Name: US Border Patrol Agent Roy Villareal | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #335
Uploaded: 2021-04-13T14:12:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'US Border Patrol Agent Roy Villareal | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #335' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-04-13. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'US Border Patrol Agent Roy Villareal | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #335' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-04-13. Transcript available.

US Border Patrol Agent Roy Villareal | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #335

You know, it's a unique time where there's so much information and false
information and rumor and biased material going around about the U.S. border.
And I'm sure we've all heard things and tried not to hear things about it.
And so I wanted to get someone here today who is boots on the ground, been
there, you know.
That front line bad boy.
And I'm so happy today to have fresh off of his 32 years of service working
with the U.S. Border Patrol, where he finished as the chief border patrol agent
of the Tucson sector.
We are happy to have him today, Mr. Roy Villarreal.
I'll sit and tell you my stories shine on me.
And I will find a song I've been singing just before.
Oh, yeah.
Bert Kreischer.
Oh, man.
I love that guy.
Yeah.
He's so funny.
Dude, he is an animal.
Or the machine, they call him.
He's everything.
Yeah.
He's like, and he laughs all the time.
Every time he reminds me of like Winnie the Pooh.
Like if Winnie the Pooh went to college and was like in a fraternity for a
really long time.
Oh, yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
Like just like, yeah, he's one of a kind, man.
So you live over in Tucson?
Yeah.
Nice, man.
I went to Santa Rita High School for a semester.
Oh, really?
For a semester, yeah.
My mom used to live out on Pantano.
Oh, my gosh, yeah.
So I used to be out there and people would fight in the car washes and stuff
like that after school.
So we didn't have any border control.
We could have used some border control over there.
We could have used some border control out of Santa Rita High School, man.
Go Eagles.
So Roy Villarreal, that's how you say your last name?
Nailed it, yeah.
So your position with the border, what was it exactly?
So I recently retired from the Border Patrol.
I served for 32 years.
My position at the time was the chief patrol agent of the Tucson sector.
Okay.
And that sector is about how big?
260 miles of border with, Arizona border with Mexico.
Okay.
And so when you're in charge of that, are you in charge of both sides of it or
just one side?
Just the one side.
So when we have control over the U.S. side.
Do they have, do you know the person who's in charge of the other side?
Like, is there someone in charge of the other side?
Well, yes, to a degree.
Dealing with the Mexican government, you're dealing with different entities.
Their customs, their immigration, federal police, local police.
There's a whole myriad of entities you have to deal with in Mexico.
Okay.
So like on a day-to-day basis, kind of what were some of like your kind of
responsibilities?
Like what are you guys' responsibilities over there?
So Tucson sectors is the largest sector in the Border Patrol.
And so I had about 4,000 employees under my purview.
Wow.
And that was about 3,400 sworn law enforcement officers.
And then the rest were administrative folks, mechanics, technicians, intel
analysts, radio operators, you name it.
There's a full gambit behind it.
The day-to-day operations, in the height of operations there in Tucson, we were
arresting about 500 to 1,000 people a day.
And that includes, you know, like looking at the news right now, you're dealing
with unaccompanied children, families.
And then that's about 30, maybe 40% of the workload right now.
Right.
And then the rest are all single adults, criminal aliens.
You've got everything from pedophiles, rapists, narcotic traffickers.
Heading in.
Coming in, yeah.
Wow.
So is it, and so, man, there's just so much, it's like such a, it's just a lot.
It seems, it just seems like a lot.
Is it, are, so someone comes into the country, right?
Someone's coming in illegally.
And I say that just because that's the, you know, these are the, there's a line
where you have to have some rules.
And the rules are if somebody's in a place you're not supposed to be, then we're
just going to use the term illegally.
So is that okay with you?
Absolutely.
Okay.
I mean, that's, and that's the appropriate legal definition.
You've entered the country illegally.
Right.
Yeah.
Like if I went somewhere, they would say that to me.
If I went to a country where I wasn't, or I wasn't, like, didn't have the
paperwork done to be in, then they would say you're here illegally.
Um, so if someone comes across and you guys apprehend them, is it apprehend?
Like, what do you guys do?
You guys take them in, you guys take them into a facility.
Do you immediately like take them back across the border?
Like, what kind of happens?
So what's interesting about, uh, border enforcement is, is, um, I think what
happens with middle America is there's, there's a perception.
I don't know if you've been down to the border or what you take on the border
is, but I think a lot of America looks at the border, um, through the eyes of
what they've seen on the news.
You know, you look at San Diego, you look at El Paso and they show an urbanized
border.
You've got cities on both sides and fencing and demarcation.
A lot of what the border patrol deals with is everything in between out in the
middle of nowhere, rugged mountains, desert.
It just, there is, I've worked in places where there's next to nothing out
there in regards to infrastructure.
It's just you and your closest backup is 10 or 20 miles away and you're in the
middle of nowhere.
Um, and so we employ, and I have to get away from the Wii because now I'm
retired, but the border patrol employs a whole myriad of tools, um, infrared
cameras, ground sensors.
Um, we've got one of the largest air fleets in the U S government and the law
enforcement realm.
Uh, so you've got black Hawks, uh, an assortment of helicopters, unmanned
aerial vehicles.
And so, I mean, you're using all these different assets to track so many,
hopefully to prevent, but to track them once they enter the country.
So if you see someone say, say, say someone's out on patrol, right on an actual
patrol, and then they see someone crossing into the country, um, do they like
tag them or like, do they, what do you do?
Like, do you apprehend them?
Is it, I mean, I would, it almost has like a freeze tag type of vibe.
I feel like at a certain point it is.
It's almost like a game of cat and mouse, you know?
So I'll give you two scenarios.
Okay.
In an urbanized area where we've got, uh, you've got fencing or more.
And that's like El Paso, you're saying?
Like El Paso, um, even places like Douglas, Nogales, Arizona.
Yeah.
Um, San Diego, you've got fencing or a wall, uh, you know, under the Trump
administration to change from fencing to wall.
Right.
Um, and those locations, we've got a lot of fixed cameras.
Um, these are cameras that are up on, on large poles.
And so you've got agents that are monitoring and watching and, uh, some of the
technology that plays into these cameras also detects, does change detection.
So if it's watching the fence and all of a sudden there's a change in that
picture, it'll alert the operator who then will call the agents out in the
field.
And then that agent, he or she will respond to the area or maybe they're
watching with binoculars and they see him crossing over the fence through a
hole.
So they'll respond and then they'll make the arrest.
Um, it's, uh, apprehension, arrest.
It's all the same thing.
Okay.
Um, and then the second scenario is, as I described out in the middle of
nowhere, and that's more of the norm.
You're out there and what happens is you may have a ground sensor that goes off
somewhere near the border.
And, uh, you learn psychologically as human beings, you're looking for the
easiest path of resistance.
So you learn the psychology of where people are going to try to cross.
And then you're also dealing with, uh, one of the things that we can talk about
this shortly is you're dealing with a criminal element that's very effective.
And I'll use the term, they're professionals at what they do, smuggling people.
Okay.
And so they'll begin trekking north into the U S and what agents will do is
they'll find a spot where they can make the arrest.
That's, it's beneficial to them.
Uh, and they'll track them.
The sensors are lined up in such a manner that you can track the movement of a
person or a group of people.
Uh, you may use infrared scopes.
You may call on, uh, someone up in the air to, to track the, the group of
people as they move along and then you'll roll in and make that arrest.
Uh, so if there's a, so it sounds like there's a lot of capabilities to know
when and where people are coming.
So it sounds great, right?
It sounds like all these tools, all these assets.
Um, but until you're out there and you get a true idea of just how it really is
a needle in a haystack because, um, some of the areas that we work in, I'll
speak to Arizona.
You have these arroyos and canyons, um, and brush.
And so you may have, I may have a camera, an infrared camera that's going to
pan this way.
And if the ground was flat and there was nothing to obstruct the view, easy.
Right.
But because someone can drop into a canyon and these canyons can go for miles
or climb up into a mountain and hide in a cave, your window of opportunity for
arrest is very short.
So the agents, when I say they position themselves, they're finding an area
where they have great technology coverage and they know the ins and out of that
area.
So when they, they go to arrest these people, if they scatter and run, which
happens quite often, they know where to work towards to, to bring them into
custody.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's got to get you out there.
Yeah.
You would love it.
I've heard.
Yeah.
I've, I've actually got all for, we had Tommy Lahren came on as a guest one
time and she is like, you know, she's like real, um, she's big on the border,
on border control.
You know, she's a favorite of the border patrol.
Is she?
She's one of the, the first that went out to the border and invested herself
and, excuse me, invested herself and got to know the border of the border
patrol.
What's going on.
Right.
She's a strong advocate.
And a lot of the agents really, really love her.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She's a strong, yeah.
She's definitely a strong advocate.
She offered me to go sometime.
So yeah, I would love to go sometime.
So I have an idea because I just see like snippets here and there.
And it seems like, um, you know, a lot of the border gets politicized a lot,
you know, like you see a lot of, uh, like you, you hear a lot of like, oh, caravans
are coming or, um, children are being separated from their, uh, parents or
their families.
Like, take me into some of that scenario.
So like, if you apprehend a family, then what happens?
So everyone who's apprehended, uh, and I'll walk you through from the point of
apprehension to, to getting into the station.
And in some cases, criminally prosecuted or released or returned.
There's a couple of scenarios.
As soon as that arrest is made, the agent, um, and what we have to recognize is
that we're still dealing with a criminal element.
Right.
Um, so just like any law enforcement officer, uh, he or she goes through that
whole procedure of pat down, checking bags and whatever else.
And you're dealing with people from not only, well, I think most people think
about, uh, illegal immigrants as being from Mexico or Central America.
And that's, that's the focus right now.
Right.
But the reality is, is we see people from everywhere throughout the world.
Really?
Syria, Somalia, Egypt, Russia, you, you, you, excuse me, Ukraine, you name it.
People from those countries are coming here.
Um, and, and they're coming to the boat, to the, to the Southern border.
Yeah.
Wow.
The, uh, and I often say this, what gets lost on the public is border security
is truly national security.
Right.
We're dealing with cartels, and this is a multi-billion dollar industry.
It's not a couple hundred dollars or a few million, it's billions of dollars
that are generated in trafficking and smuggling of people and narcotics.
Wow.
The power and the leverage that these, these trafficking organizations have is
tremendous.
Um, you know, and we can talk about this in a little bit, but on the Mexican
side, one o