FOX "The O'Reilly Factor" - Transcript: Taliban Deal

Interview

O'REILLY: "Factor Follow Up Segment" tonight, as thousands of illegal immigrants, many of them young children, continue to pour into Texas the state is taking unilateral action. Joining us from Washington, Governor Rick Perry. What are you going to do to stop all this chaos?

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: Bill, obviously this has been going on for some time. We've been flagging this issue, calling it to the attention of this administration since 2009. 2010 I gave the President a letter on a tarmac. In 2012 we brought to their attention flag, put the caution lights on that there were unaccompanied children, alien children coming in and it's only gotten worse.

Now we have an absolute humanitarian catastrophe on our hands as well as homeland security issue. And the federal government must step in and do their part to uphold their constitutional duty to secure that border. Until they do that, Texas is now doing even more than we were beforehand yesterday.

We approved $1.3 million a week for additional border security for operational security reasons. We are not going to go through all the things that we are going to be engaged with but there will be substantial law enforcement. There will be National Guard involvement. There will be local law enforcement also being bolstered in that region of the Rio Grande.

But the issue here we get back to is the federal government owes to the citizens of this state their responsibility to take care of and secure that border because, until we get the border secure, none of this immigration reform talk is going to go anywhere.

O'REILLY: And I agree 100 percent with that. So, you are in Washington now having made your case there today. Is this why you are up here? Telling them look, we need help down there and what's the response to you?

PERRY: Well, we were on the phone to the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and I shared with him very clearly. Hopefully they understand the gravity of what's going on, supposedly the Vice President is going to be down in either Guatemala or one of the central American countries over the next 24 to 48 hours, which brings up the entire issue of this many people moving from central America, through Mexico to the southern border of the United States.

I don't think this just happened by accident. We have got to be diplomatically engaging our neighbors to the south and making sure they understand they have a responsibility as well to keep this from happening.

O'REILLY: Yes. I mean look. They have got to cross into Mexico from Guatemala and Honduras and El Salvador. So we know that the people smugglers make a lot of money. We know the word on the Internet and in the local media down there is if you come to America you can stay and that's largely true.

When your local -- Texas law enforcement, even the National Guard apprehend someone coming over you have to hand them over to ICE. That's the law. So you can't push them back across the river and tell them to go back where they came from. You have to treat them humanely. They know that. They're seeking you out, the aliens and the children. And you have to give it to ICE and then ICE flies them around.

Massachusetts, Arizona, wherever it may be, wherever they say they have an uncle or an aunt or whoever. I don't know if you spending all the money are going to do anything at all to control the situation.

PERRY: Well, there is two issues here. One of them is that when you put a presence, when you put a law enforcement presence on the border, whether it's National Guard, whether it's law enforcement of some form or fashion, state police, local police, or what have you it does have an impact on those illegal activities.

And that's what Texans want to see is that the illegal activities are brought to a close as quick as they can.

Here's the other issue from my perspective. I'm a governor of a state who has major natural disasters from time to time. Hurricanes come in. Hurricane season is just starting. If we have a major event in Texas today, I do not have a place that it can handle that mass amount of migration away from the storm's path and give safety to my citizens because of all these facilities that are being used by these individuals that are absolutely overrunning our border.

That's the reason, secondary reason that the federal government has to step in to place.

O'REILLY: We know that all the border states are strained. I mean you are draining resources from what you would otherwise put in other places. Are you saying tonight though Governor, that President Obama doesn't care about the issue? He just blows you off, ignores you? You have been telling him for years you need help and he doesn't respond? Is that what you are saying tonight?

PERRY: Well, if the track record is indicative of that that's exactly what I would be saying from '09 until the current time. The President has not addressed this issue. He has sent some of his underlings to address it from time to time but the fact is I don't have any confidence that the President of the United States is engaging and engaging in a way that he should.

O'REILLY: All right. We have called for a boycott of Mexico. We did that last night because we believe the Mexican authorities helped the people smugglers by getting these children up there. We think that is an atrocity against the children themselves. And we're not going down to spend any money in Mexico -- tourism money.

Am I doing the wrong thing, Governor?

PERRY: Well, Mexico is our number one trading partner. This needs to be addressed and needs to be addressed as fast as it can. The Mexican authorities have some, I think answering to do from the standpoint of these children transport in their country. They are either complicit or they are not. The more important issue is we are either going to have a border or we are not.

I would suggest to you Americans want a border, they and want it secured. And Texas is going to do its part to secure that border.

O'REILLY: All right, Governor. Thanks for coming on today. We appreciate it.

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