Jenny Beth visited Cochise County, Arizona to speak to Sheriff Mark Dannels about the border. Sheriff Dannels explains how his team is using cutting edge technology to try to secure the border, even though the Federal Government is not doing its part. Cochise County is full of rich history and Mark Dannels does not take that for granted.
Jenny Beth visited Cochise County, Arizona to speak to Sheriff Mark Dannels about the border. Sheriff Dannels explains how his team is using cutting edge technology to try to secure the border, even though the Federal Government is not doing its part. Cochise County is full of rich history and Mark Dannels does not take that for granted.
Mark Dannels (00:00):
2019 to show you where we've gone just in three years. There was 2,600 pounds of fentanyl on the southwest border last year. It was 14,000 pounds. The number one thing is I need President Biden, vice President Harris and Secretary, mayor Orcas, to prioritize our southern borders and all our borders. That's number one.
Narrator (00:18):
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 (00:50):
In today's episode, we continue our series on the border with Sheriff Mark Daniels of Cochise County, Arizona. One of the prominent themes for all of these border sheriffs is their task to protect the citizens of their community and their way of life. Sheriff Daniels is utilizing technology in innovative ways to protect his community, but it isn't enough when the federal government has abandoned its constitutional duty to protect the border. In this episode, you'll learn how the federal government has left these communities to fend for themselves as they deal with the consequences of a wide open border Sheriff, Mark Daniels, thanks so much for opening up your office, your conference room, and allowing us to interview you here in Cochise County. Um, we had you in our documentary Border States of America, and also I came back and interviewed you during the Trump administration trying to figure out what changed from 2014 to 2017. And now I'm back to find out what you're dealing with again now.
Mark Dannels (01:48):
Well, welcome back to Cochise County. Janet Beth,
Jenny Beth Martin (01:50):
Thank you. Thank you so much. So what is the state of play right now in your county as it as it you're looking at the border?
Mark Dannels (01:59):
Let me say this and start off is, this is my 39th year of work in border and in law enforcement. Prior to that, I was in the military, military stationed right here in Fort Tuco. In my 39 years of law enforcement, I've seen the good, the bad and ugly. I've seen the ugliest I've ever seen this southern border. When it comes to vulnerabilities, which is your high risk crimes, when it comes to the smuggling, the aggression to our law enforcement, the amount of drugs, the amount of humans being trafficked across that border, this is the worst it's been. And, and the compound that worst is, and I'm just gonna say it bluntly, I don't, when I do interviews or not political interviews, they, it's what we see is what we deal with is Washington DC that refuses to work with us. They have neglected this border.
(02:44):
They have neglected, I call it intellectual avoidance with abandonment as it doesn't exist. It does exist. And this intellectual abandonment by Washington DC starting with the president of the United States, we're in the position we're in. So we almost left out here like this is, we're not part of America no more because, uh, in Congress, I'm, I'm just gonna be blunt on this, please, they own this too. Please. They're worried more about being reelected. Now there's some good congressmen up there that are doing the right thing, but a lot of 'em are worry about being reelected instead of fixing this country's borders. Cuz until we fix it, the return on this is deadly. And that's my opinion on that.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:21):
So, um, I I I think that you're right. And since we've been dealing with this issue through the Tea Party movement, we hear Congress constantly talking about how they wanna fix the problems on the border, but it just, it it's a political football and they just play games with it rather than actually addressing the real, the real problem. And, um, even if they pass new laws, they've got a real problem with the, their trust between the American citizens right now. Because even if they pass brand new laws that did everything you and I would want to do, I don't have any faith at all that a president would actually enforce those laws.
Mark Dannels (04:03):
Well, unfortunately, when you don't, when the President of the United States does not prioritize our borders, that's all our borders, coastal, northern, and primarily southern, because of our criminal cartels movement down here. You open up the country to vulnerabilities, you open up the tragedies, and we're seeing it already. You look at 300 people a day dying of opioid overdoses in this country. But who's talking about the war on drugs anymore? Nobody. If it's not a sheriff trying to protect the community who's talking about it, border patrol's, hand tied based on Secretary Mallorca and, uh, limitations. They can say anything. You got a president that won't talk about it, a vice president won't talk about it. In fact, just the opposite, as Secretary Mallorca states, the border's effectively secured. And if you could look at his, uh, testimonies in front of Congress, what's he say? He won't even admit there's a crisis.
(04:52):
Can't use that word. Well, if you're not real to yourself as a leader, you're not real to the American people you serve. We're in trouble. And that's where I say that. And we're gonna keep doing everything we're doing. We're doing some great things down here. Three years ago, I, we, we spoke, I was bragging about this is the safest border, safest county on the southwest border. I can't say that no more. In fact, it's the opposite. And it's not because we failed. We're doing more than we've ever done on the border. But the reality is the cartels are doing more than they ever have on the border because they're allowed to do it.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:26):
Okay. You said that, you said the good, the bad and the ugly, ugly. Let's, let's talk about the ugly and the vulnerabilities that you mentioned. When you, when you say that, what does it mean? A listener who's listening to this, it, they hear those words, but what are you seeing?
Mark Dannels (05:44):
So it's, it's, it's easy to describe what goes on in Cochise County. We're located in the southeast corner of the state. We're the 38th largest landmass county in the country. So we're just under 6,300 square miles. We're big, uh, big by landmass. So you take that and you put that into a playing field for the cartels. And I, when I speak to you and any other groups, I speak on public safety, which is community safety, national security, and then humanitarian. So you look at the big picture, the non-political numbers, I call 'em the statistics since under this administration, the historical numbers, 6 million people, I mean, over a million got aways. I mean, these got aways. These are people we don't even know who are, that can't give up because it's catch and release. Go give up, you get to stay in the country and you get your benefits.
(06:28):
Not even the case. These people are, can't give up cuz they're aggravated portee countries of interest or, uh, they got high criminals, uh, backgrounds. They just can't run up to a border patrol agent and say, here I am, let me be in the country. So that's what I see in my county with that kind of element coming through Cochise County and cartels that are exploiting them with it. That's a vulnerability to every one of my citizens. And we've seen that through death from 16 year olds, uh, killing, uh, one of my citizens at a hundred plus miles. Deadly speeds all the way to the pursuits of daily pursuits. Last year alone in 2022, we arrested 1,578 people in my county for state violations. These aren't immigration charges. These are state violations all the way from murder down to misdemeanor crimes. Out of the 15 78, 1500 were US citizens that drove from all over this country through social media, the primary, uh, marketing tool here to come to Cochise County to participate in an international crime.
(07:33):
78 were foreign born, which means those were the migrants that committed state crimes. And these are just state crimes. So in, that's unheard of. So 40 to 44%, 40 to 44% of my geo population in 2022 was border of crimes. My jail holds 302. And that's double bunked really. We're really established for 160. So now put 1578 in a year, just border crimes. We used to run 5%, maybe 10% on average. We went up four times that. Those are vulnerabilities. And, and I'm a, as a sheriff, enforces the rule of law and believes in the rule of law. We go after 'em. We've got interdiction teams, we have financial crimes teams, we have human trafficking teams, we have everything out there trying to come combat at this. But unfortunately, I, uh, governor Ducey stood with us on this. We have a new governor that right now hasn't taken anything from us. I've met with her. Uh, I need her as a governor, as a partner. But what I don't have is our federal government. I do not have our federal government. And I, and I say that, let me just say this. Jenny Beth, the board of patrol agents is not what I'm talking about. CBP is not what I'm talking about. Those are our partners and I applaud them for what they're going through. I'm talking about the bureaucrats in Washington DC that can't accept the fact that we have a border that needs media attention.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:52):
Um, you said 1500 of the 1578 were US citizens who were coming here. What, what were they doing? What are the kinds of crimes they're being charged with?
Mark Dannels (09:02):
So a lot of the people we see outta that 1578 and um, let me stick to the 1500, the US citizens that are legally in this country. Cuz they're US citizens recruited through social media. They come here, they get mom and dad's cars, family car, stolen car. They bring drugs down because a lot of 'em are addicted to drugs, stolen weapons, stolen cars, warrants. So a lot of people we see have criminal baggage. These are people that have spent their life within the criminal element, seeing an easy way to make $2,500 per person used to be about 500 to a thousand to drive per person from Cochise County to Phoenix, Arizona. Three hours, less than three hours, pick up four, you can see it now. It's up to $2,500 per person. It's lucrative. The cartels have the will and they have the budget. Over here we have the federal government saying we don't have a problem. So you can see where my challenges begin right there. If it wasn't for us doing what we were doing, we'd be flooded. We'd be flooded. And those other sheriffs, and there's only small percentage and other law enforcement elected officials that failed to accept we have a crisis on our border. Shame on them. And I'll say that, shame on them.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:17):
Those people can make $10,000 for a three hour drive. If they have four people at $2,500.
Mark Dannels (10:23):
That's what they advertise. And we have the, we watch it all the time. It's very sad.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:28):
And those are people who would be, um, the got aways. So they're the, the, the criminal element, the the people from, from countries that are of interest to America, the, these are not families and children.
Mark Dannels (10:42):
We see about 80, 90% of single male adults and ages 20 to 30. That's the primary. About 10% is a female and maybe small percentage of a child. We very seldom see children and in our county, but again, this is 100% controlled by the criminal cartels to enter the south side, Jenny Beth to come into the region, uh, in Mexico, just to enter the region to be considered to be trafficked and smuggled is $1,200 is what we're told. And then another starts around six, 7,000 perion to be, uh, smuggled from Mexico into the US and my county.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:20):
When you say that, I think there are people who, um, may be listening who maybe they're in suburban areas and and they just, they don't know what the border is like. They, they just don't understand because they haven't been been down here. So it's sort of outta sight outta mind. I I think there are people in America who don't understand or believe that there really are cartels in Mexico that are controlling the border. And it's hard to fathom that because we expect governments to control a border, not not criminal elements, but it really is cartels. Correct?
Mark Dannels (11:56):
Oh, a hundred percent. These criminal cartels, which are invisible to some cuz they don't deal with them. You go back to I'm from the Midwest. You go back to the Midwest, you go anywhere in the interior of our country. And it's almost what they believe, what the national news tells 'em. And I respect that we should believe our national news, but unfortunately they're not telling the story. You, you're telling the story with me today. You're asking me. But most of 'em don't. They tell it, they, they minimize it. Why we have drugs flowing in our country. Arizona leads fentanyl seizures, which is about five to 10% what that we grab 90 percent's getting away and going into communities that get into our schools, our children, our families, and our communities. And they're killing them. I mean, why we're not talking about that. Why we're not talking about children being trafficked and exploited for sex.
(12:46):
Boys, men, women, all that. Um, these people that pay six, $7,000 per head to be smuggled here, they don't have that money. So they're servant to these criminal cartels that are in pretty much every community in the United States. At what point do we stand up and say, we're gonna take this fight to the cartels and we're gonna steal our borders and we're gonna go after these criminal cartels and treat 'em like you need to be treated as criminals. But we, we don't, we're acting like they don't exist. They do exist. We see it every day in my county.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:14):
Fentanyl, you said 300 deaths a day with fentanyl or a year with fentanyl in America.
Mark Dannels (13:21):
300 a day. A day a day. 300 Americans a day.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:25):
A um, I I wanna do the math very quickly on that. I I am not that fast with math. That is a lot of, it's a lot of people. Um, how is it that the 300 people who are dying each day in America from fentanyl are, how is it that what's happening here in Cochise County actually is affecting those, the, the families of those 300 people,
Mark Dannels (13:49):
There's 31 designated border counties on the Southwest Border Sheriff's Association. There's 31 of us. Every county's dealing with this. This is not Cochise County. These cartels, the different elements, different components of the cartels, different fashions of them, our pushing product through. So multiply that times 31, that's just the southwest border doesn't include our coastal areas of northern that's bringing illicit drugs, um, poison to our communities. You look at that and the 300 seems more realistic. And that's how you look at that. Not just Cochise County. And we see it here too. We see it in 2019 on the southwest border. There, there was 2,600 pounds of fentanyl seized in 2019. Last year was 14,000 pounds.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:32):
Say the numbers one more
Mark Dannels (14:33):
Time. So in 2019, to show you where we've gone just in four years, uh, or actually three years, there was 2,600 pounds of fentanyl on the southwest border last year. It was 14,000 pounds. That in itself is non-political but epidemic. Why we're not addressing that. Why the secretary, when he says it's effectively secured, when you have 14,000 pounds that we know of that was seized, what's getting away, which is estimated around 90% dea. It's a dea federalistic, 90% to 95% of all the listed drugs in the country come through the southwest border. We know that. Why are we not doing a better job? Unfortunately, we have taken the public safety, national security, and humanitarian and set that aside for what they call is how do we transition people faster through our border? How do we express lane it through our Southwest border? Why all this criminal behavior is being exploited every day that we see as local law enforcement talking to my sheriffs in Texas, Arizona, and beyond, we talk about every day my, the interior sheriffs that are dealing with deaths. Ohio, for example, we've had a ton of Ohio sheriffs come out here and spend time with us because the epidemic, they're dealing with fentanyl and drug overdoses in their state is, is incredible. But if I don't hear anybody else talking about it, why not? It's a sad, we need to join forces, local, state, and federal, unite this problem and fix it. And until we do, it's only gonna get worse.
Jenny Beth Martin (16:06):
How many, how many pounds have been seized this year so far? In 2023?
Mark Dannels (16:12):
I just got the stat spot. I didn't look at 'em, so I don't know. Okay. But I can tell you this much. It hasn't gone down. It's going up. I think last in two years ago, we had around 5.5 million pills. I think last year there was 20 million pills, one pill kills and fentanyl. And I know we're over that this year. And I don't, I don't wanna say the, I don't wanna say the wrong number. This is an epidemic and I always said that several times, but I'm gonna keep saying until our federal government steps up and says, Hey sheriff, we wanna be there with you and the 3000 sheriffs in this country to fix it. Mayors, governors, police chiefs, we all need to do that. That's who we serve as our citizens. And right now it's, it's piecemealed. We will never solve it this way.
Jenny Beth Martin (16:56):
Th what kind of crime do you have here in your county and how, from the border that affects the citizens who live here in this county? What are their lives and property being impacted?
Mark Dannels (17:10):
Well, we've had death and mainly our deaths come from the pursuits. So the cartels, when they recruit these 1578 to come down here, when they come down here to commit these crimes, they pick up the, the migrants. Our migrants are camouflaged from booty to headgear, which foot gear to headgear, a hundred percent camouflaged. They wait along the shoulders and as soon as the car pulls up, beeps the horn, they jump in the backseat, the trunks, whatever it is, and they go a hundred miles an hour. My deputies, other law enforcement, border patrol, we do interdiction. Sadly though, uh, it always doesn't turn out positive. That's when citizens get hurt. Citizens get killed, people are left vulnerable out there. And that's where the tragedy, last year alone, I think we booked 180 people, just the ones we got our hands on from running from us. But just cuz they get outta the county doesn't mean we don't go after 'em. We actually go to their registered owner, the vehicles, houses and Phoenix, wherever it goes, we follow up. That's a partnership we have. So for us to, if you commit a crime here for border or any crime, we're coming after you. You just don't get a free I made, I made the county line. We have statewide jurisdiction. We use that.
Jenny Beth Martin (18:19):
Um, the, the next thing that I wanna talk about is some of the changes that you were doing here in your county that have been rather innovative to help, help deal with the problem. And you're rolling that out even to other, other counties beyond Cochise. Can you talk about some of those?
Mark Dannels (18:38):
In 2017, we set up a virtual system, a virtual, uh, like a physical barrier. But we made a virtual barrier. So we took that under a private public land partnership. So we went to the ranchers first and said, Hey, we, we, we started the program on our ranch. It's like 10 mile, 50 mile ranch. And within six months we had 39 drug smugglers in custody. They were all prosecuted, a hundred percent prosecution put him in prison. We expanded that to the whole county, um, on the border to include interior of our county. And I'll tell you a story with that one. We had a drug smuggler that smuggled drug 60 miles north, 70 miles north to a relay point. He broke off from the group. Once he, uh, transferred his drugs, we had him on our camera system. Um, he broke off in the group as we're going after that, he actually, uh, went to a national park, uh, uh, national park.
(19:35):
One of the female park employees was cleaning the bathrooms. He, uh, took a rock, bashed her head in and left her for that, stole her federal government car. We ended up arresting him. Uh, six months later. Uh, he got away that day. We didn't know the crime app till three hours after the fact. So we had a big head start on us. He's now serving 70 some years because we had him on our camera system. That's where I suspect this camera is. It's a great system. We now expand the camera all the way to the California state line covering the whole southern border and some of our interior in Arizona and into New Mexico. So we watch that camera system 24 7 for any intrusions in our country and our private lands and those that are most vulnerable on our border, like our ranchers and farmers. Last year we had 66,000 encounters on our camera system alone.
(20:20):
I think we ran about, I think it was 39% apprehension rate. Now you're probably saying that's a low apprehension. 60% got away. Think about if we didn't have anything, all of 'em got away. Right. And these, these are seems so simple. People look in the Midwest. Well, that's a simple, how'd you get away? Well, we're pretty vast out here. Yeah. With the mountains, the deserts, uh, the waterway, the trains all throughout the southwest border. It's, it's a challenge. So for us to do that, it's been very remarkable. So our camera system works. It truly works. And it gets bad guys before they can commit bad crimes.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:52):
Um, it it, it is really interesting when I was here before you had launched it, but now you've really just expanded it. And the, the people who own private property, they're okay having cameras on their, their land and
Mark Dannels (21:07):
There's no, there's no better protection. I mean, you look at our ranching community, I mean, that's a partnership. That's true community policing. If you wanna look at a policing concept, that's one. When we can protect our citizens for their quality of life, we're doing something very positive and they know we have their back. And like I said, taking that beyond the walls of Cochise County, I think it's pretty remarkable. And we're gonna keep doing it. We have over a thousand cameras deployed. These are complimentary, complimentary cameras that work directly with the federal government. We have integrity built within our system. We also have artificial intelligence in our system. And then that expands every day. So these cameras are pretty sophisticated. And what we see, they're, as soon as you pop up on a camera, then we watch you and we have areas and, and then we bring in resources throughout the southwest border to get you. So yeah, it's not a free ride anymore in Arizona.
Jenny Beth Martin (21:55):
That's good. That's very good to to know. How many miles are of the border are in Cochise?
Mark Dannels (22:00):
I think about 3 50, 3 47, something like that.
Jenny Beth Martin (22:03):
And of, of those, how much is private property versus government property? Tribal property,
Mark Dannels (22:10):
We don't have any tribal lands. Okay. So the 83 miles are completely, uh, we police it all here in Cochise County. So only sovereign land is our military installation for Chico.
Jenny Beth Martin (22:19):
And then is any of it, um, ranchers on the border or Yes,
Mark Dannels (22:24):
We have ranchers on the border. And, um, they have the easement, the federal government's easement of course. And then the ranch land starts. So once you cross the border illegally, you're pretty much ours. You're in, you're in Coch County. Whether the federal government's got that easement or not, we're already looking at you. We're looking at you. And we're deploying at that. And just to clarify, if we see a public safety issue, like there's weapons involved with the, uh, the subjects, the migrants, or we see drugs, which is even harder today cuz all the hard drugs or we see a child. We had, we had an infant on the backpack of a smuggler. So we deployed resources. Anytime we see a humanitarian issue, we see a public safety issue or a national security issue. We're gone. My team is deploying and we deploy multi of our resources like border patrol deploy, we'll deploy. So we doing everything we can to get those situations under control. If it's just an immigration issue and we keep doing everything beyond that. Yeah. Then we, um, we'll let border patrol know we're partners. We have to work together. The recipe of success in Cochise County has been our relationship with state, local, and federal working together.
Jenny Beth Martin (23:26):
And when it comes to border patrol here in this county, the people who are working in this county do they live here and they care about the county as well, I guess is what I, I really wanna highlight. It's not just that they live here. They, they're part of the, this is their community.
Mark Dannels (23:42):
This is their home. You're exactly right. Jane Beth, this is their, their kids go to school here. I mean, these are our neighbors. We're in this together. I mean, truly people think, well, sheriff, why do you do so much? Well, first of all, I've lived here a long time, been here since 1983. This is my home. This is my job. And the people gave their trust in me to protect their quality of life, their freedoms and liberties. I take that real serious. And some people think I'm over the top. You can think that all you want, but if you're a victim of crime, you want me coming. So
Jenny Beth Martin (24:08):
Well, we want people who will protect mm-hmm.
Mark Dannels (24:30):
Right. Let me say this. Um, I say CBP are the experts of border security. That's their mission. That's their, uh, statutory authority. Sheriffs and police chiefs were, we're and law enforcement locally. We're the experts of communities. What a recipe of success. If we use it wisely, we have lanes put together. We got a nice highway there for the people. We respect that. So we share each other's authorities. We have an operation, we started last March, uh, called Safe Streets. So we actually go out board, patrol ride with us. So we stop a smuggler, we get a smuggler stopped. Whatever happens, somebody's gonna tow the car. I promise you.
(25:17):
Sometimes they get hit by both border patrol. So we gotta smuggler driver. They will process him under federal law, then they turn 'em back over to us and we charge 'em under state law. There's a new law in Arizona called smuggling for profit. You smuggle for profit. We can charge you for a class two felony. To give you an example, going back to who we are in Cochise County, at one time we were the only county in the whole state charging people for that thanks to our county attorney. September 28th, 2022 till December 31st, 2022. So like three month window, that law went to effect. We arrested 139 people for smuggling in Cochise County. And I think we're at a hundred percent prosecution, all of them. So come to smuggle in this county and see what we're gonna do to you. If we get your hands on you, you're gonna go to jail and we're gonna charge you. So we took it very serious. And we do that today too. So again, they're getting charged by us. They get charged by the federal government, and I'm telling you, so, and they still keep coming. I'm like, why you keep coming here? There are counties that say we don't have a problem. Go visit those counties. Right. We don't do it here.
Jenny Beth Martin (26:21):
And has anyone answered that? Why do the cartels keep sending 'em through here?
Mark Dannels (26:26):
Because they don't care. This is, um, a disposable crime to them. They don't care about these people.
Jenny Beth Martin (26:31):
So if they're arrested, if they die on the way, it doesn't,
Mark Dannels (26:35):
They're, there's lines down there. Cartels made, what was it? $2.6 billion last year. Gross is what they estimated amount they made. They don't care about one or two people. They don't care about 10 people. So if we get them, if we get some drugs, remember we're only touching five, 10% of the drugs. Nine percent's going through. So, and yeah, they, they got the will, they got the budget and they got the labor force to do it. And they got people to wanna come in our country. Some for good intent, some for real bad intent. I can't judge the difference. I judge the law. So,
Jenny Beth Martin (27:09):
Which is what we have to do. Yes. Um, the law should be the law and justice should be blind. And that's right. And if we don't like the law, then we work through the legislative bodies to change, to change the law. Um, what, what kind of changes would you like to see from Washington DC
Mark Dannels (27:27):
The number one thing is I need President Biden, vice President Harris and Secretary Mayorca to prioritize our southern borders and all our borders. That's number one. Prioritize it. Let the American people know that number one priority is the safety of Americans. And you do that securing your borders. Number two is you gotta put, uh, consequences and action behind it. It doesn't do any good to say, I'm gonna secure the border. And then there's no consequence or action. And you gotta be transparent and truthful with American people too. You can't say it's effectively secured. And people believe that. And people are dying every day at, at alarming rates. People are exploiting our borders at an alarming rate. People come across with no consequences illegally. And then they're left to stay here. What message are we selling? Telling the people the green light's on at the border?
(28:11):
The other thing we need to do is, uh, we need enhance judicial oversight on our border. We need to enhance judicial immigration officers, asylum, the officers at every port of entry and beyond our southwest border. If you do that and you have expedited immigration hearings, nine out of 10 would be deported right away. Right. Right. That takes away the carrot, takes away the reason to be here right now, they're not even court dates. Some people this is, here you go, right? Pre covid right there. They're doing that. You didn't even have a court date. What message are we telling people they keep coming is what it is. So until we started enforcing the rule of law on our southwest border and quit plain David Copperfield, sorry, I have to use your name, sir. Uh, with the illusions of what's going on on our border and telling them people the things that aren't happening that are really happening down there, you know, and these countries know it, that's why they keep coming and groves. But when you have thousands come across the border, but you're more worried about, worried about the optics of looking at all those people. Let's get 'em out here as quick as we can the week after Covid
Jenny Beth Martin (29:20):
Mm-hmm.
Mark Dannels (29:20):
Jenny Beth Martin (30:10):
I I think it's outta sight, outta mind. They just can, they score political points and go back to doing whatever it is that they wanna work on. Um, or whatever it is that they do. I think just how can they get reelected? That's all they care about. And solving this problem doesn't act. They don't think it helps them get reelected.
Mark Dannels (30:30):
And Jenny Beth, you hit it on the head and I said that earlier, their normal one goal is to get reelected. How sad is that? Where's your oath of office? The oath of office doesn't have any political r or d or I or anything else next to it. It's an oath to serve the people in this country and protect their freedoms and liberties and support the constitution. If people could read that every day before they start their sessions in congress, every governor, every sheriff, every mayor, that's a
Jenny Beth Martin (30:54):
Good idea.
Mark Dannels (30:55):
If they could go back and look at that and maybe look at each other and get a mirror label, look at themselves and then do your business, we'd be a different country. Cuz we, we forgot what we're doing in this country. It's sad.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:07):
That is a really good idea. What, you mentioned that you've had sheriffs from Ohio come here and take a look at the border. What lessons are they learning after they've been here? How does that benefit them?
Mark Dannels (31:20):
Understanding, first of all, where it starts. It's kinda like going back in history. If we look at history, that's the best indicator of future. Same thing here. If you, if you can go back and look and see what we're dealing with here, looking at our prevention and how we're trying to do things. Our intervention, our prevention, our education, and our enforcement. Look at all that. And then how does that affect Ohio and how can we work better? You know, as chairman of the National Sheriff Association for Border Security, I work with sheriffs all over the country and working with states and trying to work together. The more that we can engage each other, the more that we can work together on programs. Our human trafficking is a prime example. It's a brand new unit we're doing, um, where what we see here and what happens in Florida, what happens in Dallas, Texas, Sacramento, California.
(32:14):
We're transient to the cartels. Get through Cochise County. That crazy sheriff there. We got it made. We can exploit people. But if we can work together with these urban areas that a lot of these trafficking, uh, victims are going to, we can stop it here. They can share and tell with us financial crime. Chase the money, you'll find the crime. We're doing that throughout the country. We just did it now Ohio. And we're gonna continue. He stayed in Florida. We're gonna keep doing that because the money that comes from these communities back into Mexico mm-hmm.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:49):
It, it seems to me as I'm talking to you about this, that those sheriffs who are from other parts of the country, if they're coming here and they're understanding the problem and then can go back to their local community and talk to their constituents because they also normally are elected, maybe always are elected, um, talk to their constituents and say the problem we're facing right here in our local high school in, um, George Washington High School or whatever the high school is with, with drugs right here. It, part of the reason we have this problem is because of what I just witnessed down at the border in Arizona. And let me explain to you how Yes, sir. And then, and then after they've said that, say one of the things we need to be doing as a community here in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Idaho, all the other states around the country is saying, we need to call our elected officials in Washington, DC and tell them that the longer they don't fix that problem on the border, the more, the more it's harming the their own constituents right here. And try to, to tie it together a little bit more so that the sheriffs can help get people who maybe normally aren't politically active to put pressure on the elected officials. And by politically active, I mean just like picking up the phone and making phone calls.
Mark Dannels (34:11):
I was gonna correct you on the political part of it. Yeah,
Jenny Beth Martin (34:12):
Yeah. Because it's not getting at the vote. But it's, it's, um, it's, it's lobbying. Grassroots lobbying or
Mark Dannels (34:19):
Well, there's two there. Let me add a thought to you. If I could look at New York, mayor Adams, look at Chicago, look at the, uh, Denver. Now these towns have all said they're sanctuary cities. So they, they turn the green light on. But what they did not do is recognize what we're dealing down here for the last two years, we have been silent about it. I have not been silent about it, but they turned their heads on us cuz they lived in a silo that that's not my problem. This border's America's problem. And until we all start realizing that it's gonna get worse and what those cities are dealing with now and they're crying out, we need help. New York has more logistical resources than probably my whole state
Jenny Beth Martin (35:04):
You, you're right. And how arrogant of the city councils in those large cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles. That's right. Denver. Um, or the, where it's happening in Oregon and New York. Chicago. How arrogant of them to say, we'll be a sanctuary city. You can can send everyone here and we'll take care of them cuz we love everybody, whatever their phrase might be. Without understanding that if you actually really love everybody, you're gonna be paying attention to what's going on to your fellow Americans down on the border. Because you guys are the front line.
Mark Dannels (35:39):
Well, we're all Americans. That's right. And we're all community servants. I don't care how big, how small, how rural, how urban that we serve. We're all doing it for the good of this country. And if we don't recognize that soon it's gonna be so displaced and the deadly results are already occurring every day. We have to start getting back together and get back to grassroots. Mayor Adams, you're a, you're a leader in that one of the largest cities in the country. I think it is the largest city. Yes. Um, at what point do you stand up and say, I need to get down to the border and start talking to all the sheriffs down there. Not a show and tell visit, but get down there and see what's going on in the border and how can I be a factor here? How can I could be a factor to help New York and Denver, Chicago, the state where I grew up. How can we all work together on this? Until that happens though, we're in trouble and the cartels love that, that we're not coming together
Jenny Beth Martin (36:30):
Because it benefits them. You bet. Mayor Adams is from law enforcement. He has a law enforcement background. He knows better. He knows better. He can pretend like he doesn't know better, but he knows better. He knows that when you enforce the law, you have less, you wind up having less crime because having consequences makes people much less or much more reluctant to commit the crime in the first place.
Mark Dannels (36:56):
Let me say this, and I've called him out on national media with that. You wore the badge, he took the oath to protect your community. And you act like you've never had that on the way you're acting. But one thing that always gets me is why are you not calling out the president of the United States and Congress more? Yeah. Because we're the same party. And so we don't wanna offend politically, I don't care about your political party. I've called the Republicans out. I'll call the Democrats out. If we don't call out people that fail to do their job, then I call them political at that point. Or they fail to recognize a problem because I don't have a border problem. Now you're, you're drinking the political Kool-Aid. Bottom line is there ain't a county on the southwest border is not dealing with this border problem. So when you turn your head or use a rational excuse, irrational, I should say excuse why we don't have a border problem. Everybody's dealing with this and uh, and we have an obligation to sheriff's, police chiefs, mayors to do the right thing.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:49):
Absolutely. You, you do. Um, okay, we, I I know that you've got some other appointments this afternoon, so I wanna make sure that, that I'm very respectful of your time. I have, um, two other questions I wanna end about talking about what you're doing right now today. But before I get to that, on, on the way here, we made a small detour in Tombstone and which is in your, your county. Yes. And Wyatt, or he might be one of the most famous sheriffs from from history in America. And you're, you're the sheriff in the same county he was sheriff in,
Mark Dannels (38:23):
He actually was never a sheriff. He was the marshal. Okay. He was Marshall. Yes. Everybody thinks he was though. And I, I get that. But, um, but he's a law man, a Cochise County law man. So let's face that. And the fact that him and John Hamm, the first sheriff of Cochise County since 1881. I'm the 26th sheriff since 1881. So it's what an honor, what an historical honor to be serving the people here besides the fact they, they gave me their trust. And I take that sacred. I I I'm very humbled, but the history that comes with this, you know, the movie Tombstone and the Cowboys and the Herps and all that. It just, I I it's a treasure, it's truly a treasure to be talking to you today as a sheriff.
Jenny Beth Martin (39:01):
It, it, it it's very special. Mm-hmm.
Mark Dannels (39:27):
And, and go back to coachee. You know, we, uh, tribal chief patchy, you know, ter Apache Tribal Chief Cochise Geronimo here. Yes. I mean, you had, um, the Buffalo soldiers here, the military base, the, I mean, I just spoke on this last Saturday and gave a presentation on the, the history of our patch, which has cochise on it. I mean, so I was so honored to do that. But just, there's, we're so rich Yes. In so many areas. And, uh, but it is, it's, it's a sacred area. And I, and I, but again, it goes back to why I got so much passion here. This is my home. This is why I raised our children. My wife and I raised our children here. My friends are here, my family's here. I just, no, this is home and I'm gonna, I'm gonna guard as much as I can until the voters say, Hey, we're tired. Are you sheriff? Then I all you was telling me, I don't, you know, to be, I I'll walk away, but after 39 years and I'm gonna do one more term. And I love what I do.
Jenny Beth Martin (40:17):
It, it's, it's very good. Now, the very last thing, um, you ha you mentioned that you are opening a new facility here in the county and it's one of the first of, its, its kind. Just tell people about what, what's going to be happening here. So
Mark Dannels (40:33):
My team and I, uh, we're visionary. I push 'em hard,
Jenny Beth Martin (40:38):
Which is evidenced by the, the camera system that Right.
Mark Dannels (40:42):
Since I've been sheriff, we've brought in over a hundred million dollars in the last 11 years, over $100 million to, to, to initiate, develop, and create programs to make our community safe. Not in the back of our taxpayers, but, and majority were state. Last year we brought in 37 million, I believe it was from Governor Ducey, just to see the vision as we go forward. Part of that money was to acquire a border regional border operations center, which will, uh, entail our interdiction team, all our special operations, all our law enforcement partners, state, local and federal human trafficking, financial crime, anything has to do with border victims. And making my county safe. And that'll control that operation center will help, will impact the all 15 counties in the state of Arizona, New Mexico and beyond. And then our partners throughout the United States that we're gonna partner with, talking about the human trafficking, talking about the drug smuggling, the financial crime part of it.
(41:38):
Again, we're transient. We're, we're a hub of the entry or the gateway to the entry. But when it gets to a final destination, we wanna be partners with everybody in the United States. Cause we want the same criminals locked up as they do. So. So we're excited about that. We're supposed to sign the paperwork yesterday to take custody of the building. 36,000 square foot building. We can also process, uh, our camera room. Everything will be in there. We have civilian investigators to, for example, we get a cell phone from a smuggler. We'll get a search warrant, rip the phone, we'll gather all the intel, goes into an in intel base, work in to say where these destinations are all at. We'll share that with our partners. So we're going after 'em, we're going after the cartels. They probably won't like me. I don't get a Christmas card from 'em. I, I, I, good. Well, the day I get one, you better worry. But yes, I, I
Jenny Beth Martin (42:21):
Will
Mark Dannels (42:22):
Jenny Beth Martin (42:41):
You're being a leader and you're showing how it can be done and how it should be done. And if Washington DC won't do what they're supposed to do, and the president of the United States won't be the leader he should be, and he actually campaigned and said he would be, no, then, then you be the leader and show the rest of the country how it can be done.
Mark Dannels (43:01):
If every elected leader would do their part, we could get it back together. We, we really do. But having a president of the United States, the world's most powerful leader in, he has to step up. President Biden, you watching this podcast, I ask you to step up. I do, do it for a, the 7,000 cops out there working communities. I mean, and I'm gonna share a story with you and, and, and hope you don't mind. I was in DC back in February, and um, I testified while I went to national sheriffs. I testified the following month in front of Congress, Jim Jordan on the border. And I told them, I'll tell you the same thing. I told them, I didn't come 2000 miles to share my politics. I came 2000 miles a share of community and a reality with you. But I had the opportunity to sit down with the FBI director, Chris Ray, and we talked about the border.
(43:53):
He reached out to me. And, uh, so I, handful of sheriffs and us, we sat down. But at the end, I asked this question, I said, I'm gonna shift gears with you director, uh, the 229 cops killed in this country last year, and I'm gonna put you under the spot here. How many funerals did the president of the United States, the vice president or his cabinet, attend out those 229? And you don't have to answer that, but I wanna make a point with that statement. He made a comment to me. He goes, sheriff, that's close to my heart. I said, what do you mean by that director? He goes, any cop in this country killed? I called the sheriff or the police chief and give my condolences. I said, I'm asking, I need, I'm, I'm gonna challenge you, director. I wanna challenge you that on behalf of national sheriffs, that you partner with every sheriff in this country, every police chief in this country, let's get the federal government back in supporting our community law enforcement to put their life on the line every day. Right now, the federal government's not there for us. We need them there for us, but we need the leadership to come with it. So I share that story with you because if you're listening to this podcast, the best thing you can do for us is support law enforcement. Let 'em know that come out there and rally behind us. We need that support right now. Cause right now our profession needs that love.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:04):
That is exactly right. So we're gonna do all that we can through Tea Party, Patriots action to help get the word out and to educate citizens even further about how they can help, help you and help their local law enforcement so that we can try to solve these problems. If Washington DC won't lead, then we have to be the leaders we are looking for.
Mark Dannels (45:26):
Always says it starts in, in the morning. You wake up, it starts in the community. When you go to bed, it ends in the community. And I don't care what level you're leading, it all ends in the community. Good point. Thank you.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:35):
Well, thank you so much Sheriff Jans for being with us today. Thank you for opening up your office for us, and I look forward to coming back and seeing your new building once you get that
Mark Dannels (45:44):
Going. Anytime. Thank you, teth. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody.
Narrator (45:47):
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.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:07):
If you enjoyed this episode and want to stop Freedom Thieves from turning our country into a communist nightmare, be sure to click the thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. And while you're at it, click the notifications bell to get an alert every time we post a new episode.