In a lengthy interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” on the issue of violent crimes committed by illegal aliens, I challenged Geraldo Rivera to a debate. Earlier, Geraldo had insisted it didn’t matter that the man who murdered Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa is an illegal alien. He is totally wrong about that.
If the border was secure, Cristhian Rivera would not have been here and Mollie would have returned home to her family and friends after her jog instead of being beaten to death, stuffed into the trunk of Rivera’s car and dumped in a field.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, criminal aliens have been convicted of over a thousand homicides in Texas since 2011. National estimates suggest that about 5,000 Americans have been killed by illegal aliens since 9/11. Now, the murder in Iowa — the heartland of America.
It is ridiculous to insist, as Geraldo has done, that Mollie was just as likely to have been killed by an American citizen. The data he is pushing about crime rates among illegal aliens is simply not relevant. The indisputable fact is that if Cristhian Rivera hadn’t been here, Mollie would be alive.
Everyone who crosses the border illegally is committing a crime, but the majority are simply looking for a better life for themselves and their families. Republicans support legal immigration reform. We believe no one should have to risk their life to enter America, crammed in the back of an 18-wheeler or left to die of thirst on the treacherous terrain along our southern border. It is inhuman that so many women are raped by the cartels that traffic in illegal immigration as payment for their passage across the border. Our officers frequently find bodies along the border of people who die from exposure, hunger, thirst, snake bites, animal attacks and other perils.
This dangerous and degrading system is the result of Democrats and liberals pushing open border policies with no thought to the consequences and people like Geraldo who use their celebrity to insist that, somehow, the compassionate thing to do is simply ignore the fact that not all illegal aliens who come here are looking for a better life. Some are criminals. Some are predators and some kill people. In Texas, thousands of serious crimes have been committed by criminal aliens.
I feel very strongly about this issue, which is why I challenged Geraldo to a debate. Geraldo responded with a tirade of ugly, personal attacks against me. I am disappointed, but not surprised to learn he is simply another liberal who demonizes anyone who disagrees with him.
I remain ready to debate him on Fox News at any time.
Thank you for your support. God bless you and God bless Texas.
Sincerely,
Dan Patrick
Lieutenant Governor of Texas
