Stanislaus County sheriff updates arrest of illegal immigrant in California officer's murder, slams sanctuary laws
Sheriff Adam Christianson comments on the arrest of Gustavo Perez Arriaga in Bakersfield, California about 280 miles southeast of Newman, where Police Cpl. Ronil Singh was gunned down early Wednesday.
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," December 28, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JASON CHAFFETZ, HOST: I'm Jason Chaffetz in for Laura Ingraham, and this is “The Ingraham Angle” from New York City tonight. The manhunt is over, and the illegal immigrant suspected of murdering a beloved California State officer is behind bars tonight. Plus a California Mayor insisting she did the right thing when she tipped off illegal immigrants about an ICE raid. And Trumpaganda, a power of impeachment? What are schools teaching our children? We'll go over the top politically biased college courses of the year.
But first, we begin with a Fox News Alert. Investigators say more arrests could come in connection with the murder of a California policeman on Christmas night. Today, after a two-day long manhunt, police arresting Gustavo Perez Arriaga, an illegal immigrant who should have been on ICE's radar with his two prior DUI arrest but wasn't because of the state's absurd sanctuary laws. Officials say Arriaga was the lone gunman. Five other men were helping him evade arrest and escape to Mexico. Officer Ron Singh's brother was overcome with emotion on the news of the arrest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REGGIE SINGH, BROTHER OF SLAIN COP: Please bear with me. This is not easy for me. Ronil Singh was my older brother. Yes, he's not coming back. But there is a lot of people out there that misses him and a lot of law enforcement people that I don't know who worked days and nights to make this happen. I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: God bless him. That's hard to watch. In moments, I'll speak exclusively with Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson about the arrest of six illegals in connection with the murder of Officer Singh. And California Congressman Devin Nunes is also here exclusively to talk about the case and the push to ban sanctuary cities. But we begin with Jonathan Hunt live in our West Coast newsroom tonight with breaking new details about the suspected cop killer. Jonathan?
JONATHAN HUNT, CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Jason. The arrest of the alleged killer of Officer Ronil Singh came just 48 hours after the 33-year-old, who leaves behind his wife and five-month-old son, was gunned down. As you just saw, his family's anguish heartbreakingly clear today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SINGH: I was waiting for this to happen. I'd like to thank you for working day and night to make this happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The suspect, Gustavo Perez Arriaga, was in the U.S. illegally, and the Kern County Sheriff today angrily denounced California's so-called sanctuary laws, which the Sheriff said prevented Perez Arriaga being deported for previous DUI convictions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONNY YOUNGBLOOD, KERN COUNTY SHERIFF: When you tie our hands and don't allow us to work with our federal partners and communicate with our federal partners about people that commit crimes and who are in this country illegally, we're going to have incidents like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Officer Singh was shot dead around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning after stopping a driver on suspicion of DUI. Moments later, he radioed, shots fired, I've been hit. He was a legal immigrant who had come to the U.S. from Fiji where he was born. He studied criminal justice once he got here and spent 12 years in law enforcement, seven of those with the Newman Police Department.
He even took and paid for extra English lessons to make himself better understood by his colleagues. The Newman Police Department, by the way, Jason, has just 12 officers, a close-knit family in the words of the Police Chief and a family that will clearly never forget Ronil Singh.
Jason?
CHAFFETZ: Jonathan, thank you.
Joining me now for an “Ingraham Angle” exclusive is Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson.
Sheriff, thank you so much for joining us. A very difficult time for the community, the law enforcement community and obviously, Officer Singh's family. Tell me what the atmosphere is like though within that community?
ADAM CHRISTIANSON, STANISLAUS COUNTY SHERIFF: Well, thank you Congressman for having me on the show. I appreciate the opportunity. The family is devastated. That's clearly self-evident, not only at the original press conference but the one that we put together today. They're heartbroken. They're struggling.
And this is a very painful experience, not only for the family but for the community of Newman and the Newman Police Department. In the history of this organization, as long as it's existed, they've never suffered a line of duty death.
CHAFFETZ: Sheriff, between Stanislaus County, Kern County Sheriff, I'm sure lots of other law enforcement, it is fairly impressive how quickly you were able to apprehend this - the alleged perpetrator. Can you tell us any more details about how you were able to find him so quickly? Some roughly - I believe it's 200 miles south of where this murder took place.
CHRISTIANSON: Well, in a word, relationships get things done. And I have a relationship - a strong relationship with not only our federal law enforcement partners but state and local law enforcement, and my colleague Sheriff Donny Youngblood in Kern County. We used a variety of tools and techniques to track this suspect. We were never more than a step behind. We had multiple investigative leads, multiple teams, everybody was out looking for this individual.
And when we finally tracked him to a residence in Bakersfield in Kern County, I called my colleague Sheriff Donny Youngblood and said, "I need your help," and immediately we were provided with the resources we needed to lock that residence down and execute a search warrant, subsequently finding and arresting our suspect.
CHAFFETZ: And was there any resistance at all when you went to arrest him?
CHRISTIANSON: In the face of overwhelming odds and a very highly trained, well executed, tactical team? No. He immediately gave up.
CHAFFETZ: Now you've arrested, there are other arrests two in connection with this. What are those charges and why were these people are arrested? And are there more that are potentially going to be arrested?
CHRISTIANSON: So, at the moment, the number is seven. And they're primarily family members and associates, all of whom were actively engaged in aiding and abetting this criminal fugitive. They did their best to throw us off the trail, but we're smarter than that. And they went to jail, as I promised in the first press conference, I gave -- when I said to the suspect this is your time to surrender peacefully and bring this to an end. But I also committed that anybody who helped him was going to go to jail.
CHAFFETZ: Are these people--
CHRISTIANSON: Coincidentally, all seven of these--
CHAFFETZ: I was going to say, are they here illegally as well?
CHRISTIANSON: All seven of these folks -- yes, they are Congressman.
CHAFFETZ: Now, explain to us the absurdity of what's going on in California. Can ICE even be told that these others are now in custody?
CHRISTIANSON: No. Based on their charges and criminal histories, and we haven't dug into all of them yet, at this point, I can't honor the detainers because of the federal court's ruling on Fourth Amendment violations nor can I communicate with ICE about their custody status.
CHAFFETZ: How does that - I don't understand how it's palatable here. We're talking about the criminal element. This is not the first time that this has happened where you've had somebody who is accused of something very serious. But how devastating it is and how often does it happen? It must be daily, if not hourly, this is going on in California.
CHRISTIANSON: It happens frequently. Let me see if I can explain it as simply as I can for your viewing audience. The idea behind - and first of all, I'm not against lawful, legal immigration to this community. We're a community, an agricultural community with a large population that serves in that economy.
The idea behind this policy, these laws, was because there is a belief that people who don't trust law enforcement, and they won't come forward to tell us about being a victim of crime because they're afraid of that we will deport them. Absolutely not true. Local law enforcement doesn't engage in the enforcement of federal immigration law.
But by doing this, you've now created sanctuary for criminals, people who are here illegally, victimizing and exploiting others. And there is a category of crimes that below a certain threshold - so anything serious or violent, we can communicate. Anything below that, like DUI, we're prohibited statutorily from communicating with our law enforcement partners, with ICE.
CHAFFETZ: Even if they've had a criminal - even they've been previously deported? Is that not consequential enough?
CHRISTIANSON: That's correct.
CHAFFETZ: Wow!
CHRISTIANSON: It's not. And it's just--
CHAFFETZ: I want to put up - I want to talk about this quote from the Mayor of Oakland, which I just find unbelievable at this point. "I have no regrets, none. The more time goes by, the more certain I feel that I did the right thing in standing up for our community and pointing out our values are not aligned with our laws."
Now, this is a more recent quote, but she was talking about not this particular case but an older case, in fairness here. But she and other public policymakers like Nancy Pelosi who thinks that, again, sanctuary is the right thing to do.
You're about to retire. We can't thank you enough for your decades of service to your community and this country.
CHRISTIANSON: Thank you.
CHAFFETZ: But what do you say to those policymakers who put these impediments in - on law enforcement?
CHRISTIANSON: It's bad public safety policy, and it's dangerous and irresponsible. Plain and simple.
Remember, Congressman, we're not sweeping through churches, schools, convenience stores, courtrooms. ICE is not in my county doing any of that. That is all something that is a story created by others. ICE is looking for fugitives and criminals. That's all they're doing. It used to be that they could come into my jail and collect or take possession of people who fell into that category who were fugitives and wanted. SB 54, in essence, restricted the ability to some degree of ICE even having access to our facility.
So we need to have a dialogue. We need to have a conversation. And I hope that the death of Officer Singh, who was needlessly and tragically gunned down, that his death is not in vain. If anything, hopefully this has a positive message and we can sit down and talk about some of these policies that restrict law enforcement's ability, our ability, to effectively protect our communities.
CHAFFETZ: Sheriff, we thank you again for your decades of service, all the great work the men and women do there in Stanislaus County, in Kern County, and all the other officers and certainly in Newman. The Singh family, I hope they understand, not just tonight and tomorrow and in the funeral but in the years to come, how much we care and love for them.
And I know if you go to Stanislaus County, they have a website, they actually have an unofficial way that you can make a donation. And don't get caught up in some scam. And I hope as - I did it today. I donated some money, and I hope others will as well.
CHRISTIANSON: Thank you.
CHAFFETZ: Thank you, Sheriff.
CHRISTIANSON: Thank you, Congressman.
CHAFFETZ: Joining me now is Hector Garza, Border Patrol Agent and Vice President for the National Border Patrol Council, and Allen Orr, immigration attorney and Vice President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who's joining me here in New York.
We thank you, gentlemen, for being here.
We watched the story, and Allen, who's sitting here with me, the discussion still does gravitate. I mean, I saw you've taken emotional pause here when you talk about that family. I know you care about these families. But at the same time, these sanctuary laws, why can't we have local law enforcement communicating with ICE, the federal immigration officers?
ALLEN ORR, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: So, first of all, I think my heart goes out to the Singh family and to the five-year-old son that lost his father. That's a tragedy. But if we sort of look overall at all violent crimes, immigrants are much less likely than American citizens to do that as a starting point.
Sanctuary cities--
CHAFFETZ: But the criminal--
ORR: --as the police officer said--
CHAFFETZ: But that's the problem.
ORR: Exactly. And as the police officer said--
CHAFFETZ: This guy has been pulled over twice for a DUI--
ORR: For DUI--
CHAFFETZ: --and he's still here in the United States.
ORR: So that -- part of that is saying what is California's rules with regards to DUIs? And that's something that's done by local enforcement. So from Republicans eye, that's a local issue. Right? And also the sanctuary city is also a local issue--
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: Now I think the federal issue because the federal - the feds can't do their job.
ORR: Feds are doing their jobs. Feds have rated many courtrooms, many classrooms at California and New York City and most of the sanctuary cities. It's their main area of focus. Right? Every day you hear story about 76 people or 17 people being deported. What's the problem is, there's not a strategy for implementation. With 11 million people here who are undocumented, you can't spend your time trying to get everybody. And that's how you miss the criminals that you missed (ph) in California.
CHAFFETZ: I got to go to Hector here. Hector, you've put your life on the line. You're down on the border. You are a border patrol agent. We can't thank you enough for the great work that you do. But what is the reality of what's coming across the border?
HECTOR GARZA, VICE PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: Well, Jason, it's no secret. Our border patrol agents apprehend murders and rapists on a daily basis on that border. These are people that are coming across our country illegally and our border patrol agents are able to apprehend some of these people. But those are the ones that we can catch. There's a lot of them that get away.
Now, we've heard that argument before that American citizens commit more crimes than illegal aliens. I don't know if that's true or not, but those people - those illegal aliens are committing crimes in this country shouldn't even be here. We have a long list of angel moms that have been affected by these illegal aliens that have committed murders - murders and a lot of other serious crimes.
We need to just secure the border and we need to make sure that our congressmen and congresswomen do their job and fund that wall and fund border security.
CHAFFETZ: Now, Hector Garza and his colleagues apprehended some 60,000 - 60,000 people trying to cross the border illegally just last month. That's a 30-day number.
And I've got tell you, Allen, when I look at all the impediments that the Democrats try to put up for federal law enforcement to go after the criminal element, the number that stood out to me in the Obama years is that there were 80,000 people that were here illegally got caught doing something, were convicted and just released out in the state - in the United States as opposed to being deported. How - should these people who are here and commit crimes, should 100 percent of them be deported?
ORR: So 100 percent of them?
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
ORR: Let's talk about can we deport all of them? That's the first question.
CHAFFETZ: I'm talking about - no, no, no--
(CROSSTALK)
ORR: And then what times are we talking about.
CHAFFETZ: --no. I gave you the first question. Not your first question. My first question was, the criminal element. What's wrong--
ORR: Yes. But what is the - what - is jaywalking a criminal element?
CHAFFETZ: How about a DUI?
ORR: A DUI?
CHAFFETZ: How about a DUI?
ORR: Is that it?
CHAFFETZ: Yes, let's go to a DUI.
ORR: In California, it's not a criminal element. That person would have been deported.
CHAFFETZ: How could you not - I mean, look at this police officer just died. He was pulling this guy over for the third time.
ORR: Right.
CHAFFETZ: And he knew that after three, he was going to be in a lot more trouble. But he wouldn't--
ORR: We don't know if he knew that or not. But let's - but if you want to talk about immigration, let's talk about the failure. Right?
CHAFFETZ: The perpetrator problem with it.
ORR: It's been a Republican Congress. It is Republican White House. Where is immigration law? Where is enforcement coming through?
CHAFFETZ: Immigration law--
ORR: What did happen--
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: --they don't even tell him--
ORR: Where did enforcement happen?
CHAFFETZ: No. If they put - they can't even communicate if they put a detainer two weeks or - not even two weeks earlier.
ORR: Why do they need to put a detainer? That's really a question. If these people have been here for a long--
CHAFFETZ: Because he should be deported.
ORR: So you're telling me now that it's a local state enforcement job to do a federal--
CHAFFETZ: No.
ORR: --federal program. So--
CHAFFETZ: I want them to be able to communicate with the Sheriff.
ORR: Even on jaywalkers. So even--
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
ORR: --even in courthouses. So, with everybody.
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: Let's start with - let's start with everybody and then we'll work backwards.
ORR: Well, that's where we're working now, and there's a $760,000 case - I mean, case backlog in the immigration courts, which we're not going to get to. We only have in our budget to deport 400,000 people. So how does that address 11,000 people?
CHAFFETZ: And that's why - I've told you - I was in Congress. I can tell you this. This is the dirty little secret that the Democrats do. They don't fund enough beds. They don't fund enough dollars to deport people. And if Donald Trump wants $5 billion for the wall, add another $5 billion to deport all the people that are the criminal element.
Hector, what do you folks go through when you have somebody who's coming across for the multiple times? I mean, in your own personal experience, how often do you arrest somebody who's already been deported?
GARZA: Well, it's very clear, Jason. Without the proper physical barriers, without the proper manpower, we could be deporting people every day, but they're just going to keep coming back. And that's what happens in Laredo. And Laredo is one of the areas where a lot of these criminal aliens that just got out of jail will be deported through.
And once we deport them through Laredo, they come right back into the United States. And as border patrol agents, we try to arrest as many as we can. But we are not going to be able to arrest everybody. That's why we need those physical barriers. That's why we need that infrastructure and that additional manpower.
Without the proper funding and without that border wall, it's going to be impossible for us to keep our community safe. And seriously, those congressmen, they need to get their act together. This is not about politics. This is about the safety of the American people and even the safety of those people that are coming - that are being victimized by those smugglers and those drug cartels.
CHAFFETZ: Now, Hector, what else are you seeing come across the border? Because I've been down there multiple times, chasing guys on ATVs, getting off, running up the hill sides and finding all kinds of drugs. But it's not only human trafficking. It's drugs and all these other things we care about as well. Isn't it?
GARZA: We're talking about liquid meth. We're talking about cocaine. We're talking about fentanyl. And those are the dangerous drugs that are affecting our kids, our communities and our schools. And that is why we need to get serious.
So, yes, one aspect of border security is the human smuggling and the human trafficking. But the other aspect of it is the dangerous drugs, the ones that are going to be affecting - affecting our neighbors, our schools and all the people that we know. And that's why we need to get serious about border security. It's not about politics. It's about the safety of the American people.
CHAFFETZ: All right, guys. I want to get to another - I want to get your reaction to another big story tonight. There are reports that a new caravan of 15,000 migrants left Honduras and is on its way north. That number is expected to grow in the coming weeks. The group says its destination is Mexico, but many are likely to try to come further north into the United States.
Allen, I want to get your reaction to that.
ORR: Right.
CHAFFETZ: When you hear an actual border patrol agent saying that he wants a physical wall, set Donald Trump and the politics aside, why don't we do what the border patrol agents want to help them do their jobs when you see these insurgents (ph) trying to come across the board?
ORR: For the very same reason we haven't had more border control officers, because we just don't have the funding for it. And it's gone from a wall to a fence--
CHAFFETZ: OK. So let's--
ORR: --to a plank. Right?
CHAFFETZ: No, no. But let's go to the funding for a second.
ORR: And then let's talk about - let's talk about that also for a second. The fences don't keep the drugs out. The drugs are coming in via airplane and they're coming from China and on boats. So that's sort of a false argument to sort of talk about--
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: There are lots of holes in this ship. I get that.
ORR: And no one - and no one is talking about the overstays, which are more linked to the actual stuff that happens that we're not talking. Border walls are not going to--
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: Allen, you've got to follow me on Twitter. I've been talking about that for eight, nine years.
ORR: I do follow you on Twitter, but I'm saying right now in this conversation, we say the biggest threat is from the southern border when it's not. The biggest threat is from overstays--
CHAFFETZ: Hector--
ORR: --if we're sort of looking at a Mauritian (ph).
CHAFFETZ: Hector - all right--
ORR: Women and children coming to the border are not a threat. The 15,000 that's said that they're on their way here--
CHAFFETZ: How do you know the good ones from the bad ones? You don't know that.
Hector, I want to let you jump in here for the last word.
GARZA: Well, something that's - something that's very interesting, Jason, is a lot of these people are coming from Central America and they're coming from very remote villages and towns where there's not even a criminal record database. So all these people could have committed some very serious crimes in their countries. And now they're coming across asking for asylum, which they're not even legitimate claims, and now they're going to be committing crimes here in the United States. That's one aspect of it.
Now, yes, there's drugs that come through planes and buses and you name it. But just because there's drugs coming in some other ways doesn't mean that we don't try to stop it and do something at the U.S. border. We have to do something about it. If not, people are going to--
CHAFFETZ: Exactly.
GARZA: --continue to lose their lives.
CHAFFETZ: Exactly. I went to the Eloy detention facility there in Arizona. And I got to tell you, it isn't just about Central and South America. They had detained people from more than 150 countries. There was an Ultralight that just came across with some Chinese nationals coming across it. So it isn't just about trying to impede some mother and some daughter. There's a lot of elements there that need to be taken care of. It's a good vibrant debate and I'm sure it will continue.
I thank you, gentlemen, for what you're doing, particularly you, Hector, for being - putting your life on the line.
Coming up, a California - the California Sheriff I spoke to just moments ago is blaming sanctuary laws for the death of a beloved police officer. What's being done to untie the hands of law enforcement across the state? Congressman Devin Nunes joins me next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANSON: My point is, why are we providing sanctuary for criminals, gang members? It's a conversation we need to have.
(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SINGH: He's not coming back. But there is a lot of people out there that misses him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: Back now to our top story. A police officer gunned down, and the suspect, an illegal immigrant. The Sheriff, who I just spoke with before the break, blaming California's sanctuary laws for the officer's death, saying the outcome would have been very different if not for politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANSON: This is a criminal illegal alien with prior criminal activity that should have been reported to ICE. We were prohibited. Law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws, and that led to the encounter with Officer Singh.
I'm suggesting that the outcome could have been different if law enforcement wasn't restricted, prohibited, or had their hands tied because of political interference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: Here now for an “Ingraham Angle” exclusive, Congressman Devin Nunes, live at the World Ag Expo in California.
Congressman, thank you so much for joining and for your full disclosure. I served with you in Congress while I was there, and it's good for you to be here and joining us here tonight.
REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: Thank you.
CHAFFETZ: This happened in greater San Joaquin Valley where the communities are so tightly knit. A lot of farming activity going on there. But I also want to go back to something that happened less than two weeks ago because also right in your backward, we had another situation. Gustavo Garcia is accused in this reign of terror going through the county. Remind viewers what happened less than two weeks ago.
NUNES: Well, thanks, Jason, and it's great to be on. And let me first say that I have a lot of friends that live in Newman. And so that, for us, was only - I think there's only 12 officers. And so - this is really a tragedy for the valley here, the big San Joaquin Valley, which is the Ag region. I know you've been here many times, not exactly the way that we want to spend our holidays.
So, right before Christmas, we had a very similar situation where there was someone who was in the country illegally, had actually been deported twice, had been arrested just prior and then was released. Because of the sanctuary city law, the Sheriff couldn't hold this Garcia - Mr. Garcia, who went on a rampage for over 24 hours, killed two people, possibly a third. We don't know because I think there is one still in critical condition in the hospital because this person - this Garcia went around the entire county, several communities and was shooting people at random, stealing vehicles, and finally caused a major traffic accident and the car exploded. And he is now no longer a part of the planet here.
But the bad part is that there are two innocents that lost their lives, just like what we experienced in the last couple days just north of here, in Newman, where you had a police officer that was killed. And it's just a horrible situation. And you asked me what can be done. I mean, the sad part is that in the last election in California, these policies were rewarded at the ballot box. So the Democrats who condone these policies had probably their biggest election win ever.
And so something is not making sense. I don't know if people just aren't getting the right information that you would think that at some point politicians would be held accountable for their actions or inactions. And in this case, it's pretty darn clear that these sanctuary city policies are leading to innocent people getting murdered.
CHAFFETZ: Well - and that's the situation with Garcia, the one that happened less than two weeks ago, outright in your - essentially in your backyard, because this person I believe had been incarcerated before and served time for armed robbery. He had been deported twice, and still he's in the hands of law enforcement, but no communication, and he's able to come across the border. And that's what's so infuriating, because both of these cases, at least on the surface, at least from the information we have now, both of these were preventable. Were they not?
NUNES: Yes. Yes. No question that this one - I mean, this is a situation where it's even worse. The situation here in our home county, in Tulare County, is that you had - this person had actually been deported twice.
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
NUNES: And so that's the whole challenge here that things aren't adding up. A lot of the California border actually has fencing on it. And so the key here is that what we've been trying to do in Congress and what the President has been trying to do, I think a very logical solution, which is, OK, let's take the areas where we have some fencing that isn't quite working. Let's build a wall, one that actually works, in those populated areas. Let's make sure we get those secure, first. Then other areas you may not need a wall or fencing.
But then at the same time the president was very reasonable and was willing to solve the DACA problem. We had a vote in Congress where Republicans actually voted to build a wall and reform DACA, take care of the kids that were brought here with no part of their own. We didn't get one Democratic vote. Every Democrat in the state of California voted against this law. Those are for the young people who live here who would have been made legal, but for some reason people here in California and I think all over the country don't realize what a sensible solution was put on the table -- border security, taking care of DACA, putting in a permit system for people to work here that are doing jobs that aren't going to be filled for Americans, very sensible solutions just aren't being communicated I think to the people, and I think the people are making some uninformed decisions.
CHAFFETZ: It really is amazing that DACA was put on the table and the Democrats rejected that. But I want to go and play a clip, because it does seem that Democrats are against this because Donald Trump is for it. And so it wasn't too long ago, just a few years ago, that Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, actually believed in a border wall. Watch this tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The American people need to know that because of our efforts in Congress, our border is far more secure today than it was when we began debating comprehensive reform in 2005. Between 2005 and 2009, a vast amount of progress has been made on our borders and ports of entry. The progress includes 9,000 new border patrol field agents in the last four years, construction of a 630-mile border fence, or 630 miles of border fence, that create a significant barrier to illegal immigration on a southern land border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAFFETZ: There you go. I could play that all day long. He voted to authorize it, but now he won't vote in favor of actually funding it.
Now, Congressman, we only have a minute left, but Nancy Pelosi is in Hawaii. Maxine Waters is off vacationing in the Bahamas. You are in your district, Kevin McCarthy, who is from the Bakersfield area, is at home in his district. How does the president come to a resolution when Nancy Pelosi is working on her hula as opposed to actually negotiating something that's reasonable? Where does this go?
NUNES: And I'm right here in Tulare County at the World Ag Expo. It doesn't get better than this, right here in the Ag Museum. Look, if I was in Hawaii right now, I would be getting killed. If Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican leader, was in Hawaii right now, he would be getting crushed. You have President Trump sitting in Washington, D.C., waiting to cut a deal, and they are off on vacation.
Look, they never wanted to do a deal. They wanted the government to shut down. The second that Donald Trump said, well, look, I'll own the shutdown, or fine, I'll shut it down, they were like, OK, that's it, we'll get out of town, go to Hawaii. You watch on January 3rd when there's a new Congress, they're going to try to pass something, and this is just going to continue. And in the meantime, problems are not being solved.
So the good news is about all this is that now they will have a responsibility to put legislation on the floor that will fix these problems that they have been unwilling to vote with Republicans or support the president's agenda to fix.
CHAFFETZ: Congressman, thanks for your great work. I do think that the Democrats want the issue more than they actually want to solve the problem. And I also wished the Senate would vote on the bill the House passed. Remember, the house to passed the $5 billion. It's the Senate that's not doing it.
And I plead with the Majority leader in the Senate, put them on the record, make them actually vote. Let's see who actually stands for the border and who doesn't. And you can only do that by actually holding a vote because the end of the 115th Congress is about to expire on January 3rd. But Congressman, thank you for joining us tonight and spending some time with us, we do appreciate it.
Up next, a ridiculous new expose on the horrible conditions for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Did NBC forget that these are terrorists? Reality check, up next.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rear Admiral John Ring is the military commander here, and in an NBC exclusive, he says the classified detention camp is in rough shape.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Pentagon wants $69 million for a new detention camp. But so far Congress has said no. The biggest need, Ring said, dealing with aging detainees. The oldest is 71. Another had his fifth back surgery and had to have his cell reconfigured to fit a hospital bed.
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CHAFFETZ: That's from NBC News on the plight of aging terrorists in Guantanamo Bay. They are really tugging at your heartstrings on that one, I know they are.
Joining me back again is Jonathan Hunt with all the details. Jonathan?
JONATHAN HUNT, CORRESPONDENT: Good evening again, Jason. The NBC report is based on an interview with the U.S. commander at Guantanamo Bay, Rear Admiral John Ring, who says he has orders from the Pentagon to prepare for the camp to be open for another 25 years. The joint task force Guantanamo mission is now 16 years old, and according to Ring, the infra structure of the military prison is failing fast. "It's sort of falling to the ground and deteriorating rapidly," he told NBC News.
Forty detainees are now left at Guantanamo, the last transfer there in 2008, so they can no longer provide any useful battlefield intelligence according to the rear admiral. The average age now is 46. The oldest is 71, meaning medical needs are changing and becoming more demanding as the detainees age, and Ring, according to NBC, is worried that he doesn't have the funding to provide the necessary care.
He told NBC, quote, "I'm the innkeeper. I don't make laws. People in D.C. tell me when people are going away, when people may be coming in, and my job is to keep these folks comfortable, safe."
President Obama, of course, wanted to shut down the facility. He failed in that pledge, partly because of politics, partly because of the practicalities of finding a place to rehouse the detainees who numbered more than 200 when President Obama took office.
Five members of the Afghan Taliban were released by President Obama in 2014 in exchange for captured U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Those five have now joined what the Taliban calls its political office in the Gulf state of Qatar and are therefore among the Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan.
That's despite warnings from some analysts that as members of the Taliban's old guard, they bring with them the same ultraconservative interpretation of Islam that characterized the Taliban's five-year rule of Afghanistan and provided shelter and a place to train for Al Qaeda until the U.S.-led invasion after the 9/11 attacks.
President Trump has made no moves either to close or grow the population of Guantanamo. Rear Admiral Ring told NBC he believes he could deal with 40 more detainees with his current staffing levels, and up to 160 more with more resources. But that would require Congress to approve those millions of dollars in funding. Jason?
CHAFFETZ: Jonathan, thank you.
Joining me now is Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and host of "The Dan Bongino Show" podcast, and Ari Aramesh, a foreign policy and national security analyst. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here.
I've been to Guantanamo Bay, I have seen it. I was a little concerned about what the admiral said when he was talking about need to make sure that everybody is comfortable. I don't think that is necessarily the number one issue, but these are not prisoners, they are detainees. But Aria, what is wrong with Guantanamo Bay? I fought against Barack Obama and his insistence that we close it. I'm glad it's open. But what say you?
ARI ARAMESH, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So here is what is happening. You have a facility in Cuba that's housed a number of battleground detainees brought in from mainly Afghanistan. These are guys that we picked up on the ground after 9/11. The last detainee came here in 2008.
Now, as you heard in the report, this is now turning into a nursing home. Camp seven, for instance, this facility is just a mess. There is no room for wheelchairs and so on and so forth. So the question is this. We can either sit here and complain and complain and complain, or our commander- in-chief can make a decision, either to fund as the admiral asked for, or, bring these guys out, put them on trial, send them to federal prisons, and, guess what? Not even one person, people in national security circles cannot even recall a single name from these unknown, forgotten, crazy detainees, meaning if John Gotti couldn't run away from federal prison, I don't think these irrelevant old terrorists can do that either. But having said that, this have provided a lot of ammunition to terrorists and to radicals.
CHAFFETZ: No, no, no. You could have made that case when it first started, but not anymore. We have to have a policy to deal with enemy combatants. Barack Obama never had such a policy. But Dan, what is your take on what we should do with Guantanamo Bay?
DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Jason, there are two separate issues here. The first issue the admiral brings up is a real one. Listen, if we are going to use Guantanamo, which I think is a perfectly viable, usable facility, then it should be secure, and we can't have breaking infrastructure there. Fine. That's one issue. Point stipulated, right.
But with regards to the medical care and comfort, I don't get it. I don't care. That may sound harsh, Jason. I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend the cable news audience. But I literally, not figuratively, do not care a bit about the health or comfort of terrorists committed to the destruction of the United States and the murder of innocents. We have millions of people in this country who need back surgery, who need joint replacements, who need kidney replacements. Money is zero-sum. Every dollar we send over there to take care of a murderer terrorist is a dollar taken out of the health care system here that could be used to take care of a kid or take care of someone elderly who has outlived their own fund. This is an outrageous argument.
ARAMESH: You may not care, Dan, you may care, and I know you don't care, and that's a fair point. But the U.S. flag and the U.S. constitution, they care. Let me give you an example. John Adams --
CHAFFETZ: No, no, no.
ARAMESH: No, no, he made the point --
CHAFFETZ: I don't have 40 minutes to talk about this, but I have got to tell you. I have been there and those conditions are not as bad. If they said they have a plumbing issue in camp seven, OK, they have to deal with that. I do think Congress should fund it, but we'll continue the discussion.
I've got to get your thoughts on another story from NBC. The network is also under fire this week for a Christmas Day story. The headline reading, quote, "Trump becomes the first president since 2002 not to visit troops in Christmas time." The problem is the president was on his way to Iraq at the time it was published, and even after it was made public he was there visiting with troops, NBC still didn't change the headline. It took two full days for them to even admit they made a mistake, adding an editor's note yesterday that said, in part, "The article was correct but on December 26th the situation had changed. As a result, the threat of this article is no longer correct, even if it was at the time." Instead, NBC could have taken down the article, they could have changed it. They waited a few days, they wanted the maximum impact. But Dan, I have got to tell you, the president has taken all kind of heat for doing something that everybody hoped he would do, which was visit the troops.
BONGINO: Congressman, this is a pretty sensitive issue to me. I was a Secret Service agent and I was a lead advance agent for President Obama's trip in 2010 to a warzone in Afghanistan. Now, what most people don't know, and I wouldn't expect anyone to know this, you haven't done that job specifically, you probably know it having been in Congress, these trips, Congressman, are planned out weeks if not months in advance. So it's really ridiculous about the crap media and their absolute lack of ethics in this story is while they were writing that story, while some lunatic was typing that thing up, the trip was already being planned over to a warzone. The media, nobody takes them seriously.
CHAFFETZ: In all fairness, they could have written that story. But the moment that they knew it was not true and not accurate, they should have taken it down. Ari, it that offensive to put some criticism on NBC for waiting two full days?
ARAMESH: First of all, I don't speak for NBC. So if you make a mistake you should man up, retract, and correct. Secondly, the president finally, finally got off his couch after two years and visited our troops in combat zones. The guy who didn't go to the World War II Memorial in France, the guy who wouldn't go to Arlington, the memorial --
CHAFFETZ: You --
ARAMESH: Jason, Jason.
CHAFFETZ: No, you're way out of line.
ARAMESH: No, no, I'm not. I'm not.
CHAFFETZ: When the Secret Service tells you for security reasons they can't go, the president doesn't go.
ARAMESH: That's not what they told him. You know that's not what they told him. You know that's not what they told him. And you know what, this is a president, this is a president who does not care --
CHAFFETZ: He loves the troops. And there is a reason why, no, there is a reason why --
ARAMESH: And if he is going to sell some steak to the troops he's going to go there. But this is the disgrace of a president.
(CROSSTALK)
ARAMESH: I have a very fair question. Are you proud of him?
CHAFFETZ: I am totally proud of the way --
ARAMESH: Is that why you didn't endorse him in 2016? I mean, come on. Come on, Jason.
(CROSSTALK)
ARAMESH: You're proud of Donald Trump?
CHAFFETZ: You are way out of line. You are way --
ARAMESH: Being out of line is he makes bad decisions, and --
CHAFFETZ: No, you are way out of line.
ARAMESH: And you no longer -- you are proud of Donald Trump and his actions?
CHAFFETZ: Yes, I am totally proud.
ARAMESH: You're proud of the way he berates our allies --
CHAFFETZ: We're going to have to go to commercial. Coming up --
ARAMESH: There you go.
CHAFFETZ: No you can't just hijack the show --
ARAMESH: No, no, no --
CHAFFETZ: I have got to move on.
Coming up, college courses in a Trum-aganda, and impeaching the president. What are they teaching our children? The top politically biased college classes, coming up next.
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CHAFFETZ: Picture this. Your newly independent son or daughter is off to college. You are so proud they are going to get a great education. You're pouring tens of thousands of dollars into this. But you are nervous, you're excited at the same time. And then you get a call, and they call you about a new class that they're going to take. It's called "Trump- aganda, The War on Facts, Press and Democracy." What in the world?
This is what they are teaching our children in college. There are so many more politically biased courses that were taught this year. Joining us now is Lawrence Jones, editor in chief of Campus Reform and a FOX News contributor, and David Burstein, progressive commentator and founder of Run for America.
Now, campus reform has come up with a list of the most egregious politically biased courses of 2018. It's pretty out there. I just told you about the Trump-aganda course at the University of Illinois. I thought they were a respected university, but come on. There's also a Harvard Law, Harvard Law class called "The Trump Trajectory" about impeachment in the Trump era. Maybe you can get a two-for-one deal at Harvard. They are all about discounting their stuff, because they have another course on how to push back against Trump strategies. And at San Diego State University has a class called "Trump Impeachment, Removal, or Conviction?" At the low, low price, in addition of course to the tuition that you have to pay, $221.
And finally, the University of Southern Maine offered a credit to students willing to protest Brett Kavanaugh in Washington, D.C. This is where your tax dollars are going to work in funding those. Gentlemen, I appreciate you coming here. David, when you look at that list that was coming out, come on, how can conservatives and right-minded people look at that and say, this is perfectly -- this is what we should be educating our kids on?
DAVID BURSTEIN, PROGRESSIVE COMMENTATOR: I think there are lots of interesting questions being raised and discussed on this network and others every night about the Constitution, and they should be discussed in college campuses. But, to have such an anti-Trump bias in these courses is less about where we are politically. It's more about the importance of giving children an openminded conversation. I think that the reality is that these kinds of courses are probably not the best way to help kids actually figure out how to coexist in a peaceful, deliberative democracy, even though there are plenty of issues that could be discussed in a more civil fashion.
CHAFFETZ: I saw your first reaction to this, but --
LAWRENCE JONES, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CAMPUS REFORM: Well, you can't have an openminded conversation when you have a liberal bias on the college campus, which is what we cover at Campus Reform, where you saw all these courses, every single day we get pitches from students that are telling us the bias, the hate for conservatives that are on the college campuses.
And the bottom line is, if you are conservatives, you are not really welcome on the college campus. We've seen our kids with their prolife signs, they get beat up. We've had professors, just because they don't like their political leanings, they take their phones from them, crash their phones just because they are videotaping them.
This is a college campus that does not respect the First Amendment. They are against freedom of speech. If you are a conservative speaker you can't go on the college campuses or you have to pay $50,000 in speaking fees. The battle of today, whether you're talking about what happened to Brett Kavanaugh when they were anti-due process, all these battles start on the leftist college campuses.
BURSTEIN: And this is really important also because this is the time at which people's minds are being formed. So while I may be sympathetic to some of the material that is in these courses, and I may agree with the perspectives of these professors, I think there's something really important about how we educate children, and the importance of making sure -- because what we see in our political dialogue today all starts here. Where do college students grew up. We are taking these classes they grow up to be in organized politics.
CHAFFETZ: But the beef that I have is that there is no balance, and we are supposed to be teaching kids how to think. And that's not what's happening. You're not teaching them how to think when you're giving them course credit to go down and protest the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and get course credit for it.
BURSTEIN: I think on that point you are absolutely correct, because the reality is, people can protest all they want, it's part of people's right in this country, but to give people college credit for doing that --
JONES: And they lie about it. The university, they lied about it. They tried to pretend that it was just only one professor. When we did the investigation, we found that the president of the university knew about it, the faculty chair knew. They had funding coming in from leftwing think groups to fund the bus. This is a strategic method of the left, and another reason, Jason, that we don't see a lot of the conservative ideology being taught on the college campuses is because they don't want conservative professors there as well. Make no mistake. I don't care if there's liberal professors on the college campuses, but the job of college professors is to have the dialogue, to teach them both sides, and then allow the students to make a decision on where they stand on the political aisle. But we can't do that if we only have one perspective.
CHAFFETZ: I have only got about a minute left here, but I served on the board of trustees at Utah Valley University. There is a rigorous plan on going and looking at these college courses that come up. These don't happen by accident. They aren't necessarily spontaneous. And I guess the rub that I have is there are federal dollars going into many of these universities.
BURSTEIN: Sure, I think that's true. I think the broader concern, if we actually went through and looked at every college course agenda and looked at in relation to federal dollars, you could asked a lot of questions about why we are preparing --
CHAFFETZ: That's what he's doing. That's what Lawrence is doing with his group.
BURSTEIN: But I think the more important question here is this question of thought and how we are thinking, and how we are teaching people to be confronted with challenging --
CHAFFETZ: I have to go.
JONES: Not teaching them to think. Teaching them bias.
CHAFFETZ: And they are not showing them the balance. That is the hard part. Thank you, gentlemen, both for being here. I do appreciate it. And it is a lot of money when you send your kid to college. I can tell you, me and my wife Julie know all about that.
We'll be right back with your Last Bite.
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CHAFFETZ: It's time for the Last Bite.
I've never seen something like this before. Take a look at how Detroit Pistons Blake Griffin argued a referee's call tonight.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blake says, hey, he grabbed me. He interlocked with me. And he calls for the official, J.T. Orr, and he has proof on a little iPad there.
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CHAFFETZ: He's using a tablet. Griffin's stunt did not end up convincing the ref to change his call, but, hey, gets an A for effort in my book.
That's all the time we have tonight. I am Jason Chaffetz in for Laura Ingraham. Shannon Bream and the "Fox News @ Night" team, take it from here. It's been an honor and a privilege to guest host tonight. But stay tuned for Shannon Bream's show. You're going to love it.
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