Thaddeus Cleveland - Terrell County Sheriff Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So CBP officers have been busy. In fiscal year twenty
twenty five. They have seized a significant quantity of narcotics,
unreported currency, and weapons during the fiscal year sixty two
percent combined increase in hard narcotics seized in this past year.
Joining us with a reaction to that is Thatatty's Cleveland,

(00:20):
Tarrell County Sheriff Sheriff, good morning, Hey one, Bob gat
be on with you today. Thank good to have you.
Appreciate that we've just seen so many great numbers. You know,
President Trump was proud to announce last week during the
State of the Union. That State of the Union was
a national address from the Oval Office in which he
announced that over the last seven months, zero illegal aliens
have been released into the interior of the United States.

(00:43):
And now not only are the illegal aliens being kept out,
but so are their drugs.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Most definitely, Bob, and I tell you I can draw
from my twenty six years experience as a US Border
Troy agent and lifelong reser order. You know what we
saw the previous four years with really the borders being
wide open, and now that they're being controlled in between
the ports of entry, we're starting to see the tails
go back to their old ways of smuggling the ports
of entry, mixing their narcotics with you know, legitimate trade

(01:11):
and travel, and that's why we've seen those those seizures
go up.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
These numbers are kind of staggering. In the reports that
we're seeing here. During the fiscal year, officers at the
aports of entry say they see seventy one, seven and
thirty three pounds of narcotics that would have commanded a
combined estimated street value of nearly six hundred and seventy
four million dollars. So obviously, you know, the incentive is

(01:36):
still there for the cartels and for the traffickers to
get these things out there. What is being done differently
other than President Trump sealing the border off?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know that, And I even like to say the
big thing and the men and women of Customs Board
Protection are doing a tremendous job. But what it takes,
and it doesn't matter who the president is, but it
takes having that person in the White House that's going
to let the rest of the world know that we
are going to enforce the role on protect our borders.
And it just goes to show, you know, It's almost
like the flip of a switch what transpired once Biden

(02:07):
left office and Trump took over. Just getting back to uh,
protecting our borders. And and it also shows kind of
as you the crtails aren't going to give up. They're
going to continue to uh to try to get their
their drugs through, their weapons through and and criminal aliens.
But uh, but again, just great job being done by
by our men and women as the border.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, and uh, you know, I'm sure for them, and
you having so much experience being one of them, knowing
that the people at the top are are have their backs,
knowing that the people on the top are committed to
the same jobs that they're doing. It would be impossible,
I would imagine to be a CBP agent and and
and working for somebody like I'm not trying to be
too terribly partisan here, but Joe Biden did not have
their backs. Yeah, when when Texas sealed off the border

(02:49):
with razor wire, Joe Biden sent in the forklist to
lift that razor wire so people could come in. And
that had to be very disheartening for agents.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Hey, Bob certainly was. And to your point, I'm looking
and I don't like to be partisan either. But I've
worked as a border from under agent under four different administrations,
from Clibama to Trump and a portion of Biden, and
I can tell you that before all those administrations, Republican Democrats,
all did things to improve border security, all hired agents,

(03:18):
put more funding into the border and technology. But no
agents know that the top they're back and are able
to get back out and do the jobs they were
hired to do, and that's protect the US Mexico border
and rest those that are looking to do bad things
and bringing bad things across to the U.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, and you know, you say protect the border, but
what that means is protect the people on this side
of the border. And when you get this many drugs,
you know, apprehended and stop from being released into the
interior of the United States to feed people's addictions and
so forth. That is indeed the job of the president.
That's indeed the job of CBP is to protect the
people of this country. That is what true homeland security

(03:57):
looks like. So this is great news. Congratulations to all
the CBP officers and agents out there doing the job.
And Sheriff, thank you very much for the time this morning.
Wish wish you a very merry Christmas. Are thank you, Bob,
God bless you. Merry Christmas.