8.27: Southwest Airlines makin the biggin's buy an extra seat, Art Del Cueto on immigration

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tony Dwight not in today. You're stuck with me one
more day. Leland Conway hanging out in news radio eight
forty whas. I don't know. I can't wait to talk
about this story about Southwest Airlines charging super plus sized
people for two seats, which I think is in a
hilarious argument. But before we get to that, we have

(00:23):
to declare victory. Cracker Barrel has backed down. Cracker Barrel
has said, we give up our wokeness. Our woke force
was not strong enough to beat the Jedi, so we
are backing off. They're going back to the old logo.
I don't know how deep this Maya Copa is, right,

(00:46):
I mean, if they're gonna stay with the newly redesigned,
but apparently they're bringing back Uncle Herschel. So Uncle Herschel
with his elbow on the barrel is coming back, thank goodness, right,
I mean, it just didn't I swear to God that
you mentioned new coke Gush.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
I mean, just looking at the looking at that logo,
you're like, what are you doing? Like, I know, it
doesn't even it's it's literally you remember when we were kids. Okay,
so my memo, my mama and Papa lived through the
Great Depression, So they were the thriftiest people you will
ever know, right and so like, okay, so just to

(01:24):
give you an idea, So my papa had a bottle
of RC Cola that I think he drank in nineteen
seventy two, but he kept the bottle because he didn't
want to throw it away. And so, right, and so memo,
she saved money. She would go to win Dixie and
she would get the Big Check Cola. And everybody listening

(01:45):
to me, that's gen X remembers when Dixie and Big
Check Cola. You know what I'm saying. That's the store brand,
that's the generic cola. And I remember, my mama, we
could have as much Big Check Cola as we want
it when we came to visit, but we only got
them in these little bitty glasses, just a little little
bit at a time, like a shot of big of

(02:08):
Big Check Cola. And so my papa would take the
two leader and he would pour that Big Check Cola
into the RC Cola bottle, and then he had a
rubber like thing that kept it from from going flat,
and then he would he would just take a swig.
At the time, he would go back there and just
take a little swig of the RC Cola. But it

(02:28):
wasn't RC Cola. It was Big Check Cola and that
was it. And he would just just nurse that thing.
And uh, do you remember the design on the generic brands,
it's always just blakee just bah. That's what Cracker Barrel's
new logo looks like. It's like the Big Check Cola
of breakfast restaurants. So I didn't mean to take you

(02:51):
down memory lane, but it's just those are my memories.
But yeah, they're gonna back down. And they were worn too.
What's the guy's name, Sadar Bagari Biglory, Yeah, I think
it's his name.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, So he is one of their.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Investors and he when when the the woke CEO with
her horn rimmed glasses, I picture her on the weekends
with a big, huge, wide brimmed gardener hat and a
tied die shirt. She trying to paint the picture, you know.
So she she basically let the let the board know
we're gonna change, We're gonna go to this other thing.

(03:22):
And Sadar, he said, this is obvious folly. He said,
this is not gonna work. Fox News had the receipts
on this. On May sixteenth of last year, twenty twenty four,
she unveiled the strategic transformation plan. What is the strategy
of changing your brand logo to the big check loco?

(03:44):
I mean, right, like, let's just blend in with everything else.
That's how we'll stand out. So then in October eighth,
the chickens have come home to roost. Crackerbell investor Sardar
big Glory and board critics fires off a letter to
shareholder saying strategic transformation Flan is obvious folly. Cracker Barrel

(04:05):
is not a broken brand, but it has a broken board.
He said that, but Glari said h lays out his
criticisms in a one d and twenty page slide deck
representation with the title Cracker Barrel is in crisis that
Fox posted all of this. Barrel CEO on board reject
investor Sardar big Lari's criticism, he publishes another slide deck,

(04:29):
this time warning the result could be quote catastrophic if
Cracker Barrel doesn't ditch its misguided trans Big Glari's gotta
be impossible to be around the office today. Gus Right
my gosh.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
You know he's going, hey, hey, hey, look here, even
started a website. It in the story said he's he
laid all this out for I guess investors saying this
is what they're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's not it's dumb. And he was right.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
He was right. Oh my god, that's hilarious.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
I mean he's sitting there, he goes, you're coming in
and you're just wanting to come in and change the
look of everything, thinking that's going to fix it.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
All you need to do is get people in your door, right.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Right, And you've got to remember who your customers are.
You've got to remember who your core audience is. And
your core audience is fifty five plus who have memories
of that sort of country setting. Like I said the
other day, you know my Memo and Papal sitting on
their front porch and swinging in the front porch swing
is as country as it gets, right, I mean, it's

(05:33):
Waddie Kentucky. It's quintessential Americana, and so that that is
the image. So when I would go to Cracker Barrel
as a gen X kid, just being in that setting
kind of reminds me of picking beans with my memma
right sitting on the front porch and breaking the beans
because she would then go soak them and then she
would do her canning and like those memories. What's that?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yes, sir, I know exactly what you do.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know what I'm talking about, you know, and or
shucking corn and all that kind of stuff. I did
all that with my my grandparents when I was a
little kid. And now the youngest generation, zey, they don't
remember anything like that at all, Like unless they grew
up on a farm, which is rare now, they don't
remember any of that stuff. But for for my generation
and beyond, it's a memory. So when you go in

(06:17):
there and you taste that bean soup and it's not
Mammo's bean soup, but when you taste it, it at
least reminds you of it, right, that whole experience. If
I want to go to Bob Evans, I'll go to
Bob Evans. I mean, I'm no offense to Bob Evans,
but I mean, Ohio is you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
It's South.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
It's not the South. You can't get sweet tea up there.
Come on, okay, I'm good. Anyway, that guy's got to
be impossible to be around today because like, never was
a person so right when everyone else was so wrong.
As as that investor.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
He was, he was, he was amazing how right he was.
When you read that story, it's like and he told
him and they but they kicked him off. As ay,
you're an activist invest activist investor, you don't know what
you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah. Did you see the the CNN headline on Twitter
on this yesterday? It was so funny it said it
said cracker Barrel, Uh, Cracker Barrel backtracks changes to old
logo after massive right wing backlash, And I was like,

(07:22):
this is not right wing backlash, this is just the
core customers like bud Light saying screw you.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Right exactly, that you can even make a case that
it's not a woke thing. You just changed something. Everybody
was like, yeah, don't do it.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah yeah, I mean it's it's just uh yeah, but
it was woke because we talked about the PEG game,
so we know what was actually right.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
That's where it took it over the dam right there.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, So all right, anyway, Victory declared cracker Barrel old
logo coming back. The problem is they're probably not going
to change any of the behind the scenes stuff, right,
they're probably not going to change whatever woke nonsense they
were going to do on the backside. So you know,
look for a tofu qen wah bowl at your at

(08:09):
your local cracker barrel.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Spring rolls barrel.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yep, they brought. They brought Uncle Herschel back. But it's
under duress because he has to serve you a keen
wah bowl. Poor Uncle Herschel. Oh my, this is nonsense. Okay,
I gotta talk about it. I was so excited. Southwest
is changing its policy for plus sized passengers who need
two seats. They're now going to charge for two seats
if you need two seats. This is common sense, isn't it?

(08:36):
Like no offense if you're if you're on the plus side,
I think you're beautiful. If you are, everybody's beautiful, right,
little extra, little extra, little extra cushion never hurt anybody.
I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, if you take
up two seats and you ought to pay for.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Two seats, right, seems normal, right, right?

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah? If you eat two balls, you used to pay
for two balls. I mean, it just is what it is.
CNN reporting Southwest Airlines is changing its seating policy for
plus sized passengers starting January twenty seventh. I guess we're
gonna wait until next year. They've they've got to announce
it and then wait for the fat phobia, like all
of that stuff to blow over, and then they'll start charging.

(09:19):
Passengers who take up space in a neighboring seat will
have to buy an extra ticket, and it might not
be refunded. The current rules allow flyers to buy an
extra seat ahead of time and get refunded later, or
request an extra seat at no charge at the airport.
Those options made Southwest popular with many plus sized passengers.
Are they just trying to like tram wait on these

(09:40):
planes to save fuel? Is that what they're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I'm setting here.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
I can't remember when I had to set next to
somebody that was, you know, a little over the old
arm res.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, stuff at it all it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
But if I'm that person, I don't want to be
setting back and I'm sorry this is the reality of it,
because that's gonna be that's uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Right now.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
You're going, oh man, you know, I I you if.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I was plus sized, I wouldn't want to. I would
be super self conscious as I was spilling into somebody
else's seat who paid for it.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yes, I'm trying to put this nicely, and it's not
gonna come out nicely.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
But about it, fat roll is over on me.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
I'm going to be uncomfortable in that seat for two
hours and I've done lapped.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
If you've done lapped.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, how bad is that?

Speaker 3 (10:37):
You're oh my gosh, two hours, You're already cramped in there.
You're you're with some people you don't know. So if
that person has to buy an extra seat, it's gonna
make me. Okay, sorry, but you know, I understand there's
people out there that you can't do something about your
weight sometimes.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
But here's a feeling. This is a little bit of
a rabeling. This is a little bit of a rabbit trail.
But we'll come back to the two passengers. Okay. But
some years ago, when I was on WLAPR sister station
over in Lexington, I took a group of listeners to
Ireland and we had to fly on a red eye

(11:13):
I think out of Boston. We flew from here to
Boston and then red eye from there to Dublin. And
on that Red Eye, I got so fortunate there was
nobody in the row of seats that I was in,
and so I could stretch out across all three seats
on my side of the plane and watch movies all night,

(11:35):
and that made it comfortable to fly across the Atlantic. Well,
I'm taking another group of listeners at the end of
September back to Ireland, and I am terrified that airline Karma, Yes,
is gonna get me.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
I was gonna say, you will pay for that good
you know what I'm saying earlier? Will that you got earlier?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, Because the universe has a way of evening everything out,
it does. It doesn't let anybody get truly truly ahead.
So I fear tragedy. I'm gonna be at though. I'm
gonna be on the window seat with two passengers on
the other side of me that will be both qualifying

(12:18):
for the double seat occupancy. That's what I think is
gonna happen. And so I'm gonna arrive at Double End
International Airport like a squashed straw. I think is probably
what's gonna happen. I'm worried. So anyway, they're gonna change
the rules the new rules mean that a second seat
will be non refundable unless the flight departs with at
least one open seat and both seats are purchased within

(12:41):
the same fair class. So in other words, you get
the money back only if nobody sits in the seat
that you purchased extra. That seems fair, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
That seems quite all right?

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah, I don't think. I think if you're big enough
that you flow over into a second seat, but it's
only like say, half of that can seat, then I
think it would be greedy of Southwest Airlines to charge
you for two seats if no one actually tried to
occupy thatze it. But again, I think it's greedy of

(13:12):
Southwest Airlines to even try to sell that seat next
to them. So really, I think the best rule would be, hey,
you take up two seats. You know what. Here's the problem, though,
let me look at this from the other side. I
gotta steal man this argument a little bit gus because
I don't want to be the guy that just is
railing on fat people. That's not what I'm trying to do.
I love them. But there's also another side to this

(13:33):
that it doesn't take much these days to take up
two seats on an airline, right, I mean, dude, it
is so small. Like I'm I'm not overweight that way,
but I'm tall and I have long legs. It is,
I mean it is. It really is one seats really
not enough room for me. It really isn't to be

(13:53):
able to actually be comfortable for that three or four
hour flight. It's not comfortable. So there doesn't I feel
like there's a middle ground here where Yeah, if you're
so big that you take up two seats, you probably
should pay for two seats, But then look at the
damn seats, right, they're so tiny. They're now talking about
doing these standing seats. Have you seen this, this this

(14:15):
new model right, like like you've got almost almost like
you're at King's Island and you're on like one of
those what is that? What is that roller coaster that
stands you up but you have those pads behind you,
you're locked in and then your feet come out from
under you. You know, what's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
I know what you're talking about and looking at.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, I know what is the name of that? Somebody
will let us know. It's on Twitter at Leland show.
Hit me up. What is the name of that roller
coaster anyway, that's what they're they're designing these. They'll be
like two rolls, so you'll have to they'll be like
two floors, so you'll be staring at the ass d
the king Cobra.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Is it the king Cobra?

Speaker 1 (14:50):
King Cobra?

Speaker 2 (14:51):
That's it?

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Probably does it? It's probably is the Beast even.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Still in operational beast is still there that that's a.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Roller coaster When I was, when I was a kid,
that was. That was the roller coaster. Man. There's some
really good ones now that are like waste or past that.
But I mean an old rickety wooden roller coaster. But no,
that new model has there's a layer above you and
you're staggered. So you're you're in this thing like the
King Kobra and you're staring at the ass end of

(15:21):
whoever's in front of you because their ass is elevated
to right in front of your face. And so if
they're eating the airport Chinese food and they get a
little windage, you know what I'm saying, that's not good man.
So so I think I think there's a little give
and take here. I'm four. If you're so big, you

(15:42):
take up too normal size seats. But I kind of
feel like the airlines are also at fault here because
those are not normal size seats.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Well, Southwest quantify in that does the new rule? What
is plus size? Because there's kind of where I'm going, Yeah,
where do you what? What?

Speaker 2 (16:01):
What?

Speaker 3 (16:01):
What says that you have to do that? There has
to be some sort of guideline, right.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right, they don't have a particular limit. It's it's relegated
to physical size. So in other words, it's not okay
if you're over four hundred pound, right, it's if you
flow into the other seat, and I guess they give
you measurements. I haven't done a Southwest flight for a
long time, but I think you have to do measurements.

(16:26):
And it's just like you have to do measurements on
your your baggage. Yeah, I think it's the same thing.
If you don't fit in this space, then you need
to buy an extra set.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
Now.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
See, I can see all kinds of problems coming out
of that. It's right like, well, I don't I don't
fit in that? Are you going to have the little
thing when you check in at the counter? But you
know where you have to put your bag in. If
your bag will fit here, it can go. If it doesn't,
it's got to be checked. Is there going to be
like a seat? I guess a seat there?

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, you have to stand in.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
You got a little hanging over there. You don't have
to go for two seats today. It looks like you're
in general, that won't be any kind of a problem
in the airports. I'll have a great time posting all
the videos that people going off on that one.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Just you know. I mean, I'm torn on this one.
I really am, because I agree if you take two seats,
you should have to pay for two seats. But I
also feel like the airlines are freaking greedy and at
some point it has to stop, right. But I did
see somebody post a funny meme the other day and
they were like, there was this huge guy that clearly
takes up two seats and they let him on the
plane and then he's standing there with his little baggage

(17:26):
and it's like he has to put it in the
box and it's like one inch over and one pound
over and they're like that'd be fifty dollars. He's like,
what that guy just got on the plane and took
up two seats and you're upset about my carry on bag.
So crazy, all right? Coming up at the bottom of
the hour, Ar del Quato. He's the former vice president
of the the National Border Patrol Union and now works

(17:48):
with an organization called Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform.
It's a former border patrol agent down in the sector
where I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and he's going
to join us with some staggering numbers on Trump's success
on closing the border. So we'll talk about that in
just a few minutes. Leland Conway in for the legendary
Tony and Dwight News Radio eight forty whas Leland Conway

(18:08):
sitting in for Tony and Dwight News Radio eight forty
whas coming up our del Cuato's gonna join us. Former
border patrol agent, former vice president National Border Patrol Council.
Dude has seen it all on the Southwest border. He's
going to talk to us about the successes of the
Trump administration in that arena. Later on in the program,
there's a crazy idea in Kentucky to raise the minimum wage.

(18:29):
I'll tell you just how disastrous that'll be since I'm
a missionary on the West coast now with a show
in San Diego. The minimum wage increases out there have
utterly destroyed the working class in that state, and doing
that here in Kentucky is not how do you help
people that are in the low income categories. We'll talk
about that coming up as well, and then I've got

(18:50):
a story later in the program that hopefully will scare
the beajbi's out of you, but I don't have a
solution to it, so that's just me being mean. But
it's an interesting story about artificial intelligence and how it
was used to find a stolen vehicle, but the flip
side of that, using it for evil is pretty damn terrifying.

(19:11):
Congressman Thomas Massey will join us today at eleven thirty,
so that's all coming up, all right, So just wrapping
this conversation up about Southwest Airlines essentially changing their seating
policy for plus sized passengers. You if you, if you're
a biggin you gotta buy too. So but look, I
don't want anybody to feel bad if you're a big

(19:31):
in Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. God made you
the way he made you, and you had a few
too many biscuits. That's okay. It doesn't make you unlovable.
You are very lovable.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
What don't you know?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Southwest is going to try to go well, ok So
we got we got Littlands, we got mediums, and we
got Biggins, if you remember, got to go two seater
over here.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Like my favorite caller of all time on the UK
network was John short by fifty Biggins, right, I mean,
come on, I love it. So that's how they tally
up the plane passengers. We got seven regulars and two
Biggins stirred us.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
I've got a big in next to you. Cannot get
another seat?

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Can I get a free coke? I got a biggen
next to me? Oh my god. Oh but we love Biggins.
We love them, but you know, I mean it's like
it's a great hug, you know, lots of patty, you know.
So I'm just I better stop while in my head.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Ask for forgiveness during the break to the good Well back.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Forgiveness during the break. I'm going on Twitter. I'm sorry Biggins.
All right? Coming up next, Artel Cuta will join us.
We'll talk about the border and more. Leland Conway in
for Tony and Dwight News Radio eight forty WJS Leland
Conway sitting in for the legendary Tony and Dwight News
Radio eight forty w h as President Trump is doing

(20:58):
a phenomenal job on the legal immigration issue. And it's
a huge issue too. It built during the Biden administration
because the Bide administration was deliberately letting people in. There
were actually in doos non governmental organizations that were getting
taxpayer money and they were working directly with the cartels
to shuffle people across the border. Joining me now is

(21:21):
my friend Art del Quato. He is a former border
patrol agent and former vice president of National Board Patrol
Council and now is with Fair as an immigrant illegal
immigration advisory capacity. He's got a long history of protecting
America's borders and just being a hell of a human being.
What's going on, Art, how are you?

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Good man? Fantastic? I'm up here in Maine, of all places.
I came up here to check and see the northern border.
It's been a while since I've been up here to
see how bad it is up here. Obviously, we're light
years ahead of where we were under because of the
last administrations just letting everything come through but there's still
work to be done. There's still policies need to be done,

(22:00):
There's legislation that needs to be fixed. Because my fear
is if something happens next elections, hey, we're going to
be back to where we've been.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, exactly. You know, I was you mentioned the northern
border in Maine. I was in Montana a couple of
weeks ago on business and up near the border, and
I was talking to a guy that was a border
patrol agent up in that area, and I asked him
how things were going, and he said, dude, he goes,
it's totally shifted. And he said it's worse in some
ways because they can get drugs across the border because

(22:30):
it's wide open, especially if you get west or east
of the Rockies in that area. It's all planes and
they can just come across at any place. And he said,
it's like everything has shifted from the southern border to
the northern border. They're just going around and coming in
the top right.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
So to see, here's the problem. The drug cartels operate
in one hundred and sixty eight different countries, so because
of that, they have connections everywhere. Crime attracts other crimes
so instead of the mom and pop shops that would
cross people illegally, you know, near the border. Now they're
huge criminal organizations. A lot of the individuals from the cartels,
they've had their kids in the US. They've sent them

(23:07):
to IVY schools in America, so they have more of
a business sense. So they run the drug cartels like
a business around the world. They know what areas are open,
what areas are not. They have better technology than we
do because they don't have a budget, first and foremost.
Second of all, they've made billions under the Biden administration.
So yeah, they've expanded so much that we have to

(23:27):
constantly try to play catchup to make sure that we
intercept some of this traffic.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Now, you were down in the southern border in the
area where I grew up, in the cells sector, and
you saw a lot of what I saw growing up
as a kid. What's your take on just how big
of a humanitarian crisis the Biden administration created by allowing
the cartels to essentially traffic so many people.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Well, a lot of it that people don't understand. Yeah,
there's individuals that came into the US. They were just
trying to get a better life, but they were doing
it illegally. Well, you have to pay a toll, you
would say, to the drug cartels in order to bring
them across into the US. So they took advantage of that,
and then they almost use them as bait. They would
send them in certain areas knowing that it would distract agents,

(24:14):
and they'd utilize other corridors to bring in more drugs.
The Godaways, Look, it was so easy to come across
as for asylam get released. Can you imagine the intentions
of the Godaways?

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Right right right? That's a great point, and kind of
just digging into that a little bit what seems to
be happening, And I'll just paint this scenario and then
see if I'm right. You tell me if I'm right.
But like in California, there was a marijuana farm that
was raided and they I can't remember how many people
they picked up, but it was dozens and dozens. But
among those people they picked up, nine of them were

(24:47):
unaccompanied miners, and one of them was an accused sex
offender that had allegedly attacked a minor. Now, these nine miners,
they're unaccompanied, which means somebody else is handling them and
even if the company is not employing a legal child labor,
those miners are probably engaged in some sort of quasi

(25:08):
slave labor. Am I wrong about what's happening there with
this stuff?

Speaker 4 (25:11):
You're you're one hundred percent right, And those are the
kids and what we saw in front of us. Remember
there was thousands upon thousands of uncompanied juveniles that entered
during the Biden administration that they don't know where they're at.
And there was a recent congressional hearing. Eli Crane was
set in on it and he asked the question about

(25:32):
the phone calls. They have documented that there was one
person answering phone calls for these children that were that
were released and they would have been in distress, and
they received sixty five thousand phone calls and all sixty
five thousand plus went unanswered.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Wow, devastating that means, I mean, and those are just
the kids that made the call. So let's just let's
just put that in respective. Sixty five thousand kids were
so scared of where they were at that they utilized
the number given to them by the government seeking help. Wow,
and no one came to help.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
So when we have like big events, you know, like
like a a Kentinki Derby or super Bowl, all the
super Bowl, Comic Con in San Diego wherever, like these big,
huge events, human trafficking takes place for prostitution. Are a

(26:34):
lot of those kids caught up in a a in
a ring like that? Is that what's happening? And the
reason I'm bringing this up is this. I want people
to understand why we should care about this. And the
last administration did not.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
Crime attracts other crime. They want to make money. They're
not criminals hang out with other criminals. So they're not
just gonna sit there and say, oh, I'm just gonna
sell a little bit of marijuana. No're going to see
other ways to make money. So they're gonna get involved
with sex trafficking. They're gonna get involved, you know, with
child trafficking. They're gonna get involved with organ transports. They're

(27:10):
gonna get involved with weapons going back south. It's about money.
And I'm gonna tell you this because I did a
radio show earlier today and I was trying to explain
it to one of the individuals. These criminal networks don't
care if mom or Dad voted Republican or Democratic. They
want to make money, and they don't care whose lives

(27:32):
they damage. They don't care what kids are introduced to drugs.
They just want to make money.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Right, right, how do we We're talking with Art del Cuato,
former Border patrol agent and now Border advisor for Fair
How do we fix this problem? Art? How do we
defeat the cartels? I mean, it feels like an unwinnable
war at this point.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
We report what's going on. When we see something, we
can't be careed to report it. I mean, we have
to report it to the authorities. We got to make
sure that we vote correctly for legislation. We've got to
make sure that our politicians take care of the issues
that need to be taking care of. Look, we're doing
great under the Trump administration when it comes to border security,

(28:16):
but unless we get the right legislation across, we're going
to be back to where we were, or even worse.
The right legislation across.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
A lot of states, especially blue states, are passing laws
requiring federal law enforcement to not wear masks. There's a
reason why ice agents are wearing masks. They're being docks.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
Absolutely. I grew up on the southern border. I got
family in Mexico, I got friends in Mexico. The Mexican government,
their own law enforcement has been utilizing masks for years
because of fear of retaliation from these criminal cartoon networks.
It is absolutely the up most ignorance to be going

(29:03):
after law enforcement in the US and telling them not
to use masks, because the problem is we're dealing with
an entirely different criminal network. These criminal networks, they stretch everywhere,
and they don't care, and they're willing to come after
these We just had an agent commit suicide out in
California because of the doxing. Like he may have had

(29:28):
other issues going on, but one of the things that
we know for sure is he had been ridiculed continuously
and it was because they put out a video and
memes and everything else about him without the mask. You
look at Secretary Nome. Secretary Nome had to move from
her residence because of doxing. Yeah, federal agents, they don't

(29:51):
have that option. They can't just move and get security.
They're on their own.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah. Tom Holman has to live in a different location
than his wife because of the threats that have come
against them.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
It ain't fun. Look, I have received tons of death
threats myself touns because I'm in the public eye. But
I've chosen to be okay with that. It shouldn't that
protects nothing that they should put on. I got a
lot of guns.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
There, we got and you know how to use them. Yeah,
But I mean.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
They how to use them. My family's trained how to
use them. But at the end of the day, if
they're going to come after you, they're going to do
everything they can to come after you, and we need
to make sure that we have the preventative measures moving forward.
I have car insurance, not because I drive out there
wanted to get in a car accident. I have car
insurance in case I get in a car accident. I

(30:45):
have that backup if something happens.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think it's important. You said you trained
your family too. That that worries me about people who
stand up and stand out for you know, for for
the rule of law. In this situation, when we go
back to the idea of whether this is winnable or not,
what percentage has shifted to the northern border, and how

(31:09):
hard is that going to be to get under control?
And it feels almost like we're moving air around in
an animal balloon, right I mean when we say we
get up to the northern border, then they'll come back
to the southern border.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
So it's hard to control. In the essence that there's
people that still don't get it. And I take it
back to nine to eleven. Before nine to eleven, our
security was a different way. After that, we ramped up security.
We were more heightened as to what was going around,
but there wasn't really those red flags, right. It caught

(31:41):
us by surprise. You would say, maybe there's members in
the government that knew, but it pretty much caught the
public by surprise. What's been happening in the northern border,
what's been happening in the southern border, what's been happening
with immigration, everything we see. This should not catch us
by surprise. We know what's out there, we're all seeing
the red flags. Not wait for a tragedy before we

(32:02):
move forward and get something done.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Do you think spent sending our as is rumored we
may be doing, spent sending our special ops guys down
into Mexico and South America to take out some of
these larger cartel holdouts. Is that even a thing?

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Look, it's something if we're going to try to utilize
every single tool at our disposal. That's what I admire
of the President Trump. But uh, I don't know, man,
I have mixed feelings sometimes when it comes to that,
because you're dealing with cartels. They've been there, they have technology.
It's not just like you know, some some grunt in
the middle of nowhere. These guys have technology. They have

(32:40):
people on their payroll, maybe on even both sides of
the border. So the element of surprise is a big
deal that we may not get. It's going to have
to be a huge effort moving forward. Am I opposed
to it? I'm not. You know, it's it's it's it's
a tool that we can use at our disposal. I'm
just we really really need to do a lot of
intel before we move forward.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, we got to think it through. These are and
by the way, a lot of those cartels they're not
These are not bumbling idiots. These are no Mexican military
special forces. They know what they're doing and.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
They were trained by us.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah that's what makes it worse. Yeah, exactly. Well, Art,
I want you to stay safe. We're praying for you.
You're a true patriot. Thanks for what you do. Uh
to defend this country. Thanks for what you do as
a patriot. We appreciate you, brother, Thank.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
You so much. People can follow me on my Instagram
page the official art Guetto as well as follow FAIR. Look,
I'm doing my best that I can to grow FAIR,
make people more aware of the organization. We need to educate, educate, educate.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
I love my time with the Border Patrol. I loved
my time with the Union. Everything that I get now
it's supported because of what I was able to do
with my Union brothers and sisters. Moving forward, I want
to continue to spread the message even more so.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yeah, that's awesome. And I love your I love your Instagram.
I follow it. It's a it's a daily for me.
So all right, del cuato, Thank you brother, appreciate you,
my man. Be good, all right, goodbye, all right, good dude.
Longtime service in the Tucson sector, which I mean I
probably saw him as a kid and didn't know it
in the area where I grew up in Arizona. So
pretty cool stuff. We'll continue Leland Conway and for Tony

(34:17):
and Dwight on News Radio eight forty whas