February 13, 2026 • 19 mins
On the latest episode of Protecting America, Paul Perez, President of The National Border Patrol Council, joins Rita Cosby to discuss the escalating attacks on federal agents and the role that the very incendiary rhetoric, by even some members of Congress, is having on law enforcement and their families. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Red Apple Media Podcast Network presents This is Protecting America. Now.
Here's Emmy winning journalist Rita Cosby.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to another edition of Protecting America.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Rita Cosby.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Democrats in Congress are pushing to try to actually defund
ice immigration and Customs enforcement, and at minimum are trying
to rain in federal law enforcement like ICE and CBP.
Now this comes as more anti ICE barricades are being
set up in cities like Minneapolis. Isn't this a form
(00:43):
of anarchy?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Joining us now to discuss this and more is Paul Perez.
He is the president of the National Border Patrol Council. Paul,
it's great to have you here.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Thank you, always good to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Rita, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
How destructive is it to hear democrats elected public officials
saying we want to defund ice? How dangerous is that
for just communities across this country?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You mean the same people that for four years wanted
to completely fund cities and ICE and everybody else so
they can make sure that they could facilitate and process
the entry of millions of people. I'm not surprised by it.
You know, these people have no idea what they're doing.
They are destroying this country one day at a time.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You bring up a very good point, Paul, because they
couldn't love ICE enough and CBP enough when they wanted
the millions upon millions to come into this country. Talk
about the important role you guys were doing, but how
you were being directed back then, and you're right, they
were embracing you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, they took us off the line. I mean, they
had everybody all hands on deck processing and release, seeing
the millions of people unvetted into this country, and they've
dispersed across the country. And so because of that, now
we've got ICE and border patrol as well in cities
across the country, trying to arrest the worst of the worst.
(02:14):
And you know, you've got a lot of politicians, the
same politicians that are calling for defunding are actually fanning
the flames because they're vien vilifying our agents, you know,
making them out to be these Nazi thugs, when in fact,
over half of our agency is Hispanic. That makes no sense,
But they've never made sense about these things.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
How troubling is it for you when you hear some
of the very incendiary rhetoric, whether it's the phrase of
Nazis saying it's a secret police. How much does that
also just hamper the job and make the job that's
already very tough so difficult.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
It's that much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And look, you know these are facts. People have lost
their lives because the rhetoric. You know, you had the
shooter in Dallas that tried to take out ice officers
who wound up shooting some of the illegals that were
being deported. You had the two people there in Minneapolis.
You've had people shot in Chicago. It makes things difficult.
People have gotten hurt, people have lost their lives because
(03:15):
of the rhetoric. They believe what they're seeing by the
fake used media and these politicians that we're out there
just taking people off of the streets, removing US citizens.
None of that's going on. The only interactions we have
with US citizens are when they come and interfere and
impede our lawful operations.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know, you brought up Minneapolis too, because of course
it was the Customs and Border Protection in that case
of alex Pretty talk about where does that stand with
the investigation, Where is that going?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
You know, they're they're moving on the investigation.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know, FBI and HSI. They're going to do their
due diligence. They want to create they want to make
sure that there's an impartial, objective investigation into the shooting.
And you know this, this administration has been the most
transparent in history. I mean, this is a historical administration
we're in with President Trump. He's doing everything that he
(04:11):
needs to do to make sure people understand he's going
to fight to make America safe. He's going to fight
to make America great. But he's going to do it
the right way. He's not going to take shortcuts. He's
not going to hide. And you know, I feel confident
that the investigation is going to be done, you know,
fairly and objectively, and at the end of the day,
our agents and officers that were involved in this shooting
(04:32):
and others will will have been cleared. You know.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
As you're talking about that too, Officers have to make
a split decision, right, I Mean, that's the other thing too.
There are so many things coming at them. I can't
even imagine. They're going after, you know, a bad person,
and then you've got protesters often surrounding law enforcement. How
much more complicated does that make the job?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Very much so look, our agents and officers are some
of the best trained the border. Batrol got some of
the best training in the United States in the United
States law enforcement. Our training is on power or superior
to many large law enforcement agencies that are both state
and municipal, and so they know exactly what they're doing.
But like you said, it makes it a lot more
(05:18):
difficult when you've got people that are interfering with our
lawful activities, and so everything that we do is targeted.
So it's made it difficult. It's very hard to see
exactly what's going on because again, our agents and officers,
they swore to defend the Constitution, they swore to enforce
(05:39):
the law, and they're only doing that because those are
the laws that Congress has on the books. Since very
disheartening when you hear politicians, especially at the federal level,
talking bad about our agents because they're only enforcing the
laws that they have on the books.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
No, that's a great point. If you don't like the
laws work through Congress, don't go out and vilify law enforcement.
I was also seeing some studying some really huge disheartening
numbers eight thousand percent increase of death threats against for example,
like ICE agents federal law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That is enormous. Have you ever you've been in law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
A long time, Paul, have you ever seen anything like
this with such hostilities created often by Democrats going.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
On twenty nine years though not, I've not seen it
this bad again. You know, under Trump's previous term, you know,
they like to use the term everything affiliated with President Trump.
They like to label it racist. But there's nothing racist
about what we're doing. You're either illegal or you're here legally.
There's no difference there, and there's no in between. So
(06:46):
it's very, very disconcerting when you hear all these people
talking about that makes the job a lot easier. We
know that being in law enforcement is inherently dangerous, but
when they start dosing, when they start going after our families,
they start going after us individually, that makes it that
much more difficult to deal with.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
How do they handle like even some of these in Minneapolis,
for example, they've shown up at some of these hotels
where they believe ICE or CBP are stationed. How do
you protect yourself against some of these lunatics, it seems,
who just suddenly show up in swarms, and they're also
communicating that's the other thing on these signal chats and
saying hey, here's where we're hearing show up.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, you know, it brings an inherent danger and added
danger to it. But I can tell you again, having
been doing this job for as long as I've been
doing it, I've seen a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I can tell you that our agents.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And officers they have used extreme restraint in dealing with
these protesters and these rioters who are just wanting our
agents to engage. But again, our agents have used a
lot of you know, there's a lot of discretion, there's
a lot of restraint, and it makes it difficult because
they're coming to the places that these agents are trying
(07:59):
to rely and rest, you know, to go on their
next shift. When you got these people trying to keep
them up all day and running them out of the
different hotels. They're also ruining local businesses, you know what
I mean. They have nothing on their mind but creating chaos.
And that's why it's important for local and state law
(08:21):
enforcement to get involved to get them in control.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You know, you brought up a great example because if
local law enforcement is cooperating, it would make your job
so much easier. If they're maintaining crowd control if they're
doing all these other things. Talk about how it really
is the policies of sanctuary cities that is putting so
many law enforcement on the federal level in danger and
citizens too.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, you know, Tom Holman, he spoke with the mayor,
he spoke with the governor of Minneapolis and Minnesota, and
he told them, let us into your jails, let us
into your prisons. Our agents and officers could go in there,
take custody in a secure environment, and that allows me
to release thousands of agents andnosters back to their duties
(09:09):
along the southwest border. Until they do that, we have
to continue going after these people out in the communities
because if we don't, there's going to be more and
more crime. There's going to be more victims. And the
last thing President Trump wants is any more angel families.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah. No, that is correct, and you just think about
the difficult job. Talk about some of the people you
guys have been helping to remove off the streets. Because
there was a hearing this week too, and we saw
a number of folks. This was in particular with ICE,
but with also Customs and Border Protection, and they were
talking about thirteen thousand agents at least with ICE deployed
(09:47):
across the country and some stunning number seven thousand gang members,
fourteen hundred suspected or known terrorists. I mean, there's some
pretty bad folks you guys have helped round up.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, and you know that one of the new talking
points coming from the left and the media is that
only a certain percentage have been apprehended that have actual
criminal histories. The fact of the matter is they're not
being honest. And that's what really really gets under our skin,
because these people that were apprehending are wanted murderers. They
have committed crimes in their home countries and have fled
(10:22):
to the United States. They take advantage of Biden's open
borders and they've come here. But these are people that
have committed murders. They've been in prison for rapes, for robberies,
aggravated assaults, anything that you can think of, they did
in their home country and they came over here and
they're doing the same thing. But just because they haven't
been caught and convicted, the people on the left and
(10:43):
the media are spinning it to say, well, they don't
have a criminal history. Yeah, they don't have a criminal
history here as far as we know. But these countries,
they did not share with us how to vet their people.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
They didn't share with us their criminal histories.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
They didn't open their books to us and say hey,
you can look through our records. We don't know what
they've done until they reach out and say, hey, we
need this person out here, and we get them, we
arrest them, and they're all marked up with MS thirteen tattoos.
You know, we've got people that have been trend y
at Agua. We've got so many criminals here that were
criminals in their home states, in their home countries, and
(11:21):
these people are trying to defend them and protect them.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, and that's what's so stunning. Like you just said,
it's like it seems like at all costs. Did you
ever imagine that there would be And I kind of
described it as a bit of an indoctrination Paul, where
it seems like there's a lot of individuals that have
become indoctrinated that, you know, ICE is bad suddenly, CBP
is bad suddenly, to the point where they don't really
sit back and realize they're fighting against law and order.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
No, I just I don't understand that.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I mean, you're protecting people that don't care about you.
They will kill you, they will rob you, they will
rape you, they will burglarise your home, they will steal
your vehicle, and you're out here protecting them as if
they're some good Samaritans. They are not. They're the furthest
thing from it. And we're trying to remove these people
because they have no business here in the United States,
(12:12):
and they interfere, impede and in the shooting with the
Prevy shooting, the person that they were going after actually
got away because of the interference that was caused by
you know, those people on the ground there that ultimately
led to the loss of life there. But that's exactly
what they're doing. They're allowing these people to get away
from us.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Now that's a great point.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
One of the things that the Democrats are talking about,
Paul Press is d masking federal agents. What do you
think of that? I mean, do they really understand just
the docsing that's taking place. I don't hear them saying
d mask the protesters. They're saying d mask the federal ations.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, you know, and you never heard that when they
were burning cities down. You know, before and you had
Antifa and all these other groups, you never heard a
single politician on the left say they should not be
allowed to wear masks. They were committing crimes. Now they
want to unmask our agents so they can dock them,
so they can come after us and our families. And
(13:11):
that's the dangerous situation for everybody all the way around,
because our agents and officers are going to defend themselves,
are going to defend their families if they have to,
and we don't want it to come to that.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
What about also body cams. That's one thing it seems
that the administration seems to be agreeing that it's helpful because,
as you know, most of the time those body cams
actually help law enforcement. You know, it's like, hey, here
it is Look, you saw what they were going through,
here's the evidence. How do you feel and how do
your you know, CBP officers feel about body cams.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Well, most of our agents have had body camps for
a few years, so it wasn't anything new to us.
You know, there's ice and there's cbpos that are getting
off getting body camps, but our agents, for the most part,
they're used to the body worn cameras, and they've had
them for a couple of years. We haven't equipped one
hundred percent of our agency, but a good portion of
(14:04):
it has.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Been equipped, and so it was nothing new to us.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
You know, we've been using them for a while.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Does it seem that it is usually helpful for the officer.
It seems like a lot of law enforcement actually appreciate
that and say, yeah, bring it on, because the video
will say everything.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Well, I can tell you nobody's been charged with the
crime of excessive force or civil rights violations or even
a shooting because of anything that came from the body cam,
which only reinforces the position we took before, which was
our agents and officers are being truthful when they're involved
in these incidents. The body worn cameras only reaffirmed that.
(14:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
The other thing I've thought about, too, is just how
tough it is. There's all these barricades that are being
set up, as you know in like Minneapolis. These individuals
they're protesters, many of them masked and asking for ID
and saying hey, are you CBP, are you ice?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
What do you make of that?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I mean to me, first of all, it's stunning that
that's actually happening in America, and I'm glad that some
of them have been dismantled, but they're talking about setting
up as many of a thousand of these. How can
law and order exist if citizens sort of try to
take some searches into their own hands and clearly disjoined
it in their beliefs.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Where are the police, rita? Where are the police that
is their primary function. If they're not going to back
us up, if they're not going to help protect our
agents and officers when they're out there enforcing the law,
then at least do your job. Let them do their
job and dismantle these illegal checkpoints. Let them do their
job and take these people into custody when they're rioting,
when they're trying to burn down cities, when they're attacking
(15:42):
agents and officers. What is it that they're doing. What
more can we say about that? That should not happen
in the United States? And unfortunately it is.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yeah, it is really stunning.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I think the average person when they see that, they
are just incredibly shocked that it's actually been But it's
just a testament as you bring up to the local leadership.
The other thing, too, is Tom Holman came out as
you know recently per the Trump administration and said, hey,
we're going to pull seven hundred agents. They're still leaving
many many agents there, and you would think that was
(16:15):
an extraordinary move. And he said, look, we're going to
try to do it. We're going to try to bring
down the temperature. And what does the mayor there come out?
He says, not enough. Everybody needs to be gone, of.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Course, and a lot of people, you know, took to
the media to say they were winning and this was
a surrender. This is no surrender. We're not going anywhere.
We're going to continue enforcing the law in Minneapolis and Minnesota, Chicago, Portland.
We're going to continue doing it. But as law enforcement cooperates,
which is what the mayor and the state are promising,
(16:47):
you know, then we can reduce the footprint. But those
agents and nosters are going to go elsewhere. There are
millions of people in this country that we need to
apprehend and remove, get them out of this country because
they don't belong here. So we're not going to give up.
We're not going to stop doing what we're going to do.
We just may reduce the footprint in certain areas, you.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Know, One of the things that I find is an
absolutely remarkable and impressive number is that there have been
I think as zero illegals right released into the United
States in the last eight months or so. I mean,
did you ever imagine what an extraordinary change it is
given the right leadership and the right message.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And we didn't need it, We didn't need any laws
to make that happen, just a new president. And so,
you know, we had some of the worst times in
the bord Oftroll's history undo the four years of the
Biden administration, and thank god to all the patriots that
you know came out and re elected President Trump, because
if we would have gotten Kamala Harris, she would have
(17:46):
been even worse than Biden was. And so we feel
very very lucky to have been exposed to that because
we know how good we have it now by allowing
being allowed to go out and apprehend people and make
sure that nobody should come into this country, that everybody
coming across the border has a very high likelihood of
(18:08):
being apprehended and deported. So we feel very good with
where we're at right now compared to where we were
under the Biden administration.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, and ATLISTA you are able to do your job
and do what you guys want to do and what
you've been trained so well to do too as well.
Paul Perez, thank you so much. Everybody be sure to
subscribe and share to this podcast. And Paul, thank you
for all the hard work that you and the great
men and women there of Customs and Border Protection that
you do every single day to keep us safe. You
(18:37):
guys are terrific. Thank you, Thank you so much for
your support Rita and everybody. I'll be back soon with
another great addition of protecting America, and of course you
can catch me every weeknight ten pm to midnight on
the legendary WABC Radio.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
This is Rita Cosby and thanks for
Speaker 2 (18:59):
All all you do to protect America
The Red Apple Media Podcast Network presents This is Protecting America. Now.
Here's Emmy winning journalist Rita Cosby.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to another edition of Protecting America.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Rita Cosby.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Democrats in Congress are pushing to try to actually defund
ice immigration and Customs enforcement, and at minimum are trying
to rain in federal law enforcement like ICE and CBP.
Now this comes as more anti ICE barricades are being
set up in cities like Minneapolis. Isn't this a form
(00:43):
of anarchy?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Joining us now to discuss this and more is Paul Perez.
He is the president of the National Border Patrol Council. Paul,
it's great to have you here.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Thank you, always good to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Rita, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
How destructive is it to hear democrats elected public officials
saying we want to defund ice? How dangerous is that
for just communities across this country?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You mean the same people that for four years wanted
to completely fund cities and ICE and everybody else so
they can make sure that they could facilitate and process
the entry of millions of people. I'm not surprised by it.
You know, these people have no idea what they're doing.
They are destroying this country one day at a time.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You bring up a very good point, Paul, because they
couldn't love ICE enough and CBP enough when they wanted
the millions upon millions to come into this country. Talk
about the important role you guys were doing, but how
you were being directed back then, and you're right, they
were embracing you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, they took us off the line. I mean, they
had everybody all hands on deck processing and release, seeing
the millions of people unvetted into this country, and they've
dispersed across the country. And so because of that, now
we've got ICE and border patrol as well in cities
across the country, trying to arrest the worst of the worst.
(02:14):
And you know, you've got a lot of politicians, the
same politicians that are calling for defunding are actually fanning
the flames because they're vien vilifying our agents, you know,
making them out to be these Nazi thugs, when in fact,
over half of our agency is Hispanic. That makes no sense,
But they've never made sense about these things.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
How troubling is it for you when you hear some
of the very incendiary rhetoric, whether it's the phrase of
Nazis saying it's a secret police. How much does that
also just hamper the job and make the job that's
already very tough so difficult.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
It's that much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And look, you know these are facts. People have lost
their lives because the rhetoric. You know, you had the
shooter in Dallas that tried to take out ice officers
who wound up shooting some of the illegals that were
being deported. You had the two people there in Minneapolis.
You've had people shot in Chicago. It makes things difficult.
People have gotten hurt, people have lost their lives because
(03:15):
of the rhetoric. They believe what they're seeing by the
fake used media and these politicians that we're out there
just taking people off of the streets, removing US citizens.
None of that's going on. The only interactions we have
with US citizens are when they come and interfere and
impede our lawful operations.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know, you brought up Minneapolis too, because of course
it was the Customs and Border Protection in that case
of alex Pretty talk about where does that stand with
the investigation, Where is that going?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
You know, they're they're moving on the investigation.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know, FBI and HSI. They're going to do their
due diligence. They want to create they want to make
sure that there's an impartial, objective investigation into the shooting.
And you know this, this administration has been the most
transparent in history. I mean, this is a historical administration
we're in with President Trump. He's doing everything that he
(04:11):
needs to do to make sure people understand he's going
to fight to make America safe. He's going to fight
to make America great. But he's going to do it
the right way. He's not going to take shortcuts. He's
not going to hide. And you know, I feel confident
that the investigation is going to be done, you know,
fairly and objectively, and at the end of the day,
our agents and officers that were involved in this shooting
(04:32):
and others will will have been cleared. You know.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
As you're talking about that too, Officers have to make
a split decision, right, I Mean, that's the other thing too.
There are so many things coming at them. I can't
even imagine. They're going after, you know, a bad person,
and then you've got protesters often surrounding law enforcement. How
much more complicated does that make the job?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Very much so look, our agents and officers are some
of the best trained the border. Batrol got some of
the best training in the United States in the United
States law enforcement. Our training is on power or superior
to many large law enforcement agencies that are both state
and municipal, and so they know exactly what they're doing.
But like you said, it makes it a lot more
(05:18):
difficult when you've got people that are interfering with our
lawful activities, and so everything that we do is targeted.
So it's made it difficult. It's very hard to see
exactly what's going on because again, our agents and officers,
they swore to defend the Constitution, they swore to enforce
(05:39):
the law, and they're only doing that because those are
the laws that Congress has on the books. Since very
disheartening when you hear politicians, especially at the federal level,
talking bad about our agents because they're only enforcing the
laws that they have on the books.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
No, that's a great point. If you don't like the
laws work through Congress, don't go out and vilify law enforcement.
I was also seeing some studying some really huge disheartening
numbers eight thousand percent increase of death threats against for example,
like ICE agents federal law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That is enormous. Have you ever you've been in law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
A long time, Paul, have you ever seen anything like
this with such hostilities created often by Democrats going.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
On twenty nine years though not, I've not seen it
this bad again. You know, under Trump's previous term, you know,
they like to use the term everything affiliated with President Trump.
They like to label it racist. But there's nothing racist
about what we're doing. You're either illegal or you're here legally.
There's no difference there, and there's no in between. So
(06:46):
it's very, very disconcerting when you hear all these people
talking about that makes the job a lot easier. We
know that being in law enforcement is inherently dangerous, but
when they start dosing, when they start going after our families,
they start going after us individually, that makes it that
much more difficult to deal with.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
How do they handle like even some of these in Minneapolis,
for example, they've shown up at some of these hotels
where they believe ICE or CBP are stationed. How do
you protect yourself against some of these lunatics, it seems,
who just suddenly show up in swarms, and they're also
communicating that's the other thing on these signal chats and
saying hey, here's where we're hearing show up.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, you know, it brings an inherent danger and added
danger to it. But I can tell you again, having
been doing this job for as long as I've been
doing it, I've seen a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I can tell you that our agents.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And officers they have used extreme restraint in dealing with
these protesters and these rioters who are just wanting our
agents to engage. But again, our agents have used a
lot of you know, there's a lot of discretion, there's
a lot of restraint, and it makes it difficult because
they're coming to the places that these agents are trying
(07:59):
to rely and rest, you know, to go on their
next shift. When you got these people trying to keep
them up all day and running them out of the
different hotels. They're also ruining local businesses, you know what
I mean. They have nothing on their mind but creating chaos.
And that's why it's important for local and state law
(08:21):
enforcement to get involved to get them in control.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You know, you brought up a great example because if
local law enforcement is cooperating, it would make your job
so much easier. If they're maintaining crowd control if they're
doing all these other things. Talk about how it really
is the policies of sanctuary cities that is putting so
many law enforcement on the federal level in danger and
citizens too.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, you know, Tom Holman, he spoke with the mayor,
he spoke with the governor of Minneapolis and Minnesota, and
he told them, let us into your jails, let us
into your prisons. Our agents and officers could go in there,
take custody in a secure environment, and that allows me
to release thousands of agents andnosters back to their duties
(09:09):
along the southwest border. Until they do that, we have
to continue going after these people out in the communities
because if we don't, there's going to be more and
more crime. There's going to be more victims. And the
last thing President Trump wants is any more angel families.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah. No, that is correct, and you just think about
the difficult job. Talk about some of the people you
guys have been helping to remove off the streets. Because
there was a hearing this week too, and we saw
a number of folks. This was in particular with ICE,
but with also Customs and Border Protection, and they were
talking about thirteen thousand agents at least with ICE deployed
(09:47):
across the country and some stunning number seven thousand gang members,
fourteen hundred suspected or known terrorists. I mean, there's some
pretty bad folks you guys have helped round up.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, and you know that one of the new talking
points coming from the left and the media is that
only a certain percentage have been apprehended that have actual
criminal histories. The fact of the matter is they're not
being honest. And that's what really really gets under our skin,
because these people that were apprehending are wanted murderers. They
have committed crimes in their home countries and have fled
(10:22):
to the United States. They take advantage of Biden's open
borders and they've come here. But these are people that
have committed murders. They've been in prison for rapes, for robberies,
aggravated assaults, anything that you can think of, they did
in their home country and they came over here and
they're doing the same thing. But just because they haven't
been caught and convicted, the people on the left and
(10:43):
the media are spinning it to say, well, they don't
have a criminal history. Yeah, they don't have a criminal
history here as far as we know. But these countries,
they did not share with us how to vet their people.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
They didn't share with us their criminal histories.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
They didn't open their books to us and say hey,
you can look through our records. We don't know what
they've done until they reach out and say, hey, we
need this person out here, and we get them, we
arrest them, and they're all marked up with MS thirteen tattoos.
You know, we've got people that have been trend y
at Agua. We've got so many criminals here that were
criminals in their home states, in their home countries, and
(11:21):
these people are trying to defend them and protect them.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, and that's what's so stunning. Like you just said,
it's like it seems like at all costs. Did you
ever imagine that there would be And I kind of
described it as a bit of an indoctrination Paul, where
it seems like there's a lot of individuals that have
become indoctrinated that, you know, ICE is bad suddenly, CBP
is bad suddenly, to the point where they don't really
sit back and realize they're fighting against law and order.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
No, I just I don't understand that.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I mean, you're protecting people that don't care about you.
They will kill you, they will rob you, they will
rape you, they will burglarise your home, they will steal
your vehicle, and you're out here protecting them as if
they're some good Samaritans. They are not. They're the furthest
thing from it. And we're trying to remove these people
because they have no business here in the United States,
(12:12):
and they interfere, impede and in the shooting with the
Prevy shooting, the person that they were going after actually
got away because of the interference that was caused by
you know, those people on the ground there that ultimately
led to the loss of life there. But that's exactly
what they're doing. They're allowing these people to get away
from us.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Now that's a great point.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
One of the things that the Democrats are talking about,
Paul Press is d masking federal agents. What do you
think of that? I mean, do they really understand just
the docsing that's taking place. I don't hear them saying
d mask the protesters. They're saying d mask the federal ations.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, you know, and you never heard that when they
were burning cities down. You know, before and you had
Antifa and all these other groups, you never heard a
single politician on the left say they should not be
allowed to wear masks. They were committing crimes. Now they
want to unmask our agents so they can dock them,
so they can come after us and our families. And
(13:11):
that's the dangerous situation for everybody all the way around,
because our agents and officers are going to defend themselves,
are going to defend their families if they have to,
and we don't want it to come to that.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
What about also body cams. That's one thing it seems
that the administration seems to be agreeing that it's helpful because,
as you know, most of the time those body cams
actually help law enforcement. You know, it's like, hey, here
it is Look, you saw what they were going through,
here's the evidence. How do you feel and how do
your you know, CBP officers feel about body cams.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Well, most of our agents have had body camps for
a few years, so it wasn't anything new to us.
You know, there's ice and there's cbpos that are getting
off getting body camps, but our agents, for the most part,
they're used to the body worn cameras, and they've had
them for a couple of years. We haven't equipped one
hundred percent of our agency, but a good portion of
(14:04):
it has.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Been equipped, and so it was nothing new to us.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
You know, we've been using them for a while.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Does it seem that it is usually helpful for the officer.
It seems like a lot of law enforcement actually appreciate
that and say, yeah, bring it on, because the video
will say everything.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Well, I can tell you nobody's been charged with the
crime of excessive force or civil rights violations or even
a shooting because of anything that came from the body cam,
which only reinforces the position we took before, which was
our agents and officers are being truthful when they're involved
in these incidents. The body worn cameras only reaffirmed that.
(14:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
The other thing I've thought about, too, is just how
tough it is. There's all these barricades that are being
set up, as you know in like Minneapolis. These individuals
they're protesters, many of them masked and asking for ID
and saying hey, are you CBP, are you ice?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
What do you make of that?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I mean to me, first of all, it's stunning that
that's actually happening in America, and I'm glad that some
of them have been dismantled, but they're talking about setting
up as many of a thousand of these. How can
law and order exist if citizens sort of try to
take some searches into their own hands and clearly disjoined
it in their beliefs.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Where are the police, rita? Where are the police that
is their primary function. If they're not going to back
us up, if they're not going to help protect our
agents and officers when they're out there enforcing the law,
then at least do your job. Let them do their
job and dismantle these illegal checkpoints. Let them do their
job and take these people into custody when they're rioting,
when they're trying to burn down cities, when they're attacking
(15:42):
agents and officers. What is it that they're doing. What
more can we say about that? That should not happen
in the United States? And unfortunately it is.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yeah, it is really stunning.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I think the average person when they see that, they
are just incredibly shocked that it's actually been But it's
just a testament as you bring up to the local leadership.
The other thing, too, is Tom Holman came out as
you know recently per the Trump administration and said, hey,
we're going to pull seven hundred agents. They're still leaving
many many agents there, and you would think that was
(16:15):
an extraordinary move. And he said, look, we're going to
try to do it. We're going to try to bring
down the temperature. And what does the mayor there come out?
He says, not enough. Everybody needs to be gone, of.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Course, and a lot of people, you know, took to
the media to say they were winning and this was
a surrender. This is no surrender. We're not going anywhere.
We're going to continue enforcing the law in Minneapolis and Minnesota, Chicago, Portland.
We're going to continue doing it. But as law enforcement cooperates,
which is what the mayor and the state are promising,
(16:47):
you know, then we can reduce the footprint. But those
agents and nosters are going to go elsewhere. There are
millions of people in this country that we need to
apprehend and remove, get them out of this country because
they don't belong here. So we're not going to give up.
We're not going to stop doing what we're going to do.
We just may reduce the footprint in certain areas, you.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Know, One of the things that I find is an
absolutely remarkable and impressive number is that there have been
I think as zero illegals right released into the United
States in the last eight months or so. I mean,
did you ever imagine what an extraordinary change it is
given the right leadership and the right message.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And we didn't need it, We didn't need any laws
to make that happen, just a new president. And so,
you know, we had some of the worst times in
the bord Oftroll's history undo the four years of the
Biden administration, and thank god to all the patriots that
you know came out and re elected President Trump, because
if we would have gotten Kamala Harris, she would have
(17:46):
been even worse than Biden was. And so we feel
very very lucky to have been exposed to that because
we know how good we have it now by allowing
being allowed to go out and apprehend people and make
sure that nobody should come into this country, that everybody
coming across the border has a very high likelihood of
(18:08):
being apprehended and deported. So we feel very good with
where we're at right now compared to where we were
under the Biden administration.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, and ATLISTA you are able to do your job
and do what you guys want to do and what
you've been trained so well to do too as well.
Paul Perez, thank you so much. Everybody be sure to
subscribe and share to this podcast. And Paul, thank you
for all the hard work that you and the great
men and women there of Customs and Border Protection that
you do every single day to keep us safe. You
(18:37):
guys are terrific. Thank you, Thank you so much for
your support Rita and everybody. I'll be back soon with
another great addition of protecting America, and of course you
can catch me every weeknight ten pm to midnight on
the legendary WABC Radio.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
This is Rita Cosby and thanks for
Speaker 2 (18:59):
All all you do to protect America
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