At US/Canada Border With Sheriff Dept. (exclusive access)

Sep 14, 2024 3.9M Views 9.5K Comments

America’s southern border usually gets all the attention regarding migrants crossing into the United States. But in the last few years, the northern border has received the largest amount of crossings in its history. Join the Clinton County, NY Sheriff’s Department and me to better understand what’s happening between the US/Canadian border.

Customs and Border Protection
Southern Border videos

► 🎞️ Video Edited By: Natalia Santenello

🎵 MUSIC USED IN THE VIDEO:
► Chris Shards – Ghetto Dreamin’
► View Points – Daisy Chain

(ambient music)
Major, how far are we
from the border right now?
– [Major Leon] Probably
about a mile and a half
from the border.
– Different than the southern,
much different feeling.
– Yeah, no, it’s-
– First impressions.
– There’s definitely-
– [Peter] Green and cold.
– There’s definitely a huge contrast.
It’s not that cold, it’s 64, it’s nice.
It’s gonna snow next week.
It’s definitely going
to be a stark contrast
to the southwest.
I mean, there’s still
the same type of people,
the good people that wanna
live their normal daily lives,
but up here the population is
probably a little bit less.
And so I think a lot of these people
are worried about the idea
that maybe they’re gonna be
the target of this stuff.
– And so what’s great about
the sheriff departments
is that customs and border
protection won’t speak on camera.
– Yeah.
– Police departments.
I’ve gotten in with one
in the last four years
after a lot of trying.
They’re not gonna speak on camera.
– They’re at-will.
Everybody has to get approval to speak.
– [Peter] Not sheriffs.
– [Major Leon] That’s the difference.
The sheriff was elected by the people.
He answers to the people.
– So you think in Clinton County here,
a lot of people don’t
know what’s going on, or?
– I think they’re well-versed
with what’s going on.
They don’t understand the totality of it.
– Yeah.
– I think a lot of people don’t.
I think a lot of people in the state
don’t really understand.
If you pose it whether
it’s an immigration issue,
a lot of people here don’t
know what’s really going on.
– Right.
– When you talk about the crime issue,
a lot of people here really
don’t know what’s going on.
– Right.
– You could ask people, like,
how are things in Clinton County?
They’ll say it’s great.
– Totality is the best
word for all of this
because the border story,
which I’ve been on the
southern border a bunch.
– Yep.
– There are a lot of moving
parts, it’s very complex.
It’s turned totally political,
and each side takes its set
of facts and uses them, right?
– Absolutely.
– And there’s a lot to it, right?
– Homer Simpson said it
best, facts are meaningless.
They could be used to prove anything.
(Peter chuckles)
– [Peter] Oh, are we looking at Canada?
– [Major Leon] Canada is right there.
If you look out in the
middle of the water,
you’ll see a floating sign
past that little tiny boat
near the big one with a crane.
– [Peter] Yeah.
– [Major Leon] That sign says
“You’re entering Canada.”
– [Peter] So that boat going north
is going into Canada right now.
– Yep.
And when you come south,
if you look down to your right,
you’ll see that’s the dock
where they need to check in.
– [Peter] And does that
system work pretty well?
– I gotta be honest.
I believe any system that
we have could be exploited.
You know, if there’s
a will, there’s a way.
That’s that constant cat and mouse
between those that are breaking the law
and those that are trying
to enforce the law.
So does the system work?
Yeah, the system works
because we’re friendly with Canada, right?
We love working with them.
We have commerce with them.
So it’s not a adversarial border.
It’s not the DMZ where we’re sitting here
lockstep against a waring nation.
I mean, these are our friends.
And so the system works
great for the Canadian people
and the U.S. people going back and forth.
Does it mean it’s not being exploited?
No, it doesn’t mean that.
Of course, it can be exploited.
So right here, this is all New York.
And this house right here
with the concrete blocks,
that’s Canada.
– [Peter] Oh wow.
– [Major Leon] And they put
concrete blocks across there
’cause people were
driving through their yard
and just running across the border.
Let me stop right here.
– Oh, this is fascinating.
So here we are, we’re looking
at the border right here.
– [Major Leon] That is the border.
– [Peter] And so this house was fed up
with the cars going
through their property?
– Well, I don’t know if
it was the house per se
that was fed up with it,
but the governments are.
– [Peter] So that right there is?
– That’s the fix.
– [Peter] Can I step on it?
– [Major Leon] You can, I’ll go with you.
I mean, we may cause an
international incident,
but, all right.
– [Peter] So since this is
a 5,500 mile long border
and it’s, like, farmer’s field to road.
– Yeah.
– [Peter] That’s not an easy job.
– It’s not an easy job.
And the Border Patrol is
absolutely outnumbered up here.
They don’t have enough
staff to really do it.
It’s tough.
– [Peter] Yeah, and so
people usually don’t think
of the Canadian border being an issue
because it’s not like Canadians
are fleeing to America.
– Exactly, that’s what we
were just talking about.
– [Peter] Right.
– We get along with
Canada, we love Canada.
– Right, so the economic advantage,
while there could be some for people,
but we’re somewhat in
parity as far as economies.
Like you can live a good life in Canada.
– Yep.
– Where south of the border
you’re coming up from
Honduras or Nicaragua.
– Yeah.
– It’s different,
but from what I understand
now, it’s a lot of Indians.
– Yeah.
– [Peter] And a lot of Mexicans
that are getting tourist visas into Canada
and then coming down, right?
– And then they easily just travel down.
They get dropped off within
a half mile of the border
and then they just gotta go for it.
– And the reason I’m up here is because
the numbers have spiked.
– Yes.
– This summer.
This summer and last summer
have been super busy, right?
– They’re pretty much
roughly 500 people a week
just for this sector.
That’s a lot of people
for a place with no
infrastructure to handle it.
A place where the Border Patrol
basically doesn’t have a lot of people on.
They’re relying a ton on technology
and support from, you know,
law enforcement partners.
– [Peter] But you literally
could hide in a cornfield.
– They do.
– [Peter] And run across.
– Yes, they do.
– [Peter] Like just hang out in the corn.
– Yeah.
– [Peter] Look both ways,
okay, no car is coming.
– Yeah, now there’s a lot of people
that are giving themselves up.
Those people that wanna come here,
they wanna get processed.
They wanna get a court
date in five years or so.
They absolutely will give themselves up.
So those people are.
You’ll get a 911 call.
We’re dealing with that right now.
“Hey, I’m tired, come get me.”
And so, you know, the
county here since June
had close to 1,200 911
calls for people saying,
“Oh, I’m in the woods, come get me.”
And those people want to get
picked up by Border Patrol.
They wanna get processed.
The problem is there’s people that don’t.
And that’s the concern for us.
There’s groups of people
that are low crawling
through the fields.
The people that are carrying things.
The people that are
smuggling the drugs and stuff
back and forth,
they don’t wanna get caught.
And if you’re coming into the country
and you don’t wanna get caught, why?
– Right, okay, so yeah, I should
have unpacked that better.
How the system works now.
If you walk over the border,
say you’re from India.
You got a tourism visa to
Canada, you fly into Montreal.
You come down, you go over.
You want Customs and Border
Protection to get you.
– Yes, yes.
– Because you claim asylum
whether that’s legitimate or not.
– Yep.
– And then the courts are so backed up
that case is not gonna
be processed for years.
You’re technically legal
to be in the United States.
– A lot of them get released.
– They get released into the U.S.
– Yep.
– And we’re gonna go into sort
of the root of that, right?
Because they’re not hanging out here.
They’re going to New York City.
– Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
– [Peter] Okay.
– [Major Leon] Yep.
– [Peter] Oh, that’s the marker.
– [Major Leon] That is the marker.
– [Peter] Oh, we probably got
some poison ivy here, right?
– [Major Leon] Probably.
– Okay, that’s hospital for
me, so I’ll show you from here.
That’s the marker, Canada, America.
That’s how you know, that’s it.
– [Major Leon] Do not enter.
– And so this wasn’t a problem years ago.
– No.
– Because the policies were set up
where you couldn’t just fly into Canada,
walk over and get asylum.
Is that what it is?
– Yeah, exactly.
There’s no issue with the Canadian people.
So this was perfectly okay.
We don’t go into their cornfield.
They don’t come across.
There’s a port right there.
There’s a port right over there,
and you just come through the right way.
It was never an issue.
Now people are exploiting
the laws of Canada
coming from whatever country they want
to infiltrate the U.S. and
they exploit their laws,
their way of doing it.
And they take advantage of
the border as it stands.
– Okay, what nationalities are you seeing?
We have Indian and Mexican, right?
The big ones.
– It’s Senegalese and Indians
are the biggest group.
And the Mexicans have actually kinda
dropped off a little bit,
but, again, this only accounts
for those that we know.
– Okay, Senegalese, that’s what?
20 grand to the cartel these days.
– Yeah, I think so.
– To pull that off.
– Yeah.
– When I was in the southern border,
that was the going rate from
West Africa at that time
to make that work, 20 grand.
So no one’s getting in
without a lot of money.
– No, and here’s the thing
is, you know, we understand
there’s some people fleeing
these horrific events
in their home country.
We know that, right?
– Yeah.
– We absolutely know that.
We understand that.
And again, it’s America.
We’re supposed to accept those
people and say, come to us.
We get that.
There’s a right way and a wrong way,
but there’s some people
that are coming down here
that I wonder really what
they’re fleeing from, right?
The clothing they wear,
what they’re doing.
It just, some of it doesn’t make sense.
It doesn’t seem to be
those that are distressed.
And that’s the part that makes us
struggle as a community and a country
is you’ve got the means
to get from where you’re going to Montreal
and then they get down here
after paying off the coyotes
or the cartels, or whoever’s doing it.
Are you really fleeing something?
And so that’s the question
that keeps coming up
to some people.
It’s just wondering
how it is you have the means to do that,
but you’re still in such distress
that you have to come
into the country this way?
– [Radio Speaker] Yes sir (indistinct)
We’re gonna have some
blocks sent over there.
We’re just gonna continue
to the east of (indistinct)
– Border Patrol wants to be
able to cover the border better.
I think most Americans want
them to cover the border better.
They just need the resources to do that.
It’s a lot of land to cover.
So, I mean, it can’t just
be all personnel, right?
We don’t have enough
people to put somebody
every five feet holding hands
to make sure nobody comes
across, that’s unrealistic,
but a combination of the technology,
and the personnel and the patrols,
yeah, I think they can do a different job
as long as their administration lets them.
– Right, and I do wanna
drop some of the numbers
’cause I did some research last night
on the northern border.
Northern border, 163,000
apprehensions this year so far.
Last year, 2023, 189,000 apprehensions.
2022, 109,000 apprehensions.
2021, 27,000 apprehensions.
So it’s really just ticked up, huh?
– Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
There’s no other way around it.
The numbers speak for themselves
and you can spin it any way you want.
– This is Customs Border.
This is CBP’s website numbers on this.
Southern border right now this year,
1,926,000 apprehensions.
And so that’s where there’s
been physical contact,
or visual contact, right?
But it’s the got aways that
is the unknown number, right?
– Yeah, so that’s the
number of apprehensions.
– That does not include
the amount of times
where there’s been a group
of suspected migrants
come through and they fled
and then people did not chase them.
This is not the amount of
people where they’ve seen them,
where they have intelligence,
or they have technology
that states that there’s people there
and then they don’t find them.
Those people we can’t account for.
That’s the biggest concern is,
yeah, we had a huge
amount of apprehensions,
but the ever-present fear is those that
we don’t know who they are.
There is evil people that are lurking.
There’s people that have
intent to do harm to the U.S.
and the citizens of the U.S.
and they’re gonna find the easiest way in.
And right now this may be it.
So we talk about this
creation of the boogeyman
where we’re embellishing stories
and trying to make it look
worse and stuff like that.
Hmm, I don’t know.
I think that’s maybe something that people
that don’t want to admit that
the boogeyman actually exists
because you can’t vet
who those people are.
You don’t know if they’re families.
You don’t know if they’re gang members.
You don’t know if they’re foreign agents.
You don’t know who they
are because they got away.
That should make you a little nervous.
That should make you wonder
why it is they’re doing that.
Why are they trying so
hard to avoid detection
when these other people
are giving themselves up?
That should really make
you give pause and say,
okay, we should probably talk about that.
It’s not creating the boogeyman.
It’s talking about the reality.
(ambient music)
(music continues)
For the longest time,
the northbound traffic,
they would come up this way
and it got so bad to where the Canadians
actually had to build a processing center
on the other side right here.
– [Peter] Okay, so is
this active right now?
– No, they took down all their buildings
because they changed their laws.
And I’m not entirely sure how they did,
but they changed their laws
to basically state that
you’re going to be arrested
if you come across.
– [Peter] So when was this active here?
– This would’ve been closed down last,
probably, I think, a year
and a half, two years.
(vehicle doors close)
– Here we go.
So they’d come down the
road here in Canada.
– [Major Leon] They would
come here to go to here.
– [Peter] They’re going
from America to the?
– This was, yes.
And that’s where they set this up.
They had a whole encampment here.
– [Peter] So there is
some of that going on too.
– This was huge a couple years ago, yeah.
– [Peter] Going from the U.S. to Canada.
– Yep, and the difference
is Canadian officials,
they can actually stop
you from entering America.
They have a law against that.
Whereas the Americans, we
don’t have a law that allows us
to stop people from trying
to illegally enter Canada.
– [Peter] Okay.
– So the Canadians, their border officials
were quite upset with that
because there would be law
enforcement here occasionally.
And people would illegally go to enter
and they’re like, “Can’t you stop them?”
Like, no, we don’t have
the laws to do that.
– [Peter] So sort of
like our southern border,
they’re frustrated with
the Mexican government
not stopping them coming into the U.S.
– Yep, yep.
– Okay, that’s interesting.
So the Canadians put the kibosh on this.
– Yep.
– [Peter] I mean it’s still
pretty easy to get over though.
– It is and I mean there’s
just so many places.
– You just gotta run, there it is.
Okay, so I mean, technically
if I ran over there right now.
Let’s just do a hypothetical.
I’m going down that
street and I come back.
What would you do as law enforcement?
– Well, one, I would tell
you not to cross the border
in the first place
’cause that would create a
whole lot of problems, right?
Because each country has its
own technology in places.
You would technically be
incurring into Canadian soil.
They can come arrest you for that.
Coming back through,
then you would be coming
into the country illegally.
Then Border Patrol would
have to come deal with you.
Now you’re a U.S. citizen, right?
Which poses a special issue
because you technically
can’t be stopped from
coming into the country.
So I would have to call
somebody who’s not me
to figure that out ’cause I
gotta tell you that’s confusing,
but please, for the love of God,
don’t go across the
border and then come back.
You’re gonna just bust my chops.
– [Peter] And then what if I did it
on a Native American
Reservation on the border,
then that would add more complexity.
– If you made it back off that.
– Yeah.
– That would be, then
we’d figure that one out.
There’s a reservation,
the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Reservation
where half of it is on the
Canadian side and the U.S. side.
And they can actually go back and forth.
And that’s a huge hub for
cross-border smuggling
because they don’t have the
same regulations getting across.
So people take advantage of that.
– [Peter] Okay, so that still continues?
– [Peter] Yeah.
– [Peter] Okay, and you were
telling me that that Glock,
is this a Glock?
– No, this is a Sig 320.
– [Peter] Okay, but you
were telling me a Glock 19.
– Any pistol pretty much will will fetch
thousands and thousands
of dollars in Canada.
– [Peter] You said it would
be 6,000 maybe up there?
– Yeah, roughly.
– [Peter] And that would
be $600 to buy here?
– Yeah, yeah.
– [Peter] So literally you
could pack up a bunch of guns
and make a ton of money.
– Put it in a backpack, which has happened
and you smuggle it
north across the border.
– [Peter] It’s hard to get guns in Canada?
– Yes.
Police officers in Canada also
can’t carry their guns home.
Whereas, here in the States, we have laws,
I can carry my gun anywhere in the U.S.
– Right, so everyone that
gets one of these guns over,
obviously, it’s a criminal element to it
and people are doing illegal
things with their guns
and shouldn’t have ’em.
– Yes, yeah.
– [Peter] Sir, the
border’s right over there,
but what’s going on in your
neighborhood right now?
– Nothing much goes on right through here.
Once in a while they come
through in this area right there,
but most of the time it’s up this way,
maybe half a mile to a mile.
Just after you get past
the tree line up here
where the fields are open
they come through there.
And then when you go this way
and you go just past the
crest of the hill there,
they come through in that area there.
– [Peter] Is there much
going on right now?
Many coming over or not so much?
– Not that I’ve seen any lately,
but a couple weeks ago they had ’em.
we had a couple sitting
out here on the corner
waiting for the Border Patrol to come
and they sat there for,
like, an hour and a half.
– How does the community
feel about all this?
You guys talk about it,
or you just sort of stay to
yourselves and not a big deal?
– We talk about it if we
see some action going on,
you know, somebody’s
coming across or anything.
We pretty much keep in
contact with each other.
– [Peter] Does it mess with
the safety or not really?
– It hasn’t so far.
– Okay.
– So you know, you never know,
but gotta kind of watch
and keep your doors locked,
but otherwise.
– [Peter] Did you used to
keep your doors locked?
– We’ve only been here five years.
In the beginning we
didn’t, but more so now
’cause you see more
activity coming across.
– [Peter] Okay, so when
you first moved here,
the doors were open and now you lock ’em.
– They were pretty much open then,
even though we knew they
were, it wasn’t as bad.
And, of course, at that time
they were picking ’em up
and sending them back.
Now they just pick ’em up
and then they let ’em go
after they, I guess,
they sign ’em in down at the
Border Patrol down there.
– [Peter] Okay, at the time
they would send them back?
– Yeah, I think so, yeah.
They’d send them back when we first moved.
– [Peter] Interesting.
– But they don’t do that now.
– [Peter] Thank you.
(airplane humming)
– Oh, they’re probably out there now.
– [Radio Speaker] (indistinct)
– [Peter] So this is one of the main veins
as in they come over there
and where we’re going
right now is this mini mart
where a lot of the transport
from my understanding,
brings them down to New York City.
– [Major Leon] One of the places.
The main Mountain Mart is in Plattsburgh.
That used to be the bus station.
That used to be a huge location,
but any of the stores they congregate.
They congregate at Stewart’s in Champlain
and the people see it.
There’s been stories of people
going into the store here,
grabbing goods and then
walking back into the woods.
It’s just something they gotta deal with.
– [Peter] You work here?
– Yep.
– [Peter] What’s it like these days?
– It’s actually, like, a little
quiet compared to earlier.
– [Peter] Earlier as in when?
– About a month ago.
– [Peter] A month ago it was busy?
– Oh yeah.
We’d pull in at four in the morning
and they’d be sitting on the back lawn,
a whole bunch of ’em.
– [Peter] And then what,
waiting for you to open or what?
– Yeah, that and waiting to find a ride.
– [Peter] Okay.
So the rides were coming up here
and then bringing ’em where?
– We never called for rides.
The only people we call
for is the sheriffs.
– [Peter] So how do you feel about it?
– Ha, I don’t wanna say ’cause
it would not be very good.
– Okay, it’s such a triggering
issue for so many people.
– Yeah, I don’t feel safe.
– Don’t feel safe.
I think most Americans are like,
we’re all for immigration,
but just an orderly, safer way to do it
than having to show up at
work at four in the morning
and have to wonder.
– Especially ’cause you
gotta lock your doors now.
– You lock your doors now?
– Oh yeah.
– At your house?
– Yep, vehicles, everything,
’cause we get some that go in our woods
and try to put up tents.
– I used to work the early
shift and they were always here,
but not lately.
– [Peter] So it’s stopped though.
– Yeah, it’s actually-
– [Store Clerk] It’s calmed down.
– Yeah, calmed down quite a bit.
– [Peter] That’s great news.
– Yeah.
– So do you know why it’s calmed down?
– Because of those guys
right there on the border.
– [Peter] They’re doing their jobs.
– Oh yeah, they’re cracking down.
– [Peter] So you guys really
support the sheriffs here?
– Oh yeah, ’cause the instant we call,
they’re instantly here.
– [Peter] They’re here.
– Yep.
– [Peter] Sweet.
– Good guys.
– That’s what you want.
– Yep.
– We get sheriffs, we get border,
we get customs all the time in the store.
They’re always coming in
to grab something, so,
we’re pretty protected here, I think so.
– [Peter] What about you guys?
You should be scared or no?
– No, I worked at the
Prospect store for backup
when they needed help down there.
So I dealt with most of the
immigrants that were sent there.
– [Peter] Okay, so what’s your experience?
– I hated them.
– [Peter] Why?
– They were mean and with the bathroom.
Otherwise like you would put out of order,
you had to clean it and they didn’t care.
They’d go in there,
like, when you’re the
only one person on shift,
you can’t clean the bathroom
and try to run the
register at the same time.
I didn’t like being there
as a girl by myself, but.
– [Peter] What’s the feeling
of people in Mooers right now?
– They’re worried about
what they’re gonna do
with the border.
All these people just
walking in their backyards.
‘Cause you shouldn’t have to
feel like when we’re coming
to work in the morning,
we shouldn’t have to
watch what we were doing.
‘Cause I would have to call a guy
that would work with us in the morning.
He’d meet me here just so
I’d have backup in the door
because one day we were
walking in and he looked back
and there was three people
coming around the store
and the girl was trying to lure him out.
So I already unlocked the
door and I was waiting
and he hurried up and told me to lock it.
He was like, I don’t want you
to unlock the door right now
’cause he was trying to deal with
what they were going on outside.
So I started calling him every morning
and we meet here together
and we walk in together.
– [Peter] All right.
– [Major Leon] Thank you ladies.
– [Peter] Ladies, take care.
– [Store Clerk] You too.
– Oh, they’re sweet.
You know what they said,
traffic has been down
the last month or so.
– I’ll tell you my
reasoning why it fixed it.
So traffic has gone down
a little bit, not a ton.
It’s the type of traffic.
So more Indians, less Mexicans,
but my personal opinion is this.
We’re going through the
election season right now
and the thought process is with some
that if Trump becomes elected,
he’s gonna shut the borders down
and he’s gonna kick those
out that are already here.
So now would not be the time to come in
because you’re just
gonna get booted, right?
They can go through the backlog,
but I think it’s highly unlikely.
I believe our election has a huge impact
on what’s going on with the numbers.
– Okay, what about the theory that,
well, now you can still pull it off
and if Trump gets into office,
maybe the border becomes,
the policies become much firmer
and it’s harder to get over.
What about that theory?
– Well, it may be harder to get over,
but are you gonna risk
$20,000 to come here
just for a month or two
and then potentially get
caught and shipped out?
It could also be the
law changes in Canada,
the visa program.
It could be a lot of things.
– And, also, the cartels
usually, you know,
the path of least resistance.
So on the southern border some
sectors are busy at times,
others are quiet and then
it always sort of changes.
– Yeah, well, I mean,
for them it’s become more of a business
and maybe they are
looking for a new chance,
new opportunity, but it’s
that cat and mouse game.
They’re just gonna
constantly probe new areas.
The only reason it’s so lucrative
and easy here is because
of the border roads in
Canada being near our roads.
If you go out west,
you may not find them to
be in such close proximity.
– [Peter] Yeah, and you
have a big city to fly into.
– Yeah.
– [Radio Speaker] (indistinct)
– So that’s the State Police
going to a complaint locally.
– [Peter] About what?
– It looks like somebody kicked in a door,
but it’s probably a domestic type thing.
– [Peter] Is that what
most of the crime is,
domestic stuff?
– Not so much most, but
there’s a lot of it.
There’s definitely a lot
of domestic issues up here.
Any area you’re gonna find pockets
of economically depressed groups,
you’re gonna find people
that are poor, right?
You’re gonna find people that
have problems with alcohol.
You’re gonna have people that
have problems with drugs.
And all those situations bring about
further complications with the law,
property crimes, domestics.
I mean, robberies, I
mean, that stuff happens.
– [Peter] So it’s really
a socioeconomic issue.
– Yeah, I think that’s a huge part of it.
You can be rich and be into
drugs, sure, absolutely,
but what you’re willing
to do to get those drugs,
probably not the same as
those people that are poor,
that want the drugs,
because the people that are
poor that want the drugs,
don’t have the finances,
don’t have the means.
So they’re willing to break the law
and do other things in order to get that.
And that is what compounds
and it just keeps expanding.
– So what are you seeing in
law enforcement, you know,
from your perspective now
versus five years ago?
Like, what are you dealing with?
Like, a lot of people don’t
get your guys’ perspective, so.
– It’s funny, when I came on
the job, like, what was that?
2005, I got hired.
And I was once told by
the current under-sheriff
of the next county where I used to work,
that I would never draw my weapon.
And I still remember those words.
And part of me wishes he was right
because that’s not the case.
The world’s changed.
We see people carrying guns.
We see people that are willing to do
some pretty brutal things.
I don’t wanna say that the
criminal element is so bad
to where you can’t walk on the street.
I’m not trying to paint that picture,
but there’s enough bad
stuff going on up here
to where people have no idea, right?
– [Peter] Even up here we’re pretty rural.
So we’re talking Plattsburgh, right?
– [Major Leon] Yeah, Plattsburgh.
– [Peter] Which is what,
20,000, 30,000 people?
– The city of Plattsburgh is about 20.
Clinton County as a whole is about 82, 84.
If you subscribe to the
broken window theory.
It’s the idea that these lesser crimes
that we’re allowing to
happen because of, you know,
bail reform, law changes.
We’re allowing these kids
because of Raise the Age
to do things that we didn’t let them do.
And that emboldens them and they go out
and they do these other crimes
and we’re not addressing it.
And it just grows and grows.
The same idea with the broken
window theory is, you know,
somebody can come along and
break a window in a nice house
and if you don’t address that window,
then everybody thinks it’s okay
to break the next window
and then the next window.
And in the end the house
is completely destroyed
because you’re not addressing
that smaller problem.
We’ve had some sort of
movement in law enforcement
the last four or five years
to where overnight law
enforcement became the bad guy.
– [Peter] Right.
– And we’re now the problem.
It wasn’t so much that
people were breaking the law.
It’s the fact that we were
holding them accountable.
And don’t get me wrong, every
profession’s got these people
that are just complete morons
and they go out and do stupid things.
And we have, and we’ve witnessed it.
And we don’t appreciate that either.
And we hold them accountable as well,
but law enforcement as a
whole in the last five years
has been vilified.
– Yeah.
And so the world has
changed in the fact that
there’s more crime
because there’s less
teeth in law enforcement.
There’s less ability
to enforce these laws.
And people are more emboldened
because here in New York
State with bail reform,
you get appearance ticket
after appearance ticket
after appearance ticket.
It takes a while before you
can get in front of a judge,
before a judge will actually
hold you accountable,
versus before you could arraign somebody
that you knew was a danger,
or something like that,
that doesn’t happen so much anymore.
– Right.
– So there’s more crime,
there’s more willingness
to break the law and there’s
less immediate repercussions.
So, therefore, these people
will continue to do it.
– Right.
What’s Raise the Age?
– Raise the Age was changing
the age of criminal liability.
For years you used to tell people
that if you were 16 you’re
responsible for what you did.
And there’s some signs behind
it to show that, you know,
people of younger age,
they don’t have the ability
to make the processing decisions.
So, therefore, they Raise
the Age of criminal liability
through two different years of movement.
So now an 18-year-old is not
treated like an 18-year-old.
An 18-year-old is treated like a child,
and, therefore, they’re not responsible
for the same level of offenses.
And it’s just been a movement.
It’s complex on what you can
charge somebody at what age
and what for, and, I mean, the
lawyers have gone through it.
Cops have gone through it,
and you literally need
a flow chart to identify
what you can do with each person.
And it never really was like that.
And that in itself is
creating a bigger problem.
This particular road,
when I first transferred
here it was around 2008,
a woman ended up getting into
a domestic with her husband
and ended up shooting him in the back
with a small caliber weapon.
Apparently you shouldn’t
argue with your spouse.
– [Peter] Do those things weigh on you?
Like, you go down this road again,
and it brings you back to that, or?
– I mean, that’s everywhere.
Yeah, so I’ve lived a pretty rough career.
I remember taking a shovel
and it was dead of winter.
There was a fatal accident
and using a shovel
to help remove this poor
guy’s head from the road.
Yeah, you don’t forget those things.
I remember picking up body parts.
I remember, you know, I’m a firm believer
every scene you go to, you
lose a little bit of yourself,
but, yeah, you remember that.
And do you keep doing it?
Yeah, you keep doing it,
but it doesn’t change it.
You can’t ignore it.
There’s been this conversation
that cops in their career,
and firefighters and
medics in their career
will go through so much trauma
it’s akin to being in a war zone
beyond a rotation for a tour of duty.
I’ve seen a lot.
And again, I live in Mayberry, you know,
so if me in Mayberry where I was told
I was never gonna draw my gun,
I can only assume, you know,
the people that are working
in a higher tempo area
have certainly more than what I do.
Right here is one of the areas
where migrants like to come down through.
– [Peter] Okay, so that tree
line out there is Canada?
– [Major Leon] Just north
of the tree line, yeah.
– [Peter] Just north of the tree line.
So this is one of the big roads.
– [Major Leon] It is.
– [Peter] Is it a daytime
thing, a nighttime thing,
or it doesn’t matter?
– It really used to be just nighttime.
Now there’s a group that
doesn’t mind coming across
giving themselves up.
So what we’re running into
now is the groups of people
that are coming down
and as soon as they get across the border
they’re calling 911 saying,
“Hey, I’m here, come get me.”
– Yeah, and so that’s
where it gets confusing.
And, unfortunately, most of our media
hasn’t unpacked the entirety.
And I can’t do it in one video
’cause there’s a lot to it,
but that’s the big sticking point, right?
Most people from my
understanding can claim asylum.
Now is that a real asylum case or not
is the question, right?
So in certain jurisdictions
that I’ve been at
on the southern border, the
authorities I’ve spoken with,
the vast majority are economic migrants.
They’re coming for the opportunity.
– Yep.
– Which, hey, if the green light’s on,
I’m gonna do it, too, if
I’m in that position, right?
Courts are backed up for years.
So they get in, they’re quasi-legal,
but in some instances,
and actually many, they can’t work.
They don’t have papers to work.
So that’s when you have
a New York situation,
or I’m going to Massachusetts soon,
where there are hotels
filled with migrants
paid for by the taxpayer,
food, healthcare,
everything, shelter.
And that’s where a lot
of the friction lies.
And it’s a frustration for everyone
because why does the local
citizen have to pay for that?
We have enough problems with
homeless in the country.
We’re incentivizing more to come.
– Absolutely.
– And a lot of these people
coming just wanna work.
There’s bad apples, of course.
I don’t agree with the whole,
like, it’s some army that’s
gonna assemble on the U.S. side.
I’ve seen most of these
people are just like,
they just wanna work in an opportunity.
There we go.
The squirrel’s making a run
from Canada, there it goes.
And so that’s where the
sticking point lies.
I don’t think either side of the media
will really unpack that clearly.
It’s easy to say everyone is coming from
the worst conditions ever and
we should accept everyone in,
but that’s not honest.
It’s not what’s happening.
– No.
– Right, and as we talked about earlier,
you’re coming from West Africa,
you need 20 grand, at least
you did, you need a lot.
And at the time I was
in the southern border
from Honduras and up, it was six grand.
Nobody just gets in.
– No.
– You’re paying off,
you’re paying people off.
Then the darkness of it
comes when you have the guy
that paid six grand doesn’t
have the full six grand.
The cartel said, okay, you
can pay me in installments
through Western Union, or whatever.
And then the family’s sort of hostage
back in the home country until he pays up.
So he is almost like living
this slavery type life.
– Yeah.
– In the U.S. where
you can’t work legally,
you have to be under the table.
You might have to take
horrible conditions to do so.
So the whole point-
– Making a fraction of what somebody else
who was doing that job would actually make
if it was above the table.
– And then it puts
pressure on the lower end
of American society because
it lowers the wages.
And also the migrants
are going to communities
where the poorer people live.
And so the rent prices go up
’cause you have more
heads in the community.
It doesn’t affect the rich people.
– Nope.
– So these are just, like, some basics
that don’t really get explained.
– And everything compounds.
– And everything compounds.
And we’re at this, like, this
point where people are just,
if they’re dealing with it firsthand,
they’re really fed up.
– Yeah, yeah.
– Understandably so.
– And I mean, if you look at just, I mean,
anybody who’s reporting on it,
look at the issues of all
these people that fluctuate
into the country,
and they’re going to these locations
where you’re talking about,
one of the things they’re not
really talking a lot about
is the crime that comes
from putting those people
in the same areas.
I mean, New York City is
facing that left and right.
They have homicides, they have fights,
they have all these different
things that are happening
and they can happen
anywhere, but the point is,
they’re happening very much
around these migrant centers.
And people have to ask the question,
well, why is that happening?
And the same thing I brought up with you
about the drug trade here.
If people don’t have the means
to get what they need or want,
they’re going to find a way to do that.
And oftentimes that’s through crime.
If we’re letting them
come into the country,
but we’re not giving
them the means to earn
while being here, while they wait,
they’re going to do things
to get the things they need.
Whether it’s stealing from the store,
whether it’s robbing somebody else,
whether it’s finding other ways.
I mean, selling food,
the open air markets that are happening,
granted not here locally,
but in the bigger metropolitan areas,
it’s gonna keep causing these problems.
It’s gonna keep creating
these little nuances
that are going to affect
the daily life of the people
that live in the area, like you said.
And the people that have to go through it.
– And they’re told by the cartels
that here’s all this
opportunity you’re gonna work.
– Yep.
– And a lot of times they can’t.
And so it’s illegal work.
It could be prostitution.
– Yep.
– I mean, what goes on
at the southern border,
I don’t know if it’s happening here,
but, you know, they flood the zone,
the cartel floods the zone one area.
Our Customs Border Protection gets on it.
Quarter mile down that’s when
the fentanyl goes through.
The sex trafficking, all the dark stuff.
– It’s the same stuff happens here.
I mean, if you get a pickup load
where Border Patrol moves in
and local law enforcement,
you’re inevitably tying up resources.
There’s nothing you can do about it.
Those resources are tied up.
And then you’re going to get
other groups trying to cross.
– And then for your
residents that live here,
maybe there’s an emergency,
and you guys are more tied
up dealing with these issues
you shouldn’t have to be dealing with.
– It’s just vast, vastness.
That’s all you can think about
if you look at the border.
I mean, just look as far
as you can see, it is huge.
You have to think about that
and the magnitude of how do you police it?
I mean, there’s ways to do it
and it’s being done, right?
Technology is a huge friend,
but that’s pretty daunting.
And imagine trying to do
that with reduced staffing
in an age when nobody wants
to get in law enforcement
and everybody’s trying to hire
and you just don’t get people.
So you gotta fight those battles too.
– [Peter] Is that the case here?
– I think it’s the case anywhere.
I mean, I think there’s very
few agencies across the country
that are not struggling
to hire people, very few.
– So they just don’t wanna get into it
because over the last few years
they’ve been put under
the bus to some degree.
You know, it’s a lot of pressure.
I mean, I can’t imagine
going out and dealing with
the heaviness of society.
Say you have a family,
you gotta leave and deal
with that every day.
And then you might not
get admiration or respect
for doing the hard yards.
– It’s not even the
admiration or the respect.
It’s the fair shake, right?
There’s no fair shake anymore.
In law enforcement you
can’t make a mistake.
And we’ve removed the idea
that police are human, right?
You have to be perfect.
And don’t get me wrong.
There have been some
absolutely heinous acts
by people in uniform, right?
Complete scumbags, we know that,
but in law enforcement now
they feel like we’re out to get them.
And there’s this us them mentality,
meaning society as a whole.
– Who’s they though?
– The society.
– I don’t think most people feel that way.
– They may not,
but that’s what’s being represented.
And now we’re enacting-
– Right, that’s the image we’re seeing.
– We’re enacting laws and all these things
against law enforcement.
And we’re doing it under the
guise of open law enforcement.
We’re doing it under the guise of
we’re trying to build relationships.
And I don’t know if that’s the case,
but how many people do
you think wanna go out
and deal with the worst
that society has to offer?
People that are carrying guns,
people that are the breaking law,
but you have to be perfect
and you get a split second
to make that decision.
The same decision that
it’s going to take lawyers
and other people weeks to determine
whether you were right or
wrong and you get 30 seconds.
The same people that tell us
that we’re horrible, right?
We have media people that
are talking about cops,
this or that, we put ’em
through the same scenarios
through law enforcement training
and they failed just as much if not more.
And yet they’re so quick to judge.
Would you really want that?
Knowing that the truth doesn’t come out
because the truth no longer matters.
It’s who’s fastest.
Who gets it out quick.
Who’s the first?
And then the truth will
come out eventually,
but the truth will be a
footnote to page nine.
And do you really want to get into that?
No, that’s why nobody wants to be a cop.
– So we’re gonna attract
the worst officers.
– I don’t think we’re
gonna attract the worst,
but we’re certainly dropping our standards
to fill the ranks.
– Say you have to fill 10 positions
and you have 500 applicants,
you can take the best of those 500.
If you have 10 positions
and you have 10 applicants.
– You are definitely hiring people now
that you wouldn’t have hired 10 years ago.
– That’s my point.
– And here’s the thing.
We talked about law enforcement
being overburdened before
and all these other things.
You know what we’re doing now?
We’re doing the same job plus more,
but we’re doing it with less
people working more hours,
which is exactly what they said
they didn’t want to happen.
– Which is gonna burn them out.
– Yes.
– And if I’ve been dealing with,
I had a BS day all day long,
– You’re gonna make a
bad choice somewhere.
– And then say, you know,
you have a fight with
your wife in the morning,
whatever it might be.
You’re coming into work with stress.
You’re dealing with the dregs of society.
The last part of the day
someone comes at you physically.
I don’t know how you do it.
– I mean, you try to do it the right way.
– Of course.
– Luckily, we work with a lot of people
that are doing the job
for the right reasons
and we’re doing it out here
’cause we’re trying to
save the world, right?
You’ve been in my office,
you saw Superman everywhere.
The whole point is because
I think I can save the world
and that’s what I want is I
want people to like my side.
– It’s purpose and meaning.
That’s what you get in your work.
– Yeah.
– So most people are,
a lot of people don’t
have that in their lives.
– Some people think I’m mentally ill
because of the dedication
that I have to the agency
and to the job,
but at the same point, I’ve
been on the other side, right?
I’ve lived a life where I
grew up poor, single mother.
I’ve been in jail before
I got outta high school.
– [Peter] You’ve been in jail?
– Absolutely 100%.
– [Peter] For what?
– I broke into a bunch of summer camps.
And the point is, is that accountability,
which we cannot give to the
young people in society today,
is the only thing that saved
me was getting in trouble
and being accountable
because with a single mother
who had to go do what she
had to do and no father,
I was left to do what I wanted.
And in the end I messed up
and it wasn’t but the court
system that actually helped me
and then the jail where
I actually realized
this is not the life I want.
You know, people are like,
oh, you’ve been to jail.
Yeah, I’ve been to jail.
I was in high school.
It’s sealed, but I talk about it openly.
You know why?
Because it might help somebody else,
but that no longer exists.
We can’t do that to
young people, we can’t.
So those people aren’t gonna get
the accountability that I got
and I don’t think they’re gonna
have the same chances I got.
– [Peter] And then you do your job here
and you’re gonna be called
xenophobic, or whatever,
or you don’t like immigrants.
– Which is not the case.
– [Peter] Right.
– But, of course, because
I’m enforcing the law.
– Right.
– You know, it’s…
– So your guys hands are-
– No matter what you do,
you’re damned if you do,
you’re damned if you don’t.
– Your hands are really tied.
– Yeah.
– And you can’t speak up.
– I’m only here because my boss
said, “Come speak with you.”
Right?
– Are you glad he said that?
– Listen, at this point, I
can retire in six months.
What’s the worst that’s
gonna happen, right?
People are gonna look at me and say,
ah, he’s got a point,
or they’re gonna say he’s an asshole.
It’s one of the two.
– It’s luxury beliefs
that allow you to think
you don’t need law enforcement in life
’cause I’ve been to countries
where it’s broken down
and it sucks.
And so society, maybe not
up here in the countryside,
but most cities would fall
apart in literally 12 hours.
It would be absolute mad max chaos.
And that’s the reality.
And a lot of people,
since they live in
maybe a place like this,
I’m not saying these people,
but if society falls,
law enforcement falls,
you’re looking at the corn fields,
it doesn’t really affect you as much.
– No, and the funny part
about living up here is
even the people that are
on the furthest extreme,
they still, despite maybe
not like getting pulled over,
they still respect law
enforcement up here,
which is interesting, it’s true.
– On the furthest extremes
both sides, or just one side?
– I think so, I think, on both.
– Okay.
– I think so.
– Most people want it.
They’re just in society right now
a lot of people are quiet in so many ways.
– It’s making things more difficult
because, like, in our small
agency right now we’ve got,
I’d say it’s probably 5% open
that we could hire, right?
So we’re down 5% for staffing.
The New York State Police, right?
They get paid well, they are
having trouble with staffing.
Any agency in the country is
having trouble with staffing.
The Border Patrol trouble with staffing.
You’re asking people to
go out and do these jobs
that other people don’t really wanna do
in conditions that they
don’t wanna go do it.
Knowing that one wrong move
can immediately put you in a position
where you could lose everything.
– [Peter] Looks like a new crossing, huh?
– [Major Leon] Yeah, they’ve
done some work on it.
– [Peter] So up here at this sector
you have a lot of small crossings, huh?
– [Major Leon] Yeah.
– [Peter] There’s a lot of this going on.
– [Major Leon] Yep.
There’s so many different roads
that intersect so many towns on each side.
– [Peter] Right.
– That to make it one point,
you’re talking about going 40 miles
just to get to a border crossing
and to come back 40 miles
when all the roads are right here.
So it’s a matter of convenience
for the American and Canadian
people to have these.
– [Peter] So much activity
here are you saying,
or not really?
– [Major Leon] No, no, no,
this is where it should be, right?
This is where it should be, but it’s not.
– [Peter] Do you think a lot of people
are working over the border?
– I don’t think that’s
necessarily the case.
I’m sure there’s some,
but I don’t think it’s a
huge cross-border employment
kind of like on the south.
There’s a huge population
of corrections officers.
The New York State
Department of Corrections
has several jails in the area,
but as New York State continues
on with their formatting,
they keep closing prisons.
And as they close prisons,
these people that live in
these areas, they can’t remain.
They have a choice of
going to another prison
if they wanna keep their employment,
but it just creates a
hardship for these people.
– So prisons are closing.
That means what?
You’re arresting less.
There are less criminals.
What’s going on?
– You know, that’s the problem I have
with the use of numbers.
The use of numbers, oh, crime is down.
Nah, I don’t know if crime is down.
What I do know is we’ve made crime lesser,
so, therefore, there’s more work
that goes into a lower level crime
and law enforcement
may not be spending their time doing that,
or district attorneys may
not be willing to prosecute.
So, therefore, those numbers,
sure, they’re indicative of less arrests
because there’s more
work that goes into those
lower level arrests so
they’re not being made.
I’m not the smart guy.
There’s other people a
lot smarter than I am,
but I’m just out here giving-
– What’s it take for me to
go to prison these days?
– Oh, I think a lot.
I mean, you can be-
– Okay, what if I, you know,
in front of the mini mart,
I attack somebody?
– Yeah, no, you’re gonna get a ticket.
– A ticket?
– Yeah.
– What do you mean?
– I’m gonna bring you to my office.
I’m gonna say you’re under arrest.
Here’s your ticket, go to court.
And then you’re gonna go home.
– I’m not going to jail?
– No, you would have to
really hurt somebody, yeah.
– I punched someone in the face.
– No, that’s a harassment.
That in itself is a ticket on scene.
– Was there a time when it
wasn’t a ticket on scene?
– So punching somebody in the
face, that’s a harassment,
that’s a violation level of offense.
Now if you cause injury,
then you’re getting into
the assaults, but even then.
We used to be able to bring
you in front of a judge
and arraign you, and that’s all changed.
There’s a huge list of
all the different offenses
where you can no longer bring
somebody in front of a judge.
You just have to give
them an appearance ticket.
– Okay, so I go to the mini mart,
I punch someone in the face.
I give ’em a bloody nose.
– Yep.
– You’re giving me a little
ticket and sending me on my way.
– Yeah, probably, yeah.
– So there’s no consequences.
So if I’m designed like that,
then I’m gonna do more of it.
– Of course, and that’s the whole point
that I was trying to bring about
is the consequences are
not immediate, right?
You used to be afraid of getting arrested
because you could potentially
go in front of a judge
and go to jail.
Now, it doesn’t matter
because you’re not going
in front of a judge,
you’re not going to jail,
you’re getting a ticket.
The ticket in itself is not scary.
– How much is it for something like that?
– Oh, I mean, you could still potentially,
if you had a huge record,
you could potentially face
a couple days in jail,
but it’s not likely, so
you’re facing a fine,
and it really depends on the judge,
depends on the jurisdiction.
So if you break the law
and you thought you
were gonna get arrested
and go to a judge, but
instead you get a ticket,
where’s the consequence in that?
The consequence may come
later, but it’s not immediate.
So, therefore, there’s a higher likelihood
that you may rack up several arrests
prior to any consequences
being levied against you.
– Do people know that?
I guess they don’t ’cause
I’m asking the question.
I didn’t really know how it worked either.
– Yeah, I mean, in New York State,
people are a little shocked
when they hear about it.
People are like, “Why
aren’t cops doing anything?”
Oh, they are.
“Well, he punched somebody
and he got released.”
Oh no, he actually punched somebody.
He got what we’re required to do.
We’re required to give
him an appearance ticket
and he’s gonna go to
court at a later date.
That’s just the way it is.
– [Peter] What was this down here?
– [Major Leon] This used
to be an old shopping mall.
– [Peter] When did this close down?
– [Major Leon] Oh, years ago.
Occasionally, we’ll get information
that there will be some
that’ll hide out here
’til they get picked up.
– [Peter] So you have a
bunch of clothes out there.
Yeah, let’s stop there.
That’s post-apocalyptic.
– [Major Leon] Yep.
– All right, guys, I also wanna tell you
there’s a lot of stuff that
happens during these days,
during these shoots
that I don’t talk about.
And so I have another platform
outside of the YouTube channel.
I’ll leave the link down below.
It’s called the Inner Circle Group.
That’s where I do a question
and answers with you guys.
Deeper thought processes
about all of this information,
because usually it’s about
the other person’s story
and learning from them,
but, you know, I’ll
spend the rest of the day
after this shoot going to
talk to different people,
and thinking through what I’ve learned.
And I share it on this other channel, so.
We’d love to see you there.
Link down below.
Let’s check this out.
All right, so some break-in action.
(glass crunching)
And here are the clothes.
So they just come right over, right?
– Yeah.
So some of this could easily
be from people coming down.
The odd part is the different shoes
that are in good condition.
Homeless people wouldn’t leave them.
They would keep those,
but these have obviously been
through some dirt and some mud
so it’s very probable.
– [Peter] I’m surprised
the city doesn’t have this blocked off.
Like anyone can just be in here, right?
– [Major Leon] Privately owned.
And they’ve gone after them
several times to address it.
(glass crunching)
The border is just north
of here, about two miles.
So if you start working
your way through at night,
you come down, there’s
plenty of lights here.
So basically you don’t even need GPS,
you just focus on the lights.
We caught cars over at
the McDonald’s next door,
flashing their headlights
into the woods signaling,
Hey, I’m here, come on out.
Across the street,
you’ll see Border Patrol watching us.
– [Peter] Right now?
– [Major Leon] Yeah.
– [Peter] That’s all new, huh?
– [Major Leon] Fairly new.
– [Peter] Do you mind
putting the camera out there.
Just put it out there.
So they just ditched their clothes?
– [Major Leon] Yeah.
– [Peter] Or the excess, what is that?
– It’s hard to tell,
but those are three
separate pairs of shoes.
If you come out, though, and
you’re trying to look like
you didn’t just run
through the woods and hide,
whoever’s picking you up
may have other clothes for you to put on.
You dump ’em real quick
and then you’re set.
– [Peter] So just cat and mouse?
– [Major Leon] Yeah, it really is.
– [Peter] How you doing?
– Not bad, how about yourself?
– [Peter] Good.
I’m making a video on the border region.
Have you seen many people coming
over lately or not really?
– I see them a lot because
I live right on the border.
We live across from the Roxham Road,
so I see them come across by the families,
but you know the man to talk to?
Right in there, his name is Phil.
He lives right on the Roxham Road.
– [Peter] Okay.
– So he’d be the one to talk to.
He sees more of it.
– [Peter] Thank you Danielle.
– [Danielle] You’re very welcome.
– [Peter] All right, so Phil,
give us the story for those
that don’t live at the northern border.
Uptick in crossings, or
has it gotten chiller,
or what’s going on?
– It’s pretty chill.
It’s slowing down.
– [Peter] Okay.
– Still see a few people here
and there coming through.
– [Peter] Okay, so when was it really bad?
– Last year.
– [Peter] It was worse last year.
– Oh yeah, before they
shut down the border.
– [Peter] They shut it down?
– Up on my road.
– [Peter] And the Canadians
shut it down, right?
– Yeah, but you still can
jump it and get over it.
– [Peter] Oh, it’s easy, yeah.
Okay, and then what’s the trajectory?
Most come in here and
then go to New York City,
or what’s the state?
– Yeah, they go to, like, to
New York City stuff and all.
– So they’ll have people
pick ’em up up here?
– Yeah.
– Go south.
– Yeah, and if they don’t have anybody,
then they’re looking for a taxi
and we got a couple taxis
that’ll come up and pick them up.
– [Peter] No way, they’ll
come up from New York City?
– No, from, like, Plattsburgh
and take ’em down.
– [Peter] Okay.
How much is a taxi to New York City?
– All depends on the taxi
driver wants to charge.
– [Peter] Okay, okay.
Thank you, Phil.
– [Phil] All right, you have a good one.
– Yeah, you too, take care.
– [Phil] You too.
– All right, there we go.
Another little piece
to the story from Phil.
That was interesting.
Phil said that taxis will come up here.
– Yep, even New York City taxis.
– All right, so.
– I don’t know if you noticed,
did you see any taxi
signs posted anywhere?
– He said they have a
collection of taxis they call.
– Do they?
Interesting.
– Yeah.
– So Phil calls for ’em?
– I think so.
– Yeah, we like Phil.
– You want Phil to do that?
– Listen, somebody’s gonna
call it, I just find it funny
how we get New York City taxis up here
to pick these guys up if it’s
not already pre-organized
and there’s a lot of
people making money off it.
– Right.
Well, he said there are
some Plattsburgh taxis too.
– There are, there are, yep.
– But it’s just an opportunity, right?
– So depending on who
Phil is speaking about,
is he talking about those
that are already released
from the Border Patrol station over here?
Or is he talking about those
that just snuck across the border
that have not yet been processed?
– I didn’t hit ’em on that
and I don’t know if he’d
want to answer that one.
– Yeah, so I’m assuming
because the Border Patrol station is,
well, it’s that building right there,
right by the big sign that we can’t see,
that’s the building right there.
So they literally go to
this store or that store
and then they get a ride.
– [Peter] So this is downtown Plattsburgh?
– [Major Leon] Yep.
– [Peter] Looks pretty
nice here, actually.
– It’s not that bad.
And that’s the problem is
if you stay on the surface
and you don’t delve into what’s going on
in any of the areas you generally live,
it’s actually pretty peaceful.
If you run in circles with
those elements that overlap,
then you’re going to
run into some problems
where it’s not gonna be as pretty.
– So, scale of one to 10,
how big of a problem is it?
– For America or for us?
– Give us both.
– For us in the area, I would dare say
it’s probably a four or five.
– Okay.
– You know, because it is a
drain on the local resources.
There’s resources that are being used
that maybe could go elsewhere.
– Okay, for the country?
– It’s definitely pretty high.
It’s gonna be at least
an eight in my opinion.
Again, it’s my opinion, any place.
You wouldn’t just let random
people walk into your house
if you didn’t know who they were.
You wouldn’t let people
go to your family reunion
if you didn’t know who they were,
but you’re gonna let them
come into the country
and basically disappear,
and you have no idea who they
are, or what they’re doing.
So you always have to keep
that in the back of your mind,
and I think that’s the
biggest problem I have.
– All right, quite interesting, guys.
I’ve never gone to the northern border
and touched on this story.
I’ve done a fair amount on
the southern border though.
We’d love you to see those videos too.
Did some videos with sheriffs
in Texas and Arizona.
Really fascinating.
And, also, Customs Border
Protection, cbp.gov.
You can go onto their website.
I’ll put a screen in here
somewhere on the video right now
so you can see what I’m talking about,
but the link down below,
check it out, very cool.
You can see apprehensions
on the northern border,
on the southern border,
what nationalities are
coming into the country.
It’s quite detailed and easy
to use, very interesting.
Check that out.
Thanks for coming along on that journey.
Until the next one.
(funky music)

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