Jenny Beth traveled to Yuma County, Arizona to interview Sheriff Leon Wilmot about what his county faces every day from the border crisis. Sheriff Wilmot has been in law enforcement in Yuma for nearly 40 years and has seen it all. If you think the border problems only exist in the border counties, be prepared for this episode to open your eyes.
Jenny Beth traveled to Yuma County, Arizona to interview Sheriff Leon Wilmot about what his county faces every day from the border crisis. Sheriff Wilmot has been in law enforcement in Yuma for nearly 40 years and has seen it all. If you think the border problems only exist in the border counties, be prepared for this episode to open your eyes.
https://www.yumacountysheriff.org/about-wilmot.htm
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@YumaSheriff @JennyBethM
Leon Wilmot (00:00):
Because if you don't enforce a rule of law, then you run into what we're seeing now,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:05):
The rapes,
Leon Wilmot (00:06):
The robberies, the
Jenny Beth Martin (00:07):
Child trafficking, the
Leon Wilmot (00:09):
Indentured servitude, which is going on now.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:11):
That's slavery. We think that slavery is over in America, and yet we're sitting there allowing indentured servitude to happen right here today.
Narrator (00:20):
Keeping our Republic is on the line, and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author of filmmaker and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she is most proud of is Mom To Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:52):
In a previous episode, I sat down with Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez of Val Verde County, Texas, to get an update on the problems we face along our southern border. After we recorded that episode, he told me that I should speak to more sheriffs than other counties along the border. So for the last few weeks, my team and I traveled to different counties in Arizona and Texas to do just that. The next several episodes will feature interviews with these border sheriffs. In today's episode, I sat down with Sheriff Leon Wilmot from Yuma County, Arizona. You may recognize the name Yuma from the Western Film three 10 to Yuma, where a rancher takes on the task of sending an outlawed justice aboard the three 10 train headed to Yuma. Much like the movie today, Yuma County has American ranchers and farmers that are dealing with illegal immigrants crossing into the country outside the law.
(01:46):
And now Sheriff Wilmot gives us an inside scoop on what he faces every day in Yuma County, Arizona. So, sheriff Wilmont, thank you so much for sharing your office with us opening up and giving us the opportunity to educate Americans across the country about what's happening on the border, and especially here in the Yuma sector. Um, just this morning, you were telling me when, before we, we started that this morning, um, there were people from Africa who are apprehended at the border here in Yuma. Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (02:21):
So, myself and Sheriff DAOs does what we call the borders in your backyard. And we'll take in vigils down on the border to show 'em the reality of, uh, what's really going on on the border versus what the administration is telling the American people. And this way they got a better idea of what the truth is. So I was taking the local media down to the border this morning, took them down to, uh, the river corridor, which runs all the way south from California into Mexico, Colorado River. So we were down there, one stop, picked up a bunch of IDs that individuals had left on the ground, and then took them down all the way down to San Luis, Arizona, which is right there in San Luis Mexico, sister Cities. And when we were down there, there were 28 individuals that, uh, border patrol was, uh, apprehending that were from Africa down there this morning. So,
Jenny Beth Martin (03:16):
Um, so when, when people are hearing about the surge on the border, if in their mind they think that this is people from Mexico or just people from Central and South America, that that is not the case, it's not only from those countries.
Leon Wilmot (03:31):
No, we've, we've seen actually in Yuma County, a little over 160 different countries during the years. Wow. So, yeah, some countries, I couldn't even pronounce the name of the country. So if you look at the United States, I think the United States recognizes maybe 200 countries in the world. The United Nations recognizes about 220 countries. So we've had over 160 different countries come into Yuma County. And those include some countries of, uh, special interest. We're talking Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, just to name a few. So these are countries that have ties to terrorists activity, and they're coming across our border here in Yuma County. I've got roughly 112 miles of international boundary with Mexico. And on my border, I have two different states in Mexico, they're controlled by two different cartel factions. So San Louise Sonora, Mexico to the very south of us, and then runs east.
(04:33):
That's actually Sinaloa cartel. And that's predominantly run by El Chapo's sons. And then you have other cartel factions that are fighting for control of that as well. That's why the levels of, uh, violence in San Louise Mexico has gone up experimentally through the past few years because it's such a profitable business right now with the individuals that are being smuggled across either the give ups or the getaways on the river corridor. You're talking Baja, California, Mexico, and it's also run by the, uh, halco, new generation cartel. So we have two major cartel factions, some other smaller ones that control every mile of the international boundary between San Diego and Brownsville, Texas. So our little small piece of paradise right here, I've got cartel factions that are, uh, basically controlling every mile of it.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:31):
Okay. I'm gonna unpack some of what you said before we go
Leon Wilmot (05:49):
So I started with the, uh, sheriff's office here in Yuma back in 1985 as a reserve while I was stationed here in the Marine Corps. So when I got outta the Marine Corps, I was picked up full-time in 1987. So I've been with the Sheriff's Office full-time since 1987, so roughly 38 years with my reserve time. And this is my third term as a sheriff. So I retired as being a, a deputy under Ralph Ogden. And when he retired, I ran for sheriff and was successfully elected by, uh, the people of Yuma County. So,
Jenny Beth Martin (06:21):
So, you know Yuma very well. You've been here
Leon Wilmot (06:25):
For pretty well. Yeah. Probably older, longer than your, you know, age
Jenny Beth Martin (06:31):
You're sweet
Leon Wilmot (06:57):
You know, the, with the, the prior president and his administration had open lines of communication, worked with law enforcement each and every day, even DHS and Washington DC was engaged with sheriffs, especially border sheriffs, to make sure that our country was secure. And so, to give you an idea, in Yuma County Border Patrol and maybe apprehend 35 at the most today down on our border, and we would hardly have any deaths out in our desert because border patrol agents were out in the field. They were doing their job, they were doing the apprehensions. But most of all, there was a consequence delivery that was being applied to anybody that entered the country illegally.
(07:44):
There was consequences, what we called Operation Streamline that was actually brought in during the Obama administration. And that helped curb a lot of the activity that was seen under his administration then too. And Mayor Orcas was part of that. So to see what's happening now is kind of a disgrace as far as any sheriff is concerned, especially with mayor or as being the Secretary of Homeland Security, because he is done a, a terrible job at it. He, he has not done what he swore oath to do. So we're now trying to pick up those, those pieces and trying to help with that. But the, the problem is that once this administration came in, they stopped the M ppp, the Migrant Protection Protocols. And they did all this during the middle of covid, which we found rather interesting, that anybody that was United States citizen was told, stay home. You couldn't fly, you couldn't get on a bus, you couldn't take anything. You couldn't travel anywhere unless you had the covid, the vaccine. Right,
Jenny Beth Martin (08:51):
Right.
Leon Wilmot (08:52):
But yet we were seeing droves of individual. They stopped the MPP process. We were seeing escalation in apprehensions on our border, just in Yuma County. So immediately went up to like a hundred a day, then 300 a day, and then 600 a day upwards of, we've seen up to 1500 a day and apprehensions.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:15):
So did, and, and it was 35 under the last administration, 35 a day per day. And now it's 1500 per day. Has
Leon Wilmot (09:22):
Been the high.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:23):
Has been the high. Yeah.
Leon Wilmot (09:24):
So now we're back down to maybe 400 a day. 300 a day, which still isn't right. I mean, you're, you're talking, the resources for our community are not there to handle this. And this administration continues to say immigration is their responsibility. There is no doubt. And trust me, there's not a sheriff out there that wants to do immigration. It's not in our wheelhouse. It's just not. We're there for public safety. They're there for homeland security. That's his priority. And he's failing at it measurably. You look at Yuma County, 5,500 square miles, 112 miles, the international boundary, maybe a little over 200,000 full-time residents. We get another a hundred thousand on top of that during the winter season because we have winter visitors and agricultural workers that come into the US to work. The last federal fiscal year, 310,000 people across our river corridor into Yuma County from 140 different countries. There was over 28,000 getaways in the eastern part of my county. Getaways are individuals that we know for sure crossed illegally and border patrol wasn't able to apprehend them, nor were our guys, because we can't apprehend migrants that have entered the country illegally. If we do, we can be sued by them. Now, figure that one out.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:03):
We But they're here illegally.
Leon Wilmot (11:05):
Yeah.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:06):
But, and so they're breaking the law and you can't apprehend people who've broken the law to come, come here.
Leon Wilmot (11:10):
No, there's not a single law enforcement officer in the whole of this country that can apprehend anybody for entering the country illegally because federal supremacy laws that the states gave the federal government, it's their responsibility. They don't want us to do that job, nor do I really want to. But the only thing that we in law enforcement could do is stop them, field interview them, run them for wants and warrants, and their border patrol can't get there in time. We have to cut 'em loose. Arizona had a 10 70 law that was voted in during Obama, where officers could actually charge a person for smuggling. The Obama administration took the Arizona court, and the courts agreed that smuggling is consistent with immigration. So you cannot charge an individual in that law is no longer any good. So our officers can't detain them any longer than it takes to do your cursory investigation consensually. So if my officers, which has happened, run into a situation where we go to a domestic and party A or B are not getting along, and party A tells us, well, party B is actually a smuggler, and then there's a bunch of individuals in the back of the house that there's nothing we can do. We can call border patrol and hope that they can show up, but we can't charge 'em with anything in Arizona.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:41):
How, how many border patrol agents are there for this sector?
Leon Wilmot (12:45):
So y sectors probably your second smallest. Mm-hmm.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:09):
And so those 800 people are responsible for, um, processing 310,000 in 2022. Yeah.
Leon Wilmot (13:21):
Yeah. And what sad is, is like for your listeners to understand, border patrol was never designed to do what they're doing now. ICE is actually the ones that are supposed to receive apprehensions by border patrol. They're the ones that are supposed to have the detention facilities to process, feed, check their medical, take care of all of that. This administration has defunded ice to the point where they hardly have any ICE agents to do immigration. So they put that onus on border patrol. So your listeners understand, to equate it, it would be like a sheriff telling local law enforcement, I'm no longer gonna allow you to book anybody into my jail. You're gonna have to keep 'em at your police station. You're gonna have to feed 'em, you're gonna have to clo 'em, you're gonna have to make sure that they go to court. Border patrol doesn't have the facilities nor the, the knowledge or the ability to be doing what they've been tasked to do by this administration. It's almost like he intentionally designed this to make them fail because they're pushing a, a political agenda. And it's wrong. You gotta get politics outta public safety.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:39):
Okay. Now, and I completely agree it's wrong. So I'm, I'm not disagreeing that, that it's wrong. Um, I think that it is, is morally wrong and it is illegal to allow people to cut in line behind people mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (15:57):
It, it, number one, as a border community, we're from both sides. I've got employees here that have family members that live in Mexico, and it's vice versa. So border communities are, are significantly engaged. And a lot of the folks here have gone through the legal process. So I'm not met a person yet who hasn't been naturalized the legal way. That's really appreciative of what's going on right now. It's actually made 'em mad because they went through a lot to do what they're doing. Right. And for this administration to do what they're doing, it's completely wrong. And it's against the law, if you ask me too. You do have a bunch of people that are still sitting on the other side of the border right now waiting and trying to do it the legal way. But yet because of this, it's, it's, it's sacrificing them for doing the right thing. And it's not good. It sends a bad message for one. So for anybody to say what we're doing. Yeah. Yeah. We're, we deal with humanity every day in law enforcement throughout this country. Nothing about these policies from this administration. They are humane when it comes to this border problem. It's a crisis cuz because the women are being raped this whole trek to get here. Children are being abused and molested along this trek.
(17:33):
Children are being trafficked. You have individuals who can't afford to pay the cartels. All those 310,000, they're paying between 6,000 and 15,000 a piece to be allowed by the cartels to come across into United States. If you can't pay that, then it's called indentured servitude. They dictate where you go and they tell you what to tell. Border patrol, I have a sponsor in this state. I found notes down on the border, says Wisconsin, with a phone number and an address, or New Jersey or New York or Chicago. I picked all that up myself down on the border. So the cartels tell them where they're gonna go. And then when they get there, they're gonna work out their debt.
(18:25):
However they feel that needs to be done. Sometimes it's even utilizing their children to go back to that country and then portray a family unit to come back into the US again. So that kid works off that debt for the family at so much. We've seen it before on the Obama administration, there are 3,500 recycled kids Oh. That were identified during that mess. So, and there's nothing humane about this. I've had 70 people die in my desert last year. That's the most I've ever had. 70 people died in my desert because the cartels or the smugglers them. And we don't get notified till the rest of the group gets to where they're going in the US cuz they don't want to get caught and sent back. So they just leave 'em to die.
Jenny Beth Martin (19:16):
Which is not humane because they're, uh, along the way before they get wherever they're going in the United States or encountering other people who could have gone back to try to save that person.
Leon Wilmot (19:26):
Well, you're talking there, there have been abandoned 30, 40 miles, sometimes 60 miles from civilization out in the middle of the desert, which is also a bombing range for our military to use live fire. They're left out there. I've got one smuggler in my jail right now who killed an individual that was part of the group because that individual was creating problems for the rest of, uh, hi the group. Because he kept wanting to rest and kept telling the smuggler, don't push these people too hard.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:01):
So let's just make sure that that sinks in for a minute. There is someone's in the jail right now who is a smuggler mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (20:30):
Going to, or children being
Jenny Beth Martin (20:31):
Molested across the border. Yeah. And then what's going on with the children? You don't want them molested. You don't want them raped. We don't want them trafficked. Mm. Um, when you see trafficked, do you, does that include sexual trafficking and, right? Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (21:19):
There, there have been agents that have picked up juveniles down there that had plan B on them. The family had given it to 'em because the, the unaccompanied minors, especially because they know that that's gonna happen. I mean, for, and that's why I say these policies are totally wrong. They're inhumane for, for them to advertise what they're doing now. And for any community that says they're sanctuary city, you're just as much as fault because you're advertising for them to come and be exposed to this. And we, in law enforcement, we've, we've been fighting this from the very beginning. Everything that I've told you, I told Mayor Orcas face-to-face was gonna happen if his policies went into effect. And it's come back on him threefold as far as I'm concerned. Because those 70 people that died out in the desert, that's on him.
Jenny Beth Martin (22:07):
I don't know how he sleeps at
Leon Wilmot (22:08):
Night. That's on the, he don't care.
Jenny Beth Martin (22:10):
He knew better because he helped implement a, the, the
Leon Wilmot (22:14):
Operation
Jenny Beth Martin (22:15):
Streamline, streamline under
Leon Wilmot (22:16):
100% prosecution for anybody that enters this country between the port of entry illegally, a hundred percent prosecution. That's all you gotta do is enforce a rule of law. He won't do it. Why?
Jenny Beth Martin (22:30):
Well, I think that the reason why is because of what you just said, politics are entering into the policy rather than, than letting the law be the law. Politics are entering into the execution of the law at the federal level.
Leon Wilmot (22:45):
So if I wasn't a sheriff, if I was a chief, I probably couldn't talk to you right now. Just depends on whether a city council, a mayor, city administrator would allow a chief to talk to you and be truthful and straight up sheriffs across this country. Work for the people who are elected by the people. Right. Or a constitutional office. I speak for the community.
Jenny Beth Martin (23:07):
Hold, hold on. Before you talk about speaking for the community. Explain what you mean when you say constitutional office at a sheriff is a constitutional office.
Leon Wilmot (23:15):
So the sheriff is elected by the people of their community. Right. That's a constitutional office. Anybody that's elected has to swear a oath to the Constitution of the United States and the constitutional laws of the state for where they're elected. So as a sheriff, my boss is the people, not a board of supervisors, not anybody else. The people of that community. That's why it was called Sheriff's office compared to a police department. That's why the Office of Sheriff is pretty sacred to the people. Now, do you know why Obama was pushing national police?
Jenny Beth Martin (23:53):
Why?
Leon Wilmot (23:54):
Because he doesn't like sheriffs. Because we can speak the truth and it doesn't meet their narrative. They don't like that. If he had a national police, you control the narrative, you control the information flow to the people of the communities. There's still a push by this administration to do national police in this country. Heaven forbid that ever happens. And people need to be aware because that's the narrative that they're trying to push. Sheriffs work for the people. That's why I can speak freely. I don't have nothing to hide. It's just the facts.
Jenny Beth Martin (24:30):
Right.
Leon Wilmot (24:31):
Why would I sit here and do this? Unless it's an educational thing. Right. You know, this is the real deal. What you're hear on the news is from somebody that's 2000 miles away that doesn't have a clue about border security, let alone anything else on the border.
Jenny Beth Martin (24:47):
It it isn't just it, it is border security. Yeah. But the anything else on the border is really important as well. W we're down here, um, this will air probably a few weeks from now, but we're down here in the first week of June. Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (25:30):
Ground temperature. Yeah.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:32):
It, it is hard to understand and appreciate just how hot and how dangerous this heat is down in the desert. And as we're driving here, we drove, we drove here today from Phoenix. There's no water around. No.
Leon Wilmot (25:49):
It's pretty brutal out there.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:51):
It is.
Leon Wilmot (25:52):
And people are gonna die unfortunately, too. And that's the sad part of it. I may have more people dying in my desert. I've got my search and rescue guys out there patrolling all the time. I've got my posse members out there patrolling in vehicles. I've got my deputies working operations, stone Garden, I know overtime basis to help augment our border patrol partners down along the river corridor to prevent the, uh, ancillary crimes that so often accompany this situation. So you got the burglaries, you, you, we end up taking the rapes, the robberies cases, those are all ours. Federal government doesn't investigate those. So we get those calls, whether it's in a city jurisdiction or the county. Local law enforcement has to take that case. So we take the robberies, we take the rapes. You, you've got the criminal element that once a group comes across, if they know they have money, they're gonna kidnap him and extort more money out of them or their family members to let 'em loose.
(26:49):
We just had a case here two weeks ago in San Luis, Mexico where there were over 140 migrants that were kidnapped by another cartel faction and held for ransom until the, they could get more money out of them. That's what we deal with. And then you have the other criminal element that will follow 'em across, down in the remote areas, rape and rob them in the US and then flee back into Mexico. And then local law enforcement gets that call. And we have to do those investigations as well. So those are, those are ancillary crimes that we end up taking that takes away from doing what we normally do for our community. And that's improving their quality of life. We're, I like to think we're doing a good job cuz a lot of our community doesn't really see what's going on. They did hear not too long ago, because border patrol is so overwhelmed that immigrants that had entered the country illegally, illegally had actually walked up to our door because they Googled on their phone detention facility and they thought we were border patrol.
(27:51):
That's six miles away from my office. They just walked all the way up here. That's what we were dealing with. And then the community seen it and they were in the uproar. So working with our federal partners, we've been able to stymie a lot of that. The, the golden rule for me is a hundred percent prosecution if they violate the state law and it impacts Yuma County significantly. So Yuma, small corner of the world. Right. You know that yuma's, predominantly agriculture here. Mm-hmm.
(28:52):
So because of food safety, those farmers are impacted. And you're talking celery, cabbage, it's pretty expensive per acre. 5,000 an acre, maybe roughly. Just a rough estimate. So if they can't harvest that acre, then we get called. Cuz now we gotta, we're going to prosecute those individuals for trespassing criminal damage to the crops. That's what we get handed. You know, and the, the former governor put up containers, I'm sure you've probably seen that down in Yuma, along the border. Well, the reason why the governor did that is because the farmers were screaming bloody murder because this was happening to their crops. Mayor Orcas had been down here months before and said, I'm gonna do something about this. He hadn't done diddly and this was the farmers. So the governor finally said, I'll put up containers down there until this administration does what's right. So there, there was this big false narrative about Ducey doing containers on the border and the federal government was gonna sue the state of Arizona. See what I'm getting at. But it's supposed to be a partnership.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:59):
Yeah. It's supposed to be a partnership. And Ducey is doing that to make sure that the rest of the country can eat during the winter months. Exactly. Yeah. It, it actually is for a very good reason and a purpose. There is a purpose behind it. Yeah. Unlike what you hear in the news from 2000 miles away.
Leon Wilmot (30:13):
Yeah, exactly. So these folks, 2000 miles away, instead of partnering, they wanted to sue the state again, just like they did under 10 70. It's, it's nothing productive about their personal and political ideologies being interjected into public safety and homeland security. And that's what they're doing. They're pushing their agenda, but they're not pushing, enforcing the rule of the law. So now the containers are gone. But guess what, they're actually starting to fill some of those gaps because too much heat and people are dying and people are, I mean, our family advocacy centers handled already nine juvenile cases where they were molested along the track. But the unfortunate thing is you don't know what country they were from or where it happened. And you're dealing with unaccompanied minors. So you gotta find people that can speak the language too. 140 different countries. Not everybody speaks English. And the sad thing is these countries are not friends of the United States. So when border patrol ties do, do a background on these 310,000 people, they're not gonna share whether they're wanted for murder, rape, are they a child molester? And when you look at the fact that I'm picking up IDs, passports,
Jenny Beth Martin (31:33):
Let's talk about some of that.
Leon Wilmot (31:34):
I mean, you know, these, these are passports from different countries that I've picked up. I've got identification cards from individuals that have been granted access to live in another country because they fled a country of violence. But they discard all this down on the river corridor because they don't want to get caught cuz they'll be sent back to that country because they've been allowed to work and live and be in that other country and nonviolence where they came from. So they discard all of their, their IDs to the point where they even discard all their money. I picked this up personally down on the border, but that's money from all different kinds of countries because they know the United States is gonna fund everything for them. That's what the cartels tell 'em.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:26):
So they just walk away from cash from money that most people don't walk away from. No. From money. But no,
Leon Wilmot (32:36):
They're, well they don't need that no more. No, they don't need that anymore because we're gonna feed them 'em, we're gonna clothe them when they get to their destination. They're gonna be able to get, go to their first hearing so they can get assistance in this country from that state to be able to survive. They don't need that no more. Yeah. We're gonna fund their plane tickets or bus tickets and everything else to get to where they're going.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:59):
Our tax dollars.
Leon Wilmot (33:01):
Yeah. So the American people are funding all of this
Jenny Beth Martin (33:05):
And you've got passports. I, I don't see any in this stack, but in that, I think in one of the stacks are are there passports from China? They're passports from
Leon Wilmot (33:15):
Oh, all over the world. I mean, here's some more passports and here's some more IDs. There's some from China. I actually have two driver's licenses from individuals from Russia that I think for, were from Wisconsin. I have to look 'em up again. But they had driver's licenses from another state here in the US with, with Russian names on them that I found that they abandoned town on the river Russian. It makes, uh, it makes, makes you wonder Russian. Yeah. Russian names.
Jenny Beth Martin (33:45):
Yeah. Okay. Russian names. Yeah. Ghana. Mm. It's so,
Leon Wilmot (33:51):
So they've already flooded country violence. They've already been given the opportunity to live and work there and be a productive part of that other country.
Jenny Beth Martin (33:58):
Which is what the asylum, the international asylum laws say. Exactly.
Leon Wilmot (34:02):
Okay. Yeah. But they don't want that.
Jenny Beth Martin (34:08):
Let, let's, I wanna give, I wanna get back to another part in just a moment. Um, which I'll remember. But why don't they, why don't they want that? They don't, they don't want to stay in the other country, which the international asylum laws say they, they should be doing. They they don't wanna do that. What do they want here instead? Well,
Leon Wilmot (34:27):
Because you have sanctuary cities that have been advertising for how long now? Free medical. Free housing. We'll support you come on down
Jenny Beth Martin (34:37):
Hotels in New York with daily REM service apparently.
Leon Wilmot (34:41):
Yeah. So when communities advertise this and people elect those people into office, they better be ready to pay the bill. Because none of these people, the 310,000 are staying in Yuma County. They're going to the Midwest and the Northeast. So Russians for instance, Sacramento, California and up by New York, New Jersey. So that's where they're going. Cubans are going to Florida. You know, you've got people going to Wisconsin, New Jersey, Delaware, Sacramento, LA San Diego. There's nothing in Yu uniform that's not, they're just crossing here because it's quick and easy. They're flying into Mexicali, they're taking a shuttle, they're taking a bus. They're, they're taking a taxi, an Uber in Mexico from the airport in Mexicali. And then they're walking across our river down there cuz it's shallow because the rest of the river's being diverted into Mexico. So they're right below the dam and they're coming across, there is no fencing on a, on a tribal reservation that doesn't have a fence.
(35:49):
So it, it's a straight across shot for them. This less than a hundred yards or so
Jenny Beth Martin (36:46):
And that's um, up to 1500 people a day. But they're being processed what, in about 72 hours.
Leon Wilmot (36:52):
72 hours. Yeah. That's the longest. Because of the policies of Mayor Orcas, that's the longest that they can keep anybody in their custody. So that doesn't give 'em enough chance to even go through and do an adequate criminal investigation to make sure that they're not wanted, which is what ICE was supposed to do. Right. And designed to do. But instead of plusing up ice to handle this, they cut their budget by millions of dollars and they continue to cut border patrol's budget as well. So they're not helping, they're hindering. That's the reality of what we see on the ground.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:28):
Let's go back just a second. You mentioned how they fly into Mexico mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (37:57):
Oh yeah. So they're not walking very far at all. In fact, they're dressed to the nines when they get here. They're, they've not encountered any kinda long track. And I, I'm speaking for Yuma County. Mm-hmm.
Jenny Beth Martin (39:07):
Leon Wilmot (39:10):
Uh, my guys actually found out flying and got ahold of border patrol so they could go down there and tear it apart. But you gotta figure every bit of, most of the property in Yuma County, that's the international boundary is federal land. And that was part of this administration's huff with the governor on putting containers on it because it's Bureau of Reclamation. So they're in control of the, the river corridor. And then you got the Barry m Goldwater range to the east. And that's federal land as well. Joint use by the general public. But there's very little public land here compared to like Cochise County where majority of the land down there is private ranch land. So geography wise, there's different challenges for different counties and what they see. So Cogi County, they see a lot of juveniles being recruited like on TikTok and other social media posts to pick up individuals five to $600 a piece and get 'em from Cochise County into Pima or Maricopa County.
(40:13):
Phoenix, Tucson area. So that's pretty lucrative for a, a juvenile because the cartels market that that the feds won't charge a juvenile for committing a crime. And predominantly that's true. But when you endanger other people's lives, because they also tell them if the cops try to stop you just push on the gas cuz they won't chase you. Well that's not the case in every county, especially Cochise. I think he's had up to 36 juveniles that are being charged as adults in his county, in his jail for doing just exactly that. And seizing mom and dad's car or their aunts or uncle's vehicle or grandma and grandpa's, you know,
Jenny Beth Martin (40:56):
And these are American citizens
Leon Wilmot (40:57):
Or these are American citizens. They're, he had one that drove all the way from Florida to pick up a group.
Jenny Beth Martin (41:03):
It must have been paying really
Leon Wilmot (41:05):
Well. They, well you know, five to 600, how many can you stuff in a, in a van. Wow. And they're starting to do that down here with the cloning vehicles too. We've seen 'em clone ups trucks, FedEx Border Patrol has had their vehicles cloned. So I mean they're, they're getting unmarked white vans. You can put a lot of people in a van. Yeah. So that's the ongoing deal that we deal with here. Cuz these are folks that won't, don't want to be caught. They're of the getaways. So.
Jenny Beth Martin (41:35):
Okay. Let's talk about the getaways and what is it that they're, why don't they wanna be caught?
Leon Wilmot (41:41):
Probably cuz they have a criminal history or they're here for some nefarious reason. Like I said, when, when you're dealing with country all over a hundred, 4,060 here, depends on what administration and what year. Um, they could be from Russia, they could be from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan.
Jenny Beth Martin (42:00):
So they could be terrorists. We don't know.
Leon Wilmot (42:02):
We don't
Jenny Beth Martin (42:02):
Know. Right. We just don't know.
Leon Wilmot (42:03):
Luckily we have some photos, but we don't know where they're from. You can't tell. And they're getting away. I mean you had well over a million border wide that were getaways so far.
Jenny Beth Martin (42:20):
So far. This last,
Leon Wilmot (42:22):
I think it was last federal fiscal year, they had over a million getaways.
Jenny Beth Martin (42:27):
Um, so you've got the people who are caught, caught, detained for 72 hours and then they go to other parts of the country. So they're not staying, they're not staying here. No. Um, then you've got the people who are known, the number that is known to be no getaways. How many do you think are not being caught in either one of those?
Leon Wilmot (42:51):
I think when we were talking with Chief Ortiz, the, the old adage was you're probably one out of three. So for every one that you know for sure was a getaway, you probably can count on that being three on
Jenny Beth Martin (43:07):
An average. So if they said that there were a million getaways and it was 3 million or 4 million, do you think it
Leon Wilmot (43:14):
Would be more than
Jenny Beth Martin (43:14):
That? Yeah. Okay.
Leon Wilmot (43:16):
Um, which is scary because these are people you don't know what kind of background they have or they have terrorist ties or they have they been deported previously? Like we do encounter here where they were murderers that serve their sentence and were deported and now they're back again. Are the, are these rapists or what are we dealing with mm-hmm.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:44):
What, um, you've got something over there, I believe that is, um, what, what they wear on their feet mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (43:54):
So these are called carpet booties. And this is what we see out in our eastern desert. And that's what they put over the top of their shoes. So when they walk on the, the sand, it doesn't leave any discernible mark or shoe impression for border patrol to track. So the, these are found all over the desert out in our foothills where they change their clothes after being out there for a couple days. So they just tie those onto their shoes and then that's what they walk in the whole track across the desert.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:29):
That's, that's gotta be not fun at all to walk across the desert and then to have that on your feet. Also, you really don't wanna be caught if you're going through that. No, no. Extreme. I think that
Leon Wilmot (44:41):
You got, some are wearing camouflage, some are not, some are wearing all black because they want to come in during the dead of night so they won't be detected. So they're, they're going through a lot to conceal their entry into the us.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:55):
Um, and you've got photos of that though. Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (45:03):
Yeah. Yeah. The same thing as the carpet booties.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:06):
Um, how many this year ha do you estimate have been apprehended? How many have died?
Leon Wilmot (45:14):
So this federal fiscal year, which is October to
Jenny Beth Martin (45:18):
September, September 30, yeah.
Leon Wilmot (45:20):
Border patrol in Yuma County is apprehended a little over 145,000 apprehensions. And I think we were at 8,000 getaways. Okay. I'll have to look.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:33):
Maybe 9,000 I think you mentioned
Leon Wilmot (45:36):
Earlier. Yeah, there was. Okay. Yeah. Eight or nine. Eight or nine eight. Eight to 9,000
Jenny Beth Martin (45:42):
And then did say increase during the summer months. Do more people come in the summer months or not? And with title 42 changing, will that, what do you think is gonna happen between June and the end of the fiscal year?
Leon Wilmot (45:54):
You know, it's, it's hard to say. So prior to title 42 ending, there was a mad rush because when we were under Title 42 and that, that was a misconception that we didn't want Title 42 to go away. Being in law enforcement, you actually did, because there was no consequence for you entering the country illegally. You were just sent back if they could. If not, you're let in most of the apprehensions were title eight here. Okay. Versus title 42.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:26):
So title 42 is probably happening more like in Macallen, Texas, maybe other areas. Okay. So what is Title eight?
Leon Wilmot (46:32):
Title? Title eight. Basically a lot of what we've seen here from the 140 to 160 different countries, those countries won't take 'em back. They're staying, they, there's no way to deport 'em back to their country. The country won't take 'em back. Why won't
Jenny Beth Martin (46:49):
They take 'em back? How can they not take back their own
Leon Wilmot (46:51):
Citizens? They don't have to
Jenny Beth Martin (47:44):
Yes, they do.
Leon Wilmot (47:45):
But the fact of the matter is that every one of those numbers, title eight is basically you can enter the country once, but if you are deported, then if you entered again, then you've committed a crime. Just a rough way of explaining it. But most of those folks that entered, they know that they're not gonna get sent back because that country won't take 'em back
Jenny Beth Martin (48:07):
And Okay. So they, they won't get sent back because that country won't take them back. Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (48:24):
Well, that's why I got all their passports and IDs. Yeah. That doesn't matter.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:29):
Leon Wilmot (48:44):
Anyway. There are legitimate ones. But,
Jenny Beth Martin (48:47):
But you can't want to escape lawlessness and think that by coming here and being lawless, you're actually escaping. You're, you're creating, you're, you're ruining the place that you're trying to seek, seek refuge in because you're destroying the rule of law.
Leon Wilmot (49:07):
Speaking to the choir.
Jenny Beth Martin (49:08):
Leon Wilmot (49:09):
That's what we've been trying to say in new since day one. Yes. But see, they don't care.
Jenny Beth Martin (49:14):
No,
Leon Wilmot (49:15):
He, he, he, he doesn't care. Well, why is he the president doesn't care and neither does the vice president. She hasn't even been to the border down here and talked to anybody and she's the border czar.
(49:27):
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean, you would think that anybody that, I mean when you're given the distinction of being the Secretary of Homeland Security who Congress has given the ability to develop procedures and protocols and, and policy in regards to border security, you would think that he would be, number one thing would be homeland security. We have all said it from day one, Homeland security, border security, public health, public safety. Those are the priorities that need to be looked at. I get the humanity area inside of it. Trust me, I deal with it each and every day. So do my troops. But you also have to enforce a rule of law because if you don't enforce a rule of law, then you run into what we're seeing now,
Jenny Beth Martin (50:18):
The rapes,
Leon Wilmot (50:19):
The robberies, the
Jenny Beth Martin (50:20):
Child trafficking, the
Leon Wilmot (50:22):
Indentured servitude, which is going on now.
Jenny Beth Martin (50:24):
That's slavery. We think that slavery is over in America where you have people in this country fighting for reparations because of slavery. And yet we're sitting there allowing indentured servitude to happen right here today. And it goes on just below the surface and people at like it, they don't even know that it's happening. Mm-hmm. And they're fooled by the media because the media makes them think that that
Leon Wilmot (50:48):
It it's all hunky dory.
Jenny Beth Martin (50:49):
Yeah. And that what we're doing is humane. It's not a humane, this is
Leon Wilmot (50:53):
Wrong. Well, shame on the media for pushing that false narrative. Shame on every, and that's part
Jenny Beth Martin (50:58):
Of our, everyone is pushing this false narrative.
Leon Wilmot (51:00):
And that's part of the thing that's, that's uh, I mean all the sheriffs, western states, national southwestern border sheriffs all came out with a vote and no confidence in Mayor Orcas because he don't, he's not doing what he's supposed to do.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:12):
We've called for him to be impeached.
Leon Wilmot (51:15):
We put out that letter a long time ago. Yeah. You don't see that on mainstream media. Why? Because it doesn't meet their narrative. Shame on them. Journalism in, in the United States has gone down to toilet. It's all about politics now. And that's a shame. It used to be when you could turn on the news and glean your own opinion of what's going on. Not for somebody to sit on there and force feed you with what they feel is, is the way it is.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:49):
Um,
Leon Wilmot (51:51):
But this is the truth. I got nothing to hide. I got no agenda. It's education. It
Jenny Beth Martin (51:56):
It is education. So we did a documentary in 2014 about the border. We called it Border States of America. Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (52:40):
Yeah, we had one in Yuma.
Jenny Beth Martin (52:42):
And explain to the audience what that is.
Leon Wilmot (52:44):
So a rape tree is basically during, when they're brought across in the, the United States by the smuggler or smugglers multiple. So what would happen was they would rape the women or the children and then where that tree is, where they would do this, they would hang the bras and the panties of those that they had violated. And once we found out about that, we had one down here on the river corridor, then Sheriff Ralph Fogden, we went down there, we got with Board patrol Bureau of Reclamation and we got grant money to go down there and basically get rid of all the shrubbery and non-indigenous plant life that was concealing all this activity going on down on the border. So we pretty much tore out everything that, that was not like your cottonwood trees. We left those cuz they're indigenous plants, but all the non-indigenous, we got rid of all that and we tore down that, that tree,
Jenny Beth Martin (53:43):
So it couldn't be camouflage what the activity that was happening.
Leon Wilmot (53:46):
They were actually building tunnels in, in the brush that was down along the river corridor. So that would conceal them coming up. It, it got so violent down there that border patrol had to send specialty teams down into the river corridor and they would end up in shootouts with these individuals. And we've had to process those crime scenes here as well. Ultra lights were a big thing back then. They were armed. I mean we had one crash down in the farm field where the guy had a revolver on him. I mean, all those pictures are on the internet. And, and that's the reality. The pursuits we're, we deal with those then. And we're, and we're dealing with them now where they have no concept of value of life. Every human being that you hear about, that's a commodity. They don't value that life at all.
Jenny Beth Martin (54:36):
So, um, you've got a solar panel there mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (54:44):
Not a bad solar panel either, but, so basically what the cartels would do is they would set up scouts up on a mountain ridge out in the remote parts of the desert. And they do that all across the border where they can, there's probably not a sheriff on the board that doesn't have this issue. But the cartels would put them up there and then the groups that were smuggled across would resupply them with batteries or food or water, whatever they needed to keep them up there. So, and the scouts' idea is you got a high vantage point you can detect border patrol or anybody else, law enforcement where they're at, especially out in the desert cuz it's so open. And then they could radio in when it was free for those groups to cross. And they keep tally books because that's how the lookouts get paid, is by the successful ability of individuals to be smuggled into the United States. So we encounter that out in the desert all the time. Smugglers and, and scouts.
Jenny Beth Martin (55:46):
And it really is commodities. They're just, they're getting paid. It's their product. Yeah.
Leon Wilmot (55:50):
Their job. So it's, if it's a large group, then you're gonna get paid pretty good money for allowing that to go through. So, yeah.
Jenny Beth Martin (55:57):
Um, you've got a book. Mm-hmm.
Leon Wilmot (56:01):
I've got a couple here there, there's one called the 50 States
(56:57):
I've run into lawyers, I've run into doctors, I've run into teachers from all these different countries down on the border. I get it. They wanna improve their quality of life. Let's do it the legal way is my response. I mean, they're educated people, they really are. But you need to do it by the law. I I hear Congress all the time. The electeds in dc Well we got a, this is a bad deal. We, we need to change this law. I've heard that since I've been running for sheriff in 2012. They have yet to do it. We talked about the Gang of
Jenny Beth Martin (57:38):
Eight. The Gang of eight.
Leon Wilmot (57:41):
That was a joke. I haven't told Senator Flake that said this is, this is garbage. Yeah. What they wrote in that. I mean, I was actually one of the few sheriffs that read that proposal and I told him it was a joke. You're not helping this country at all by putting that forward. I don't know who writes this stuff for these senators and reps back in DC but they're, they don't have any kind of reality of life here. Their reality is 2000 miles away and a a glass house that
Jenny Beth Martin (58:31):
They've a bus or two of 50 people or a plane and you've got 400 a day. Yeah.
Leon Wilmot (58:39):
Well, and here's the deal. They try to claim that these other, these other states are pushing these people off on them. That's where they're going, that's where they want to go. Nobody's shoving them into those states. They're not.
Jenny Beth Martin (58:55):
My conversation with Sheriff Wilmont went on for about two hours. So we are splitting this episode into two parts. Be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast on whichever platform you are listening so that you'll know is soon as part two is released.
Narrator (59:10):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mooney hand and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.