On Fox, Brandon Judd says immigrants arrested in Mississippi committed a “myriad of crimes” like “working illegally”
Judd also says it is “disgusting” that politicians are notifying immigrants of their rights
Published
Citation From the August 9 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): How do you arrest 700 then let half go within 36 hours? How's that happen?
BRANDON JUDD (NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL): It all has to do with the family separation. What we looked at is -- you looked at how many people we have in custody. Do they have children at home and is there another parent at home with those children? And if there wasn't, we did it for a humanitarian purpose, and again, it was the right decision to make. But we also made it so that we could know who we had in custody, where they were, and so that we can keep track of them going into the future. So it's not like we released these individuals to say that we're never going to put you through the proper deportation proceedings. We just have to make sure that we have the proper steps in place to ensure the safety and well-being of the children of these individuals.
HEMMER: Got it. Why did you target -- why would these businesses specifically be targeted, Brandon?
JUDD: So, this was an ongoing investigation into who was hiring illegal aliens, who was paying them under the table potentially, and where are these fraud docs coming from that these individuals are obtaining in order to work? If you peel back all of the layers of this particular story, what you're going to find is there were a myriad of crimes that were committed -- not just that these individuals were in the country illegally, but now they're working illegally. Most likely they obtained documents that were fraudulent, and that's illegal. You've also got companies that are hiring people illegally. So there's a lot of crimes that were going on in this story. And so this was a long-term investigation, and it's a very important investigation, because it sends the message that we are going to look for and go after those employers. We're also look for and go after those individuals that are in our country illegally and also taking jobs away from United States citizens.
HEMMER: Two more questions here. The mayor of Nashville is David Briley, he's a Democrat. He sent this tweet out: "If you or a family member have an encounter with ICE, it's important to know your rights and have a plan. Watch this video to learn more." What do you think of that move on behalf of that mayor? And that's not the only place, you can find it in California, you can see it here on billboards in New York City as well.
JUDD: Well, we're seeing it all over the country. And frankly, it's very disgusting to know that individuals are helping people that knowingly violated our laws that are trying to escape justice. And now you have mayors that are helping them escape justice. This is an issue that if we do not follow the law and order, we become no better than any country around the world. I mean, we just saw in Mexico, 19 individuals were murdered and strung up. That's simply because Mexico does not follow the rule of law. We have to follow the rule of law in this country. That's what made our country great.