Brian Bilbray: “They were actually trying to swim across the rivers. Now what happens is while there are floods going on, the cayotes…”

“They were actually trying to swim across the rivers. Now what happens is while there are floods going on, the cayotes, the smugglers, tell them swim across this body of water, and they do not realize how swift it is and how hard it is to make it across. There is debris in there. I have actually, when I was chairman of San Diego County, gone out with the lifeguards. They asked me to come help them because they needed somebody who was a lifeguard, who knew the area. I went out and rescued illegal aliens and put them on the skids of helicopters so we could pick them up and carry them off. Let me remind you, the Federal Government did not say anything about the expense of rescuing those people. Those of us in San Diego County paid for this expense. The thing that really shocked me was how many people did not make it? In one year, when I was chairman of the county, we spent over $30,000 sending people back to Mexico in body bags, $30,000 worth of dead people that were caused from the lack of control.”