O'Reilly and Geraldo on Illegals

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," April 5, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

BILL O’REILLY, HOST: Now for the "Top Story" tonight: another view of this on the fair and balanced network, FOX News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, seen weekends at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

GERALDO RIVERA, HOST, "GERALDO AT LARGE": Thank goodness.

O'REILLY: OK. Sanctuary cities, what do you think?

RIVERA: I think you have the story almost exactly wrong, my friend. I think that we're talking about drunk driving. And there were 347 drunk driving fatalities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the year 2005. I think this may be the first drunk driving story we have done from Virginia.

And the only reason it's news on "The Factor" is because the driver was an illegal alien.

O'REILLY: Right.

RIVERA: What if his name was Bubba? What if his name was Buddy? What if his name was Bobby?

O'REILLY: Not the same story. Not the same story.

RIVERA: It's not the same story, but, still, you know — and my heart goes out to those parents.

O'REILLY: I hope so.

RIVERA: Really, it does. But there are 17,000 families that suffered the way those parents have.

O'REILLY: Yes.

RIVERA: It's not an illegal alien story, Bill. It's a drunk driving story.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Here's why you're wrong.

RIVERA: And I think you owe that poor lady mayor an apology.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: No. No.

RIVERA: She doesn't enforce immigration policy.

O'REILLY: She has set up a system in her city knowingly...

RIVERA: No, she hasn't, Bill.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: ... that says the police chief...

RIVERA: Don't be the — don't be the — what's his name, Lou Dobbs' mom.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Lou Dobbs has regenerated his dead career on the backs of illegal aliens.

O'REILLY: All right.

RIVERA: Let's not go there.

O'REILLY: You listen to me. I will listen to you.

RIVERA: The Minutemen are wearing guns now on the border.

O'REILLY: You listen to me. I will listen to you.

RIVERA: Are they going to start shooting illegal aliens?

O'REILLY: When you enter this country illegally, number one, you have no right to be here, no right. That's the truth.

RIVERA: That's true.

O'REILLY: And, number two, when you're caught committing a crime, as this man was, four times.

RIVERA: He was drunk in public twice.

O'REILLY: Hold it. Four times.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: And, one time, he was a drunk driver with no victims.

O'REILLY: He should have been deported the first time. And he was not. And the reason he wasn't deported...

RIVERA: Because he didn't commit a felony.

O'REILLY: It doesn't make any difference.

RIVERA: And he didn't commit a misdemeanor...

O'REILLY: He committed a crime.

RIVERA: He didn't commit a misdemeanor having to do with moral turpitude either.

O'REILLY: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Everyone followed the law. You owe everyone an apology, from the governor to the mayor down.

O'REILLY: No, they didn't. No, they didn't.

Now, I just want to get this straight. You, Geraldo Rivera, with teenage daughters...

RIVERA: Right.

O'REILLY: ... are telling me that you are OK with somebody sneaking into the country, becoming drunk, get convicted of a DUI, and staying here? You're all right with that?

RIVERA: My nightmare is my daughters having anything to do with a drunk...

O'REILLY: Are you OK with that?

RIVERA: Let me finish my answer.

My nightmare is my daughters having anything to do with a person driving drunk. That's my nightmare.

O'REILLY: OK.

RIVERA: It could be a Jewish drunk. It could be a Polish drunk.

O'REILLY: But this guy didn't have to be here.

RIVERA: It could be an Irish drunk.

O'REILLY: No.

RIVERA: It could be an Italian drunk. What the hell difference does it make?

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: It makes plenty of difference!

RIVERA: It does not, Bill.

O'REILLY: He doesn't have a right to be here!

RIVERA: He didn't commit a felony.

O'REILLY: He doesn't have a right to be in this country!

RIVERA: What — but that has nothing to do with the fact that he was a drunk!

O'REILLY: Yes, it does! He should have been deported! He should have been deported!

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: And this mayor and the police chief didn't deport him!

RIVERA: Listen, do you know how many people we have in jail? How many of them are illegal aliens? Illegal aliens commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens do. They do.

O'REILLY: This guy shouldn't have been here.

RIVERA: Cool your jets. It has nothing to do with illegal aliens. It has to do with drunk driving.

O'REILLY: It doesn't.

RIVERA: Don't obscure a tragedy to make a cheap political point.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: If I'm the father...

RIVERA: It's a cheap political point!

O'REILLY: No, it isn't.

RIVERA: And you know it!

O'REILLY: This is justice.

RIVERA: This has nothing to do with that poor old lady mayor.

O'REILLY: And you want anarchy.

RIVERA: Has nothing to do with that mayor.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: No. You want anarchy.

RIVERA: No. What I want...

O'REILLY: You want open-border anarchy. That's what you want.

RIVERA: What I — what I want is fairness. We have lured these people...

O'REILLY: Fairness? Bull!

RIVERA: We have lured these people...

O'REILLY: This is the law.

RIVERA: We have lured these people to this country...

O'REILLY: Oh, yeah.

RIVERA: ... with a promise of jobs in a country with basically full domestic employment.

O'REILLY: All right.

RIVERA: We have, for decades, lured them here.

O'REILLY: This family...

RIVERA: And now we're starting a mob scene. You're going to have...

O'REILLY: This family lured no one.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Do you want your viewers to go knocking on people's door, door to door?

O'REILLY: Oh, bull. That's bull.

RIVERA: "Are you an illegal? I want to take you outside and do something to you."

O'REILLY: I want the law enforced.

RIVERA: History has seen what happens when you single out people like that.

O'REILLY: I want the law enforced.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: And you don't.

RIVERA: Bill...

O'REILLY: You don't.

RIVERA: Half of Congress, if they had the courage — the president of the United States, if you look at what he has to say — all want reasoned immigration reform.

O'REILLY: Then do that.

RIVERA: But to take this tragedy in Virginia Beach, and make it about illegal aliens...

O'REILLY: It is.

RIVERA: ... is a sin. That is a sin.

O'REILLY: Bull. This family lured no one. This family lost their daughter.

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Three hundred and forty-seven drunk driving fatalities in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

O'REILLY: We deal with Americans.

RIVERA: Do we care about them?

O'REILLY: We deal with Americans that way. And I deal with it all the time — and you know I do — with child predators and everything else.

RIVERA: But I back you with that, because it's a reasoned approach.

O'REILLY: This is reason.

RIVERA: It singles out the perpetrators...

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: You don't let these people stay here.

RIVERA: No. Wait. Wait. I think — let's calm down.

O'REILLY: I will give you the last word.

RIVERA: OK.

O'REILLY: You don't let these people stay here.

RIVERA: A child predator is someone with a predilection to commit an offense against a juvenile. So, you go — because of that cause and effect, you go after the person who is perpetrating the offense.

There's no cause and effect between his illegality and his drunkenness.

O'REILLY: Sure there is. He's irresponsible.

RIVERA: But Latinos aren't more drunk than other people.

O'REILLY: Latino? Bull. It's about Ramos, not Latinos.

RIVERA: Right. I agree. And that's why...

O'REILLY: He should be out.

RIVERA: ... if Ramos was Raminski, would we care?

O'REILLY: We would certainly care.

RIVERA: If he was an illegal?

O'REILLY: If he broke the law, he would go — he gets deported the first time.

RIVERA: Seventeen thousand fatalities drunk driving.

O'REILLY: First time.

All right. How much time do we have?

We have one minute.

What are you doing on your show this weekend?

RIVERA: Oh.

(LAUGHTER)

RIVERA: Well, thank you very much for asking, Bill.

You know, seriously, I think that one of the wonderful things about our network is that we are fair and balanced, that impassioned common peers...

O'REILLY: Yes. People can decide whether you're right or I'm right.

RIVERA: Right. And they can.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: And they will decide that I'm right.

(LAUGHTER)

RIVERA: Well...

O'REILLY: All right.

RIVERA: Maybe your viewers will, and my viewers will judge it the other way.

So, will — I think that there is — there is that — what that does is, you often talk about political correctness and left-wing media. And I think that they do think portray our network unfairly, because they fail to represent that we are on different sides of the fence, in this issue most passionately, but many others as well.

O'REILLY: That's why we have you on every week.

RIVERA: So, I — and I appreciate the chance.

O'REILLY: Right. OK.

Geraldo Rivera, check him out, 8:00 Saturday and Sunday, in "The Factor" slot.

Good weekend. Happy Easter.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!"

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