TRANSCRIPT:
CHRIS SALCEDO: Right now I want to welcome to the program the man who wants to be the next Governor of the great state of Texas, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, sir, thank you for being here on the Voice of Texas.
ATTORNEY GENERAL GREG ABBOTT: Chris it is a pleasure to be back with you again, thanks.
SALCEDO: All right, let’s have a conversation about the announcements made today, or yesterday, by the Obama Administration, about Mr. Obama, just after he gets slapped back by the highest court in the land again, now he’s pledging to do border and immigration control all on his own. First of, does he have the legal basis to do what he’s pledging to do?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well, we know that 14 times the United States Supreme Court has said that he doesn’t have the legal authority to do what he’s tried to do, right now he’s just talking in these broad strokes about what he wants to do, but we’re still living in mystery about what it is he intends to do. What we have found is, that the, uh, apparently non-legal positions that he has articulated across the globe is one of the reasons why we have the challenge of the border we have now. Uh, I was down on the Rio Grande Valley in McAllen, Texas, talking to Border Patrol, and hearing the stories that the children told, when they came across the border. And that is the impression that they have in Central America is that when the President stood up in the Rose Garden and said he was going to provide deferred action for children who live in the United States, listen the people in Central America don’t read any fine print on that, they’re not lawyers down there, and the United States System, they don’t know what that means. What they think it means, is they’re able to come here. So my point is this, and that is what we see the President do before now is to make these broad pronouncements that seem inconsistent with the law and we have no gurantee, no certainty, about what he may be doing going forward. But, certainly bypassing Congress, the United States Supreme Court has told him repeatedly is the wrong thing to do.
SALCEDO: Nancy Pelosi was with you over the weekend, not with you, per se, but she was down on some of the border cities here on the state of Texas. She had this to say, which really I found, Mr. Attorney General, I found patently offensive, she said that these are communities down on the border, separated by that border, and, as if there was no distinction between America and Mexico, and I found it an astonishing statement for someone who has, who fancies herself as an American Congresswoman to make such a statement, I as a citizen of the United States was patently offended by that statement.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well, listen, there on the Rio Grande Border, in McAllen, in Brownsville, in Laredo, in El Paso, from one end of the border to the other, I know that there are families who have lived there for generations, they’ve lived there, some of them going back to almost a time when Texas became a state. And they are proudly Americans, and they proudly live under the United States Constitution, our laws, our protection, and our sovereignty. I hear from them as much as anybody else, demand that we keep our border safe, we maintain our sovereignty. Let me tell you just one story, it’s a story when I was in the Rio Grande Valley and I was talking about doing all I could to make sure that the border was kept safe. And there was a young woman, she seemed like she was about college age, and she basically pleaded with me, a young Latina, pleading with me to ensure that I kept my promise to secure the border and she explained why. She said that her younger brother was involved in a pick-up soccer game in the border region, where they would choose sides, and one of the players to be chosen was the son of a cartel member. And she said that her brother didn’t know, do you pick the cartel member, or not pick the cartel member? What are the consequences if you do? What are the consequences if you don’t?
SALCEDO: Right.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Children in Texas should not be forced to make those kinds of decisions.
SALCEDO: And let me be clear about what really struck me, is that here is this woman who says she’s a Congresswoman of the United States, and doesn’t recognize the superiority of a government of, by, and for the people here in the U.S., and what they have down in Mexico which is, which isn’t anything of the sort, down in Central America which isn’t anything of the sort, and to make that equivalency, like I said, really bugged me.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well, you know one of the reasons why the United States of America is the premiere nation of the entire globe, is because we are a nation that is based upon the rule of law. That’s the underlying premise when we created the United States, and declared our independence, we were declaring independence from a monarchy, a rule of men, and we wanted to make sure that our nation would be different, that our nation would be based not only on a rule of men, but instead a rule of law. So, that rule of law has been adherent in who we are as a country, and for people like Nancy Pelosi to come in and erode that rule of law for the President, to show how he disregards the law, now fourteen times by decisions by the United States Supreme Court saying he has disregarded the law, uh, that promotes other disregard for the law, and that undermines our society as a whole, and that is why it’s important for the President, for Nancy Pelosi, for everyone to have a high regard for the law.
SALCEDO: Attorney General Greg Abbott of the great state of Texas joining me right now, wanted to talk to you about this polling that just came out from Gallup, it’s been getting a lot of press, Mr. Obama and the Chamber of Commerce and others, basically trying to make the case that Americans are hungry for immigration reform, and the idea is to allow more immigration, legal immigration I assume, but this polling shows that 1 in 5 Americans only support that view, the vast majority of Americans don’t want more immigration, and 2 in 3 say they want less, or 2 out of 5 I should say, want less immigration. What do you make of it?
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well, it’s kind of hard to understand the context of that because of the circumstances behind it, and here’s what I’m talking about. I think, that being that we are a nation of immigrants, I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of Americans were in favor of legal immigration. The context of that question though, I think the polling occurred at the time there was this overwhelming influx of people coming here illegally from Central America, and, you know, as that was happening we had people in line waiting legally, going through the exhaustive process to come and immigrate here legally, only to see thousands of people pass them up in line, to come into this nation. So it is that very kind of action that erodes the rule of law that causes people to get frustrated with the system, so that could’ve set into some of the outcome of the answers to that polling question. But listen, I think that we are a nation built upon a strong, legal immigration system, but that at the same time means that we have to ensure that the system as it’s structured is enforced.
SALCEDO: Last question I have for you Mr. Attorney General, you were the, you were a very popular subject when the Democrats got together up in Dallas, something happened that caught my attention, and caught several Latinos attention across the state. When Trey Martinez Fisher set up a booth where people could dress up in sombreros and don cartoonish Mexican mustaches and carry a machete around and pose for pictures with him. I think that I’m safe in saying had any conservative or a Republican done something similar at the GOP convention, it would’ve led to news. However, you didn’t hear a peep out of the mainstream press about Mr. Martinez and this going on at the Democrat’s Convention. Plus, playing cards being passed around with you being characterized as “El Diablo.” Reaction to that sir if you will.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Well, obviously things like that are offensive and it is a double standard that we live with, but my hope is that the Democrat’s continue to do that, because they focus their time and energy and attention on talking about me when what I talk about is what your listeners really care about, which is building a better Texas for them. While I’m talking about creating more jobs, securing the border, improving roads, improving schools, the Democrats, all they do is talk about me, and when that happens, that means that because I’m talking to voters and their issues, it’s gonna be me who wins.
SALCEDO: All right, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, of course as you all know is running for Governor of the great state of Texas, wish you all the best sir, thanks for making the time here.
GENERAL ABBOTT: Thank you Chris, always a pleasure.