00:00For more on this, I'm joined by Paul Perez, National Border Patrol Council president.
00:04Paul, thank you so much for joining us today. We're going to keep going on this
00:08to ask you, how does cutting federal funding to these sanctuary cities,
00:12which is happening very soon, help the president's immigration crackdown?
00:16And what do you think that will solve?
00:19Well, look, when they cut federal funding, that sends a message to these politicians
00:25that President Trump is serious about what he said he was going to do,
00:28which is to remove those people that should not be here in the country illegally.
00:32He campaigned on that. He won on that. He's got a mandate. He's going to follow through.
00:36You know, President Trump also says that federal agents will no longer engage with protesters.
00:41You know, we're going to see how that goes. Here's the president on Air Force One last night.
00:45Let's listen.
00:46If they want help, they have to ask for it. Because if we go in, all they do is complain.
00:52But if they want help, they can ask for it. And they're going to need help.
00:55Los Angeles, as an example, we went in, we solved it. The chief law enforcement officer
01:01in Los Angeles said they couldn't have done it without the federal government.
01:04A week later, he said they didn't need the federal government. You know,
01:07so we don't want that. If they want help, they'll ask, but they have to say please.
01:13All right. So I've got to ask you your response to that, because, of course,
01:16it's a top talker for us today. Hearing what he said last night on Air Force One,
01:20how do you think it changes things for federal officers on the ground, number one?
01:24And do you think this tactic of asking Dems to say please is going to work?
01:29Look, President Trump is the ultimate master when it comes to going after those that have TDS.
01:35And so by forcing their hand to say please, it actually makes them want to resolve the issue
01:42without getting the federal government involved. And that's actually beneficial to us,
01:46because we could get back to what we should be doing instead of dealing with these unruly protesters.
01:51You know, when we talk about the body cameras, this is such an interesting topic,
01:55because we're all trying to understand who wears what. The president was asked about how he feels
02:01about federal officers wearing body cameras. I'm curious of your take, but I also want to listen
02:06to what he said.
02:08Do you think it's good having lots of cameras on these kinds of incidents between law enforcement
02:12and the people?
02:12I think it would help law enforcement, but I'd have to talk to them. I'm going to be talking
02:17to them tomorrow. Actually, I think it would help law enforcement. You know, that works both ways.
02:21But I think overall, I think it's 80 percent in favor of law enforcement.
02:26So I want to take a look at some stats, because according to June data from the House Homeland Security
02:31Committee, 4,400 ICE officers wear body cameras in a force of about 22,000,
02:37and nearly 13,000 Border Patrol agents wear cameras in a force of nearly 45,000. So we've
02:43got this huge, bright spotlight on these immigration officers, right? So as we're watching this all
02:49play out, many people say, hey, let's see it all. We want to see the videos that are being taken
02:54from the streets, and we want to see the videos that's being worn. But do you think it's important
02:59for all ICE officers and Border Patrol agents to wear these body cameras? Because it does seem like
03:04it would make it a lot easier to investigate any incidents of violence, accusations of violence
03:09towards or involving officers. How do you see it?
03:13So most of our Border Patrol agents, like you said, have been wearing body cams.
03:17It doesn't change the fact that we're still going to have these aggressive protesters coming after us.
03:23All it's going to do is show exactly the perception or the view of the agent involved. But it doesn't
03:31change anything about who we're dealing with or how we're dealing with them.
03:34Listen, it's important, I think, for all of us to understand who's wearing them,
03:39how long they wear them. And it just kind of reminds me, if you even think about the cameras
03:43that we have in our cars, it's so important if you get in a traffic accident to have that footage
03:48because it can be a, he said, situation very easily. Paul Perez, National Border Patrol Council
03:55president. We want to thank you very much for your time and weighing in on this important topic.
03:58Thank you. Thank you.
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