Protesting the border chaos

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Protesting the border chaos

Mayor Alan Long of Murrieta, California reacts to the rising tensions on the southern border

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 7, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: Continuing now with our lead story, Border Chaos, the town of Murrieta, California population just over 100,000 is ground zero in the current mess. Federal government tried to move busloads of illegal aliens to Murrieta from Texas but protesters stopped that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Illegal. Go back to Washington D.C. Obama invited them here, let them go stay in the White House.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that they should have a chance just like everybody else that comes to America to have a chance. They come for the American dream. And if we really want to live up to what we are saying then we should accept them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Joining us now from Murrieta, the mayor of that town -- Alan Long. First of all, there's stuff going on behind you and to the side of you. What is that tonight, Mayor?

MAYOR ALAN LONG, MURRIETA CALIFORNIA: Well, Bill there is still a crowd out here. And we have two sides of the protest. It seems to have calmed down a little bit. There is not as many people as there has been in the weeks, the days leading up to this. But there is still a lot of emotion, still a lot of unanswered questions. The town, again, we sort of see this national problem on our door steps. And the community to date still hasn't had a lot of answers.

O'REILLY: Ok. Did Homeland Security call you and alert you that they were going to bring bus loads of illegals from Texas into your town? Did they give you any heads up?

LONG: No, no, never. In fact, we confirmed this on a Friday that they would be coming on the following Tuesday. Once we had that information, we wanted to make sure we had a plan in place. We knew the magnitude of this. We had already been getting calls and concerns and questions. So we had collected all the data and information over the weekend and we did that press conference on Monday just to assure people that Murrieta is going to remain safe. These are the facts as we know them and try to squelch rumors that were out there.

O'REILLY: Why did they pick Murrieta?

LONG: You know, that's a good question. We don't know. Come to find out apparently they have known about this problem for quite some time and we have done our research because we weren't getting a lot of answers. One of which how long do we need to sustain this. And after the research we have done we didn't see this coming to an end any time soon. That was a big concern to us.

O'REILLY: Where were they going to put -- where were they going to put people that they were busing in to your town? Where were they going to put them?

LONG: There is a facility here that's basically a jail. That was another concern. We had safety and health issues that we wanted to have answers to. They couldn't answer those. This is designed to be a jail. These kids, these women, children, they are being transported all over the country. Come to find out they didn't have the health screen they needed. They didn't get the care they needed. And they wanted just to come here and spend the night in a jail facility which is no place, it's not even humane for people to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: It's an amazingly chaotic situation for federal government to impose on your town. Now, your town, according to the 2010 census 26 percent Hispanic.

LONG: Right.

O'REILLY: Can you tell me how the Hispanic community in Murrieta is reacting to all of this?

LONG: Well, early on in our conference hearing, you know, we actually had Hispanics that were immigrants that came up and they had concerns, too -- the same concerns that everyone else has. That is the irony of this. I'm listening to both sides and what I'm hearing is something very similar. People want a fair and an efficient process for immigrants to come over here. That's just not being done. The efficiency of how these people are being treated is ineffective and inefficient.

O'REILLY: Has the community, your community pitted people against each other? I'm sure if there are both sides of the equation here -- right.

LONG: Right. Absolutely. I don't think it's the people of Murrieta. I think when you bring in a national problem like this that's so controversial and you drop it on the doorstep of a bedroom community, I think there are two sides. It does become this one against the other. What we all need to be doing is coming up with solutions together.

O'REILLY: Obviously the federal government hasn't been able to do that for 40 years. Now, it's a catastrophe. The spitting incident, the famous spitting incident that I just referred to in the "Talking Points Memo". That's against the law in your town. You can't do that to someone. What has been the upshot of that?

LONG: Yes. Obviously, there is some behavior that we are not endorsing and it's not welcome in our city. In fact, I just talked to Lupillo Rivera just a moment ago and I offered that that person needs to be found and prosecuted. It's unacceptable. It's an assault and it's deplorable act in our city.

O'REILLY: What did Mr. Rivera say?

LONG: You know, we are going to talk a little later and I think he's interested in making sure justice is served.

O'REILLY: All right. Because, you know, once it gets to that level, then the next level is physical violence and punching and then, you know, you can't have that. If you --

LONG: And we said -- Bill, we said from the beginning that we wanted to provide for the safety of all. If you listen to that press conference, I was very clear. We wanted to make sure that everyone remained safe on both sides of the protest line and everyone who passes through the city of Murrieta -- that was our primary mission.

O'REILLY: I think you guys have largely accomplished that. I mean I think you should be proud of your town, the state police in California. You've kept a lid on the situation but, the federal government, I mean it's outrageous. If you had access to President Obama, what would you say to him tonight?

LONG: I would ask him the same questions that everyone is asking me. What are you going to do? This is a federal problem. It needs to be addressed at the federal level. All of this out here will not fix anything. Whether the buses come or they don't come, the problem still exists and the President needs to address it head on. Get together with Congress. And fix it once and for all.

These are people, these are human beings.

O'REILLY: They don't have any plan right now, Mr. Mayor. We appreciate you taking the time. If you need anything from us let us know. Again, good job and we are sorry your town has to go through this.

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