TRANSCRIPT OF AMERICAN PATROL SEGMENT OF O'REILLY FACTOR, JUNE 18,
2001
LISTEN
TO THE AUDIO
GINGRICH:
Thanks for staying with us, I am Newt Gingrich in for Bill O'Reilly.
And in the unresolved problems segment tonight, illegals crossing the border.
Last month fourteen illegal immigrants from Mexico died of thirst and
exposure crossing the southern Arizona desert. The Mexican government is
trying to prevent even more tragedies by giving immigrants border survival
kits that contain food, water and medicine. But will that just encourage
more illegal immigration?
Joining us from Anaheim, California, is Carlos Olamendi, who is vice
president of the National Coalition of Professional Mexicans Abroad. And
from Los Angeles, Glenn Spencer, who is president of American Patrol dot
com.
Let me start Glenn with you because of the background from your standpoint.
Could you outline what you see is happening and what you think the American
people should be concerned about.
SPENCER: Newt, as a historian I am sure you understand the importance
of historic perspective.
On
April 4, 1997, responding to our new immigration law that you passed, the
president of Mexico said as follows: "We will not tolerate foreign forces
dictating and enacting laws on Mexicans." That was on April 4.
On April 3rd the L.A. Times reported that a debate on our immigration laws
in the Mexican congress bordered on a declaration of war on the United
States.
And only three months later, the president of Mexico went before a crowd
in Chicago and said, "I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends
beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants
are an important, a very important part of it." [Real
Audio clip of this statement]
And he announced a new dual citizenship law, a law that I
described in the December 24, 1996 issue of the Los Angeles Times as declaration
of war on the United States. And I really believe this. I said this almost
five years ago, and I believe it today.
GINGRICH: How does that relate, then, Glenn, to fourteen innocent people
dying in the desert?
SPENCER: Because the Mexican government is encouraging them to come.
The Mexican government is trying everything in its power to encourage these
people to come. Their
Border Czar, appointed by Fox, Mr. Ruffo, recently said "If the Border
Patrol stops you ,try again." So they are responsible for these
deaths on the border and that's why they are handing these kits out. Because
they are responsible for it.
GINGRICH Mr. Olamendi, I suspect you have a very different view of this.
How would you interpret
OLAMENDI: Well, first of all, it seems to me it is very irresponsible
to say those words on the national television. And the attitude and the
level of the negativism in the Mr. Spencer words is the one who encourage
more illegal activities. And what we're facing here is a reality. Right
now the problem with Mexico and the United States we cannot turn around.
Right now we have to face it. And right now the Mexican government is not
providing any illegal activity or try to bring more people into the United
States. What he is doing is, he is doing in conjunction, in conjunction
with some organizations here in the United States who care for this situation
on the border, try to establish a federal program for the health care for
the people of the immigrants, the communities and the family ones in Mexico,
not in the border
GINGRICH: Let me ask you a question if I could Mr. Olamendi, I notice
in today's newspapers that the Fox administration in Mexico has just announced
that they're going to tighten up control of their own southern border,
that they have a great deal of illegal immigration coming in from Guatemala,
from Honduras, even from places like China, who are coming north from Central
America, and then crossing Mexico. Don't you find it a little interesting
that the Mexican government on the one hand is actually getting tougher
on its own southern border and doing more to control immigration into Mexico.
OLAMENDI: Well sir, look at what we are facing right now is uuhh we
cannot looking the problem of immigration just by one side one government.
This is have to be a completely bilateral decisions of the United States
government, Mexican government, and Central American governments, and right
now
SPENCER: We are a sovereign nation. We can make unilateral decisions
about our border and we'd better - we'd better do it right now.
OLAMENDI: That's exactly what you and your activities and your group
increase those illegal activity. You're talking that Mr. Foxes is trying
to provide immigration
SPENCER: A Mr. Olamendi, you
are a member of the fifth column, a fifth column of subversives
trying to break down the laws of the United States. You are advancing la
Reconquista, the takeover, starting with California, of large sections
of our country. And you...absolutely....
OLAMENDI: You are ignorant.
SPENCER..I am not ignorant, I am very knowledgeable.....
GINGRICH: Let me break in
OLAMENDI: Mr. Gingrich, this is an important issue. This is not an issue
regarding the issue of the survival kit package. This is a well established
program, a national program of the federal government trying to help the
help of the immigrant people, their communities because right now we are
facing now.
SPENCER: They are forcing Mexicans into the United States, they have
been doing it for years, they even call it themselves, la Reconquista.
They are taking back what they feel was lost as a result of the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo and you, and you , Mr. Olamendi , are part of that
program, and so is
GINGRICH: But I am curious
OLAMENDI: If I can contribute by example like I have something to do
because I am Mexican and I also American and I feel proud to in that form.
And I am here as a businessman, and I also part of this society, this community,
try to implement a new ways to communication so that historically.
SPENCER: And
how many people know that your co-founder...yes.... [The co-founder
of Olamendi's organization, International Coalition of Mexicans Abroad,
is Eddie
Varon-Levy.]
GINGRICH: Mr. Spencer, let me break in for a second if I could
SPENCER: Go ahead.
GINGRICH: I am fascinated by one of the things I've noticed in the last
few years. There's a dramatic difference the way some Californians view
this issue and the way Texans seem to view it. Texans seem to have a much
more accepting attitude towards the relationship between Mexico and the
United States, a much more accepting attitude towards integrating the two
cultures and yet in California there's a much deeper resistance to that.
Do have any sense to what you ascribe that dramatic difference to?
SPENCER: (OLAMENDI- interrupting - He don't understand the history he
don't) He asked me the question and if I could please answer the question
and not be interrupted let's show some courtesy here.
GINGRICH: If you would, Mr. Olamendi, let Mr. Spencer answer for a second.
SPENCER: I think that the record clearly shows that California has been
targeted. The
head, the founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund,
once said on Los Angeles radio that California was going to be a Hispanic
state and anyone who doesn't like it should leave [Real
Audio clip of this statement]. Art Torres, head of the California
Democratic Party, "Proposition 187" [the proposition passed by 60% of California
voters] was the last gasp of white America in California." [Real
Audio clip of this statement] We have been targeted and we know
what is going on.
GINGRICH: Well, I find it fascinating. Mr. Olamendi, you might briefly
want to comment from your perspective as an American of Mexican descent.
OLAMENDI: (Talking over part of GINGRICH) Well the perspective is clear.
The first time we have two presidents facing the issues that historically
any society and country need to face. We are neighbors and we have to continue
being as neighbors and better we start right now facing those issues. Health
issues are a problem
GINGRICH: Thank you very much (OLAMENDI continues to talk)
SPENCER: This is an issue of conquest and this is an issue of....
END OF INTERVIEW
