Rebel News Podcast - February 14, 2024


EZRA LEVANT ｜ The chief justice heard our case against David Lametti deleting his government X account


Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

168.58647

Word count

6,669

Sentence count

536

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Rebel News lawyer Chad Williamson talks about the Supreme Court of Canada hearing in the case against David Lamedi, the former justice minister who is trying to get us to destroy all of our government records. He also talks about why he thinks it's a good idea to have a court-appointed lawyer representing us.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.080 Hello, my friends. Today, I'm in Calgary, just finished a four-hour hearing in the case of
00:00:06.400 Rebel News versus David Lamedi. We're trying to stop him from destroying government records,
00:00:11.200 so we're going to have a debrief with the lawyer, Chad Williamson, one of two lawyers Rebel News
00:00:16.120 had. That's a head, but first let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's
00:00:20.220 the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight
00:00:24.740 bucks a month, and that really makes a difference for us because we don't get any government money
00:00:28.620 and it shows, so we rely on you. All right, here's today's podcast.
00:00:48.580 Tonight, we battle David Lamedi in court for four hours. We'll have the debrief with our lawyer,
00:00:55.040 Chad Williamson. It's February 13th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:02.060 Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:14.220 Well, I am sitting in the office of the lawyer, Chad Williamson. We had another lawyer on the file
00:01:18.960 too. Scott Nichol was his name, and literally minutes ago, we ended the four-hour legal battle
00:01:25.180 in the federal court of Canada. As you may know, we are suing David Lamedi, the former and disgraced
00:01:32.300 justice minister under Justin Trudeau, the one who invoked the Emergencies Act illegally,
00:01:37.740 unconstitutionally, and shortly after it was ruled to be unconstitutional and illegal,
00:01:43.900 he quit parliament in a huff, and he decamped for a private law firm. But on his way out the door,
00:01:51.160 he tried to delete his Twitter account. But when he's the government minister, and he's got that
00:01:55.500 little gray checkmark, that is not his account. That is the government's account, the public account,
00:02:00.100 the government account, and that is actually against various laws, including laws touching on the
00:02:05.240 library and archives of this Canada. Well, we went to court right away. We hired Chad and Scott,
00:02:11.480 and they worked all weekend, and we had an emergency application to get a judge to put it
00:02:16.820 back up. Lamedi bent the knee, and he put it back up and said, oh, you caught me. You caught me with
00:02:22.680 the hand in the cookie jar, but you know, I put it back up. Can I please slink away now? And we said
00:02:28.360 no. And today is actually the third hearing in two weeks. And here to talk about it is one of the two
00:02:34.300 lawyers representing Rebel News. Chad, how are you doing? I'm doing okay, Ezra. It's been a grueling
00:02:38.920 two weeks, and a pretty crazy day in court today, hearing a cauldron of peculiarities. I think I
00:02:46.860 called it on the record coming from respondents' counsel. I think there's four government lawyers
00:02:51.460 there arguing that Lamedi, whoa, he's a private citizen, that it's not a government account, and
00:02:57.020 that the Attorney General has no control over the people that control the account, and you know,
00:03:03.120 that reactivating his Twitter account, well, that's not an admission that he did anything wrong,
00:03:07.840 of course, and then also saying, well, you know, we don't want to consent to an order
00:03:12.660 from the court that we not destroy any government records. We'll just give you a lawyer, a lawyer,
00:03:19.280 a little undertaking, a little promise to do that. And it was a long day. We appeared before
00:03:26.940 the Chief Justice Crampton himself, who's a noted and esteemed justice, has been in his position
00:03:36.000 for at least a decade. Very smart guy. Long, excruciating submissions to date. Scott made most
00:03:44.680 of them for us, and I thought that they were very, very precise, concise, but they're also lengthy
00:03:52.660 because there are so many different issues. We've got the Access to Information Act, Ezra. We got
00:03:57.100 the Library and Archives Canada Act. We've got charter submissions concerning rebels, freedom of the
00:04:05.380 press, and freedom of expression as well. And it's so difficult to touch on all that stuff when
00:04:11.580 you only have about an hour to do so. So Scott did a great job. I kind of jumped in where I could.
00:04:17.720 Then the respondents got to go, and it was just, it was bizarre. It was quite bizarre.
00:04:23.420 You know, here's the two things that struck me the most. We've had a couple hearings on this
00:04:29.400 matter already before a different judge, and they were about an hour. They were less than an hour.
00:04:34.640 So surprise number one, it's the chief judge himself, the big boss, the absolute big boss himself,
00:04:41.820 which I thought about, and I thought, that makes sense, because if you're suing the justice minister,
00:04:47.640 if you're alleging that the former attorney general, lawyer, law professor, and the top
00:04:52.360 lawyer in the country broke the law, you need a very senior judge with a lot of gravity to make
00:04:59.160 that. You don't want a judge who's just appointed. And if you're going to weigh for or against him,
00:05:04.120 you need a serious, sober-minded judge, a smart judge, also a judge who can weigh. How's this going
00:05:08.140 to look in terms of the rule of law? Do we let a judge, a former justice minister, off the hook
00:05:13.040 because he's politically connected? Or are we actually going to rule against him? If you take on
00:05:19.040 a justice minister, you better have a weighty guy to do it. So I thought, you know, there's a lot of
00:05:24.480 politics in this case, and they put the big boss on it. I don't know exactly what to make of it,
00:05:29.060 other than they realize this is a big case. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest with you.
00:05:32.520 Oh, no. Me neither. We see in a litany of previous litigation going back four years that have had to
00:05:39.960 do with civil rights. We've seen relatively, maybe not junior, but relatively unknown judges presiding
00:05:48.200 over fairly wide-reaching and monumental cases. So again, I was shocked. It's starting to make a
00:05:56.540 little bit more sense upon further reflection. That's why I think these debriefs are so important.
00:06:01.760 I think the second thing that struck me, and we've already alluded to it,
00:06:04.480 is the first two hearings were less than an hour. This was supposed to be about an hour.
00:06:12.200 In fact, when some of the lawyers, oh, about half an hour, Your Honor, will only be about half an hour.
00:06:18.280 Well, it turned into four hours, and it was a little long. I mean, I got ants to my pants,
00:06:26.000 so I can't sit for four hours. But the judge did, and he asked a lot of questions. So you got a
00:06:30.920 combination of the most senior judge in the entire federal court, literally the chief justice of
00:06:35.340 the federal court, plus four hours. This is going to be a rigorous decision. And I thought it was
00:06:41.340 going pretty well for us. In the end, though, it almost felt like he was going to let Lamedi get away
00:06:47.760 with, like you say, oh, a pinky swear. I swear I won't do anything again, which is much different
00:06:53.520 than a court order. A court order comes with a certain, not just a majesty, but if you mess around
00:06:59.480 the court order, you could be in contempt of court. Whereas an undertaking, a pinky swear,
00:07:05.200 doesn't really cut a lot of ice, given that this same justice finished the one who broke the law
00:07:09.800 by trying to delete his account.
00:07:12.360 I think what's important to remember when we look at this case is this all started because Lamedi,
00:07:20.900 or somebody acting on his behalf, deleted his Twitter account or deactivated it. There's evidence
00:07:26.060 before the court that if it's deactivated for 30 days, they start trashing the data and it's gone.
00:07:30.900 We call it the pipeline of destruction. You made a great comment online that if this was a drinking
00:07:36.860 game where if every time Scott said the pipeline of destruction, well, we'd all be having a lot of
00:07:43.560 fun towards the end of that because of how much we're trying to impress upon the court. But David Lamedi
00:07:49.940 basically put his Twitter account in the bin and the garbage man was on the way to come and pick up
00:07:55.560 the trash.
00:07:56.540 And they argued, oh, well, don't you worry. You don't need a court order now because it's against
00:08:00.620 the law to delete it. Well, yeah, that's the whole point. That's the whole reason we're here is because
00:08:03.540 David Lamedi already broke the law. And you're saying, oh, you don't, you know, fine, you caught us.
00:08:09.320 We just pinky swear we won't do it again. But then later on, one of his lawyers who, I'll use his
00:08:15.520 pronouns, Mr. Grossman, he, him, he, uh, he argued, well, once we've preserved the records
00:08:22.620 of the Library and Archives Canada, Mr. Lamedi can delete it all he likes because he's a private
00:08:27.740 person. He's not bound by the government anymore. So he basically said, ha ha, we are going to delete
00:08:33.080 it. Now he later sort of backed away from that, but I couldn't believe they, they said some things
00:08:37.240 that I found astonishing. They said he's not a government actor. So he's not bound by government
00:08:41.180 laws. And, and Scott Nichol, your colleague said, well, does that mean someone can be a private
00:08:45.400 person, come into public life, do a lot of public decisions, and then just snap his fingers and quit
00:08:51.600 and say, I'm a private person. You can't come at me anymore. I can do what I like. There was,
00:08:55.720 there were, and there were a lot of points I saw the judge really engrossed with, but I, you know,
00:09:00.580 and I don't know how it's going to go. And you don't want to read too much in a judge's expression or,
00:09:04.360 or even his questions, but it really is on a knife's edge, I feel. Yeah. And I do too. I, I always try to
00:09:10.960 get the pulse of the justice as we're going through the case. And, uh, at the start, I really thought
00:09:16.580 that we swung the needle in our favor. Uh, I thought it was going quite well as is often the
00:09:21.440 case when we're against a bunch of government lawyers, uh, especially when we think that we've
00:09:25.820 got a really strong case. I usually find that their submissions also help tip the scales in our
00:09:32.400 favor because usually they're rambling, they're contradictory. Um, you know, they try to kind of
00:09:37.580 reframe our argument for us in a way that is maybe, uh, sometimes disingenuous. So I really felt
00:09:44.160 that it was swinging our way. Um, but just towards the end, uh, I just started getting the feeling
00:09:50.460 that, Hey, wait a second. I think that, um, the justice realizes obviously that this is a very,
00:09:56.660 very important decision. Uh, there is a ton of materials that have been put before the court.
00:10:01.380 He's going to have to go and review them because we've got, uh, these, this network and matrix of,
00:10:07.100 uh, kind of conflicting, um, acts of, uh, of parliament that also have some obligations that
00:10:13.800 are kind of intertwined. We've got charter submissions. Um, you know, we've got obviously
00:10:18.460 a whole bunch of evidence that, you know, there probably is going to be destruction if he goes and
00:10:22.400 does it again, but I heard arguments in there. And again, it's, it's like you're on the battlefield,
00:10:26.120 right? You don't know if, if that bullet whizzed why at one o'clock or at three o'clock, or maybe if
00:10:31.760 it was friendly fire, but I could have sworn, I heard, uh, respondents counsel, uh, for, for Lamedi
00:10:38.140 say, well, you know, there's no obligation for him to keep his Twitter account now that he is, uh,
00:10:43.220 he's a private citizen. So in one breath, he's kind of saying, well, you know, he shouldn't have to
00:10:47.580 keep his Twitter account. He's not, uh, you know, he's not, he's a, he's a private citizen. Now there
00:10:51.480 shouldn't be any court order requiring him to keep his Twitter account. But then by the end of
00:10:56.100 the day saying, well, Hey, we'll totally keep his Twitter account up by way of undertaking. So
00:11:00.840 it was, it was, it was back and forth all day. Uh, it was really hard to kind of wake up from all
00:11:07.860 this and go, well, what the heck happened in that four and a half hours? But I saw there's so much
00:11:11.860 contradictory arguments coming from the respondents, people saying, oh, he's not a government guy. And
00:11:17.520 all the government has no control over these, uh, these Twitter accounts. Very, very, very, very
00:11:22.540 strange day. Whereas I think that, uh, the arguments from Scott and the arguments from
00:11:27.120 rebel and from yourself as an applicant, I actually thought that they were very dialed,
00:11:31.740 very consistent. Um, and who knows, maybe that's going to be enough to, uh, to win the day.
00:11:37.260 Well, we'll probably find out within a couple of days. He really sounded like he wanted to get it
00:11:40.540 out quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if he releases it even this week, which is not normal. I mean,
00:11:45.460 this is an emergency injunction. We're seeking the preservation of the Twitter accounts. Let's
00:11:50.540 see, delete them again. I want to mention one more thing. Uh, we got the court to allow a public
00:11:55.300 zoom link. Uh, I mean, in Canada courts are public, but the idea of having cameras in a court is a
00:12:01.360 fairly novel one. Um, the COVID-19 scare really forced that into happening. So what was exciting
00:12:08.480 is that we emailed out our rebel news viewers, the link to, uh, log in and throughout the hearing,
00:12:14.860 like for four solid hours, there was between 400 and 500 people at any one time, you know,
00:12:20.720 people were coming and going, but I would imagine cumulatively over the course of the four hours,
00:12:25.420 a few thousand people watched, which is impressive to me because I mean, there were some technical
00:12:31.140 legal arguments and lawyers are not the most scintillating people around judges. I don't know
00:12:35.160 how they keep their attention span. I mean, I, I grayed out a few times. I will admit, although I was
00:12:40.160 tweeting the whole time, if people want to see, um, we've got that website, stop the coverup.com
00:12:46.560 because that's really what it is. Why on earth would he delete his Twitter account? And our lawyers
00:12:52.960 again and again said, we're not asking for anything. We're not asking for any money.
00:12:57.100 Obviously we're not asking for let me to actually positively do anything. It's not mandating him to
00:13:03.300 do something. It's prohibiting from doing one thing. Don't delete it. Like just, Hey, just don't
00:13:08.840 delete it. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. We don't want a court order saying don't delete it. We'll give
00:13:13.160 you a pinky swear. And it, and it has also to wiggle room. It's so weird how hard they're fighting
00:13:18.340 this. One thing that I would say, and, and this is not necessarily to look at this, you know,
00:13:23.660 whole thing with a rosy hue and that, well, you know, even if we don't get the injunction, well,
00:13:28.440 you know, we won anyway, but I really want to impress upon everybody that this started as a government
00:13:36.560 minister and government MP leaving office and deleting his Twitter account. In the span of two
00:13:44.180 weeks, we've gone from basically the destruction of what we consider to be government records to
00:13:49.980 Twitter's backup online. And from my understanding, he's tweeting again. So he's using the account.
00:13:55.740 Moreover, we've gotten them from going, well, you know, uh, he, you know, he shouldn't have to use the
00:13:59.920 government account whatsoever to saying, Hey, well, what can we promise to do that will satisfy
00:14:05.860 the court that we're not going to delete the records? And that's from absolutely nothing. If,
00:14:10.520 if rebel did not bring this lawsuit, the 30 days would be gone. The information would be toast. So
00:14:17.420 whether we get the injunction or not, we've moved the needle from deleted records to basically
00:14:24.680 lament his lawyers going, well, what can we do to, you know, try to make sure that, uh, you know,
00:14:29.160 the court doesn't come down on us too hard for what we did, uh, you know, in the past. So I,
00:14:33.720 I think there is a real victory here. Uh, if we get the injunction, that'll be real sweet.
00:14:38.580 Uh, but I think we've already made headway. The Twitter accounts back up, people can access it.
00:14:43.100 And now we've got, uh, Lamedi's lawyers basically saying, Hey, well, we'll make promises to preserve
00:14:48.340 these records. I think what's most interesting is the private so-called direct messages on Twitter.
00:14:54.340 For those who don't know, you can have public tweets. If you're basically like a town crier,
00:14:58.900 here, here, here, here's what I got to say. You want to tell the whole world,
00:15:01.760 but you can make private direct messages to other Twitter followers that the world doesn't see.
00:15:08.600 So it's like having a contact book. It's like Facebook. You can send a private message to,
00:15:12.720 to your friends on Facebook, um, that the, that the world doesn't see. And that's, I think why,
00:15:18.160 what he's afraid of, because we saw during the public order inquiry into the invocation of martial law,
00:15:23.900 that Lamedi, uh, floated the idea of deploying tanks. Now, whether it was a joke, ha ha, that's a joke
00:15:31.700 or not, I don't know, but we caught him saying it and it wasn't in a formal means of communication.
00:15:37.780 It was a text message. So what direct messages did he make on Twitter? Because Twitter is even
00:15:42.980 better than a text message because, um, it's instantly contacting all of your followers. So a lot
00:15:49.100 of pretty much everyone important in the country would follow David Lamedi, any cop, any, a lot of
00:15:55.880 judges, any politician. And like so many people, of course, they want to quote, follow the justice
00:16:02.720 minister. So he doesn't even have to know your phone number. He doesn't have to know your email
00:16:07.240 address. If you are a follower, he can send you a message. I am certain in my bones that he has
00:16:14.180 direct messages that touch on his conduct as a minister. And what I'm afraid of, and what I think
00:16:21.040 he's afraid of, which is why he's fighting so hard, is he doesn't want litigants or the world to see 0.98
00:16:26.880 any more of these send in a tank moments, especially now that his martial law was declared illegal and
00:16:31.680 people are going to start suing. And imagine if Lamedi has some private statements like, oh, get them
00:16:36.660 all, or I don't care, you know, kill them all, let God sort them out. Or like, that's a key. That's a
00:16:42.060 ridiculous example. He wouldn't say that, but some extreme thing that he would say, thinking no one
00:16:48.840 would see it because he was just going to delete his Twitter account. And here we are saying, well,
00:16:52.760 slow down a minute, mister. My favorite aspect of litigation and being a lawyer is what's called the
00:17:00.180 discovery process. Now it's a little different in federal courts, a little different in this case,
00:17:05.280 but one thing that I've seen in acting against the government in cases for over four years
00:17:12.380 is every time we start seeing the evidence, I'm a lawyer, I always say, show me the evidence. And
00:17:17.980 I'm pretty much unwilling to make any definitive statements until I see the evidence. Most of the
00:17:22.840 time when we get the evidence, there's stuff in there, correspondence, buddy, buddy, internal,
00:17:28.540 you know, messages that are, that are pretty gross that might should probably- Locker talk.
00:17:34.740 Yeah. Totally. Totally. I mean, don't think the cabinet minister is going to walk a talk. I mean,
00:17:39.540 it's stressful being a cabinet minister. You want to blow off steam. You're, it's tribal. You want 0.99
00:17:43.340 to beat your chest a bit. You're frustrated. You're dealing with, like, I, like, I'm not saying I blame
00:17:47.560 them, but I'm saying if you are the cabinet minister, if you're the justice minister and you're
00:17:51.020 making decisions and you're using public resources and, uh, like a Twitter account, which is owned by the
00:17:56.180 government, it's not your own, it would be like someone sending emails from work. You send an email
00:18:00.380 from work. It actually belongs to your, to your workplace. It's not private. We, we, we saw, uh,
00:18:05.740 an email from Alberta health services during the Chris Scott stuff that they didn't want to provide.
00:18:10.620 We, we didn't uncover this until cross-examination at trial. And the email said, don't let them know
00:18:17.080 that this is political. When they were trying to obviously shut down these events for what they
00:18:23.180 purported to be public health stuff. And then we got the email saying, Hey, we'll just try not to,
00:18:28.520 you know, let the air off that this is a, that this is political. And I'm paraphrasing the email.
00:18:33.200 Um, but I want to see the emails. I want to see the DMS.
00:18:36.800 You know what? I, I fear that he's already deleted them. I think anyone who would take over
00:18:41.760 from Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jody Wilson-Raybould, I mean, she was a left-wing liberal. There's no doubt
00:18:45.440 about it, but she was ethical enough that when Justin Trudeau said, Hey, can you let some of my buddies
00:18:49.600 SNC-Lavalin out of this criminal prosecution? Can you just let them cut a deal? She said,
00:18:53.820 yeah, no, that's not how justice works. And so he fired her. He fired her over that. And he 0.98
00:19:00.240 therefore obviously looked for the most unethical, ethically malleable Gumby that he could twist,
00:19:06.560 that he could find. And he found David Lomene. David Lomene was hired specifically because he
00:19:10.700 would do whatever Trudeau said. And we saw that when he brought in the Emergencies Act, which the federal
00:19:15.700 court said it was illegal, unconstitutional. So he is a lawbreaker, a serial lawbreaker. He broke
00:19:22.040 the law in the Emergencies Act. He broke the law by wrongly trying to delete his account. And I'm
00:19:26.840 worried this judge is going to let him off with just a slap on the wrist. So just give us a pinky
00:19:30.640 swear, Mr. Lomene. And you're a former justice minister. We're all friends here. We're all part
00:19:36.080 of the same circle. So a pinky swear is good enough. I'm worried about that. Listen, I'm not, 0.82
00:19:39.420 I'm not criticizing the judge. I think the judge paid excellent attention, asked good questions.
00:19:43.440 I'm just worried the judge is going to rule out of a, he's going to give the benefit of the doubt
00:19:48.240 to Lomene. I suppose we're going to see, see what happens. We've seen these cases go both way.
00:19:55.800 One, one of the, one of the lessons that I learned as a, as a young lawyer is you can go into that
00:20:01.620 courtroom a hundred percent wrong and come out right. You can go into that room a hundred percent right
00:20:07.160 and still come out wrong. So I guess only time will tell and we'll see how the judge weighs what's
00:20:12.560 been put before today. Yeah. Well, Chad is one of our winningest lawyers. That's for sure. He was
00:20:17.640 the lawyer. The Rebel News hired in 2021 when Trudeau's hand-picked election debates commission
00:20:22.760 tried to kick us out and we won and we got an injunction requiring them to accredit us.
00:20:27.660 And of course, a few small fun wins when Stephen Gilbeau and three other cabinet ministers,
00:20:33.000 Yara Sachs, Karina Gould and Marcy Ian blocked Rebel News journalists. We went to court and got them
00:20:38.640 smacked down with the consent order. So we are holding the liberals to task. Some are bigger than
00:20:43.520 others. Some of those wins are more important than others, but they all have one thing in common.
00:20:50.640 We're alone in the court. Well, there were 500 people watching the whole time,
00:20:55.420 but when I say we're alone, I mean, does no one else care about a justice minister illegally deleting
00:21:02.980 records? Does no one else care about a government debates commission keeping out enemies of the prime
00:21:08.380 minister? Does no one else care about cabinet ministers censoring constituents they don't
00:21:14.160 like? I'm sure people do care, but I don't see them in court with us. And it's a strange thing
00:21:19.840 for a news company whose motto is telling the other side of the story to spend so much time,
00:21:25.260 energy, and frankly, money holding the government to account. Is that our job? Well, fact is it's
00:21:30.680 fallen to us. That's why I want to invite you to go to our website, stopthecoverup.com. I want you to
00:21:36.100 see what we've got written there, and I want you to consider chipping in. Scott and Chad were brawling
00:21:43.600 for four hours, and obviously they prepared for many more hours in advance, and they don't work
00:21:48.000 for free. I think they're reasonably priced, frankly, but we have a lot of battery. Very reasonably
00:21:53.260 priced. It's true. It's true, and I won't say what your fee is. It's quite modest, but it does add up
00:21:59.100 when you work 200 hours, 300 hours on a file. I'm not sure what the exact number is on this.
00:22:02.860 It adds up. And over the next week, you will see us take on very interesting litigation,
00:22:09.300 and it costs money. And part of me wishes there were others in the field of play, that others
00:22:16.640 were fighting for freedom in the press. I don't see a lot of people fighting for freedom in the press
00:22:20.120 now. And if it falls to us, well, then so be it, because we've got a secret weapon that David
00:22:25.440 Lamenti doesn't have, and that secret weapon is you. That's our show for today. It's a little
00:22:30.880 bit truncated. I'm in Calgary. I was in Edmonton last night for the airing of our documentary
00:22:34.940 Raid. It's about the Montreal police's war on citizen journalism. We're in Calgary. We're
00:22:39.900 going to have that show tonight, so I'll see you there if you're in Calgary. I'll be back
00:22:45.580 out east tomorrow and then flying around making trouble here and there. On behalf of all of
00:22:51.000 us here at the Western Outpost, you at home, wherever you are. Until next time, good night
00:22:56.740 and keep fighting for freedom.
00:23:13.240 Texas, Eagle Pass, known to be a hotspot where illegal migrants were crossing from Mexico to the USA.
00:23:22.240 Last month, up to 4,000 a day were entering. A group of Venezuelan migrants in the river for three
00:23:28.500 hours trying to find an open spot. Border Patrol officials saying a group of six migrants was
00:23:34.000 attempting to cross the river when the drownings happened. Shelby Park, where I'm standing right
00:23:39.280 now in Eagle Pass, has had thousands of illegal immigrants who crossed over to claim refugee
00:23:47.060 status. Governor Greg Abbott has taken further steps to secure the border by launching Operation
00:23:54.980 Lone Star in 2021. Operation Lone Star was launched for the purpose of filling the gaps that are left open
00:24:03.540 as Border Patrol officers are busy, occupied with detaining the large number of people who are coming
00:24:10.420 across the border. And installing razor wire along the border to combat what he calls Biden lawless policies.
00:24:19.220 Joe Biden and his abject refusal to enforce the immigration laws of the United States of America.
00:24:26.580 If you want to know more, visit texasborderreports.com to watch our exclusive reports.
00:24:34.100 Here in Shelby Park, everything seems secure, but the border is long and difficult to seal completely.
00:24:42.580 I'm going to show you how easy it is for migrants to cross over and immigrate illegally here in the USA.
00:25:04.100 We met with a retired Border Patrol agent named Louis and his nephew, Ethan, who agreed to show us a popular spot
00:25:18.580 for people to enter into Eagle Pass, Texas, illegally from Mexico. This was just miles down the road from Shelby Park.
00:25:28.260 So at one time, this is, I don't know, while you guys have researched all this stuff, we had Title 42.
00:25:33.780 It was a COVID measure so that when people came across, we just kicked it back to Mexico.
00:25:39.780 So Title 42, when they did away with it, the hordes of people came across.
00:25:46.100 Every morning, 700 would walk up this road, 700 aliens early morning, every morning.
00:25:51.540 I worked with the Border Patrol for 25 years and investigations another 10 after that. So I had 35 years,
00:25:56.980 all here in Eagle Pass area. Everything was under control to a sense. Apprehensions went up one year
00:26:03.060 and we'd catch them. Amnesty apprehensions went up. You know, we were encountering a lot of people.
00:26:07.860 Drug traffic could go back up, but we were always out here chasing people and people were running.
00:26:12.340 It's sorry to say, ever since Biden showed up, no one's running anymore.
00:26:16.420 Louis first took us to a hill overlooking the Rio Grande River, which divide Mexico and Texas.
00:26:24.980 Within minutes, we spotted a group of migrants crossing illegally by boat.
00:26:30.820 We recorded the crossing and then we headed down towards the river to see if we could meet them
00:26:39.540 on the other side.
00:26:52.820 the other side.
00:27:09.540 Where are you from?
00:27:10.980 No, no, I don't understand the English.
00:27:12.420 Honduras?
00:27:13.780 Ah, I came from Oaxaca.
00:27:16.100 I'm not going to go.
00:27:22.100 To go?
00:27:24.100 Just?
00:27:26.100 Two times.
00:27:28.100 Two.
00:27:30.100 Two.
00:27:32.100 Hey, hey, hey! 0.55
00:27:34.100 Honduras?
00:27:36.100 Yes?
00:27:38.100 I'm sorry.
00:27:40.100 What are your country?
00:27:42.100 I'm sorry.
00:27:44.100 What is your country?
00:27:46.100 Mexico.
00:27:48.100 Ecuador?
00:27:50.100 Ecuador.
00:27:52.100 Your family?
00:27:54.100 Yes.
00:27:56.100 How do you cross here?
00:27:58.100 Just walking.
00:28:00.100 From Honduras to here?
00:28:02.100 Yes.
00:28:04.100 How do you cross here?
00:28:06.100 For our own account, we come here.
00:28:12.100 Carlos, theyнеace your area ofzyka?
00:28:14.100 The river.
00:28:16.100 Yes?
00:28:17.100 Yes.
00:28:18.100 How much do you pay?
00:28:20.100 We helped us.
00:28:22.100 It is not-it.
00:28:24.100 It is not free to cross here.
00:28:26.100 Yes, it is
00:28:26.260 risk.
00:28:27.060 How much?
00:28:29.100 How.
00:28:31.100 Pesos.
00:28:32.100 Yes, we're paid for the popularity of people.
00:28:33.100 Yes, we're paid for thousands.
00:28:35.100 And all being able to cross here.
00:28:36.100 How much money is it for crossing here?
00:28:40.100 I don't know.
00:28:42.100 12?
00:28:44.100 No, I don't know.
00:28:46.100 For crossing the river?
00:28:50.100 The river?
00:28:52.100 They didn't tell me. I just went there.
00:28:54.100 It's not free.
00:28:56.100 It's like...
00:28:58.100 100 pesos.
00:29:00.100 100 pesos?
00:29:02.100 Just 100 pesos?
00:29:04.100 Why did you travel to Mexico?
00:29:08.100 I came to the trailer where I found it.
00:29:14.100 To get to the border.
00:29:16.100 Why am I crossing the river here?
00:29:20.100 I'm going to ask help.
00:29:22.100 I'm going to ask help here.
00:29:24.100 Is there a family here?
00:29:26.100 No.
00:29:27.100 I'm not a family.
00:29:29.100 But I have problems from where I am.
00:29:31.100 What is the problem?
00:29:33.100 There was a lot of delinquency, and there was a mafia where we were, and then they were extorsionated to all.
00:29:45.100 I had to escape to come here, just to kill me.
00:29:52.100 I had to leave my nene to come here.
00:29:56.100 I had to ask him to come here because I didn't know him.
00:30:00.100 The government will help us.
00:30:04.100 I heard that you can help me.
00:30:07.100 For the same reason I came here.
00:30:09.100 My mother is dead.
00:30:11.100 How do you travel here?
00:30:16.100 Just a little girl.
00:30:23.100 I don't have to leave there.
00:30:25.100 That's why I came here.
00:30:28.100 And how much do you travel here?
00:30:33.100 For the river?
00:30:36.100 How much do you travel here?
00:30:38.100 How much do you travel here?
00:30:42.100 24.
00:30:44.100 Do you travel here or weight?
00:30:46.100 Weight.
00:30:47.100 Not mother or father?
00:30:50.100 No.
00:30:51.100 No?
00:30:52.100 I am from Honduras?
00:30:53.100 Yes?
00:30:54.100 I came from Honduras.
00:30:55.100 I was only lesbian.
00:30:58.100 Yes?
00:31:00.100 Yes, a lot of racism, a lot of harm.
00:31:04.100 And then I decided to come to go and cross. 0.97
00:31:06.100 Yes?
00:31:07.100 And that's why I came here.
00:31:12.100 You only have a family here?
00:31:13.100 No.
00:31:14.100 Only three?
00:31:15.100 Yes?
00:31:16.100 this?
00:31:17.100 Yes.
00:31:18.100 You come from Honduras, right?
00:31:20.100 Yes.
00:31:21.100 Are you paying from Honduras to here?
00:31:23.100 No.
00:31:24.100 Are you paying from Honduras to here?
00:31:25.100 No, no, no.
00:31:26.100 Did you pay a coyote to bring you?
00:31:28.100 No, I came asking.
00:31:30.100 Just asking for help as she comes along.
00:31:32.100 Okay.
00:31:33.100 But the kid is alone.
00:31:35.100 So, and are you 50 pesos more for the ranch to cross?
00:31:39.100 Yes, only asking for help as she comes along.
00:31:44.100 But the ranch, what did you pay the boat?
00:31:46.100 How much did he charge you?
00:31:47.100 Pesos, 50 pesos.
00:31:48.100 Mexicans? 0.89
00:31:49.100 Yes.
00:31:50.100 And how much did you pay for this friend?
00:31:52.100 I don't know.
00:31:53.100 We found out there.
00:31:54.100 He is with you, right?
00:31:56.100 No.
00:31:57.100 He doesn't cross you?
00:31:58.100 No, no.
00:31:59.100 I'm desperate to arrive.
00:32:00.100 I don't know how to arrive.
00:32:01.100 They just told me if you can.
00:32:03.100 But a Mexican is going to throw you back to Mexico. 1.00
00:32:06.100 Yes.
00:32:07.100 That's why I came to hide.
00:32:09.100 But they are giving you.
00:32:11.100 If these guys are turning themselves in, a Mexican is going to get sent back. 1.00
00:32:14.100 Why do you get together with them?
00:32:16.100 They just come by themselves.
00:32:18.100 No, you're not.
00:32:19.100 You're Mexican. 0.77
00:32:20.100 I'm Mexican.
00:32:21.100 I'm from here.
00:32:22.100 I'm from here.
00:32:23.100 No, you're Mexican. 0.98
00:32:24.100 I'm Mexican.
00:32:25.100 I'm Mexican.
00:32:26.100 I'm from here.
00:32:27.100 Are you guiding this guy?
00:32:28.100 No.
00:32:29.100 How do you think?
00:32:30.100 I don't know.
00:32:31.100 I knew you were using the lamp.
00:32:33.100 I saw there.
00:32:34.100 I saw there.
00:32:35.100 I saw there.
00:32:36.100 I saw there.
00:32:37.100 I told you, follow the road that's there.
00:32:38.100 Okay.
00:32:39.100 They told me, follow the road that's there.
00:32:41.100 Follow the road.
00:32:42.100 That's why I didn't know them.
00:32:44.100 I didn't know them.
00:32:45.100 Yes, I didn't know them.
00:32:46.100 I came alone.
00:32:51.100 I came alone.
00:32:52.100 You came alone.
00:32:53.100 Come by myself.
00:32:54.100 How did you come alone?
00:32:55.100 How about yourself?
00:32:56.100 I came alone.
00:32:57.100 How?
00:32:58.100 How old are you?
00:33:00.100 My sister.
00:33:01.100 10?
00:33:02.100 9?
00:33:03.100 9 years old.
00:33:04.100 You didn't come with family?
00:33:05.100 No.
00:33:06.100 With friends?
00:33:07.100 No.
00:33:08.100 You can't come alone.
00:33:10.100 You can't come by yourself.
00:33:11.100 You came alone?
00:33:12.100 Yes.
00:33:13.100 You came alone?
00:33:14.100 Yes.
00:33:15.100 No, no.
00:33:17.100 They sent in there.
00:33:18.100 They sent in there?
00:33:19.100 No.
00:33:20.100 They sent in there.
00:33:21.100 They sent in there.
00:33:22.100 They left it forgotten.
00:33:23.100 When?
00:33:24.100 We have at this moment a kid of 10 years old whose name is Jorgez who is traveling alone.
00:33:31.100 He said they have no family here.
00:33:35.100 He, it's really, really weird because now we have these men.
00:33:39.100 They are all traveling alone.
00:33:41.100 We had a small family of people, and she's from Honduras,
00:33:45.780 he's from Mexico, and he's from Honduras.
00:33:48.740 They were from Ecuador, the family that we just saw.
00:34:11.100 We came from Honduras because there's no security.
00:34:15.100 But my gender, I can't be in Honduras and in Mepina.
00:34:22.100 I don't have a family, my father is only.
00:34:29.100 I don't have a family.
00:34:32.100 I don't know, maybe some family is from here.
00:34:39.100 I don't know where we are from here.
00:34:42.100 I don't know where we are from here.
00:34:45.100 And there's a lot of people.
00:34:47.100 No, I found him in Mexico.
00:34:50.100 I asked him how he was from me.
00:34:52.100 With the people he had come, they crossed and left him.
00:34:56.100 But it seems that he says he has a note.
00:34:58.100 I don't know, does he have a number?
00:35:00.100 I don't know, maybe some family from here.
00:35:05.100 We're not from the same community or the same place.
00:35:08.100 I'm from a village and he lives in the village.
00:35:12.100 The same area?
00:35:15.100 I don't know, I've never seen it.
00:35:18.100 Are you not from the same village?
00:35:20.100 No, no, no.
00:35:22.100 When you crossed the forest, how was the walk?
00:35:27.100 No, no, no.
00:35:28.100 They didn't know the dads.
00:35:29.100 No?
00:35:30.100 No, the dads aren't there.
00:35:31.100 Wow.
00:35:32.100 They have a lot of problems.
00:35:33.100 Yeah, we had to go out and run.
00:35:35.100 For our lives.
00:35:36.100 And there was people who died there on the street?
00:35:39.100 More of them.
00:35:40.100 More of them.
00:35:42.100 More of them, more of them.
00:35:43.100 Yes.
00:35:44.100 They had to die in time.
00:35:45.100 Oh, okay.
00:35:46.100 Where's the dads?
00:35:47.100 Where are the dads?
00:35:49.100 Are they already here?
00:35:50.100 No, I didn't recognize them.
00:35:51.100 No, they don't recognize them.
00:35:52.100 They didn't know the dads.
00:35:53.100 No?
00:35:54.100 Yeah, the dads aren't there.
00:35:55.100 Wow.
00:35:56.100 and all they will survive here.
00:35:57.700 Whose phones? You give them the phones?
00:35:59.460 Um, so, where are you going?
00:36:02.100 Is there someone who is going to rescue you?
00:36:04.900 Do you have a family here in the U.S.?
00:36:07.700 Yes.
00:36:08.700 The three?
00:36:09.500 Yes.
00:36:09.900 Primas?
00:36:10.500 Yes.
00:36:10.700 Thank you.
00:36:11.900 And the father of this?
00:36:13.300 Yes.
00:36:14.300 Do you know him?
00:36:15.900 Was he a boyfriend or something different?
00:36:18.900 No, he was a boyfriend.
00:36:21.700 While we were speaking with the migrants, 0.95
00:36:24.900 we noticed an helicopter flying a boat.
00:36:29.500 Shortly after, a border patrol agent arrived.
00:36:33.300 They just crossed, we saw him crossing from up on top,
00:36:35.900 picked him up, I was going to take him up to the highway
00:36:37.900 and cobbled him for the amateur man.
00:36:40.100 They'll take care of it from here.
00:36:41.300 You want to unload him then?
00:36:42.900 Yep.
00:36:43.500 Madre?
00:36:44.500 Madre?
00:36:46.500 Solo?
00:36:47.500 Right south.
00:36:48.100 Did that happen or what?
00:36:49.900 How many times?
00:36:51.900 Good morning.
00:36:54.900 Did that happen or what?
00:36:56.900 No.
00:36:57.900 In the company of kids, wasn't there?
00:36:59.500 We just encountered a group and what did they want?
00:37:01.500 They wanted to come across and call border patrol and border patrol came
00:37:06.500 down and picked up.
00:37:07.500 No one's running.
00:37:08.500 They just come across with little babies and all that kind of stuff.
00:37:09.500 And border patrol's job is just to gather them.
00:37:10.500 I mean they're not running.
00:37:11.500 They gather them, load them up in their vehicles, take them to their processing centers and
00:37:16.500 release them.
00:37:17.500 And it's not border patrol's fault.
00:37:18.500 They're tied by the administration.
00:37:19.500 Someone we're bringing them over here. 0.54
00:37:20.500 Who are those people?
00:37:23.500 We just encountered a group and what did they want?
00:37:26.500 They wanted to come across and call border patrol and border patrol came down and picked
00:37:30.500 up.
00:37:31.500 No one's running.
00:37:32.500 They just come across with little babies and all that kind of stuff.
00:37:33.500 And border patrol's job is just to gather them.
00:37:35.500 I mean they're not running.
00:37:36.500 They gather them, load them up in their vehicles, take them to their processing centers and release
00:37:41.500 them.
00:37:42.500 It's not border patrol's fault.
00:37:43.500 They're tied by the administration.
00:37:45.500 Someone we're bringing them over here. 0.54
00:37:47.500 Who are those people?
00:37:49.500 I'm sure there's guys that have decided to come out here and just cross people on a regular
00:37:53.500 basis and stuff.
00:37:54.500 But there is also a bunch of fishermen down here that come down here to fish.
00:37:57.500 So they're fishermen down here.
00:37:59.500 They're out here fishing with a boat and a group of aliens come up.
00:38:02.500 They'll take advantage of that situation and they'll charge them, you know, whatever,
00:38:05.500 the 50 pesos is what these guys claimed.
00:38:07.500 You know, 50 pesos, they'll put down their fishing pole and bring them across. 0.72
00:38:10.500 Thank goodness for Abbott.
00:38:11.500 You know, Abbott has made a difference.
00:38:14.500 I mean there's two different ways of looking at it.
00:38:16.500 He took control of a little bit of a river and they put up, you know, they put up their
00:38:20.500 stand and I think the word has gone out.
00:38:23.500 It's obvious to me that the word got out because they're not coming here anymore.
00:38:26.500 The last three days I haven't seen anybody cross until this group.
00:38:30.500 I know of people that are trying to immigrate the right way and their spouses are in Mexico
00:38:36.500 waiting for their hearing date and there ain't no hearing date coming anytime soon.
00:38:41.500 You know, the courts are so backed up that the people that are doing it the right way can't do it.
00:38:45.500 And it's hard to be angry at people when you see so much glee and happiness because, you know, they see it tomorrow.
00:38:50.500 It's hard to hold that against them.
00:38:52.500 You know, who wouldn't come to America? 0.98
00:38:54.500 But, you know, we can't continue.
00:38:56.500 You know, it's awful.
00:38:57.500 The cost of living is hard enough for everyday people in North America.
00:39:02.500 How are these people are going to survive when American and Canadian citizens are already struggling?
00:39:10.500 What do the next 10 years look like if we continue down this path?
00:39:16.500 I suggest you to go over TexasBorderReports.com.
00:39:20.500 We will be publishing that entire interview with Lewis on that website.
00:39:26.500 So stay tuned.
00:39:27.500 And if you appreciate our journalism, consider donating through that same website.