Daniel Ramirez Medina remains in ICE custody
'The O'Reilly Factor' examines the latest on the DACA recipient's case
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," February 22, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: Factor "Follow-Up" segment tonight, I.C.E. officials in Seattle are still holding 23-year-old Daniel Ramirez-Medina saying he is a suspected gang member and a possible threat to public security. Some on the left believe that Mr. Ramirez-Medina is a victim of the Trump administration's overzealous immigration program. And they are having demonstrations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROWD PROTESTING)
"Free Danielle now!" "Free Danielle now!"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free Danielle! Free Danielle! Free Danielle! Free Danielle!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: I think she wants Daniel freed. The case is complicated by Ramirez-Median's father, who apparently defied deportation eight times. He was a convicted drug dealer who had served a year in prison. Yet, he was still in the USA last week when rounded up with his son.
Joining us from Seattle, FOX News correspondent Dan Springer, who is covering the story for us. All right. Let's walk through this now. We don't know where the father is, right? He was deported eight times -- where is he?
DAN SPRINGER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We know where he is at now. He is at the Tacoma Detention Center in the Northwest Detention Center run by I.C.E. And he is awaiting prosecution on coming back into the country illegally after being deported, as you've mentioned eight times. And he is also set for deportation, as well.
O'REILLY: Okay.
SPRINGER: But he's at the same detention center as his son.
O'REILLY: So, they are both in the same place in Tacoma. The sun is just basically rounded up because he is an illegal alien. But he is covered by DACA, by President Obama's mandate that if you were brought here by your father, or mother and you were a kid, you could stay and work. Did he have a job?
SPRINGER: He did not have a job. He was rounded up actually in an I.C.E. action that was going after Antonio, his father. So, they were going after Antonio, they had information that he was back in the country illegally after being deported. And they were going after the dad when they went inside the house, they were allowed inside. And when they saw Daniel, they asked him if he was in the country legally. He said he was here illegally.
They asked him if he had ever been arrested. He said yes. And then, they asked him about any gang affiliation and he said, not to know more, that he left California to get away from the Surenos who he used to hang with. And then, he currently hangs out with Paisas in Washington State. That was enough to establish --
O'REILLY: Yes. That is a Hispanic gang.
SPRINGER: Yes.
O'REILLY: So, they were living in the same house, father, son. Right?
SPRINGER: Yes.
O'REILLY: I.C.E. agents go in, arrest the father, he is in big trouble. The sun is covered by DACA. But if he is a gang, if he has gang affiliation, that DACA thing goes up in smoke. The tattoo. Is that a gang tattoo?
SPRINGER: Well, that's a good question. And we've asked a lot of gang experts. And basically, what I am hearing, is that the colors of the tattoo are the key. That star, that nautical star has blue in it. That could be meaning that he was in the Surenos gang. The BCS, Baja, California, Sur, we think that is where he is from in California, where he lived for his first ten years. But it also could be Baja, California Surenos and --
O'REILLY: All right. So, they don't know determinative lead but I.C.E. is still saying they believe he is affiliated with gangs. So, let's recap.
SPRINGER: All they have to have is a suspicion. Right.
O'REILLY: Okay. No job. Were they getting government benefits? Do we know that they're getting government benefits? I am wondering how they were living, how the father and son were living. Neither of them had jobs. So, how are they living?
SPRINGER: Father and son were living with Daniel's brother who apparently did have a job, was living up in a working-class suburb called Des Moines, which is just South of Seattle. The brother had moved up here in 2016, the brother was there at the time of the arrest. Also, and he said, he is legal, meaning, you know, the brother said I'm legal. So, he can't take me, but they did take Daniel and his father. How much money he is making him but we have no idea.
O'REILLY: All right. It is possible that the brother was supporting the father and the other brother, it is possible, I guess.
SPRINGER: Yes.
O'REILLY: So, right now, the two are in custody in Tacoma and we will stay on the story.
SPRINGER: Yes.
O'REILLY: And if you get any more about the gang affiliates -- that is the key to the son. If the son doesn't have a gang affiliation, he is under the DACA thing even though he doesn't have a job. All right, Dan, we appreciate it.
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