Pinal County, AZ Sheriff and Congressional candidate Paul Babeu (R) said, “67,000 criminal illegals, the violent ones, have been released into our community” and that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s deportation plan is “logistically very difficult” in addition to stating, “we’re not going to build the great wall of Mexico” on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360.”
Babeu stated, “This didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen just with Barack Obama. It’s been exacerbated because of him, but this happened under Republicans as well. This has gone on for decades, and remember the last time, Simpson-Mazzoli in ’86, it was President Reagan who signed for 2 million illegals to get citizenship, and everybody thinks that every illegal wants citizenship. Only about half of them took it. The other half just wanted to work here. So, we got here, I’m not supportive of people getting here illegally. I’m fighting against it every day, but it’s not helpful when the president, to the point made earlier, saying the president has been deporting all these criminals, the fact is he hasn’t, and that’s why we’re in this fight here where people are so angry. 67,000 criminal illegals, the violent ones, have been released into our community, and we’ve got guys like Grant Ronnebeck, who wanted to be a deputy with my agency, who was shot right beneath his left eye, executed, by a criminal illegal, who had raped, and did a home invasion, and this guy was out on the lam to commit other crimes. Nobody should be for this, and this is what’s happened. The rule of law has been undermined. So, if we can have a little bit of both, you know, we’re not going to build the great wall of Mexico, and I’m a combat engineer in the Army, we need about 700 miles of border, not 2,000 miles.”
Earlier, Babeu was asked, “Does Donald Trump’s plan of a so-called deportation force, to do this humanely, or however else, physically removing some 11 million people, is that logistically feasible?”
He responded, “It’s logistically very difficult and I think that where we should start, and where the focus should be, on — everybody should agree, is on the criminal element, a small minority of these illegals that are committing very serious crimes, that have not been deported, and that’s where a lot of this anger is coming from. And we should focus on that — is target the tens of thousands, not the 12 to 20 million illegals who are here, but focus on these folks, and deport them legitimately, out of our country, never to return again, and that’s where I’m angry about that, as well. They’re releasing, and they’re not just from Mexico. They’re from countries of interest. We had, right here in Arizona, one from Sudan, one from Iraq, one from Russia. and this Russian murderer, they released into my county, and then tell me two weeks after. That’s the problem here. The entire system is broken for immigration. There is no consequence and therefore, there is no law.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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