network, not just in Mexico, but across the across the country.
Speaker 0: Unbelievable. I appreciate what Texas is trying to do. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, happy new year. Thank you for joining us.
@JDunlap1974 - 🇺🇸🇺🇸Josh Dunlap🇺🇲🇺🇲 ULTRA-MAGA
🚨🚨 BREAKING: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused the Biden administration of partnering with the cartels in a pay-per person scheme to get people across the southern border and into the United States. Treason! https://t.co/kTcDXBsBgj
@USBPChiefTCA - John R. Modlin
Arturo Arteaga-Salinas was one of five smuggled migrants arrested by Three Points Station agents in a smuggling event on April 7. The Mexican national has felony convictions for sex crimes including sodomy and lewd and lascivious acts w/a child under 14. He faces prosecution. https://t.co/3v069FuDFM
reSee.it AI Summary
Two American soldiers have been arrested for human smuggling in Kinney County, Texas. 23-year-old Branden Broadhead, an Army Reserves soldier, was caught trying to smuggle two illegal immigrants from Mexico. He claims he was promised $5k for the job due to his mother's illness. Broadhead hopes sharing his story will deter others from getting involved. The Army Reserve is monitoring the situation and takes allegations of misconduct seriously. Another soldier, Savion Johnson, was arrested at the same checkpoint two weeks prior.
@AliBradleyTV - Ali Bradley
#EXCLUSIVE Two American soldiers in less than two weeks busted for human smuggling in Kinney County, Texas. 23-year-old Branden Broadhead is an Army Reserves soldier and was arrested Saturday after he approached a pop up tactical Border Patrol checkpoint and turned around—He was attempting to smuggle 2 illegals immigrants from Mexico who claimed to be cousins. Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe says the cartels are going after everyone and are having success because they’re promising quick, easy money—Broadhead says he was promised $5k to transport the two individuals and because his mom was sick and not working, he said yes. Broadhead tells me he is willing to share his story in the hopes that it will prevent others from getting involved with these criminal organizations. The Army says in response to Broadhead’s arrest, “The Army Reserve is aware of the arrest and will continue to monitor the situation. The Army Reserve is committed to the fair treatment of all Soldiers and Civilians. Allegations of misconduct are taken very seriously and reviewed under applicable, controlling regulations. Soldiers are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.” Below is more of my conversation with Broadhead immediately following his arrest. Savion Johnson is with the Texas State Guard and was arrested nearly two weeks ago also in Kinney County at the same checkpoint.
Video Transcript AI Summary
I joined the army to make my grandma proud, but I ended up smuggling two people for quick cash. I drove to a hotel to pick them up, armed only with pepper spray and a knife. I brought snacks to avoid trouble. The sheriff gave me a pocket bible, which made me reflect on my actions. I realized I should earn money honestly and help my family the right way. My faith in God has grown, and I see this experience as a message to change my ways.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Don't catch you. These guys are smart. Everyone down here is you don't wanna mess with Border Patrol. Alright. Don't even do it at all.
You wanna look cool. You wanna wear the attire. You don't wear the uniform because because I'm my grandma. Is it your grandma? Yeah.
It's well, my father was born in Vietnam during the war, so they came back over here. But she always told me growing up that, you know, join join you know, she she always wanted to join, you know, whatever, but join someone. And, you know, you get the benefits. You work for the government. They take care of you.
And so and I was now. I was already, well, 21, and that was, like, you know, I hadn't joined until and then code that. When I did join, she got she she was happy. And, I mean, my my job, it's a it's a it's not like I don't even like telling people that I'm in the army because of my job. It's not a, oh, you're this or, you know, you're a infantry or you're whatever.
Whatever. Like, you know, the cool jobs. But you wanna be the cool guy, but you also wanna have a cool job. So, because there's a bunch of jobs. So my job is 9 2 Sierra shower and laundry specialist.
Like, off the bat, you know, that already sounds like, what? You do, you know, showers and want people's laundry? My mind my mind said this, this is mainly for college. I mean, just now talking with you is now realizing, like, I don't believe in life, but I'm kind of the way. I have really great life and blessed life, and I kinda Made a huge mistake.
I gotta call it smuggling people. And,
Speaker 1: How many people were you moving?
Speaker 0: Just 2. Just 2. Two cousins. So they're gonna they're gonna be disappointed. At first, I'm like, oh, I thought it was construction.
See the panels. But I'm like I'm always like I mean, just from driving, you see, like, the white vehicles. So when I start seeing the white vehicles, stomach drops, turn around, and then I call in, like, hey. This is a checkpoint. What's what's going on?
I was like, I don't know. What? And, and I'm like, dude, these guys saw me. Like, they're gonna ring in from there, and, you know, it's a one way road. Like, I'm always good.
Speaker 1: What happens in your head? What are you thinking?
Speaker 0: Let's let's go. I'm not siding. Out. The economy. That's the economy.
Like, I don't even know. This is my first time ever in the situation. First time events.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, you might have a speeding ticket in the past. Yeah. But, never mind
Speaker 0: trying to anything like that. I don't I don't know what it's like, like, to go through all of this. So and then have the military the stay in the reserves, have the military experience, and the college degree to, you know, hopefully get a good job. But, yeah, that that was that's, like, where my mind is, where it was, where it's going, hopefully. It's telling me that he made, like, a quick, you know, 4 or 5 grand in the weekend on a day, on a Saturday.
And then I was like, you know, and I'll make that in a month, but you can make that in a day. I could use that, you know. And my mom's been sick and, you know, I live with, like, 6, 7 people at the house. Not all of them work. Most of them don't.
So what I was told was to go to Eagle Pass and then show some of the attendants of where they are.
Speaker 1: So did you drive down at Eagle Pass and just sit somewhere, like, in the grocery store parking lot and wait? Or, like, what did that look like?
Speaker 0: I went to the casino.
Speaker 1: Kickapoo? Yeah. Okay. Killed some time? Yeah.
Okay.
Speaker 0: It's actually cool. But, yeah. Killed some time there and then, yeah. She told me now where they were. The tenant went there, picked them up, and then blow them.
The pin was in a hotel. It's like at a hotel.
Speaker 1: At a hotel. And you show up at this hotel. Did you knock on the door? Did you call someone? Did you text someone?
What happened?
Speaker 0: They knew, like, that it was that vehicle because I had sent a picture of my vehicle to them the day before.
Speaker 1: With your license plate? No.
Speaker 0: I mean, I really wasn't even gonna come at all, but I was thinking about the money that came that overcame, but I was like, these guys could, you know, rob me if it's 4 or 5 guys or whatever. You know, come out and rob me, take my truck, and I'm stuck. But I have I have brought waters. I have little snacks just to be, you know, nice or whatever, trying to get on their good side if anything.
Speaker 1: But Trying to not get murdered? So you had no idea what you're getting into. Did you know it was just 2? You until they came out or did were you just No. Okay.
So you didn't know. Didn't know who you're picking up. Were you armed? Did you have, like, your any kind of way to protect yourself?
Speaker 0: I have a pepper spray and a knife.
Speaker 1: Pepper spray and a knife. Okay. You have no idea what you're going up against?
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: Could have 5 dudes that were gonna murderize you. You brought snacks to hopefully to hopefully smooth it over so they wouldn't kill you. Okay. And you still wanted to go? You were still like, let's let's try this.
Speaker 0: Well, I heard it was probably gonna be, like, maybe, like, you know, it's, like, women or, like, with kids and stuff like that, which, you know, I was, like I felt a little bit more, you know, sorry for it and, you know, put your head down and keep working the right way. Make your money down this way, the good way, the truthful way because it'll it'll come back, you know, no matter what money got to my head, you in my situation where I'm trying to help out my mother and the family a little bit more, I just would've helped. Wasn't thinking.
Speaker 1: What's that, and why'd you ask the sheriff for that?
Speaker 0: Oh, this is the pocket bible. Yeah. He gave to me. And, so, you know, I needed it right now. I can read and learn some bible lessons that are in this book, and I have kinda it's actually funny because I've had a friend that's in the unit.
He's been kinda pushing the faith on me and, like, you know, it's like I've gotten closer to God. And then help me out this way, but we kinda always like, yeah, man. I don't wanna hear, you know, why your your faith talks right now, but, like, you know, we're doing other stuff. But maybe that was the message or, like, a sign to, like, you know, I, you know, talked to him.
@AliBradleyTV - Ali Bradley
NEW: Booking photo of Texas soldier Savion Johnson—Arrested for human smuggling. Per @BenacciMatt with Kinney County Sheriff’s Office: “The Val Verde Processing Center is the regional facility where individuals arrested in connection with Operation Lone Star are briefly held and magistrated before being transferred to more permanent lock ups in Dilley, TX and the Rio Grande Valley. Sheriff Brad Coe has said that it is not uncommon for individuals with surprising backgrounds to get caught up in smuggling and cartel corruption. Over the last three years, the County has seen priests, teachers, other servicemen and women, and at least one attorney get caught trafficking. It's also very common for Border Patrol and US Customs agents to be caught by their confederates while trafficking. It's something that's always come with the territory, with folks being seduced by the prospect of easy money.”
@JamesOKeefeIII - James O'Keefe
WANTED: Names of these two border patrol agents, spotted in Campo, California this year. If you know their names, please DM us. https://t.co/lqyIbNfGTV
@JamesOKeefeIII - James O'Keefe
ALSO; This border patrol agent in the El Paso area. https://t.co/lp8IPITP7G
@greg_price11 - Greg Price
Just incredibly damning testimony in every way. A recently retired Border Patrol Chief says that the Kamala-Biden admin ordered him to cover up the increase in suspected terrorists arrested at the southern border. https://t.co/b0OC9fu7Za
Video Transcript AI Summary
In San Diego, there was an exponential increase in significant interest aliens (SIAs), defined as aliens with significant ties to terrorism. The San Diego sector averaged 10-15 SIAs per year before this administration, but went to over 100 in 2022, and even more in subsequent years.
The speaker was allegedly told not to release information on this increase or mention arrests, as the administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border. The San Diego area sees 80-90% of the methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures annually for the entire country, and with little enforcement at the border, these drugs were allegedly coming through in mass.
In 2022 and 2023, San Diego traffic checkpoints were shut down because resources had been diverted. The speaker also had to release hundreds of illegal aliens each day into communities. To mitigate the problem, two flights a week were provided from San Diego to Texas at $150,000 each.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: In San Diego, we had an exponential increase in significant interest aliens. These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism. Prior to this administration, the San Diego sector averaged 10 to 15 SIRS per year. Once word was out, the border was far easier to cross. San Diego went to over 100 SIA's in 2022, well over that in 2023 and even more than that registered this year.
These are only the ones we caught. At the time, I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIAs or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border. Fentanyl is another issue. The San Diego area sees between 80 90% of the methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures annually for our entire country.
With little enforcement at the border, these drugs were coming through in mass. During my last year in San Diego, the price for a single pill of fentanyl, for example, went from $10 to $0.25 To make matters worse, during 2022 and 'twenty 3, I had to shut down San Diego traffic checkpoints, which are critical for drug interdiction because the resources had been diverted to the process and release mission. The larger numbers also had and still have a negative impact on the San Diego community. I had to release illegal aliens by the 100 each day into communities who could not support them. To quiet the problem, 2 flights a week were provided from San Diego to Texas.
These flights simply brought aliens that would have been released in San Diego over to Texas. Each flight cost approximately $150,000 This was the administration's way to try and quiet the border wide crisis.
@FFT1776 - Sheri™
🚨the Cartel arrested admitted “It’s easier now to move human beings, drugs, guns and fentanyl across the border than in the history of their Cartel” Read that again. This is all on the Border Czar Kamala Harris👇🏻🔊 https://t.co/lKApA9L0eI
Video Transcript AI Summary
A cartel admitted it is easier to move human beings, drugs, guns, and fentanyl across the border now than in the history of their cartel. This has occurred within the last 3 years. Law enforcement resources are quickly depleted due to the Biden and Harris administration.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Tell that we arrested openly admitted that within the last 3 years, it's easier now to move human beings, drugs, guns, fentanyl, most specifically, across the border, and that it's easier now than in the history of their cartel. I can tell you because of the Biden and Harris administration, law enforcement resources are quickly depleted. We have victim after victim that we see as you'll hear today, and that these stories are not unfamiliar.
@ZachApotheker - Zachary Apotheker
These agents still have their jobs and getting paid well. I lost my badge and gun for saying “Children are being trafficked and we are letting terrorist into the country.” Thoughts? https://t.co/uL18yWXchb
reSee.it AI Summary
I learned that Border Patrol agent Manuel Perez Jr. from El Paso has been arrested by the FBI's Border Corruption Task Force while still in uniform. He faces serious charges related to human and cocaine smuggling, allegedly being part of a conspiracy since November 2019 that involved transporting over five kilograms of cocaine across multiple states. Additionally, he is accused of helping illegal aliens cross at the Paso Del Norte Bridge. If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of 10 years to life.
@TomHoman_ - Tom Homan - Border Czar |News by Independent MAGA|
New in Texas: 🚨 A Border Patrol agent has officially turned his back on America! Agent Manuel Perez Jr. of El Paso has officially been arrested. He has charges linked to human and c*caine smuggling. The arrest was by the FBI's El Paso West Texas Border Corruption Task Force while Perez was still in uniform. From November 2019 until the current now, Perez is allegedly to have been part of a conspiracy that involved smuggling over five kilograms of c*caine across Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and other states. He is also accused of facilitating the crossings of illegal aliens at the Paso Del Norte Bridge. He now faces 10 years to life in prison!
@WallStreetApes - Wall Street Apes
Mexico Cartel member reveals that he’s trafficked THOUSANDS of illegals into America How does he do it? Simple, he says “I cross the border. They know me, the US customs. They know me” The corruption within America is unfathomable “Secrets of the cartel people smugglers” https://t.co/si7yCxpIMS
@libsoftiktok - Libs of TikTok
Border agents in AZ arrested 3 migrant smugglers dressed up as border patrol agents trying to smuggle migrants into our country. AZ Sheriff: “It’s desperation. You have a new coach in America right now that’s saying we’re securing our border, there’s consequences.” https://t.co/WNNGOojT8h
Video Transcript AI Summary
Border agents in Yuma, Arizona, caught three migrant smugglers impersonating border patrol agents while attempting to bring 24 migrants into the country. Dressing up as border patrol is a sign of desperation.
With a new approach focused on securing the border, complete with resources, messaging, and consequences, cartels are being forced to adapt and become more strategic. There are concerns that they will become more violent. We're ready for it, we have the resources in place and the will to fight them.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Border agents in Yuma, Arizona nabbed three migrant smugglers dressed up as border patrol agents.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 0: They're trying to bring 24 migrants into the country. Dressing up as border patrol? That sounds like desperation to me. What's going on?
Speaker 1: What is desperation? You have a new coach in America right now that say we're securing the border. There's consequences to it. He's supplying the resources and the messaging and the consequences. So the cartels have to be smarter.
What worries me, though, Stu, is they're gonna get savvy. They're gonna get more violent, and that's some of the big talk down here on the border, and we're ready for it. I mean, we got the resources in place now, but the cartels, we got the will now to fight them. That's important.
@amuse - @amuse
CARTELS: Kash Patel needs to find out who signed the deal and who approved it. This is treason. https://t.co/VyjdTqmc7X
@libsoftiktok - Libs of TikTok
U.S. Border Patrol seized over 160 pounds of Fentanyl and Cocaine worth more than $1.2 million in two major busts near the U.S.-Mexico border in California. Biden’s open border allowed drugs to flow into our country which kill and harm Americans. Trump is stopping it. https://t.co/PLFfr3bORn
@JamesOKeefeIII - James O'Keefe
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Monica Cruz Blows Whistle on Juvenile Smuggling Network Reveals Teenage Cartel Recruits Aged 14-17 Are Apprehended 20 Times by CBP, Released Back to Cartel Without Consequences “No One’s Been Prosecuted, No One Is Held Accountable.” https://t.co/lDG1Cj08QB
Video Transcript AI Summary
I'm Border Patrol agent Monica Cruz, and I'm blowing the whistle on a flawed system. Juvenile smugglers, or "foot guides," are repeatedly released back to Mexico after apprehension, allowing them to continue smuggling without consequences. One smuggler, "Timmy," has been apprehended and released over 20 times.
Cartels recruit children through social media, even video games like Roblox, soliciting them for smuggling. These kids get paid to bring people across, knowing they'll likely be caught and sent back. They even use decoys.
The Mexican consulate in Yuma is also involved, providing welfare checks but not assisting in verifying identities for prosecution. These kids idolize the cartel life. They're paid around $800-$1000 per person or $3000-$4000 per group but the cartels make around $10,000 per person smuggled. We need a change in US policy to hold these teenage foot guides accountable.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Border patrol agent Monica Cruz in the Welton, Arizona sector is blowing the whistle on a deeply flawed system in which juvenile smugglers, also known as foot guides, are able to ring multiple groups of illegal aliens across the border on a regular basis. The smugglers are teenagers whose ages range from 14 to 17 years old. Given a loophole in the American law, when the teenage smugglers are apprehended by border patrol, they are released back to Mexico repeatedly, only to repeat the same smuggling route with no fear of legitimate consequences. One particular smuggler known by the nickname Timmy has been apprehended and released over 20 times, which means he smuggled people 20 times. Monica Cruz has made the extraordinary decision to go public on the record, which is against border patrol policy.
Speaker 1: And don't fear the government and what they can do to you. I'm just standing here just hear what I'm trying to say. Help me.
Speaker 0: This is her story and the story of teenage smugglers, Timmy and Jimmy. We're here with border patrol agent blowing the whistle on the individual who was apprehended 20 times, taking this path right here in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. Let's keep going. This individual, Timmy, apprehended 20 times, but they're doing it on behalf of somebody else.
Speaker 1: They're doing it on behalf of the cartels. This is a scout location. That little peak right there.
Speaker 0: They go to peak to peak to peak.
Speaker 1: Peak to peak to peak.
Speaker 0: Maybe that's what we should do tomorrow. Let's go. Let's hike up the mountain. Yeah. We don't know
Speaker 1: if there's anything up there?
Speaker 0: This is some challenging terrain here. These rocks, you know, be careful with your feet. Woah. Woah. Woah.
Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Heard the whistle?
Me? Just now? I was
Speaker 1: gonna be surprised if they're behind that lid. I'm just looking
Speaker 0: at Yeah. That whistle was. What you should be doing for this moment moving forward is understanding that we are being watched, we're being monitored, and they are whistling. Hello. Well, hello there.
Nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: Nice to meet you finally.
Speaker 0: Nice to meet you. Yeah. So you ready to do this?
Speaker 1: I'm ready.
Speaker 0: You ready to so what's the plan for today?
Speaker 1: The plan for today, let's capture what these little guys walk through.
Speaker 0: The cartel and smugglers are recruiting children in The United States through video games like Roblox.
Speaker 1: We were just talking about how social media has impacted a lot of the recruitment. My kid in 02/2020 received a message on Roblox, and it said, hey. Do you wanna make some extra money? And, of course, as a mother, I panic and started looking into it. And then there I realized that they're soliciting our kids here in The US.
Soliciting our kids for what? For smuggling. We've had plenty of juvenile cases where underage US citizens were hired to pick up, but they never received any kind of consequence because we don't have a current guideline to prosecute.
Speaker 0: Border Patrol agent Monica was inspired by our film Line in the Sand when we tracked the entire journey of the unaccompanied children from migrant shelters like Southwest Key via transportation specialists like MVM to their final destination to so called sponsors. And when did you decide I'm gonna do this? I watched your documentary.
Speaker 1: You followed where these kids went after we released them. In 2016, I was transport. I used to be the one transporting these children to Southwest West Keys locations.
Speaker 0: This map provided by Monica, the Border Patrol agent, shows all the apprehensions of Timmy, one of the teenage smuggling guides in the area South of Interstate 8 and the Mexican border just south of Yuma, Arizona.
Speaker 1: So this is the location where I believe when they make it here, they look over towards the mountain. There's a mountain with a a on it. Mhmm. And they said, okay. Now it's go time.
Let's get transportation started. They rock up as in they hide and wait for them to get picked up. And you can see how lee easily it is to get out here. Anybody can come here today and pick them up straight from that mountain right there.
Speaker 0: And that's the what is that called there?
Speaker 1: So these are the Brians. They're the mountains. We are technically about six miles to eight miles straight back from Mexico. Now there's a process. You bring them in, there's two days, and you have to get them out.
But these smugglers who happen to be juveniles, they know they're they already know that they're gonna get caught. Mhmm. They're gonna get sent back. And even though they got caught, they still get paid because they're they're brought in as decoys. Mhmm.
But the juveniles is genius because who else can you say, hey, kid. You may get caught, but it's alright. We're still gonna pay you.
Speaker 0: How many times did this individual get apprehended?
Speaker 1: Mister Timmy. Timmy has over 20 apprehensions.
Speaker 0: Timmy. Timmy. Why do you call him Timmy? Is just a nickname? Just a nickname and not being How old is Timmy?
Speaker 1: Timmy now is considered 17 years old.
Speaker 0: Timmy and Jimmy are just two of many teenage smugglers. This document provided by Monica Cruz shows just in this area, there are many other teenage foot guides apprehended eight times, seven times, four times, and eventually just a year or two later, these teenage foot guides become adults and continue with their criminal activities, and oftentimes, we don't know their exact ages. This individual, Timmy, apprehended 20 times and apprehended by whom?
Speaker 1: Border patrol.
Speaker 0: Border Patrol. And given to whom?
Speaker 1: To Yuma Processing Center.
Speaker 0: Yuma Processing Center is run by the feds or the state? Or
Speaker 1: No. It's still federal facility.
Speaker 0: And then what happens?
Speaker 1: And then the Timmy will allow to talk to the Mexican consulate the next morning because we have a two day timeline to get him out. The next day, he talks to the consulate, and then they return back home. It's considered a voluntary return. That that's the whole process. We're done with them.
Speaker 0: And then they appear again.
Speaker 1: And they appear again. They're doing it on behalf
Speaker 0: of somebody else.
Speaker 1: They're doing it on behalf of the cartels.
Speaker 0: So we're standing outside the Mexican consulate in Yuma, Arizona. This consulate acts as an advocate for juveniles. They do not address the smuggling activities, including Timmy twenty times doing this criminal activity. No one's been prosecuted. No one held accountable.
The Mexican consulate participating in this activity, facilitating this activity. No bueno. The name of the person who heads up the Mexican consulate in Yuma, Arizona is a woman named Dulce Maria Vale Alvarez. Alvarez knows the identity of the juveniles, but they do not share that with border patrol. The Mexican consulate's involvement is limited to welfare checks and arranging pickups in Mexico.
They have more information but do not assist in verifying identities for prosecution.
Speaker 1: So this is the center of the mountains. This is Timmy's one of Timmy's routes. He pops up out of that side.
Speaker 0: So they go right along interstate?
Speaker 1: Yep. Just along the I mean, anywhere on the where you could walk up to. So you could get here by foot, like climbing through those mountains. This is a a scout location. That little peak right there used to be a scout location.
They have a vast view of the whole area if in case law enforcement is near.
Speaker 0: Monica also provided images of scouts on top of locations, scouts in training, images of carpet shoes they wore to avoid detection, and showed us the specific route that the scouts take along a jagged edge of desolate ridge about an hour drive down a bumpy road from the interstate.
Speaker 1: Now, Timmy's route, all through these mountains here.
Speaker 0: So the spotters are up in the hills?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm I'm
Speaker 0: What what do they do? Just sit in a rock?
Speaker 1: They they have their own little nest.
Speaker 0: Not only wanna see the nests.
Speaker 1: I do too. I've seen them on pictures. For us border patrol agents, it's unsafe to go up there. We have no idea if they are armed, what kind of traps they may have laid out.
Speaker 0: They've got booby traps, and they they hike from point is is it the peak? They they they go to peak to peak to peak?
Speaker 1: Peak to peak to peak.
Speaker 0: I know they do.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the highest vantage
Speaker 0: we should do Mara. Let's go. Just hung up the mountain? Yeah.
Speaker 1: We don't know if there's anything up there? The
Speaker 0: only issue with the plan was the ridgeline isn't really a hiking trail. It's a treacherous tiny pyramid of jagged rocks along a narrow thin summit, basically unhikable and unstable, but we chose to hike it anyway. Okay. So right behind me, this ridge here, we've been told that this is the spot where you can see into Mexico. That's the highest point.
That's where the scouts are. And our board of virtual agent says, if you sit up on the hill, don't go to the best looking spot. That's usually where the scouts are. Don't go to the highest point, that's usually where the scouts are, but that's where we're gonna go, the top of that ridge. Alright, let's go hiking.
We're hoping to traverse the the ridge and see where these nests are with these scouts. It's not gonna be an easy climb. You sit up on that hill, don't go to the best looking spot. That's usually where the scouts are. Don't get rocked.
What does he mean by rocked? I mean, this is like this is some challenging terrain here. These rocks, you know, be careful with your feet. As we go along the side of this ridge with these scouts, Woah. Woah.
Woah. It's like we're billy goats. I mean, you're like a gazelle. This ridge here, not an easy thing to climb. You got loose rocks, you know, and yet these scouts, they just climb up here in the dead of night, you know, one slip and you break your your head.
All we saw was some contraband and some small caves where scouts would keep items and keep one. This is is that a campfire right there? What's this campfire?
Speaker 1: So this is one of the last spots before getting closer to the highway.
Speaker 0: What are these bullets?
Speaker 1: Live fire. It's a little spot where they congregate and maybe shot some rounds.
Speaker 0: Zip ties.
Speaker 1: It is not uncommon to see that.
Speaker 0: So we're following the path Of Timmy right now.
Speaker 1: Timmy. Yes.
Speaker 0: We're here with border patrol agent blowing the whistle on the individual who was apprehended 20 times, taking this path right here in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. Let's keep going. Is this the the hiking path right here?
Speaker 1: This is the actual
Speaker 0: You can see a path.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. This has been used time and time again.
Speaker 0: So this spot right here, you see how this bottoms out right here. This is a high traffic area where a lot of these teenage boys, including Timmy, come through this direction. Right through this section here, we've got spotters in the hills watching us right now here in Arizona. The final step was going all the way to the wall where Timmy and Jimmy began each of their 20 plus journeys. Now this section of the wall, less than a mile long, is particularly dangerous because it is so far removed and on each side of this small section of the wall featured gaping holes and a rock face that people could climb.
So we're going to the wall. I know you have limited time, we gotta make moves. Anything before we get in the cars?
Speaker 1: No. Let's Alright. Get ready for a bumpy ride.
Speaker 0: Alright. So where are we?
Speaker 1: We are at Monument 190. What you see behind me is Mexico. Strategically, for the slugglers, this is a great spot. Why? It's easy to get across and they hide themselves within the ridges of the mouth.
Where do they get across? At that end there, if you could just walk right over.
Speaker 0: Shall we walk down there? Well, this is not a secure place.
Speaker 1: No, it's not. Anybody can come in. So
Speaker 0: where do they usually cross here?
Speaker 1: Up in that corner there.
Speaker 0: I mean, you could probably you could probably get through there. Right? Yeah. That you can definitely sneak through there. You're in Mexico now.
He's like Gum by.
Speaker 1: So
Speaker 0: do they come across, they come on the end?
Speaker 1: Yes. Timmy definitely fits through there.
Speaker 0: Okay. I see.
Speaker 1: A common entry point for a lot of smugglers to include are juvenile smugglers, Timmy and Jimmy, and the rest of them, we haven't been able to identify. They have entered, but they haven't given us their true identity.
Speaker 0: I see. Are we being watched right now?
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 0: You heard the whistle? Mhmm. Just now? Yep.
Speaker 1: There'll be whistles. Don't know what they mean, but it'll be one single whistle, two back to back, and then three back to back.
Speaker 0: Where was the whistle coming from?
Speaker 1: About the saddle that had raged right here. How far away would they have to be? I wouldn't be surprised if they're behind that ridge. I'm just looking at We can't
Speaker 0: That whistle was so close. Where are they? Just up in the mountains?
Speaker 1: Up in the mountains.
Speaker 0: Do have little lights when it comes through at night or no?
Speaker 1: No. No lights? It's a light discipline, meaning you work in darkness. They already know the routes. Yeah.
Timmy, in his size, could fit through the rails. I'm sure he's so skinny. As far as the other one, Jimmy is actually a colleague of Timmy's. They Jimmy and Jimmy. Timmy and Jimmy.
That is why we use those monikers. They only know one thing. I must take the merchandise across
Speaker 0: What do you mean by merchandise?
Speaker 1: That's how they refer to People. A group of people. That alone shows zero care for these commodities as humans. Is it about money? It's always about money.
Speaker 0: It's about money.
Speaker 1: These young kids idolize cartel life. Wow. They think that that is a success. The more money you have, gold, money, girls, they constantly have them in their social medias, giving a thumbs up to the cartel violent killings. They think that it's something to aspire to.
Speaker 0: Right here. Yeah. It is. It's an open door.
Speaker 1: Open door. But they can bring a little motorcycle through them.
Speaker 0: I wondered how much money these teenage boys helped the cartel bring in. How much do they pay?
Speaker 1: $10,000 from person. Out of that 10,000, anywhere from 8 to a thousand dollars per head for the for the foot guide. The foot guide is only making a small percentage of the big bulk of what is charged to each illegal alien. They're making anywhere between 3,000 to $4,000 per group. So where's the incentive to stop for these kids?
Speaker 0: It's a good question. The only solution it's seen was a change in US policy regarding these teenage foot guides being finally held accountable. We sent this story to Tom Holman, the new border czar, and his team and intend to report their reaction when we have it.
Speaker 1: We as law enforcement have to keep our eyes open, our training on on board, and always always watch each other's back. So let's take this moment, get better, be proactive, and don't fear the government and what they can do to you. I'm just standing here just hear what I'm trying to say. Help me, and we will then move forward.
Speaker 0: Appreciate you very much. Thank you. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you too.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Our Citizen Journalism Foundation, a fully tax deductible five zero one c three, supports these whistleblowers, tells their story, gives them a platform, gives them legal support, and if they are retaliated against, gives financial support. Please help the cause by writing a check to Citizen Journalism Foundation today. You can go to cjfusa.org or okeithmediagroup.com to learn how to make that donation and where to send in your support to keep these stories coming forward. And stay tuned for follow-up footage and getting the smugglers themselves on audio and videotape as we intend to produce the next installments of Line in the Sand.
What you should be doing for this moment moving forward is understanding that we are being watched, we're being monitored, and they are whistling. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna split up, and I want two videographers in one location a. I want two videographers in location b. It might take hours. It's an endurance test.
@JamesOKeefeIII - James O'Keefe
LEAKED MEMO: Customs and Border Patrol Pushes for "Prosecutorial Effectiveness" While Juvenile Smugglers Still Exploit Legal Loopholes to Evade Justice https://t.co/uGiXFROWdt
Video Transcript AI Summary
A leaked internal email reveals that the chief patrol agent for the Yuma sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection directed agents to pursue all available prosecution charges. This directive aims to ensure consequences for illegal border activity.
However, this memo doesn't address the loophole that allows juvenile smugglers, often called "foot guides," to operate without prosecution. This issue was brought to light by Border Patrol whistleblower Monica Cruz.
When we contacted the chief patrol agent for comment on this loophole and why juvenile smugglers are not prosecuted, we were directed to the public affairs office. Despite the memo stating that questions should be directed to him, we were unable to get answers.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: An internal email submitted to Citizen Journalism Foundation by an anonymous source reveals that Justin m De La Torre, chief patrol agent for the US Customs and Border Protection, the Yuma sector, issued a memorandum directing agents to adopt an aggressive posture by pursuing all available prosecution charges. Border Patrol whistleblower agent Monica Cruz, formerly stationed in the Yuma sector, exposed how USCPB routinely releases teenage smugglers, ages 14 to 17, back into Mexico after apprehension. With no legal consequences, these juveniles return to smuggling operations repeating the same routes over and over. This memo highlights an update on prosecutorial effectiveness and maximization aimed at expanding on all prosecution charges available, ensuring that there will be consequences for illegal border activity. However, it fails to address the loophole that allows juvenile smugglers known as foot guides to operate without facing prosecution, which is what the Citizen Journalism Foundation story involving Monica revealed.
We reached out to a chief patrol agent for the US Customs and Border Protection, Yuma sector, and we asked if he is aware of the loophole in the law where these criminal juvenile smugglers are not prosecuted. Here's what he said.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to talk to, the chief patrol agent, Justin Dela Torre. We are in receipt of a memorandum, and I just needed some comments from him.
Speaker 2: Let me refer you to our public affairs office.
Speaker 1: I'm not even able to speak to the acting division chief Matthew Arula.
Speaker 2: Yes. That's me. But our policy is me and Corrie have to go through the public affairs office.
Speaker 1: Okay. What's it's interesting because in the memo, it does state that if any questions should arise, you needed to be the one to be contacted. It doesn't sound like you're able to answer the questions even though the memo says you had any questions to contact you.
Speaker 2: Can I refer you to the public public affairs office?
reSee.it AI Summary
Today, I announced that a Director level employee at US Customs and Border Protection has been charged with attempting to defraud FEMA and lying to federal agents. This action is part of the FBI's renewed commitment to combat public corruption and ensure accountability. I appreciate the collaboration with our partners at the Attorney General's office, the Justice Department, and the FBI Detroit team for their efforts in this case. Justice will be served.
@FBIDirectorKash - FBI Director Kash Patel
TODAY: Following efforts with our interagency partners, I can report that a career Director level employee at US Customs and Border Protection has been charged with allegedly attempting to defraud FEMA, as well as lying to federal agents. This is part of the new FBI’s renewed efforts to crack down on public corruption and deliver accountability for the American people. Justice will be done. Thanks to our partners @AGPamBondi @TheJusticeDept and our @FBIDetroit team for their work.
@FBIDirectorKash - FBI Director Kash Patel
DIRECTOR AT CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION CHARGED WITH SCHEME TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN DISASTER AID AND LYING TO FEDERAL AGENTS
justice.gov
reSee.it AI Summary
I believe in a strong approach to border security. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks emphasizes the importance of controlling the international boundary to prevent unauthorized entry and ensure those who do cross are apprehended and face consequences. Let's make America safe again.
@5dme81 - 5DME81
💪💥BOOM💥U.S. BORDER PATROL CHIEF MICHAEL BANKS💪: "WE'RE NOT GONNA GIVE UP 10 YARDS ON EVERY PLAY SO THAT THE BODIES CAN GET NORTH. BORDER PATROL'S FOCUS IS TO CONTROL THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY TO ENSURE NO ONE IS COMING INTO THE COUNTRY AND THE ONES WHO DO MAKE IT ARE APPREHENDED AND GIVEN A CONSEQUENCE"💥 MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN MAGA 🇺🇲💪
Video Transcript AI Summary
DOD resources are aiding in the detection and location of individuals attempting to evade apprehension. Border Patrol's primary objective is to maintain control over the international boundary, preventing entry into the country. Those who do cross the border will be apprehended and face consequences.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: The resources DOD is bringing in is helping us with the detection and then and then leading us to the location where the the gotaways are try or the people are trying to get away for the apprehension. We're not gonna give up 10 yards on every play so that the bodies can get north. And so border patrol's focus is to control the international boundary to ensure no one's coming into the country, and those that do make it are apprehended and and given a consequence.
reSee.it AI Summary
Two U.S. citizens were arrested for smuggling two unrelated migrant girls, aged 10 and 12, across the southern border. The adults are linked to Mexican cartels. This reflects the kind of activity that I believe has been allowed during Biden's term, which I view as treasonous.
@GuntherEagleman - Gunther Eagleman™
BREAKING: Two U.S. citizens arrested for smuggling two migrant children across the southern border. Officials say the 10- and 12-year-old girls were not related to the adult women, and the adults have connections to Mexican cartels. This is the type of activity that Biden allowed during his term. It was nothing short of TREASON.
Video Transcript AI Summary
Two American citizens were arrested at the southern border in Westmoreland, California, for allegedly attempting to smuggle two Mexican girls, ages 10 and 12, across the border. According to El Centro border sector's chief patrol agent Gregory Bovino, the women are believed to be working for cartels, who "will stop at nothing to make a profit."
Bovino stated that during the border crisis, children are lost in the shuffle, and some face heinous acts of child smuggling. He cited an example from last year where a drugged four-year-old with nonsurgical sutures in his abdomen was pushed across the border. While the two girls are now with the Office of Refugee and Resettlement, many other children remain in the U.S., potentially victims of human trafficking and sex trade. Bovino emphasized the need for continued attention and active operations to find these missing children.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Really disturbing. This pair of arrests were made at our southern border just days ago. Border patrol believes that these two women, these two American citizens, both of them, tried to smuggle two little girls across the border. They were nabbed at a checkpoint in Westmoreland, California. The 10 and 12 year old girls from Mexico asleep in the back seat, but the agents quickly realized that these were not their children.
These were not their relatives. Nothing matched on the names or IDs as they scanned for information on these individuals. These women face smuggling charges, and it happened at the El Centro border sector of the border. Gregory Bovino is the sector's chief patrol agent, and he says that it is almost unbearable to think what heinous crime awaited these little girls. Chief, thank you very much for being here.
This is a story that we have covered a lot as we have seen these different examples. Is it your contention that these women are working? Are there American citizens working for Mexican cartels and part of a smuggling operation? Is that is that the the charge?
Speaker 1: Yes, Martha, good afternoon. Thank you for having me. Undoubtedly, these two United States citizens are working for the cartels. The cartels control just about everything on the south side of that border. So undoubtedly, they were working for cartels.
And I think it's important to realize that a cartel or a human smuggler will stop at nothing to make a profit, including smuggling unaccompanied juveniles north for unknown reasons.
Speaker 0: Yeah. So one of the disturbing things that we've talked about here was during the Biden administration, the effort to push these kids out of the shelters and and basically allow them to leave with anyone who said, you know, I'm here to pick up these these kids. That that's the suggestion, and Madeline Raleigh reported on this for the free press and we spoke to her for my podcast a while back. But here's a quote from a whistleblower who said, I had multiple cases that I reported on. One in particular where we sent 329 children to one address, two garden apartments in Houston, Texas.
And then the supervisor told this whistleblower to take no steps to investigate further, but to keep moving migrants out of the facilities more quickly. Does this scenario line up with what you have seen in your part of the border?
Speaker 1: Sure, Martha. Whenever you have a border catastrophe or a border crisis, I use those two words interchangeably. You could probably use any word and I would agree with you there. But a border catastrophe in which millions, millions of illegal aliens are pouring across that border, absolutely, kids are going to be lost in the shuffle of that millions of people. Here in the El Centro sector, we saw some very heinous acts of child smuggling that we did uncover.
But what about the ones that we didn't? What about those children that we didn't uncover that are somewhere in The United States right now, having god knows what happening to them?
Speaker 0: That is so true. And I think that's one of the really important things to remember. As we see the numbers at the border drop a lot, which is a huge, you know, a great development. So many of these children are still here. They're still here somewhere in this country.
In cases living with people that they don't know and likely sold into human trafficking and sex trade and, you know, so just as an example, do you know what happened to these two little girls that were asleep in the back seat of this car in this case?
Speaker 1: Sure. In this case, the the two children now reside with office of refugee and resettlement, and we hope to find family members suitable for them to be reunited with. But that's often not the case, as you said, with these other children that are in The United States. And, you know, just some of the things, Mark, that we've seen on the border just last year, just a few months ago, we had a a young juvenile, approximately four years old, was drugged, pushed across the border, and we caught him at the same traffic checkpoint that these two juveniles were caught or rescued last Tuesday, except that four year old that was drugged actually had nonsurgical sutures in his abdomen. We took the child to the hospital, had the sutures removed.
But it begs the question, what's happening to these children? And I think that it's a larger conversation. I'm glad you're covering this today because real time information from the border over those past four years was virtually nonexistent.
Speaker 0: Yeah. Absolutely. No. It's a story where you need to continue to dig into, and there needs to be an active operation to find these children. Some of them are working in sweat shops, and some of them are in sex trafficking operations.
And Greg Bovino, we thank you very much for what you're doing to crack down on this, and to continue to bring attention to it in El Centro, the chief patrol agent. Thank you very much, chief. Good to have you here today.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Martha.
Speaker 0: You bet.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 0: So the Biden economist who
reSee.it AI Summary
The Biden Administration allowed a wanted terrorist into the country, who was arrested by Border Patrol but then released. This highlights the issues with current policies. I appreciate President Trump for ending catch and release and empowering ICE, which has significantly increased arrests of suspected terrorists.
@Sec_Noem - Secretary Kristi Noem
The Biden Administration let a wanted terrorist into our country. He was arrested by Border Patrol agents and then RELEASED into the interior of our country. This is just one such case. Thank you President Trump for ending catch and release and for unleashing ICE to find and arrest terrorists and criminal illegal aliens. In less than 100 days, ICE arrests of known or suspected terrorists have increased 655%.
@nypost - New York Post
Trump’s mass deportation raids result in 655% spike in arrests of terrorists roaming US — including one of India’s ‘most wanted’ https://trib.al/xQyKFGO
SocialFlow
trib.al
reSee.it AI Summary
I reported that Joshua Castro, an inspector in Arizona's Agriculture Department under Gov. Katie Hobbs, has been arrested for smuggling illegal aliens across the border multiple times. This raises serious questions about the extent of criminal activity within the Democrat Party regarding illegal immigration.
@amuse - @amuse
CLOSED BORDER: Another Democrat has been arrested for trafficking illegal aliens across the border. Joshua Castro, an inspector in Gov. Katie Hobbs' Arizona Department of Agriculture has been arrested smuggling illegals across the border multiple times. How deep does the criminality go in the Democrat Party when it comes to facilitating illegal immigration?
@amuse - @amuse
CLOSED BORDER: Katie Hobbs’ Arizona Agriculture Employee ARRESTED for Alleged Human Smuggling of Illegal Aliens. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/katie-hobbs-arizona-agriculture-employee-arrested-alleged-human/
Katie Hobbs’ Arizona Agriculture Employee ARRESTED for Alleged Human Smuggling of Illegal Aliens | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft
A former Arizona agriculture employee's arrest for alleged human smuggling raises serious questions about Governor Katie Hobbs' leadership, complicating her controversial appointment to the agency. The implications are far-reaching.
thegatewaypundit.com
@DHSgov - Homeland Security
Suspect Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez is a national and citizen of the Dominican Republic. RE ENTERED and RELEASED under Biden— on April 4, 2023 the United States Border Patrol apprehended him at/near San Luis, AZ.
@GuntherEagleman - Gunther Eagleman™
BREAKING: @Sec_Noem just revealed that the illegal immigrant who sh*t a CPB officer in the head has been arrested FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES yet stayed in America. This has got to end! https://t.co/80X4cKM1SD
reSee.it AI Summary
I served 20 years as a Border Patrol Agent until I decided to blow the whistle on the agency's failures. I witnessed firsthand how the cartels have taken control, forcing agents to violate court orders while leadership ignores the issues. Despite the risks to my career and safety, I felt compelled to speak out. My experiences highlight the broken chain of command, the mistreatment of immigrants, and the lack of integrity within the agency. I believe in the importance of truth and morality, even at great personal cost.
@JamesOKeefeIII - James O'Keefe
Border Patrol Agent Aaron Veckey served 20 years in the U.S. Border Patrol, until he blew the whistle. Veckey says the agency has surrendered operational control to the cartels, and that agents are being forced to violate court orders while leadership turns a blind eye. They tried to silence him. He risked his pension, his career, and his safety to tell the truth. Religion of Apathy (2:27) Aaron Veckey’s Experience as a Brush Agent (9:29) The Cat and Mouse Game of Illegal Immigration (12:17) The Border Has ALWAYS Been Wide Open(15:57) The Broken Chain of Command in CBP (21:47) Bureaucracy In Border Control/No Integrity (29:10) Mistreatment of Illegal Immigrants (38:06) Border Patrol Not Allowed To Do Anything (48:02) Disciplined for Integrity (59:54) Deputy Chief’s Response to Migrants Left in Extreme Conditions (1:06:28) The Value of Truth, Integrity, and Morality (1:18:15) Everyone Is a Pawn (1:25:02) Cartels Run The Border (1:29:07) Battles of Body and Mind (1:31:25) Aaron Veckey Officially Exonerated (1:38:39) Ethically Blowing The Whistle (1:41:20)
Video Transcript AI Summary
Aaron Vecchi, a former Border Patrol agent, exposed systemic human rights violations and internal cover-ups, risking his career and pension. He describes a "religion of apathy" among some agents who ridicule those dedicated to their oath. Vecchi believes the patrol's standards have declined, prioritizing quantity over quality in agents.
He recounts instances of vehicles driving through with marijuana and ultralights flying into Phoenix with unknown loads, even post-9/11. After 2005, things picked up during the Obama administration, and the Biden administration "blew the doors off."
Vecchi details inhumane conditions at the Ajo station, including overcrowded canopies, freezing temperatures, and a lack of blankets. He describes an incident where he found 60 men huddled together for warmth. He also mentions being forced to take jackets from breastfeeding women.
Vecchi reported these issues to the Office of Special Counsel and Congress. He faced retaliation, including a cease and desist order. He was officially cleared of wrongdoing following a federal inquiry. Vecchi advises others facing similar crises of conscience to pray, consult their families, and trust they will be vindicated. He believes the cartels run the border and agents are only allowed to work as hard as the cartels permit.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: You know, you see it every day. Every day. They hold their babies. They've got no strength left, and they're holding on to these children with every little bit. Fire me.
You know? Maybe they will. Maybe after this they will. You know? But my conscience will be clean.
That's way more important than my pension.
Speaker 1: What I can do as an agent is say, this is going on. I need somebody to come in and look at it. And that's what I did. Maybe the lions will try to devour me, but if that's your plan, so be it. I'll accept it.
I'm here to learn whatever lesson you gotta teach me.
Speaker 2: What is your price? Because if your price is not your line,
Speaker 3: then you are for sale. Welcome back to the Price Is My Life podcast. This episode is with another one of my heroes. You saw last week, the Florida Tech whistleblower. Well, we follow on the footsteps with that with another whistleblower, but not inside a university, but inside the border patrol.
Erin Vecchi has served in the US border patrol, and seventeen and a half years into serving in the Border Patrol in Arizona, made the decision to come forward with formal allegations exposing what Mr. Vecchi called systemic human rights violations, internal cover ups, and what appeared to be a surrender of operational control to the cartels with information about what was happening to illegal immigrants at these facilities. Risking his pension, career, and personal safety, Aaron Vecchi filed former whistleblower complaints with the Office of Special Counsel and faced illegal gag orders and retaliation. Aaron Vecchi risked his pension, his career, his professional reputation, and filed former whistleblower complaints with the Office of Special Counsel, faced illegal gag orders and retaliation for telling the truth. His story is one of conscience, courage and conviction, and came on the heels of Border Patrol agent Zachary Apothecar at the ending in Line in the Sand with the call to action for people to step forward and tell the truth.
Aaron, thank you so much for being here in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, James.
Speaker 3: I wanna start with this clip, which is one of the most profound things I've ever heard from anybody that you said to me in February, I believe it was it's us in a hotel room in Arizona, and I was meeting with Monica, the Border Patrol agent who came forward, exposing these teenage boys who go back to Mexico and get recruited to do it. So if we could pull this clip up in the hotel room.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're a real go getter Yeah. And you're surrounded by maybe on that particular shift, you've got three or four guys that just don't they're they're, you know, subscribed to the dogma of apathy, and they don't care. You know? And not you're the only guy that does. You know?
Or it's like they've got this religious dogma where they feel like they're virtuous. They they're almost enlightened by not caring.
Speaker 3: They're enlightened by not caring. You know? You and they try to spread this.
Speaker 1: They they do, and they do. They go around the way to you know how much easier your life would be if you didn't care? If you just took the paycheck, shut up, and stopped complaining, you would be so much better off. You don't understand what you're doing to yourself. You know?
It's just a job. Look at it brings you down to their level of thought and, you know, it makes them feel
Speaker 3: It makes them feel better about what they're doing. Yeah. I think so. So the dogma or the religion of apathy, I'd never heard that before.
Speaker 1: So it's just something I've realized over the years that I've noticed in some of the guys in the in the border patrol, some of the guys I've worked with, their attitude has been one that they've kind of become more ridiculing people who who work hard, who stay late, who put in the effort. And the the way I've kind of come to describe it is that religion of apathy where as you heard where they've just kind of it's it's it really seems like they want to convince you that if you don't if you let it go, if you let that drive go, you will be you will release, you will be free of the burden of caring, you know? You will actually be enlightened like they are and and they've talked down to you like you're the fool for caring so much about this job that you swore an oath to do, you know? And I sometimes will remind them, I'm like, listen, I've had other jobs. I didn't swear an oath to the restaurants I used to work in.
I swore an oath to this job and it's it is that important that we give it a little more effort than that, you know, job working at the shoe, you know, store or the line cook position. And that's those are great noble jobs when you're earning a paycheck for a family, but I didn't swear an oath to those jobs. I swore an oath to the border patrol, and I do believe that that matters. I do believe that's something. And and for whatever reason, over the years, there has been a shift.
In the beginning when I first came into the patrol, there were more oftentimes people that agents that would ridicule for people for not caring, ridicule people for leaving early, leaving leaving without doing their due diligence. Now, there's just more and more people that have subscribed to that religion of or that that dogma of apathy and it's just it and it creeps like a, you know, like Why some sort of
Speaker 3: did it change?
Speaker 1: I think I think the politics of of the patrol have I I think there's a lot of systemic problems. I think it's kind of possibly by design. I think the morale that I I think they've I think the patrol has a lot of systemic issues that have dragged down the morale in the patrol. So it's it's it's created an atmosphere where guys don't want to give it their all. So even I think the the standards in the patrol are lower than they ever used to be.
You don't have those gritty guys like you used to or or you don't have the same percentage of gritty guys. You used to have a lot more just guys that were here doing gritty work, pretty high moral minded guys that would, you know, give a lot more for the job and you don't have that. So I think the the process, the retention process, there is no there is no retention standard. So you can have really mediocre people get a job in the patrol and stay there their whole careers. So I think there's just a lot of systemic problems that wears that wears on good good agents and then even the mediocre agents because you can have really bad agents.
You can have really bad people with bad moral character get a job in law enforcement. I'm sure it's not just the patrol, and they can stay there. And they can really drag the morale of the whole patrol down or the whole station down. At least and again, I've only I've only worked at two two stations, Ajo being the main one.
Speaker 3: Ajo is in Arizona.
Speaker 1: Yes. Ajo stations. Yeah. So I think that's I think over the years, they've they've done a lot with kind of watering down the caliber of agent. To put it, I guess, summarize would be they've they've gone with quality over quantity or quantity over quality.
So the quality of agent quite it it's just not as high as it used to be, in my opinion. And I think that that happens whether it's a Republican administration or a Democrat administration because the Republicans, they're gonna say, we need boots on the ground. We need boots on the ground. Check his balls. He's good.
And you can find flaws in guys and say, hey, this guy shouldn't have this job. In the hiring process, in the weeding out process
Speaker 3: But it's competitive to be a Border Patrol agent, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Well, you would think, you know, it should be.
Speaker 3: It's a $130,000 a year job.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a great salary. I I think when I left, was making a yeah, in between a 130, a $140,000, you know, and and and here's the kicker though. I if you and I get a job in the Border Patrol, we start the same day, I can run around like crazy doing everything the Border Patrol asked me and more from the day I got hired. You can decide after a year, you know what? I've seen and done everything I wanted to do in the Border Patrol.
I'm just gonna sit on my butt. I'm gonna come to work and go to sleep. And you can do that for the next twenty years. Meanwhile, I run around and chase people down.
Speaker 3: Just explain briefly, for those of you who didn't see the Aaron Becki video that we published, and much of our audience has, but you ran people down, you were a tracker.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: What is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I I well, I consider myself a brush agent.
Speaker 3: A brush
Speaker 1: agent. A brush agent.
Speaker 3: Is that a
Speaker 1: term
Speaker 3: the Border Patrol gives?
Speaker 1: I think so. Yeah. It's pretty pretty good vernacular for what I do. So I would be someone who yeah. I like to track.
I like to lay in. I like to you know, I with the specialty units, I've been part of our, you know, surveillance units, sensor units, horse patrol. So yeah, I work in the dirt. I would have affectionately call me and others like me would be knuckle draggers, jokingly, but not so much. We're knuckle draggers.
Speaker 3: You like being in the dirt?
Speaker 1: An extent. Yeah, like being
Speaker 3: in the dirt. What did you like about it?
Speaker 1: It's just I think it's it's just something I'd naturally do. If I wasn't in the desert in the dirt, I'd be in a stream somewhere and then and unfortunately, and I know it might sound callous to put it in that to refer to chasing aliens as like fishing, but it's it's similar to that. It's coming around a bend wondering where the next sweet spot for fish are gonna be. It's the same thing when you're on sign up for on the trail pushing sign for, you know, a group of 10 or 15 people. Where are they gonna be sleeping?
Where am I gonna find them taking a break? So that drive, that push to stay on the sign and maybe find people in a in a thicket or over the next ridge line, that's very similar to that that that that I don't know that that whatever is in my veins that drives me to do that, it's it's the same thing. Maybe it's adrenaline. I don't know. It could be an adrenaline junkie and get the same kind of rush
Speaker 3: from It's like a cat and mouse game.
Speaker 1: It's very much cat and mouse.
Speaker 3: That's what the guy and line of the scene. I think we have a clip of us talking to a Border Patrol agent in when I made the film Line of the Sand, there was one guy in the in the SUV in El Paso and he kind of embodied what you're talking about. It was just sort of sort of defeat in him. Like it's a cat and mouse game. I might catch you today, you might get away.
It just seemed very futile, that there's a futility to what these guys were going through. Did you feel that or sense that?
Speaker 1: The futility in the for the for the aliens, the ones being chased, cutter, the mouse or both because sometimes I suppose Well,
Speaker 3: we're gonna play the clip here in a minute, but as they're pulling up, it's I think it's like a futility Take your hidden Oh, here we go. This is an Look to that, man.
Speaker 4: The job pays well. It's frustrating now. It used to be fun. We used to be able to do our jobs. It's it's harder now.
We vent to our our superiors, our superiors, vent up, but at the end of the day, we're just a bunch of pawns. Pawns. We have no say. We have no voice. But I'll be honest with you, I have five years to go.
You know, I just
Speaker 3: gotta maintain my sanity. My sanity.
Speaker 4: Yeah. That's was the cat and
Speaker 3: mouse game.
Speaker 4: It's a game. You try today, I got you. Try tomorrow. I'll get you again. You try the next day, you didn't get me, you won that game.
You're worth it. Stay here, make that money, don't get caught.
Speaker 3: Man, he's telling he's telling the person that, oh, yeah, don't get caught. That seems kinda contrary to the stated mission of the border patrol, doesn't
Speaker 1: it? Yeah.
Speaker 3: Don't get caught. Do you say that too?
Speaker 1: Don't get caught? Well, I mean, there's okay. I think in the in the totality of the circumstances, especially with with the dynamic between like say Mexicans and Mexican Nationals Yeah. And the Border Patrol, they come and we see them the next day. So I catch groups there.
I've got it. There was a video of me telling some guys, don't worry, you'll be back tomorrow, know, and we're laughing and joking and somebody posted it online. So, yeah, I think there's a you know, the same way they write corridos, you know, I think or the What is it? I think that's what it's called, the the smuggling music that that's popular down in Mexico and parts of the Southwest Corridos, think is what it And it'll kind of tell about their tales, you know. I think there's I think there's that dynamic of the cat and mouse dynamic in particular with Border Patrol agents and and you know, Mexican nationals where that's just it's just this is just going, you know.
It's just this is just daily life, you know. Now flash forward to what happened with obviously the Biden administration where that was come something completely different that nobody had ever seen before. And you talk about being, you know, demoralized or feeling defeated, think. Was that was that what he was referring to?
Speaker 3: April was a of 02/2024.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think and one of the conclusions I came to with with as far as the feeling like a pawn and where I really had became sympathetic to I shouldn't say sympathetic, but empathetic maybe, to the the plight of the all the immigrants coming in was I realized that we were all pawns. The agents were pawns, and the immigrants were pawns because it was so unlike anything we had seen before. It wasn't just this natural, the Mexican nationals coming here working all the time and going back. Let's let's they they come they come and they go.
The the the drug meals come and go. They drop their drugs, they come back, they you know, it's constantly coming and going. This was something wildly different. This was every country in the world was knocking on our
Speaker 3: What time period did you witness this?
Speaker 1: I mean, this was this was I mean, it's it happened in earnest. It started happening with the Obama years when the I think the a lot of the Indians, the Sikhs were showing up, if I'm not mistaken. Or at least, I I take that back. Maybe it was the the the a lot of the Salvador Salvadoranal families, the the people that from El Salvador and the Guatemalan families in particular during the Obama administration. Maybe it was even some of the Indian families too.
Speaker 3: What year did you start? 02/2004?
Speaker 1: I started in 02/2005.
Speaker 3: So that was only four years before Obama
Speaker 1: came into Yeah. Had we had Obama sometime during the Obama administration, we we had some big groups that were showing up and then then that's they pretty much stopped. Trump did get a handle on someone. But in earnest, I mean, when everything the wheels fell off
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Was the last in the Biden Biden blew the doors off Going back
Speaker 3: to like 02/2005, that was George W Bush when you when you were 31, '30
Speaker 1: two Yeah. Years And then it was just your run of the mill. It was your standard everything pre February.
Speaker 3: What was that like? What was that existence like with during the Obama administration? It was just a trickle in or how did it compare to
Speaker 1: I present mean, thing is they've always the border's always been wide open. I mean, it's always been wide open. We had when I first got here, we had literally just a three strand or four strand barbed wire fence and that was down in most of the places. You know, the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, that's that's there's not a lot that we can do without a lot of special lawmaking wrangling going on. So they have barbed wire fence that's, you know, down in or used to be down in a lot of the places.
But, you know, there were used to be drive through vehicles would drive through. So this is Bush Bush era stuff. Bush Bush era stuff, we would have vehicles driving through with makeshift campers and 3,000 pounds in each vehicle and multiple vehicles at a time driving up the road loaded with marijuana like no big deal. This is post nine eleven. This is post nine eleven.
They would drive up paved roads in the middle of the night at will and and they'd fly ultralights through northbound towards Phoenix. And we would pretty much do nothing about it. And the ultralights, they'd tell us to do goofy stuff like, hey, see if you can go get eyes on it. Like, go get eyes on an ultralight flying around in the middle of the night, dropping loads of God knows what. You know, those were our directives.
And I remember one time talking about blowing the whistle on that because I thought it was highly offensive that every day we're having ultralight incursions post nine What's ultralight? Like ultralight aircraft,
Speaker 3: you
Speaker 1: know, a small aircraft flown by a person flying with you know, 400 pounds, 300 pounds, whatever they could carry and then flying up towards like say, Casa Grande, and then pulling the lever and dropping it off into somebody's backyard, I guess, you know. And the only thing we could do was, you know, they want us to try to spot it, you know. And this this would happen nightly. And I always thought this is crazy, you know, this is happening every night, not every night, constantly daily. These these would be detected, but we weren't doing anything about it.
I always thought it was just offensive that, you know, post nine eleven, we've got people in Afghanistan. We say we're defending the homeland, you know, with all the and they've just put that fence up. That was one of the first real fences they put up, and they were cutting through that fence, lifting that fence up like crazy. They would lift the fence up to drive vehicles underneath and to run dope groups underneath the fence. It was yeah.
I think I don't know what who built that first fence down in the port, down in Lukeville. But the Lord Lukeville Port of entry, the first fence that I saw go up, it was so easy to lift that fence that they would rather lift it in some places than cut through it or go over it. So they would call what we call popping the panels. They'd pop the panels and sometimes they'd even they cut the vehicle barricade on the other side and they drive vehicles underneath the fence. Well, I asked a contractor one time, like, why don't you preemptively because there was a way to stop them from lifting the panels.
I said, why don't you do this? Why don't you come out and do this? Well, we're not contracted to make improvements. We can only make repairs. Well, imagine being a contractor coming down to Phoenix from or from Phoenix all the way to Lukeville.
I mean, is a pretty good, probably a great cash cow.
Speaker 3: Even not even that's not not a lot to make improvements, just repairs.
Speaker 1: Right. Right. So they come down every day making repairs to this fence.
Speaker 3: Making money off this.
Speaker 1: Which is a shoddy contract, clearly, because it's a shoddy fence. Yeah. Yeah. We went out past,
Speaker 3: so we had those little chicken grates and and we noticed they were coming along and they were repairing them and
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, was basically the chicken grate, the same
Speaker 3: thing. So they're making money
Speaker 0: off this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. They're making repairs daily, it's a never ending
Speaker 3: So you're cycle thousand and five and I'm just trying to get an overview because you know, twenty years or how long were you in the Border Patrol? Twenty years. You just retired?
Speaker 1: I retired on the date. Yeah, get me What day
Speaker 3: did you retire?
Speaker 1: Literally June 27. Was at 20 my old years? Yeah. Well, yeah. My first day was June 27.
Yeah.
Speaker 3: And and congratulations recently. Thank You got married. We're standing up to the powers that tried to discredit us, silence us, smear us, raid us, and throw us in jail. They've awakened a sleeping giant. We're building a movement of transparency and accountability in both the public and private sectors because we run from nothing.
We hide from nothing. And when you join and get your full access pass, you fuel a movement of truth. You, we are the media now. In in the years 2005 to through the Obama administration, you noticed that things kind of picked up in the Obama administration. Before then, you know, you talk about the politics of the patrol and morality.
Just generally speaking, the men were of a higher caliber in 02/2005.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe that. Yeah, for sure. I think I think it was less I think the guys really wanted I think they were less career minded. I think climbing the ladder was less of a it wasn't something guys really wanted to do. You had to, you know, it was it was you wanted to go out there and and we were just more gritty.
We were men of getting out there in the brush, catching a vehicle, you know, finding that big dope load, running stuff down. Guys were guys souped up reluctantly and when I say souped up became supervisors, climbing
Speaker 3: the Souped up. It's like in sailing, we say we like the journey, we're not necessarily about the destination. So you're saying the gritty guys were like, just wanna just wanna do the work. Just wanna do the job.
Speaker 1: Just do the work. Yep.
Speaker 3: And you never wanted to be supervisor? No. What is a supervisor like your supervisor, is is that kind of a desk thing or do they go out in the field as well or
Speaker 1: Some of the soups do get out in the field and some of them are good look, there are I invite first line soups to my house for barbecues. Beyond that, I do not. And I do not because I don't trust them because I've seen the two facedness, I've seen the fact that they will tell me they're gonna do something and they don't. I've seen the
Speaker 3: the Is that true in most cases above the soup supervisor?
Speaker 1: I think that I've just had enough bad dealings where I I've I just don't trust them. I've I've seen the the disconnect that they have from the field, you know.
Speaker 3: What's the what's the position above supervisor?
Speaker 1: Right now, it's watch commander. It used to be field operations supervisor, FOS, we used to call it, but now it's Watch Commander.
Speaker 3: So for like AHO, how it works is there's patrol agents, there's supervisor and the Watch Commander is in charge
Speaker 1: of the entire Watch Commander would be in charge of like the shifts or something.
Speaker 3: And then above Watch commander?
Speaker 1: I think it's they have like a d pack or so. I'm not even honestly, once you get above Watch commander, I
Speaker 3: don't But it's so interesting. Wonder if it was
Speaker 1: I want true shake your hand at that point, know, because like, get away from me.
Speaker 3: In 02/2005, was it true that Watch Commanders were it was still the same sort of political issues?
Speaker 1: I suspect not. And I'll tell you what. Okay. So here's a classic, And this is, again, this is my I've mostly been in Ajo. Right?
So in Ajo at that time, we had a patrol agent in charge who had been there for a good amount of time. And we had and it was a much smaller station, much fewer man less manpower. Right? We had fewer guys there, guys and gals, very very few fewer agents. But since then, that station has become like a training ground for patrol agents in charge.
So the patrol agent in charge, we've at that station, they they've had now or at least in the time that I was there, I wanna say from 2005 to 02/2025, somewhere around 20 plus people acting as patrol agent in charge, you know? So and I think the the patrol agent in charge when I was first there, he was there for several years. But after that, these guys come and go. Well and then they all promote. Even the guy who the I made the allegations, the the petroleum charge when I made the allegations, hey, this is happening.
And I, you know, I said that that we're violating these court orders and and it's it's clear as day that we're violating these court orders and making us do it. That guy promoted. He's he's he's moved up afterwards and and they under his command, under his watch, they lied about me and they gave me this gag order against my rights. OSC agreed. Border Patrol had to relent, you know.
They still promote them. This is like a training ground for their chosen, presumably. I mean, you know, that's one can kind of draw that conclusion. But 20 patrol agents in charge come into a station that's a hard to fill spot. The morale's low.
I need somebody to come in there and own that station as an agent, you know, that that loves the guys, loves that is willing, again, the grit to put in the work put in the work for the station. Don't come in and say, this is my station. Now, shut up and do what you're told. No. I I got granddaughters that grew up in this town.
I got my kids my kids went to school
Speaker 3: Yeah. At this k
Speaker 1: through 12. Yeah. My kids went to school at this k through 12. I got a granddaughter here. You know what I mean?
I I moved my family out here for the long haul. And now you're gonna come in and tell me and the and the guys who I've worked with for all these years ran through these deserts, you know, and and treated people with respect. Now you're gonna come here. You're for what? Six months?
And tell me I gotta treat people like crap because this is your station? And and then you're gonna tell me this is a moral this is this this this agency has integrity? And now you're gonna and then when I report you for making us do this, You're gonna investigate me for it and then you promote, you know? I mean, think that's mean,
Speaker 3: are these are these people you're talking about people like crap like the illegal immigrants?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Treating the illegal yeah. Treating the illegal aliens like crap, making us do it. But I think that in light I mean, that's essentially the problem. You know, you've got people coming in, you've got this chain of command that's broken.
It and I was just talking to a friend about it, really good guy that I trust, and we're talking about kind of, like, the the some of the issues. We're talking about what's wrong. Why do the why do agents not care anymore? You know? And, like even in my position, why couldn't I drum up more support?
Why couldn't I bring more whistleblowers to you? Why couldn't I bring more whistleblowers to OSC? Right?
Speaker 3: We got one or two, but it was tough.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is I look at it like, I don't even know it's my job to. Right? It's not my job to. It's it's not my job to in the No. In the agency.
Right? I rang the bell, rang the alarm, sounded the alarm, whatever. But the the border patrol, at least where I where I'm standing from in my career, we have plenty of administrators, but we don't have leadership. Okay? Where's our leadership?
Where's that guy that comes into a house and says, you know what? I'm here for you guys. I want to be at this station. I want to dig us out of this this crap that this agency has dug. I wanna be here and I wanna support you guys, and I'm not going anywhere.
I wanna know what it's like to be an Ajo agent.
Speaker 3: Is that is that type of mentality even possible in a bureaucracy?
Speaker 1: That's the
Speaker 3: thing. Because you're describing the chain of command issues, what I found really interesting, what we said is, okay, you have the supervisor and the guy, I don't trust that guy. Is that true of all bureaucracy right now? Or is it unique to the border patrol? Right.
Yep. I don't know if this is a border patrol issue or just a human nature issue. We're getting regards to bureaucracy, but I don't know if you have any insight into that.
Speaker 1: Right. Now that's Okay. Now that's something I've I completely agree with you. That could be and that could be, you know, Brent, you can push that out further, like culturally speaking, like some of the issues that that the border patrol has, that our bureaucracy has. Is it cultural problems that drive some of the stuff.
Right? You can do that. But I gotta look from my standpoint with the border patrol. I don't know what led to the problems we had. I don't I can't just sit there and say, well, you know, it was management.
It was this. It was that. What I can do as an agent is say, this is going on. I need somebody to come in and look at it, and that's what I did, and they didn't. And then I so I have you know what I mean?
Like, I can have my opinions, which is kind of what we're you know, we're talking about some opinions. I could say, hey. It's my opinion. We need a we need a patrol agent in charge that cares. The culture of the border patrol needs to change, stuff like that.
Right? But factually, I can definitely tell you there are some things that happened down there that were wrong. And I pointed it out and I begged Office of Special Counsel to send investigators in and they didn't. Instead, they investigated me. Yeah.
You know? And that's the
Speaker 3: That's true of every single person that I talk to these days. Maybe it didn't use like in 02/2005, would it have been different?
Speaker 1: In 02/2005, would it have been in 2005 things would it have been different? Suppose,
Speaker 3: you know, you're looking at a bureaucracy where it's inherent in the bureaucracy to try to protect itself. And we see that with the FBI right now and protecting their informants and their sources and I guess the system wants to protect itself, so you're trying to expose it.
Speaker 1: You know what I think would have been different in 02/2005? I think what would have been different in 2005 would have been the agents, the patrol agent in charge, the middle management would have pushed back on what was happening. I think middle management would have would have also filed complaints about what we're doing because the opportunity was there. We had the court order that said, hey, you can't do this. It wouldn't have been left up to line agents like myself to file that complaint.
The state the the management would have supported me in filing that. Management when and it wasn't just me. It wasn't just me. The I wasn't the first person to go to management even at the station level and say, hey, we're not supposed to be doing this, you know? And then, you know, part of it was that we had a read and sign.
They were making us sign something saying, hey, read this court order and don't do it. And they've make sure you read and and every quarter, read this, make sure you don't do it. And then they say, go do it. And it was the first the first people to start raising the alarm were the the processing gurus. And they were coming to management every every muster and saying, hey, we're out of we're we're totally violating these these court orders this court order.
And I'd say and middle management, well, you know, this is coming from Anaheim. This is these are the orders. These are marching orders, guys. Do it. You know?
Now it's my opinion, A good board patrol agent, like, a good patrol agent in charge would recognize that part partially being a good I'm trying trying to find the right words to phrase this, but being a good agent would have been to also embrace the court order because it would have forced them to look at what was going on. You get what I'm saying? Instead of just bringing everybody in. So they could have said, hey, we're at capacity. We're not gonna bring any more people in.
And it would have forced the administration or or I'm not a lawyer, but it would have possibly forced maybe the secretary of Homeland Security to say, hey, we got a problem over here, Tucson sector. The the you know, we've got stations that are saying they're not gonna pick up any more aliens because they've got a court order standing in their way. You know, I I don't know how that would have played out, but I feel like in 02/2005, more management would have pushed that envelope
Speaker 3: Mhmm.
Speaker 1: Would have stood by the the agents and said, hey, you know what? We're making our agents sign this thing that says they're not gonna violate this court order. I'm gonna go back to my chief and say, hey, we're not gonna violate this court order. We're standing with our agents down here, and let's go see how that plays out. And if they have and one of the integrity issues that I brought up with my management and they would challenge me that I've had this conversation in the gym with one of my middle management guys and he climbed up a little further and he was somebody who I in the past I had invited to barbecues and he said to me, he said, Becky, I guess I'm not invited to your barbecues anymore.
I said, no, you're not. And he's like, oh, you know, and we kind of talked about it. I said, there's an integrity problem at this station with you guys. He said, well, do you mean, Becky? I said, well, this is what I mean.
He says, every day you guys come in to muster, you agree with us that there's something wrong with going what's going on when we voice our opinions. And every day, you tell us that, well, it's coming on hot from from on high. You know it's wrong, that there's this we shouldn't be doing this or that this is flies in the face of everything we're supposed to be doing as border patrol agents and that we're violating court orders and whatnot, but you're being told to do it. But yet and still, you as watch commanders order 40 more people to go do it. I said, if there was integrity if you guys had integrity, you one of you by now would have taken the bars off your leaf or off your collar and you would have gone in and told your the person above you, I cannot go in there and order these men and women to do this because I know it's wrong.
Speaker 3: They said it was wrong to you.
Speaker 1: They said it's wrong. How do they
Speaker 3: say it's wrong?
Speaker 1: They they will say, yeah, this is sucks guys. We're clear, we're probably out of we're probably out of policy, we're probably almost in the couriers.
Speaker 3: It's easier to just resign themselves or resign yourself, not you, but any individual to just It's like you say, it's a religion of apathy. It's easier not to give a damn. Yeah. It's like that scene in Rudy where all the You ever seen that movie, the football movie?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Where all the players take off their They put the jersey on the table and this is for Rudy. That's what it would remind me of, all these watch commanders walking in and taking off their thing. But it's just easier not to It's almost like they've resigned. Yeah. Resigned themselves.
And is that And I don't know if just because you're in the Border Patrol, and you're not a social psychologist, but a question I have is, is this something that's happening in all institutions? Is it is you know, or is it the Border Patrol, is it worse there? Or is it better in the border patrol than most institutions relative to other areas of society? Because you know, I see this everywhere. Everyone everything seems to have no integrity anymore.
And I'm just wondering if that if that's pretty much that trend is happening everywhere or is it more so in Border Patrol, in your opinion?
Speaker 1: Man, that's tough. I mean, I see a lot of really good guys too, know? So I think But
Speaker 3: not at the Watch Commander level. Right. When you say a lot
Speaker 1: of good guys, you're
Speaker 3: talking about the agents.
Speaker 1: Right. I see yeah. I see a lot of good agents. I see a lot of good agents and it's so it is tough because, know, on one hand, I could see some really great guys and then I could see some bad guys. I mean, it's a cross section of society, right?
You know? But yeah, the the the the higher up in the food chain you go in the bureaucracy, it definitely seems to get a little smarmy. Is that the word I Let's take a look
Speaker 3: at this this abuses you witnessed at the Ajo Border Patrol Station. There was a makeshift canopy at the Border Patrol Station
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: In Ajo, well crowded, they were burning or freezing depending upon the weather, sleeping in puddles, fighting over shade. Yeah. And you had showed me this canopy personally, I went there in Arizona. We can pull that up. I mean, we as we're pulling this up Oh, there it is.
They're like look like baked potatoes Yeah. Metal lemons.
Speaker 1: That was the improved shelter. That's an improved that's an improved shelter. That's the improved one. Yeah. That's the good one.
Quick quick can I tell you a quick story there? That okay. So that they had moved them to that, and that was a spot where it was actually might have been worse because that was the parking lot and we I told the the patrol agent in charge, like when I saw them put in there, they're like, sir, you know, that would that actually gets standing water. It's gonna there's gonna be standing water there. They're not even gonna be able to at least before where I had showed you that there were rocks and there was no standing water.
Like, they're not even gonna be able to lay down here. I mean, they're not they're not gonna be able lay down when it rains because it does. It rains and usually rains in the coldest temperatures. One day, the the the retaliation that I faced, I believe, was pretty clear cut. It came on the heels of I had come to work one day and I had seen about it was only one of those cells was full, but it was like 60 dudes in there.
This is maybe upper forties at the time, but you know, upper forties is cold. I mean, you know, especially, you know, if you're not used to 40 degree temps. So it's upper forties. These guys, none of them had their jackets and they were cold. They didn't have any of the blankets.
Nobody had given them any blankets. They had heaters, but nobody had turned them on. And so I'm coming in at like, I don't know, 10PM. And I saw the guys you remember the I think it was Abu Ghraib where they were like dog piling Yeah. People naked.
There was sixty sixty dudes, strangers were in the corner piled up, like intertwined, hugging each other, completely piled up to try to stay warm. And that's when I flipped out on one of the guys who was an acting launch commander. I I I saw him and I caught him. I started handing out blankets and I kinda I, you know, I got a little unprofessional. I'm like, hey, you know what?
You mother f'ers think this is funny because some of the guys think it's funny. Some of the guys
Speaker 3: They thought it was funny?
Speaker 1: Some of the guys think that type of stuff is funny. It's like, well, this is what they get for coming here, you know, so we're not gonna give
Speaker 3: a of people on the right may might be listening to this and think, yeah, well, they're illegal immigrants.
Speaker 1: Right, right. That's yeah.
Speaker 3: It's better than getting shot. Yeah. What are your reaction to that?
Speaker 1: Some of some of the guys, yeah, that's you know, so that's the take that some of the people have and but here's the thing. I'm a when I'm a board of true agent, I'm a law enforcement officer. Okay? It's not my job to dole out punishment. It's my job to make arrest and but besides that and what I told him that night was I'm a Christian, first and foremost.
It's not my job to punish these people for coming here illegally. It's not my job to try to look at them. That one's definitely the terrorist.
Speaker 3: Is that what they
Speaker 1: do? That one's definitely the rapist. Did you see Well, no, but I mean, people the bad you know, a lot of you know, I don't want to paint certain agents will definitely like, oh, they're all terrorists, They're all rapists. They're all criminal, you know, of course, you know, a lot of a lot of the people coming here are probably. They a lot of the people coming here are probably not good guys.
There's no doubt about it. Trust me. I've had guys I've had people come through and it was pretty it's it's pretty sickening like, you know, forget about like, you see this every day and and this is where the look like the administration completely full of crap. Like, they're all family units. That was a nonsense.
You've seen enough video. You've posted enough stuff. The the notion that these were these were people coming here that because we're, you know, like the Americans the American population is on decline, so we need more people to come here and breed is absurd. They were bringing in tons of single men, six foot tall, six foot three, hundred and seventy, eighty pounds, 25 years old by the droves. And I would get groups of, you know, twenty, thirty men from the same countries of, you know, countries where, you know, you know, like, I have notoriously hotbeds for terrorism and stuff like that.
And I tried, I was learning Punjabi, I was learning Arabic, I was learning, you know, French trying to, know, just make small talk with some of these people just to, you know, I mean, try to learn, you know, and you try to you try to do the human stuff with these people because you're like, hey, this is this is my life now. Right? And you will get guys and they will it's like they've been trained. They will not crack a smile.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I saw that too when I was in the desert that it's like they were told and there were some Turkish men I spoke with in East Of San Diego and they almost hushed each other. Yeah. Are they told not
Speaker 1: to tell? I think so.
Speaker 3: Think By who?
Speaker 1: I I don't who knows?
Speaker 3: Maybe you heard something or picked up something in your work in Arizona. They're very disciplined about it.
Speaker 1: It's pretty Yeah. I've seen guys that I wouldn't doubt that they came from some sort of training, know, or at least were told to harden their hearts. How about that? They were trained to harden their hearts that that do not let these do not They're not We are not their friends,
Speaker 3: And you they were It's incredible discipline because there's so many of these people coming over and none of them are willing to tell you the specifics. Yeah. And there was that scene in Line in the Sand where the guy said, a travel agent sent him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then he made this gesture where he put his hand over his throat like he's slitting his own Like he tells the truth, he'll be killed.
Speaker 1: But, you know, it almost is like a travel agent. You you know, we got we'll get like brochures. They get some imam in New York constantly over and over again. That's, oh, my uncle. My uncle's my sponsor.
And we just take it. Okay. Yeah. Your uncle so and so, imam so and so in New York. And they and I'm like, have you seen this?
And the intel intel guys or the prostitute guy, yeah. No. That's that's what we're doing these days when they and they come in and they all have the it's obviously like they travel it is like the travel agent, whatever country they came from. And this was not some this was not some organic just happenings where these people in Mauritania, Senegal, Malaysia Well, let's talk
Speaker 3: let's walk through some more. You said that you were forced to take jackets from breastfeeding women in thirty, forty and fifty degree weather. How did the other guards or the other Border Patrol agents respond to that?
Speaker 1: You know, I for the most part, most people fell along with it, fell in line with it and went along with it. There was definitely people, especially as it got colder, I think a lot of the younger agents were were really quick to start siding with me.
Speaker 3: And anyone else say anything like
Speaker 1: I just had a there was a where there was a watch commander and I thanked him for it. There was a a newer watch commander who got there, who's did send out an email that at least and and you could I wish he had done more, but he had sent out an email saying, look at it. It's an officer discretion thing. If you wanted give them their jackets, you can give them their jackets, basically. So it kind of loosened up.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: But that I think the whole thing was is that they were they were basically saying because the buses weren't allowing them, we had to take them, but they had to have them off at the station anyways and whatnot. But lots of times, we were taking the jackets hours before they even got to the station. And then besides that, they're taking them off of all of the men who were out in those cages for, you know, sometimes a day at a time. You know, I don't I don't even know how many hours, but long. Well over twelve hours for sure.
But yeah. So not just at the station, but lined up along the wall. Sometimes guys would prematurely take their their jackets and stuff. And and yeah. I mean, there's there's definitely an element of agents out there that, you know, like, don't care.
They don't care that these people are freezing. And and the ironic thing about it is is those guys, they're the first ones to sit in their trucks with the heat on, you know? Yeah. In the same conditions, they'll watch. They'll watch.
They'll sit in their trucks with their heat on and they'll watch the women and children and the men all sitting there freezing and they'll sit there and the heaters on and they won't give them their you know, they'll they'll go take their jacket.
Speaker 3: You said you told the agent in charge they're gonna have a mass casualty event inside the parking lot and begged him to get shade since it was over 110 degrees. And what happened there?
Speaker 1: Nothing. They didn't do anything about it.
Speaker 3: There are videos where you took people lined up sitting, standing and laying against the wall and a video of an officer handing out waters to people from the other side of the wall. Yeah. We have that video. Oh, yeah. What's this?
Speaker 1: That's a
Speaker 3: It's a It's in Arizona?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And they're That's
Speaker 1: actually very close to the port. That's a that's actually another disturbing thing too because that was a group of Senegalese men. I believe they were Senegalese. They got cut off from their group. I think half of them got through, the other half didn't.
And so they we stopped. We convinced them to stop. They're they they were they when they built that wall, they the park service or somebody, I don't know, we had to put in floodgates. So there's all these floodgates going up and down that wall. And during the monsoon season, they they have to open the floodgates to allow water to flow because otherwise, the the town south of the port get had gotten flooded in the past.
So they put these floodgates in. Anyway anyway, so they were coming close to getting in to getting north through one of these floodgates, but we stopped them and convinced them to go back to the port of entry. Now these people were begging us, no, don't. They're gonna kill us. Well, we hear that all the time that, you know, the Mexicans don't like us here, and they're begging us to let us come through.
They didn't know that they could you know, that there was a hole right there, But we said, hey. Yeah. And they were like, we wanna claim asylum. Okay. Well, you got it's not my as a board of affiliation, I'm I don't adjudicate who comes through the wall.
You're you know what I mean? Like, I don't have the I can't even let you you know, okay. It's not my job to decide whether or not you're claiming asylum or who you are. Your job, if you gotta claim asylum, is to go through the port of entry and make your claim for asylum. So we convinced these guys to do that.
As soon as they get close to the port of entry, they had the Mexican Ad Juan Arrows. I think that's what they're called. The Mexican port workers pushed them back, drove them back, wouldn't let them even come close to the port of entry. So we thought that was odd. Like, well, wait a minute.
These are supposedly asylum seekers. Right? All the asylum seekers and refugees, we're welcoming them. Right? That's what you hear on the news.
They're asylum seekers. They're refugees. Why can't they come through the port of entry? Well and talking to a port of entry supervisor about the matter because they said, hey, we got these, like there's, like, 22 Senegalese here trying to come through the port of entry.
Speaker 3: You
Speaker 1: know, like but the Mexican workers won't let them. This port of our guy, one of our guys, not but customs and board, CBP, one of the blue uniform guys. He he tells me, he goes, oh, I'm glad they didn't. I would've shut the gate on him. I was like, who would've shut the Says, yeah.
We can't handle that kind of you know, that that many people claiming refugee status here. We you know, I was like, that's your guys' job. Like, what are you talking about? He's like, well, we only got so many people on duty. I'm like, we got 400 people on the other side of the hill over here that we're dealing with that have that are sitting here waiting for us to pick them up and take them to the station.
He's like, yeah, but you're a big station. I'm like, yeah, but we've got 10 people on shift right now, you know? He's like, you know what? I'm not even supposed to be talking about and he kind of blows me off and shakes my hand and walks away. But what I realized is, so the refuge all these refugees and all these asylum seekers, as they were called, weren't even allowed to come in through the right way.
Now whether it's because Mexico wouldn't let them through or the cartels wouldn't let them through or the or people on our own side, the decision makers on our own side, somebody said, you guys aren't allowed to come through the port of entry. And they pushed and funneled these people through holes in the in the fence into the border patrol. And I I do believe, again, not that I'm a lawyer, but that that's because the Border Patrol as a Border Patrol agent, I don't get to make that call. All we can do is give you notice to appear Process them. Go see a judge, process You're you're a processing and and they can give you, you know
Speaker 3: You really enforce the law, do you anymore? Does the bar patrol agents enforce the law?
Speaker 1: I mean, at that time we weren't. At that time, we really weren't. And in fact, I mean, like they did more to they did more to push policy on us. We were we were told during use of force training, like, we couldn't area saturate with pepper ball launchers if like, we couldn't shoot pepper balls. This is what we were told, at least at one of the trains out, unless they're like menacing us.
So like you could have somebody cutting the wall, cutting through the wall and you can't like launch a pepper ball in his direction.
Speaker 3: That's what was that's what I was witnessing in California, they were in a saw and they're cutting the wall.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: What do you what can you do
Speaker 1: if Apparently, they're at that time, you couldn't do anything.
Speaker 3: If they're if they're if they're with a gun and with a big Yeah. Dangerous saw sawing You do. Through the wall, you can't stop them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: At that time, at least the way well, now whether it was wrong time.
Speaker 3: What about in 02/2006?
Speaker 1: I will say this and not being a policy expert, it's my opinion that over the years, the the patrol regularly creates policy. There are it goes back and forth sometimes, I'll say. Sometimes they cut us loose and they allow us to do our jobs. But but sometimes during for whatever reason, they create policy or at least they create a boogeyman that somehow we're gonna get in trouble for, like, pepperballing a Mexican cartel worker for cutting the fence. That sounds absurd on its face, right?
That I can't physically defend a physical barrier, because if I can't physically defend the physical barrier, what's to keep them from coming in with back hold and pulling the whole thing down?
Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone asks this question like it's insane.
Speaker 1: It sounds ludicrous on its face, right? But they convince you, no no no, If you Well,
Speaker 3: we talk about these abstractions and these things and no one really understands what any of it means. How how do we get here? But certainly, a member of the cartel sawing through the fence Right. Which is what I witnessed, and and calling me a over the radio and mocking me as I'm standing on American soil. You're not They're not standing on America.
You're in Mexico. I don't know if we have that clip, Andrew, but this cartel clip, which we'll pull up, which for those who are listening and not watching, it might be a little bit hard to follow because it's more of something that you witness. But it was like, my first perception is why aren't you shooting those guys? Why aren't you stopping them? They're literally destroying federal property and and
Speaker 1: We have management, I swear, they and and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we have lawyers and that's why. Maybe we have lawyers that believe I can't physically like push somebody back from coming through a hole in the wall.
Yeah. Unless they're again menacing me. I can stand there. Saw. Right?
I can stand there in the way but I can't like push them
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 1: As they come. You know what
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah. But we'll have I've I've seen some of these people that come through and you'll you'll do everything. You'll have your show of force, pepper balls, your guns and all this. And I watched a family one time, and they just you know what they did? They they had the the cartels yelling at them, like, just keep going, and they they led with their kid.
They put their 14 year old kid and had their 14 year old kid, you know, and they I mean, they eventually they backed down.
Speaker 3: In the or in the case of but Or in the case of the cartel that I saw, if they retreated, they'd get shot. The the people that were
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The scouts and the people, I'm sure they can't retreat. I shouldn't have trusted these guys, but I did trust these guys.
Speaker 5: A lot of people thought there was malfeasance. I would prefer to say ignorant of those events. I didn't wanna know.
Speaker 3: Nonprofit boards of directors can be very, very dangerous. Unfortunately, I have recordings and documents to back up everything I'm about to tell you.
Speaker 6: Employees were starting to bundle up and talk.
Speaker 2: If we're about to paint James as a criminal, it better be fucking good.
Speaker 3: They sent a pic of me nailed to a cross. They used these kids. Matt used them to
Speaker 6: further his agenda. The reason why James was bad was morphing.
Speaker 3: I never lived this lifestyle with black cars. He's a mean boss. That's an Israel thing. It's not appropriate. I don't know that Jameson has a private life.
Objection.
Speaker 6: James took a pregnant woman sandwich. And these are people that we thought were people with integrity. Who on the board is in control?
Speaker 3: Turns out war members are taking money from donors. How
Speaker 6: much did you invest in which of that tier man's companies?
Speaker 1: I don't think that's any of your business.
Speaker 3: We're at the pinnacle of Mount Everest.
Speaker 6: Are you refusing to answer the question?
Speaker 3: Yes. The only thing that has changed is that we broke the biggest story in our organization's history.
Speaker 4: If a board statement goes out, it's fucking over.
Speaker 3: Week later, everything changed. And it wasn't right. It was the timing of it that was so suspicious.
Speaker 6: Is it fair to say that three of the four companies you've invested in, you would consider to be in the medical field?
Speaker 3: So what did the board think people were gonna assume?
Speaker 5: One of the companies could be sold to a big pharma.
Speaker 6: Like Pfizer. Like Did
Speaker 3: the board not think that people were gonna assume the worst? I wanna talk about your investments.
Speaker 5: I wanna talk about you.
Speaker 3: I'm a fighter.
Speaker 5: You're a cheat.
Speaker 1: I'm a warrior.
Speaker 3: You're a liar. And I will get my justice. Not revenge, but justice. Is it all about money? Too bad you can't afford that.
Big difference.
Speaker 6: How do you define conflict of interest?
Speaker 3: You raise the alarm internally.
Speaker 1: You
Speaker 3: oh, this is the clip right here. Maybe you could watch it. I I don't think you've seen this I'm saying they gotta get paid. It's fresh. There's a there's a ladder.
There's a There's a ladder. Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. And we see it, and then they cartel looks at us, and there they are. No.
Get the ladder. There's the scout. Ladders. Ladders. Look at these.
These guys have that ladder right here.
Speaker 0: Doesn't scream.
Speaker 3: It's a dick. There's a car right there. Look. They're they're startled. They're running away.
He's giving us the middle finger. Did you see that? They were sawing to that that audio recording device off the back. Anyway That that's Oh,
Speaker 1: It doesn't take long either.
Speaker 3: Well, you get through it. How long does it take?
Speaker 1: I mean, don't know for sure, but it's like They're through it pretty quick. Like, it's
Speaker 3: pretty sad. They finished the job, he said.
Speaker 0: This is dangerous.
Speaker 3: Been surprised. I've got
Speaker 1: Fifteen, twenty minutes, man.
Speaker 3: Fifteen, twenty. Everyone's here. It's tough to
Speaker 1: say because we don't, you know, don't know exactly. I I haven't sat there with time yet, but it's they get through and they they yeah. They they cut through that fence pretty quick.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well So you raised the alarm internally and you even got officially reprimanded for the crime of not removing migrants' earring?
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You were
Speaker 3: told by the supervisor, is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look at this document, January 30, not removing a migrant's earring. Yeah. What is that about?
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think I don't know for sure, but I think that was again when I saw that dog pile and I told management, I said, listen, I've been I'm not going anywhere, but I'm sick of seeing this type of stuff and I know some of you guys think it's funny. But from now on, I'm gonna start reporting you guys. I didn't report you guys. I I had to report
Speaker 3: You're talking about reporting them?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I said I said, I'm gonna start naming names for some of you supervisors that think it's this letter. No. No. No.
This is before. This was I think I think it's possible this was this was this could have been for a number of reasons, but this came like this letter came like to the the allegations of insubordination came like about two days after I told them, hey, I'm tired of this crap. I'm tired of coming in and seeing people dog piled up freezing and, just the general I I don't wanna finish out my career being forced to do stuff that I was never doing. I ran around this desert for years catching dopers, catching people, and I if I if I'm in the desert with 12 dopers and it's cold, I let them have their blankets. I'm not gonna sit here in the parking lot and watch you guys laugh it off that these guys are gang piled up like this, you know what I mean?
Or dog pile, whatever. But so I basically threatened them and said, I'm not going anywhere. I'm either getting fired or retired. That's how I'm leaving. I'm not getting transferred to another station.
That's not
Speaker 3: an option. Which which is the sort of integrity that you would expect from your leadership. Right. Like going into their supervisors and
Speaker 1: So the first day back on the the line, oh man, it's probably that supervisor's name. Yeah, make sure that's your dad.
Speaker 3: We're not we're not gonna Please. Mean, this is pre taped, we'll make sure that's redacted.
Speaker 1: And I appreciate that. Because also, so he he ordered me to remove an earring. Now we had 500 people that were claiming they were out in the desert for two days. They're hungry. Mhmm.
They were starting to fight with each other. We we had tasers coming out. People wanted me to pepper ball these guys. I transported some. I came back.
They were get honorary again. The supervisor comes out. I've worked with this guy for, you know, probably at least seventeen years. He was I was talking with some of the guys. I no.
I'm I'm security and I'm transport. He's an EMT. He's a supervisor. He's an EMT. And he says basically what you see in the memo, which what it amounted to to me was I thought like like this is weird.
I thought he was joking at first. And then I realized, oh, he's doing like a Simon Says with me. You know, this is like the moment he's gonna he's gonna order me to do something that's absurd because he's an EMT. Why is he ordering me to take out an earring? But it's 500 guys, all hungry, we need to process them and he's got a guy from India and a lot of them have little tiny studs and they've they're twisted, maybe even grown into their ears at this point and he's ordered me to remove it and I've got
Speaker 3: But why is he ordering you to move an earring?
Speaker 1: I think it was I think he would just wanted me to I think it was a challenge really. Think part of it was a challenge. Yeah, I think he just wanted to mess with me. Think it was just a BS order. It it hadn't, you know, I'm not an EMT.
I don't have I didn't have the tools. I have a pepper ball launcher in my hands. I think it was just complete horse crap. We have nurses at the station, you know. There was no don't I've never heard anybody order anybody to take an earring out.
That seems strange. Especially at that time. It was just it was just bizarre. Like I said, I thought it was I thought it was a joke at first and I challenged him like like I laughed at him. I laughed it off and then he just kept pressing me.
And the sad thing was is my amazing lawyer, I had a the government accountability project. Gotta tell you, my lawyer, she she tore that whole thing up. I mean, she I'd like to say she, like, chewed up their she made them she, like, took their lunch, ate it, chewed it up, spit it out, made them you know, I mean, it was it was embarrassing. And I'm sure he saw the video. He wasn't in on it, but he saw the video, I would imagine, or got wind of it because he, to this day, barely talks to me.
I mean, he he doesn't even have the, you know and I've tried to come in and I'll say, hey, you know, how are you doing? And he won't even like, can't talk to me over it, you know? And I feel bad about it because I'm like
Speaker 3: wants to do it but in the dark, not not shine a light on the letter that he's wrote. I mean, although if he's writing these, he's taking he's ordering you to take away an earring and he's putting that in writing in an official letter,
Speaker 1: strange. And then, well, that letter too, they kicked it over to another station. So they had the patrol agent, that's the guy who ruled on it that I and you see the wording, it's crazy. Like, I was detrimental. My failure to follow that order to remove the earring was detrimental to the border patrol's mission.
It's something along that line, you know, like
Speaker 3: It seems like an ego thing. It's crazy. They just don't like that you're not following their
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: Orders and they're gonna make your life a living hell.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you, from my experience with the Border Patrol, the fact that they I don't know why, I'm just this is me, know, this is like supposition on my part. I don't know why they sent it to the the neighboring station, Casa Grande Station. It could be because they knew I was by at that point, we had already had contact my lawyers and and and the border patrol, and maybe they just thought well, let's show some impartiality here, you know, but I can promise you in the Border Patrol once they send something out a station like that, that's like a huge wink wink nod nod. We need you to screw this guy. You know what I mean?
Like, there's no impartiality once they kick it over to the you know what mean? That's like, hey, this guy's a troublemaker. Get him for us.
Speaker 3: Get him for something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not that's not how they
Speaker 3: So you brought this to the attention of Office of Special Counsel and filled out forms about gross mismanagement, failure to provide blankets to detainees. This is the report government wrongdoing disclosure form. What was the point where you're like, I'm going to the I'm going to Congress? Because you went to Congress.
Speaker 1: Okay. So this is going backpedaling a bit, I guess, or at least in March or so. Okay. So I go to I go to Office of Special Counsel in March. Nothing gets done.
And they they almost had me acting as like an investigator. Right? And I'm begging them begging them, please. And I'm telling them, I don't know why it's all broken or why we're doing this, but that's why you need to come in. And my exact words, I would tell her, say, you come in and shake the tree, you'll find bad fruit, but you gotta come in and do this.
And she would have me, like, running around and I was like I mean, it was so stressful. I cannot I can't fully begin to tell you how stressful it is. Like, I feel like I'm the investigator and I'm I'm dying inside because I'm, you know, I'm seeing stuff happening and I'm begging. And and then she the lawyer that I was working with for OSC, she made it seem like somebody was coming. Like like, hey, get ready.
They might you know, we're getting ready to close we're gonna submit it. And then nothing. I I think she thought something was gonna happen. And she wanted me to show her that there was a violation of policy and I'm like, listen, we're violating court orders. So I'm pretty sure our policy is to follow court orders, but then I got her to the final thing to show that this isn't our policy, you know, this is in our policy.
Anyway, so nothing happens. It goes that we had a fairly mild spring where it wasn't that hot, and by not hot, I mean, it was in, you know, it was under a 110, you know. And I was sitting outside that overflow area. That's what we call it, where the one that I showed you, the original one that had the kind of the higher awning. And I was sitting out there with another senior agent, and I'm like, you know, and I this what I had said with the petroleum charge with the mass casualty thing was really a lot of it was talking about how I had told him and Muster, like, hey.
It's gonna be a 115 out here eventually. I don't think you're supposed I I don't think it's legal to leave dogs out in that type of heat with no shade in Arizona. I'm pretty sure there's laws against leaving your animals out like that. So we're talking about it, me and this senior agent, and I'm like, it's gonna be and I was on night shift. He's on the day shift, and he's taken over.
I was I think I was maybe on guard or maybe I I don't know. Security for that that lot. And I said, OSC didn't do anything. I I I don't know what I I don't know what else to do, man. I think I gotta call congressman Grohova.
I think I got and I think if this sun crests over this hill, I'm calling Grohova's office. And maybe the deputy, I think it was the deputy commissioner of OSC. I think I think that's her title. I'm not sure. I'm calling her again and I'm saying, hey, they're doing it.
They're leaving these people out here in a 115 degree heat. I can't I can't do it. I can't, in good conscience, sit here and watch these people make us do this, you know? And I talked to him and we watched and we watched as the day rose and we watched the sun come up over that hill, the hill that we climbed. And I'm watching and and we sat there and this guy's got more time than me, you know.
He's got he's he's more senior than I am. And he's like, make the call. And I'm like, I'm making the call. So I think I called the deputy chief first. I think she was on leave.
And then I went home and I made I put in a email to my congressman. But yeah. So that was when I decided to go to congress. And now the the crazy thing with that was about that was about the same time I met my my best ally. It was a woman in Ajo, and she was amazing.
Morgan, she is the one I've had come home and was probably I I don't know if it was the day after, but it was when I weren't putting any water out on the border road. You know, there was nothing. It was it was a disaster. We I mean, we've been going on long enough and I stopped. I went home.
I think maybe this was the next day after contacting congress or two days later. And I it was just an epic disaster. I was out with a couple trainees and and helping give people water because nobody was doing anything. And the Good Samaritan's water barrels, they were really small barrels because this is just starting to get crazy out there and they weren't able to keep up with the water. I saw some people across from my house that were working on a house and I could tell that these were like people doing charitable like work restoring, you know, working on the older folks in the neighborhoods.
They're, you know, painting their houses and stuff. So I stopped to talk to them and I said, hey, you guys. You guys need to get involved. You the we're we're we're gonna die out there. Agents, aliens, this is this is a complete disaster.
We've been I've contacted office special counsel. I've filed complaints. Nobody cares. Your water barrels, you know, and because one lady's new or worked with some of the the the maybe humane borders. I'm not sure which organization.
I don't wanna say for sure who was out there responsible for the water barrels, and it wasn't their fault. But I was like, your barrels are dry. They're running dry. There's so many people. There's hundreds of shift.
Hundreds of people a shift are coming through, and we are overwhelmed. And the border patrol is doing nothing or at least our station. Management, every every shift was doing its own thing. That's where I filed the the one of the reasons I filed the mismanagement because nobody knew what the hell was going on from one shift to the next. It was a complete disaster, you know?
And I just begged these people, these total strangers and this gal Morgan who was amazing.
Speaker 3: Morgan is who? She's just a
Speaker 1: local person who I met in Ajo going basically crying to her about how desperate the situation was in Ajo and she wound up putting me in contact with
Speaker 3: legal a year or two before you retired. You're April 2020 So it's exactly two years before you retired.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Almost.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Pretty much.
Speaker 3: And were you concerned about losing your pension or being retaliated Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Because honest to God, it was like two days after well, shortly after I mean, like, this is all within a week's period. And I talked to somebody on the phone at Gruhava's office, and she said and she did a little voice mail back and forth with me, like, oh, we need times and dates. And I called her, and I I don't know if I had said it over the phone or it was a or I was it was a personal message or talked to her directly. I said, listen, You you need to understand.
This isn't yesterday. This isn't names and times and dates of something last week. This is now. We need resources now. We need management.
We need resources. We need water. We need food. We need shade. We need shelter Now, I don't know if you need to bring the Red Cross, you you we need stuff now, and it needs to happen.
And it was I think two days after they called me back or maybe it was that conversation, she says, oh, you know what, Mr. Vecchi? We got everything we need. You're good. Thank you.
And then it was like two days later or something. They said they reached out to CBP or I don't I'm getting my times a little mixed up when I but I did I wound up eventually getting a letter that said that they had reached out to CBP. Okay. That's where it was. So she said I was good.
So on the phone, she said I was good. On the phone, she told me I was good. They didn't need any more information. We're reaching out to CBP. Right?
It was two days later I got the cease and desist order. That's what happened. And then it was like a month or two later that I got the letter saying that that that Gralhaven sent me that was actually sent to him. So he forwarded me a letter that he received from CBP saying that they had opened an investigation An investigation. Office of Professional Responsibility.
The funny thing is is Office of Professional Responsibility never came and talked to me. So I don't even think they've ever did an investigation. And that's when they gave me that cease and desist order accused me of releasing sensitive law enforcement information outside of the border patrol, which is a complete lie. And that that cease and desist order was dated a month prior. So they had this cease and desist order in the office, like, say around June mid June.
June is when it was dated. They didn't serve me the gag order, what was ruled to be a gag or decided to be a
Speaker 3: gag
Speaker 1: order. They didn't serve it to me until after Krahalva's office was contacted and then It's just
Speaker 3: unbelievable that it's so unbelievable to me and you, but it's perfectly believable and just regular affairs of human behavior to retaliate against someone. All of this is based upon you just wanting the guys to act publicly how they act privately. Yeah. This is wrong, this is outrageous, and they're retaliating against you for just acting on the things that they were saying to you about these women and children being mistreated. Yeah.
Do you have that clip from AmFest where Aaron goes on stage? King. What are they screaming there? Christ Christ is king. Wow.
And there's Zach. Mean, yeah, you you said you didn't need their authorization to talk to me. How is that, by the way, being an attorney appointment in front of 5,000, 10,000 students?
Speaker 1: I thought I wet myself.
Speaker 3: You thought you wet yourself? Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of adrenaline Adrenaline. Going through. Yeah. It's pretty funny.
Speaker 3: Going from being in the desert to Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pretty scary and terrifying.
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't do that. You're not doing this for I know I had gotten a chance to know you. You're not doing this for validation or or social credit. Obviously, that's not you. Many by the way, many people do do it for that reason, particularly people in politics and media, but you're not doing that.
And I was talking to the Florida Tech guy who was probably the most inspiring conversation I've ever had. This is the recent guest that hasn't At the time that people are listening to this, it has come out, but it hasn't come out as of the time of me talking to you. And he said that doing the right thing was like exercising a muscle. That no one really does it, but you do it and it grows over time. Do you agree with him on that?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Definitely having gone through this, I think it's what I've kind of looked at is something we fancy, like integrity is is it can be a value. You can value it or not. Right? You can put it up there with things.
I think Americans maybe maybe painting too broad of a brush to the Americans. But I think culturally, we've we see movies and we think of we see certain movies and we think, oh, look at that guy. He's got integrity and honor, you know? And we see it in the movies. And but then when we have to really do things in our lives to capture that integrity, it really means holy crap, I might lose my job or
Speaker 3: I
Speaker 1: might sacrifice a lot. And when it comes down to that, then it's really hard. So it's You can romanticize about integrity and honor, but in practice, it's really difficult.
Speaker 3: Well, what Rick said at Vorta Tech was, you know, he didn't wanna lie.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: He just didn't want to lie. And he said he wanted to feed his children spiritually, not just physically and materially. He said he wanted to feed his children cotton candy, which is a metaphor, but it's like people talk about the need to feed their kids. And I think another clip that was really powerful, guys I don't know if we have this one, it was from the interview I did with Aaron back in the desert and he's talking about, you don't say the word grandpa or grandma, you say Tata. What is that?
Speaker 1: Tata, it's a grandpa for in Spanish.
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 1: Tata.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that. Do we have that clip? This is powerful.
Speaker 0: What's important to me is that when my granddaughter's old enough, and she's in high school, and she comes to me and says, grandpa, Tata, Tata, Aaron. She says, what were you doing? Weren't you in the border patrol back then? I can look at her with a straight face and say, baby girl, I was trying. I tried.
I I fought and I tried. I did my best. You know? I don't fire me, know? Maybe they will.
Maybe after this they will, you know? But my conscience will be clean.
Speaker 3: My conscience will be clean. So you can That was that was to me the most powerful thing you said to me. We were in the desert. God, I love going out in the field and doing and making line of the sand and doing this type of work, but the lighting wasn't the best. But we're in the desert and you're it seems like you and Rick both have this theme where it's the legacy that you leave to the generation after you, in this case two generations, Tata.
But in his case, was literally his four year old and his newborn. And he wanted to set the example for them. And it was about doing the right thing by them. That seems to be a common theme I'm hearing. I don't know if you thought about your children and grandchildren when you were making these decisions about going you know, Congress and
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think speaking the truth.
Speaker 1: You know, at Turning Point, I said walking by faith. And I I definitely had a coming to God moment because I haven't, by no means, been a perfect man. And I definitely had the way, going to OSC and understanding that, you know, and that, yeah, I could put myself out there and expose myself and who knows what one thing leads to another and how people will come at me, people that, you know, you have your haters, obviously. And, yeah, it's a scary thought, but at some point, I had that conversation where with myself and with God and, you know, Lord, maybe the maybe the maybe the lions will try to devour me, but if that's your plan, so be it. I'll accept it, but I have to do this.
I pray that that's not you know, I'll I'm I'm here to learn whatever lesson you gotta teach me, but I can't sit by. And I and as far as for my kids' sake, I really do believe or my grandchildren, that I will be asked about these things one day and where where was I and what was I doing. And I and I think just because I haven't been perfect or good or right, you know, I've been wrong. Just because I've been imperfect doesn't mean I shouldn't try to do better. And I think that that's part of the problem with some people making bad decisions is is they think, well, if I if I open my mouth, somebody's gonna say, well, haven't you done this?
You know? And I I don't want that to be the thing that keeps me from doing something good in the future is having something thrown back in my face that I was imperfect before. So I I just that's how I looked at it and that's what kind of pushed me forward as I got to and if I take my lumps, I take my lumps.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Did you you thought about devoured by lions, like the public criticism.
Speaker 1: Public criticism? Yeah. Yeah. Anybody can come out nowadays and, you
Speaker 3: know Yeah. Has anyone really done that with you?
Speaker 1: Not so far. Has
Speaker 3: has this been covered by any mainstream media? I should know the answer to that question.
Speaker 1: So much. The media's changed
Speaker 3: so I don't think anything. That's one thing that's definitely changed in the last twenty years. Changed in the last two years. Is what? The media.
Oh, Maybe fifteen years ago or nine years ago, perhaps there would have been an Arizona Republic article about you and attacking you, but I think that's a thing now. I think the media is so it seems to be so niche and segmented even by virtue of what we're doing right here that there's just whole dynamic has changed, but not a lot of criticism?
Speaker 1: No. I I don't think I've had anything written bad about me other than maybe some comments, but you know, that can obviously change at any point. Somebody could come out. That said, I mean, that's again, I'm not gonna stop. I I've told you, I will talk to anybody anytime you want me
Speaker 3: to talk about listen.
Speaker 1: Everybody willing to listen because I think I think what happened was wrong and I think there's going to be ramifications for what happened. I think the American people got, you know, were done a disservice. And I think we the border patrol, I do believe we were pawns. I do believe the the the aliens were pawns. I think they were brought here under false pretenses.
I think they were given a over over promised, under delivered by the administration. Right? And I do believe that I wanted to say something. Morgan had used a term, I think, and if you wanna look into the minds of or maybe understand why the border patrol didn't, why agents more agents didn't act or went along with it. She real quickly, like, maybe the second day when I talked with her, she used a term that we were institutionalized.
And I thought and it struck a chord with me and I'll never forget that because I think we are to a certain extent. I think we get the job and we cling to it to a certain degree. Another term I've heard is golden handcuffs, but we put a lot, we invest a lot to get just
Speaker 3: Get the job.
Speaker 1: Get the job. It took me two and a half years, you know, giving blood, giving urine, giving ear tests, eye tests, and then you go through an academy and it can be a washout program Academy? The academy is four and a half months, at least it was for me. Teach
Speaker 0: you For people who
Speaker 3: don't even know what that is. There's a Border Patrol Academy. It's Border Patrol Academy. You have to pay for it?
Speaker 1: No, they you get the job or you will after you go through this vetting process and then you get an you know, or you get an offer, you go summoned to the academy, you after you've given all this blood and done all these push ups or whatever, then you get a job offer, a tentative offer, you go to the academy, it can last at the time, it was like four and a half months, Then you get if you pass that, you go to your station, then they have FTU program and that was pretty much a washout program. They try to get you to quit because you can't get fired. So they try to get you to quit. So by the time you and you're at a possibly a really tough station where there's no hospitals, there's no know, it can be it can be tough living in the desert. So you give up a lot, you know?
You give up a lot of your of a normal sense of life I think a lot of people aren't used to and then, you know, it's it's tough to just see see it all go to shit and say, well, I'm just gonna quit. Yeah. How many years you got in? But but besides that, mean, there's a lot of other things too that again, the dysfunction of the the border patrol that I think just makes it tough for guys to come forward. And I think, yeah, I think institutionalized was a really good I mean,
Speaker 3: it's all about getting a job. To to me, it's about it sounds like it's having getting a job and getting paid.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think for some people, it's I think for some people, again, it's definitely some people don't do the job. You know, some people get the job and they don't do the job.
Speaker 3: What's the purpose of being there for those people?
Speaker 1: People I mean, some people it's clearly just pay me. I'm here to work I'm here to get paid and I'm here to retire one day.
Speaker 3: To your point, it's almost like those people think that you're the odd one. Right. They think that you're the bad Yeah. Be like us. It's weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But there's but again, there's again, there's There
Speaker 3: are good ones.
Speaker 1: There are really good guys that are busting their butts and that's demoralizing too when you give so much only to be betrayed by this. Well, more
Speaker 3: you bust the butt, the more you do the right thing, the more punished you're going
Speaker 1: to be. Yeah. And that's sometimes the case too. So it's like you're
Speaker 3: gonna get punished for doing the right thing and you can Sure, you can take a punishment for a few years, but for twenty five, twenty years? Yeah. At some point, just say, okay. Yeah. The incentives are aligned for me to do the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Some guys some guys succumb to it.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that almost everybody would succumb to that. It's only natural. Yeah. You said the cartels completely run the border. Said that to me in Arizona.
Yes. And the border patrol agent is only allowed to work as hard as the cartels permit. Yep. So the cartels sound like they're definitely in charge. They were.
100%. I asked you, do you think there are people working for the border patrol that are double agents for the cartels? Have you ever seen that?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm I've I've not seen it personally other than I know there was an agent in the last ten years, I think, they've got at Ajo Station that went to prison for moving a lot of stuff. So and he was coming into work and picking up I think he was coming allegedly. I well, I yeah. May I shouldn't say allegedly.
I think he was charged with it. But rumor has it, I should say, he was coming in off duty and somehow taking a government ride down to the border and picking up the narcotics and then going back. And I think he got arrested going to the but as far as, like, I've never and I never would have even suspected that guy. So I've never once looked at an agent and thought for a second that guy's like on the take. Now, there's policies where I've questioned like what the heck?
Yeah. Why are they doing this? How could that be? And I think other agents have questioned the policies because there's so many policies that tie our hands that don't seem reasonable, know? Or at least policies that yeah, don't that aren't conducive for getting the job done.
How about that, you know? So but I can't say that that's for sure because somebody's dirty. I've just never I'm
Speaker 3: sure there are dirty people. Catching them on tape, know You'd be yeah. I doubt you're gonna have someone come forward and say, You got me. I'm sorry. I'm a None of these guys ever admit they're wrong.
They just retaliate and attack. If you don't have integrity, it kinda follows from there that you're not going to plead guilty to a crime you've committed. You're gonna lie and say you didn't do it or cover it up. So you've talked about how your fellow agents have experienced heavy personal emotions, struggles, alcohol abuse, men breaking down in tears, war veterans wondering what they were even fighting for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: Have you ever been through that yourself?
Speaker 1: Definitely, yeah. I think the alcohol for sure. Coming home and, you know, living alone for a long time and having nights where, you know, starts off as a barbecue and the next thing you know, I'm just texting my family. You know your government hates you. You know, like, just fighting with my friend over, like, what is it all?
What the heck's going on here? Why don't you support me more? Just leaving, you know Wow. You know, arguing with my buddy over, you know, how to get more people involved, you know, just yeah. Like, there's been nights for sure where I've, you know, yeah, have definitely not not my finer point finer moments, but, yeah, I think interpersonal relationship struggles with the just from yeah.
You you know, you drive the driving the stretch from Ajo to the station, there's a there's a stretch where you could see the overflow of facility or where where we keep all these people, and there's a they'd have the big bright spotlights and there were days that I think, you know what?
Speaker 3: I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta take it easy on the booze. But I'd see that light coming to work and then as soon as I'd see that light and I know we oh, man, we're gonna have about a, you know, we're gonna be 500% overcapacity at And least I'd say, oh man, and by the time I'd see that light, can't wait to get home and get a drink and a cigar. Was You know,
Speaker 3: just thing about your job is you're as a tracking Bush agent, you're walking how many steps a day? Because they walk 10,000 steps a day. I mean, I know you probably didn't count it, but using the law of averages, you're probably doing like thirty, thirty thousand, 40,000, I mean
Speaker 1: I know I've been I've definitely had several 20 mile tracks where I've
Speaker 3: In one day?
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3: You know, I do some backpacking trips in California and I might do I'm a novice. Cardio isn't necessarily great at it. I'm good at it. You're on a different level. You're like Olympic level.
I was. I've seen this guy walk through the desert. He is the fastest walker I have ever seen. I mean, I had to do a jog, a moderate jog to keep up with your walk, but I'd say if I was doing 12 to 15 miles a day on a trail, like the hiking trail, like backpacking, that would translate into somewhere around 45,000 steps.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So you're pulling 50,000 steps a day. That's gotta be good for your body.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think on a trail maybe, but you know, like and I always argue that it seems like it would and I'm You do get certain amount of conditioning. I'm sure my diaphragm is amazing. Your heart's got really good shape. It's But the knees, the cartilage, you know, I think that type type of stuff I not walking on
Speaker 3: the desert sand, it's walking on the rocks and stuff.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, you're never, you know, you're constantly going in and out of washes, it's not a groomed trail, it's not even a moderately maintained trail, it's not a forest service trail, you know, you're not doing the Appalachian Trail that's beat down, you're doing a, you're walking through open desert. You're blasting through cholla and barrel cactus and all kinds of god awful stuff and over lava rock. And that's what you gotta understand too, like these the people coming here, the ones that actually are working for it, not the ones that give I shouldn't say that because a lot of the people that come through here, obviously, they push through the Darien Gap. And by the time that's something too. By the time they make it to the southern border, they that's the finish line.
And I've actually had the the misunderstanding of, like, thinking, well, Mexicans we're used to chasing Mexicans through the desert, and they're working their asses off to get to The United States to get that to put in their time working. A lot of the people showing up giving up asylum, they're from other parts of the world, but they've done a lot of traveling. These people might be months it might have taken them months to get here and I don't even you know, I've talked to people where they've said they've seen like five bodies along the way through the jungle. I'm assuming the Darien Gap. But but going through the marching through the desert, the Snorri Desert from the, you know, Senoita Mhmm.
Up to Casa Grande or I-eight wherever they're loading out, know, that's they're not just walking some nice little stretch of land. They go through you know, there's mountain chains and stuff and they'll side hill it through, you know, and up and over, up and over, up and the dopers will do it. The meals, the drug meals, they'll just up and over, up and over, up and over, up and over and they'll go 15 miles easy, sometimes more if they're being without stopping, without taking a real serious sit down lunch, you know conditioned. I mean, they're just driven. It's life or death.
They'll get left behind, you know? Yeah. So I might march 20 miles out of pride, I'm gonna catch these guys. They're walking because the guide says, hey, keep walking or you're not getting a truck. You're not yeah.
You're gonna be left behind. We're leaving you. You know, so that's a different
Speaker 3: You're scared out there?
Speaker 1: Scared? I mean, yes. I I I always tell people, you'd be silly not to be scared. There's all kinds of things that can scare you, you know? Man, sometimes a donkey can sneak up on me and start making noise and scare the crap out of me.
But as far as like living and dying, you know, that comes into your mind for sure. But scariest thing is driving on the highway. That's the those those roads out there, the biggest frightening
Speaker 3: Why is that?
Speaker 1: I mean, you got people headed to Rocky Point, drunk out of their mines, probably high on God knows what.
Speaker 3: What's the craziest thing you've ever seen out there? Just you've been doing this for twenty years. The craziest thing Like women and children stuff, like Girls All Alone,
Speaker 1: rape trees. You know, as far as like like horrible, I don't know that I've seen anything like too horrible. I've always I tended to work nights and I tend to avoid bad smells, so I've been really fortunate. I mean, you'll find shit lots of there's shallow graves, rock graves where people, you know, will just not make it and they're up in mountains somewhere and there's They're decomposing.
Speaker 3: What's that? They're decomposing?
Speaker 1: No. Mean, I don't I've not I've I've found But you can
Speaker 3: smell it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure, but there's also, know, like, I mean, my okay, this might sound bad, but I if I smell something decomposing, I'm not going over there.
Speaker 3: Of course not.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm gonna assume it's a horse or a cow. I don't need to, you know, they're gone, they're gone, you know. That might sound callous, but I, yeah, I don't need to stumble upon that.
Speaker 3: So you were officially cleared of wrongdoing following a federal inquiry recently and we got that letter and yeah. You were cleared. So did the agency acknowledge the mistake? Here it is. May 30.
That's pretty recent. This is to inform you that the case Oh. Has been completed. I have conclusion the allegations were not supported by the evidence and no further administrative action will be taken. We're not allowed to say this man's name right?
Is this public letter?
Speaker 1: Oh, that I think you're fine with
Speaker 3: that. Please consider this matter closed. Yeah. This is the patrol agent chief assistant Tucson sector. So was this all quietly swept under the rug?
Yeah. Did you get anything else? What what did it feel like to know that you're vindicated?
Speaker 1: It felt it felt great. I mean, was I think it was self evident, you know, that I didn't do anything wrong. This was just something that somebody felt they had to do. It was vindictive in nature, I think. I don't think there was any honest investigation.
One bright spot, one of the bittersweet things was is that I do believe that the investigator handling it, I think she just based on my interaction, like, in the in interrogation room, I think she, you know, just her posture. She could have gone after me. She let me talk. She let me tell the story of at least a little bit about what I saw and really kinda make the first what I think, official claim official statements to an actual investigator. And she listened and, you know, at at some point, she had let me know, like, oh, I didn't I didn't know that she had gone through all that, whatever.
But I think what I gleaned was that I think she was I think she was as much a pawn as as I was. I think she was sent in by the by the dogs to go mess with me. And I think she probably sat in that room across from me thinking, holy cow. They sent me in they sent me in this room to mess with this guy. He's a full blown whistleblower, knows his rights, you know, and she's getting ready to retire and she's thinking and and now I'm gonna be drawn into an investigation because some jerk wants to mess with this guy for doing the right thing.
You know what I mean? Yeah. That's my opinion. Don't know that
Speaker 6: You may be right.
Speaker 3: I mean, it seems like you know your rights and one thing that strikes me about you is that you have done this very carefully. That was the first impression I had of you, which was you're not going guns blazing, speaking out of turn. You were doing it the appropriate path. By the way, usually that doesn't matter because the whistleblower laws doesn't have teeth, but you're doing it You were following the letter of the law. You are not deviating from a You did it very ethically and think that other whistleblowers should follow in your footsteps in that way and they will be retaliated against.
Not by virtue of the law, but by virtue of the human ego of this eventual supervisor who doesn't like the fact that they blew the whistle on them. It's just ego. It's all I'll be honest with you, if someone under my employ violated their non disclosure agreement, you know, in company, in a corporation, but I think what you're doing in the United States government is necessary, but I really admired how you did it in this ethically and appropriately, and you weren't just a maverick about it. You weren't just speaking out of turn. But what message do you have for other people who are faced with the same crisis of conscience within the border patrol?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think as a Christian, for sure, I think or any person of faith, but particularly as me being a Christian, think, definitely, you gotta pray on it, talk to talk to God, and and make sure this is it's the right thing to do. Make sure it's the right thing with your family. Obviously, if you're married, you don't go off and do it without talking to your wife about it and your family. You do.
But if you're married, you you should hopefully, you're in a good place where you're you're a strong marriage and you you know that you you you have a life of integrity and and you can make, you know, moral decisions and and telling the truth is important. And but as far as making that taking that step, yeah, you just have to walk by faith. You you have to, you know, trust that it it you're gonna be vindicated. And I think what I've learned is that there are people that have come to my aid, like, in Ajo. I have a friend in Morgan.
I have a friend, Andrea, at, the Government Accountability Project who stood by my side and did a great job. I got James O'Keefe here who I think my opinion is the tip of the spear for truth telling. Thank you. I don't have to carry the I don't have to carry this on my shoulders like, I gotta make sure the world knows anymore. I can you have the platform and I can come and tell you the truth if you wanna hear it, you know?
And I and all I know is it was a matter of me saying, God, give me the strength to do the right thing.
Speaker 3: Give me the strength to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: And and he surrounded me with people that protected me. So you can take that for what it's worth, but it worked for me and I hope it works for you if you just choose to do the right thing.
Speaker 3: That's really powerful. Give me the strength to do the right thing. It's hard doing the right thing. It's one of the core values here at OMG and our foundation, which is do the right thing always. Give me the strength.
There goes that muscle analogy, right? Like exercising an arm that you but you stood up, you stood by that supervisor lady you're mentioning said, You know what? The hell with this. I'm not gonna fight this guy. I gotta retire.
If you had backed down, if you had said, I'm scared, but you stood there. And a mentor of mine used to say, like schoolyard bullies, they're not used to getting punched in the face. Not that you were punching them in the face, but you're standing for your rights. So I admire you. I consider yourself a I consider you a friend.
After this ends, Aaron and I are gonna walk outside and make a couple phone calls to some folks who are struggling right now and on the inside and dealing with some things. And I hope they're watching this and I'm proud to know you and I think I'm gonna bring you back because I feel like there's another two hours of meat and substance and updates, but thank you for coming on Aaron and Becky.
Speaker 1: Thanks for
Speaker 3: having Is there anything you want, any call to action or people the last guy had a GoFundMe page, a gift set go page.
Speaker 1: Is that wait, who? This was Rick, the
Speaker 3: professor at Florida Tech, lost his job and he didn't sign a $100,000 agreement asking him to stay silent. So now he has nothing.
Speaker 1: Oh no. Gibson go to that guy.
Speaker 3: Yes. There you go. Gibson go, let's put the in post production. Let's put the URL for Rick's Gibson. What a kind gesture.
Thank you very much, Aaron.
Speaker 0: Alright.
Speaker 3: Thanks for being here, man. Thank you.
Speaker 2: What is your price? Because if your price is not your life,
Speaker 3: then you are for sale.
@JamesOKeefeIII - James O'Keefe
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My Price Is My Life With James O’Keefe
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@nicksortor - Nick Sortor
🚨 BREAKING: The man arrested in DC for ASSAULTlNG a Border Patrol agent WORKED FOR THE DOJ He has now been TERMINATED, and faces federal felony charges Our government’s workforce needs a MASSIVE purge! https://t.co/ja4rgTt9fR
Video Transcript AI Summary
Speaker 0 launches into a hostile condemnation of 'fascists' in the city, exclaiming: 'Motherfucker. Oh. Fascists in our city. They what? You see these fascists right here in our Fascists?' Then: 'Fuck you. Fuck you, fascists. Shame. Shame. Shame.' He adds, 'Shame. Y'all laughing, but that's the truth. We really talking real shit. Shut.' He insists, 'Y'all need to do some background studying about the federal mass objection.' He continues, 'They fooled a man. No. No. No. You don't, baby.' Then: 'Super bad. No. No. No. No.' 'No. No. He cooked up. He cooked up.' The overall tone is a raw, unfiltered rant.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Motherfucker. Oh. Fascists in our city. They what? You see these fascists right here in our Fascists?
Fuck you. Fuck you, fascists. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Shame. Y'all laughing, but that's the truth. We really talking real shit. Shut. Y'all need to do some background studying about the federal mass objection.
They fooled a man. No. No. No. You don't, baby.
Super bad. No. No. No. No.
No. No. He cooked up. He cooked up.