The Sevan Podcast - #158 - Jorge Ventura

Episode Date: October 3, 2021

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Bam, we're live. Can you hear me, Jorge? Yeah, I can hear you. I was out in the middle of the street.

I don't have cell service at my house and you're on a droid, right? Yeah. So I'm trying to send you a text and i'm and i'm like oh my god the show started three minutes ago and i'm out there trying to get like some cell service like and send my text to the droid because i did because it kept saying it was bouncing but i guess you got it yeah yeah no i got it i got it i try to be on time for things oh you're awesome i i mean you were you were live on your instagram 18 seconds ago. Yeah, man. I was doing a little around the world with a bunch of just pissed off California parents regarding the recent news from today.

Yeah, no one wants to be forced to inject their kids with anything, right? I mean no one should feel – no matter what your – whether you want them to get the injection or not, no one should comfortable being forced to do it right exactly especially coming from the government that's the scariest thing that's the scariest thing it is a weird weird time were you ever a uh a liberal like me were you ever tree hug i mean tree hugging hippie like peace love uh i actually drum circle for me bro it was um i was so i actually was so tuned out of politics. I wasn't anything until after 2016 is when I started to want to get into reporting on politics. I'm kind of more of a – I would say just down the middle kind of independent guy that just really hates the establishment and anyone who's screwing over regular people. Right.

That's what I want to be too. I want to be like, so chill and like you do whatever you want. But the thing is, is I, I accidentally had three kids and now like I have a reason, like before I didn't even care. Like if you were to rob my house,

I'd jump out the window and go like, get a cup of coffee, do what you want. Like peace, love that. But now I can't do that. Now I got to like shoot you dead in the house. Cause I got kids.

I have to protect it. So weird. I don't want to have to protect anything like that, but it's what I do. Where are you based out of? Santa Cruz, California. Okay, cool. Born and raised in Berkeley. Okay, cool.

So just the heart. I was raised to kind of hate the country, love Obama, love Hillary, love Jimmy Carter, think Reagan was the devil. And my parents did a good job of convincing me of all that stuff. Were your parents kind of like those California liberal hippies? No, they actually weren't. My dad's a fucking hardcore immigrant. Probably very similar to your parents. Born in Lebanon in a 10 by 10 concrete hut, no electricity, no running water, had to walk 20 yards to take a piss or a shit, had 10 brothers and sisters when his brothers – he was the oldest.

Crazy stories. Rode a donkey to school. Even when I went to his town and visited in Lebanon 10, 15 years ago, they still didn't have landlines. They didn't have phones. Nuts. I'm Armenian on both sides. OK. So my family, the history there is that the Armenians basically had in 1915, just prior to World War I, had to flee Armenia because they were getting slaughtered by the Turks.

The Armenian genocide. Are you in LA? Where are you? I'm in Palmdale. So I'm north of L.A. I'm about like an hour away north. So usually like if you're in L.A. and you want to go to Vegas in car, you usually pass my town. But yeah, I'm in Palmdale, man.

I'm in the high desert. And just got done filming for two months out here. We have a cartel issue right out here where they're taking over the deserts, starting up illegal marijuana operations. And then they're smuggling migrants into work. And there's gunfire fights out there. So we did a full on investigation piece that we're going to release that documentary next week.

So it's going to be, it's going to be really good, man. I'll keep you posted. Is it Armenian cartel? The Armenian crime organization is involved as well. It's the Mexican cartel and it's a Chinese mafia. Oh, I love it.

That's very inclusive. I'm glad they have the DEI council on that. It's a nice balance of slightly melanated Mexican people, some borderline Arabs that are confused often as Armenians and Arabs, and then we have the Chinese representing the Asians. That's very sweet. That's nice. Yeah, yeah. No, it's going to be good though. I'll make sure to send it to you, bro. I hope you will have

some homosexuals in there with some transgender Armenians and can you sprinkle in some Jews, please, for us? Hey, man, don't get me canceled here, buddy. Yeah, it's scary because I got canceled. My Instagram is so shadow banned. It's scary. They won't even let me go live anymore oh really okay i'm i'm i'm hoping they don't take me down just

for having some conversations with parents regarding the vaccine mandate stuff yeah you're you're you're on thin ice with that shit be careful yeah yeah i was like i don't know how many more i could do with those and i I probably, probably might, might calm down the temperatures on that. Maybe you should interview some people who are, who are like for, um, forced, uh, injections on little kids. Yeah, no, that, that'd be good too. But, um, I mean, unfortunately those people just never want to, never want to talk to me. And, uh, I really love, I love going live at the border cause I like showing people like in real time when things are happening, the action, um, like that, it kind of gives them also a different perspective on the issue too so um so please or um big tech overlords do not ban me uh please not ban me either i love the money i

make on my youtube channel oh my god jorge i saw you did an interview with these two old white dudes and um the way they started it off with the interview just really pissed me off because I realized how foolish they sounded, and that's exactly how I was going to start my interview with you. And I realized, oh, fuck, I'm just an old white dude too, I guess. You are truly a fucking remarkable human being. You're truly a fucking remarkable human being. You're – from what I can tell, and maybe this is just because I think I was you. I think I am you kind of except now I have kids. Your work ethic is second to none.

You're a fucking Labrador. You don't give a shit. Someone throws a tennis ball, you're going to get it. There's no bad throws. There's no it went in the ocean. There's no it rolled through some shit. You're going to get the tennis ball and you're going to bring it back. Like you – it's crazy. My sister sent me a – my sister sent me – my sister is a little bit older than me.

She sent me an Instagram link to your account. She's all, dude, you got to see this guy Jorge Ventura. And I went there and I'm just like what is the story with this guy? When I interview him, do I ask him about everything he's done or do I ask him about what it takes to be great? You are all the shit that the Tony Robbins and all those and all the Navy SEALs and the Goggins and just all these things that people talk about. You. You're doing it in real time. So anyone who wants to see it, who can kind of, in my my opinion transcend your stories and just be like dude this

guy's 26 years old and he's fucking everywhere you're not you don't you're not married huh no no no and i do want to say wow thank you man that's that that means a lot um hearing that from you i've never i've never actually heard anyone um tell me that but no i really that's what those other two old white guys were telling you too they were just in love with you and i was like oh shit that's how i feel about this guy we can live live vicariously through you. I don't have the energy quite what you do. But man, you're doing it. You're doing it. I already kind of knew I wanted to be a journalist and this was my dream and I feel like I had a big chip on my shoulder because my story isn't like I went to high school and I got good grades and I went to a nice university and I got an internship. My story was all grind, man. I was – in high school, I was actually just a knucklehead.

I was on drugs all the time. I was drinking. I had a huge drinking problem at the age of 16 years old. My mom and dad were pretty close to sending me back to El Salvador, which is my parents' home country. They were just so done with me that they thought that they had to send me to another country just for me to get my act together. After high school, I barely graduated. I'm talking about Cs, just good enough grades to pass. All of my friends went to large universities. They'm talking about Cs, just good enough grades to pass. So all of my friends went to large universities. They went to Pepperdine, UCLA, USC. I stayed back in my hometown. I felt like a loser. Which was Palmdale? Which was Palmdale. And I felt like a loser staying back.

And basically right after I worked a bunch of kind of odd jobs, I just worked a bunch of sales jobs. And that's where I think I started really earning my chops was in the sales game, learning how to close deals. I started off selling insurance for Aflac. So started off with Aflac, went to gym sales, went to self, worked at Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T. And I did that till about 21 years old. And I actually fell into just a huge depression when I was 21 because I just knew that I wasn't fulfilling my purpose. I knew I wasn't doing what I was designed to do. Are you a religious guy? I am a little bit. I don't want to say like I'm fully, but I believe in God.

I'm trying to kind of work on that aspect of my life better. Okay. Sorry, I interrupted. So at 21, you were like – you weren't feeling fulfilled. Go on. Yeah, I wasn't feeling fulfilled. I fell into a big depression and I was making great money being a – I was actually a sales manager for a sprint store, which is pretty good at 21 years old to be managing people who are older than you in a sales game. But I fell into a huge depression.

The back of my mind, I always wanted to be managing people who are older than you in the sales game but I fell into a huge depression the back of my mind I always wanted to be in media and my original dream was I wanted to be a sports reporter I actually hated politics thought it was boring so I wanted to be on ESPN I wanted to be on Fox Sports and um I remember I called my mom and I was like you know what what should I do um she's like I think you know you should go back to school drop everything and you know I think the biggest thing is I would always ask myself, I would be like, if you die today, all you will be remembered is a kid who sold an iPad to somebody. You have no legacy. You're not going to leave anything behind for your kids. And I kept thinking about my parents too, how they made this dangerous journey escaping El Salvador during the Civil War. And for them to escape El Salvador just for me to work a cell phone job to me was

just almost like a disgrace to my family name. So I went back to school, I went to community college, and I just started earning my earning my chops there. I got really, I think my mindset that helped me when I was going to community college with other journalism students was, I just got that competitive mindset, kind of like that Kobe Bryant, I'm a work, I'm gonna outwork you, I want you to know that I'm crazy, I'm gonna, you know know, if, you know, a big thing in my school was every three weeks we had to turn in a new story. So I said, F that, you know, every three weeks I would turn in three. The other students would turn in one. By the time they had two, I had six.

They had three. I had nine. I wanted them to know that I was just insane about what I was doing. And I just kept covering sports. And little by little. I got drawn into politics, man. It happened right after the 2016 election when I would talk to my friends on the right. They said that they felt like Trump didn't get a fair share.

But then when I would also talk to my friends on the left, they also told me that they felt like Bernie didn't get a fair share. So I actually never voted before. And I was like, you know what? Maybe I could be this down-the-middle voice where I just keep it real with my audience. I still haven't voted. And the reason for that is because in college, I got taught that journalists back in the 70s, 80s, actually wouldn't vote because they would report on politics. It was almost like an unwritten rule. So yeah, man, just kind of jumped in there and really just grinded every step of the way. I want to go back a second to your parents.

Tell me, where did your parents meet? So my parents knew each other back in El Salvador, but they didn't kind of like kindle and rekindle, should I say, and meet and all that stuff and begin the relationship until they both got into the United States. My mom came into the country with some other family members. Then my dad actually had to run away from the army because he was forced into the Civil War. My dad was forced into the war at the age of 14. Around 20 years old, he finally ran away to the United

States. The reason my dad, when he told me that he ran away, is when he had a conversation with my grandpa. My grandpa told my dad, he said, there's no way you're going to have kids in this country. You're going to die a very young man. You better just make your, you better make, make your run now. And, um, what are the bordering countries to El Salvador in the,

in the North and South in Central America would be Guatemala, Nicaragua, like Honduras. Uh, I've been down there quite a bit. I would not, not doing what you were not, uh,

not doing journalist stuff. I was doing documentary films. I worked for a company named Vitamin Angels. We were giving vitamin A to malnourished children. It was a trip. It always felt safe to me, but El Salvador especially, we were always told, dude, shit could get crazy. Yeah, man. It was just a really dangerous time. How did they make it into the U.S.? Legally or illegally? Illegally, but now they are both citizens here. And what is that journey like? Was it the same basic journey for the both of them? Yeah. Back in the day, making the journey to the U.S. actually wasn't really that difficult just because they really didn't have border – like the whole immigration influx of what we're seeing now with the migrants, they didn't have that back in the 90s like that. So for them, it was not too difficult to get into the country, but then they did work and get their citizenship over the years.

So they basically – you have to somehow doing bus or hitchhiking make your way to border, and then you have to pay someone to help you cross. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, that's basically the story for the majority of Latinos in the 90s. And it's interesting because my family, they came through Ellis Island. But that was, you know, well, my dad came. On my mom's side, they came through Ellis Island, her parents.

And my dad came on a scholarship at 18 years old through a seminary school. He was studying to become a priest. Not because I think he wanted to be a priest, but that was the only kind of education you could get in Lebanon, in Beirut, where he was 17 years old. And the brother of ten – nine younger brothers and sisters. Okay, so they cross and they meet in Palmdale. Where do they meet? They meet down in Los Angeles actually. Okay, and then they get married and have you?

They actually have three kids. They didn't get married. Same with my wife. We had one kid and then got married yeah i'm the oldest so my mom had me when she was uh 30 and then um they had my you know younger brother and sister then um uh they got married so they did everything uh backwards perfect that's the way to do it that's the smart way how old are your brothers and sisters my brother is 22 and my sister's 19 oh okay shit so they're adults too so you guys are close

yeah is your family tripping on you yeah they're they're extremely worried when i do the the frontline coverage type of stuff they definitely my mom my mom's the old school type where you know she like stays up all night type uh can't go home till like i get home type um but she's she's been getting better at it. Are you still living at home? I'm still living at home here. But to be honest, it doesn't feel like I'm living at home just because I'm always on the road. So that's why myself, I haven't committed to kind of like get an apartment yet or anything just because right now I'm just so much on the road with what we're doing that it just kind of doesn't really make sense for me right now.

There's no reason to move out. I was at home until i was 34 years old my mom tried to kick me out three or four times i'm 49 now i did the exact same thing you did i have three kids and i'm doing very very very very very very well but i never looked up i was just like you i just kept my head down and work like fuck it like what do i care even when my my wife and i bought our first house we didn't move into it for three years because we were too busy working. We just stayed in this little shithole apartment we had. It was crazy. Um, so, okay. So do you have a girlfriend? No, no girlfriend, no wife, just you're in, but you're crushing it. You're everywhere. Like I said, you, we'll get to that. So your parents have you and you, and you basically just have a tip.

It sounds like you had a typical high school life. Sound like you were a little more advanced than me. I didn't get into drugs in high school, but I just drank a lot. I always had like a bottle of Jaegermeister or Goldschlager in my locker. I was always drinking on the weekends. I was always drinking. Yeah. I was always drinking too. Had the Coronas. I was always drinking. Yeah. I was always drinking too. Had

the Coronas. I was a big, uh, whiskey guy. So I was always on the Jack and Daniels. Yeah. And, um, you know, the thing is, you know, my parents were in, were in my life. They're great, great parents. I was just literally just a knucklehead. Like I was just a rebel. Anything that they tell me, I just did the opposite. Workaholics. Your parents were workaholics? What was that? Were your parents workaholics? Yeah. You know, what was that were your parents workaholics yeah you know i had a stay-at-home mom which was a really good uh good thing i don't think i would have survived without the stay-at-home mom my dad is the workaholic he's a trucker so he's always on the road working 16 hour days um you know brutal brutal job being a being a

trucker i really have a lot of respect for him here. And you speak, you're bilingual? Yeah, I speak Spanish. And you're stoked now. Yeah, man, because the thing now, what I love about the Spanish now is that, you know, especially with journalism is I'm able to get more out of the story than maybe, you know, a reporter who's not. So, yeah, it's been a big blessing. I don't speak the most perfect Spanish. I lost it over the years, but I'm going to be practicing again just to get it back at that 100 level and it's and it's a good it's a good time to be mexican el salvadorian um fucking anything besides white it's a good time yeah no it is um a lot of a lot when i was covering

the riots a lot that actually kind of saved me a little bit that I was this kind of brown guy. If I was a white guy, I might have got jumped faster or something like that. So it's been a blessing. And you used to have that killer mustache. Yeah. And then the funny thing is too is when I got hired at the Daily Callers, the editor told me, he's like, hey, man, the good thing about you being like a Jorge is you're the only Jorge in Washington, D.C. So there you go. I think that's true.

Jorge, what is The Daily Caller? The Daily Caller is an online news organization that does news. They were founded by Tucker Carlson in 2010. Oh, shit. I had no idea yeah daily caller is actually the first media company that ever gave me an internship which i was really grateful and they gave me that internship last may and um i'm really glad they did because all this would have probably not have happened and do they do they trip on how hard you work you're like i'll go i'll go i'll go like someone calls you and you're like they don't even get three words out of their mouth and you're like i'll go I'll go like someone calls you and you're like they don't even get three words out of their mouth and you're like I'll go yeah I think I think what they trip is about is that you know

and I try to tell I told him in the beginning it's like you know I'm not the type of guy like they don't need to do anything to motivate me I already want to go out there work hard I want to leave a legacy behind so I don't need anyone to to do that you know I just need the the freedom to go do it and they've been really great at doing that. There will be some times where they tell me don't go. And I was just, I don't care, man. I'm a rebel, dude. And in media, you got to break rules.

And I'll still go. And then I'll do one of the best covers. And then they'll end up loving it. So I always want to be out there. I want to. It's almost kind of like an athlete. He always wants to compete. He always wants to compete for championships.

I think I kind of had him say my, he said, I always want to be out there. I want to be competing with some of the best journalists. I know that I could be up there, you know, and just continue working. And so, yeah, man, I love, I love to be out there. And, um, I, I, um, yeah, I get, I, I kind of get like, you know, a lot of people get what it's called FOMO fear of missing out when like, you know, their friends are at a rave. I get FOMO when I'm like, I'm not at the border or when I'm not at one of some of these big stories.

I want to get out there as much as I can. You do. You seem addicted. You seem addicted to wanting to be at the spot. I totally get that feeling. Is your go-to camera your phone? Yeah. So I've been using my phone just for years because we've been able to break stories onto Twitter really quick.

But now that I've been able to work with a producer a few times on like – I did earlier this year. I worked with a producer on producing like a mini documentary and then we just got done with this documentary on the cartels. And after that, I've been like – I've been really wanting to go to something just like higher quality stuff because I really want to ump up, really just take my quality of content to the next level. But I do think my work kind of shows anyone that, you know, a lot of people always ask me all the time, you know, what do I need to start up? I'm like, man, I'm on a phone with a $25 tripod from Amazon. You know, I'm not on this $1,000 kit. But now that I am, you know, uh, you know, at the level that I am, I do want to step up the quality of content for my audience. I do want to

step up kind of the gear that I'm working with, but I'm still on the Samsung phone. I'm still on a, on a tripod. So there's absolutely no excuses for anyone not to get after it. I'm still grinding with what I did with, with day one. Uh, so there's no excuses for anyone out there. I'm going to say something that's going to really bum out a bunch of you guys. We never ask what do we need to do to get started. I can't explain it to you. We're fucking Labradors.

You throw the ball and we start running to a fault. Maybe we didn't even see you throw it. That's why you've seen that like when you can trick a dog, you can like pretend to throw the ball and they start running. That's how we it. That's why you've seen that. Like when you can trick a dog, you can pretend to throw the ball and they start running. That's how we are. That's how me and Jorge are. We would never ask how do I get started.

We would just start running off in a direction and put it together as we go. When you ask that question, you already – you have to be honest with yourself. Are you asking that question because you really give a fuck or because you're building a wall for yourself or making up an excuse for why not to get started? What do you mean how to get started? Just go down to fucking Tijuana and start talking to people. Start telling the human interest story. Just start trying to figure out what's going on. I mean it really is like that.

No, that's true, man. I always get that question. It's like, dude, you just got to get out there. And when you first start out, it's not sexy. I mean you know this, man. It's never sexy. It's not even sexy when you're at the top of your game. Exactly.

It's never sexy. It's never going to be sexy. And I think my – It gets worse. They make you wear nicer clothes. They make you work with other assholes. They make you fix lighting and put makeup on. It only gets worse.

It's worse. That's on it only gets worse it's right that's true and i think like yeah one of my advices i think for people would be is just get going and you you want to you want your work to be at a point where people around you and i read this in a book it's not coming from me i got it from from a from a grant cardone book is you want oh is grant cardone cool oh we'll circle back finish what you're saying you want people around you to think that you are crazy. You want people to be like, hey, man, are you all right? You're always out there. You're working on the weekends. You're not getting paid.

That's the biggest thing that I always got when I started is, why are you doing all this stuff? You're not getting paid. You're not getting paid. You want people around you to think that you are a psycho. And if people think you are a psycho, you are probably on the right path. But if people don't think you're a psycho, you're probably not on the right path. Another one. Jorge just dropped another one. Here's another reason why we know you're not going to make it because you asked how much do you get paid? So there's two things. If you ask,

what do I need to do to get started? We know you're not going to make it. By the way, these are in context. Don't take this so literally this is in context i'm generalizing but if you ask what do i need to do to get started we know you're not going to make it and then the second thing is is um how much do i get paid we know you're not going to make it no like no jorge is comes jorge goes to work all day comes home kisses, kisses his mom on the cheek, doesn't worry about what kind of car he drives, what kind of house he lives in. He eats the food his mom fucking cooks him. Then he says, mom, I got to go in my room and I got to start getting on the computer

and I'm going to work until two in the morning. I have this show to do with Fox. I have to fucking, Tucker Carlson sent me a nice tweet and I want to read it like a thousand times before I go to bed. I want to do this. I want to do that. And then finally he falls asleep and then he starts up and goes again in the morning. Well, the rest of you are worried about like

is your camera lens clean? Does this girl like you? Do I need to rent an apartment? We're not doing that shit. We're not doing that shit. That is 100, man. You nailed it, bro. We're not doing that shit. And so

I'm doing it again now with this podcast. I'm going to fucking take over and I'm slowly taking over. And what's crazy is that I want people to just jump on board and ride my coattails, but no one wants to because no one wants to do a podcast at 8.30 at night with Jorge Ventura. It's too late. I've been up all day. I already worked out. I took a shower. I'm with my family and kids.

Fuck you. You ain't going to be on the train. You ain't going to the top of the mountain. Okay. So that's two things. I want to come back to Grant Cardone because I saw him on Instagram recently, and I'm just curious what he's like and why you're attracted to him. There was a point in my career. So I had made a couple movies.

They were fabulous movies, 10 in netflix documentaries i had made shows for espn i'd done it all right so much fucking cool shit i was still living at home with my mom and um i had written uh two books on how to grow marijuana i just i was just like this um renaissance man kind of like you just like i'll tell just i'm a storyteller like let's just go let's go do it and then i was got this job on Craigslist about a guy, a guy named Howard Schiffer. He runs a company called Vitamin Angels, and he takes vitamin A to malnourish children. And I started flying all over the world to crazy spots, the craziest spots in Africa, South America, Central America, India, China, just you name it.

And I went there with them and I saw crazy shit. Famine, famine, kids dying like it. And I went there with them and I saw crazy shit. Famine, famine, kids dying like bad shit. Rock my world. But anyway, he, he, I still never thought of myself as a filmmaker. I was just a kid trying to make money. Like didn't matter how many movies I directed or produced or how many that force Whitaker or Selma Hayek had given me these awards. It didn't matter. Some people call it imposter syndrome. I just wasn't willing to fake it. I wasn't willing to call myself a director.

I wasn't willing to call myself a cameraman. And then this guy Howard Schiffer believed in me. He started like – we'd be like in India and he'd be like, so how do you think we should frame this and how do you want to tell the story and like He started like giving me like so much fucking respect And he kind of like turned me like a like a wizard he turned me in like he believed in me more than I believed in myself And I was like fuck and I and I started living up to the to his expectations. It was so weird It was so weird. Have you had that moment? Where you're like, hey, i'm just a kid out here and I just want to do this and then then all of a sudden like 30 people call you a journalist and you're like, what the fuck is going on?

Did they just magically turn me into a journalist? Yeah, actually. Yeah, that's a great thing, man. So before I got my internship at The Daily Caller, I was a big fan of a journalist. He's on the hill. He actually just went independent and doing a really good job. His name is Sagar Njeti. He co-hosts a show with Chris Duvall called Breaking Points.

Oh, my God. That kid is a beast. Yeah. So Sagar was just – You know him? Yes. When I saw his show, I really got inspired to be in D.C. I kind of – I don't know.

For some reason, I saw news at a whole other way, the way they were doing it. And I was just a big fan of him. I saw news at a whole nother way, the way they were doing it. And I was just a big fan of him. And I remember sending a tweet to Sagar, kind of a, kind of like a joke actually, because I just didn't think he was going to respond. So I sent him a tweet saying, Hey Sagar, my name is Jorge Ventura. I'm a student reporter at college of the canyons. You know, do you have any advice for a journalist like me?

Who's trying to break into that DC kind of media world. And, you know, I kind of said it like a joke, like, you know, not thinking he's going to respond. And Sagar actually DM me back, which I was freaking out because I was a big fan of Sagar. First time I think I ever had a blue check in my inbox. And I freaked out. And Sagar said, give me a call. So I actually gave him a call. I told him my life story.

And he's like, you know what? He's like, I think you'd be the right fit at the Daily Caller. Let me talk to them and then let's see what happens. So he actually connected me. I'm sorry. I missed something. Are you telling me that Breaking Point is just another branch of the Daily Caller? No, Breaking Point is completely independent.

Oh, but he just knew people over there and was going to like hook you up. Yeah, because Sagar actually used to be a White House correspondent for the Daily caller okay my bad okay so saga caught up some of some of the editors there he sent him my work the editors interviewed me they felt like i was a i was a right fit and um so in that moment you know you do you do feel like you want to live up to the expectations because now you're coming in as almost like saga's guy as hey, Hey, this is the guy that Sagar scouted out. He vouched for you. Yeah. I kind of had that, that chip on my shoulder and I actually arrived in DC May 21st last year. And this is, you know, during the very height of the pandemic and my first four days in DC,

all I did was video editing for other reporters. And May 25th, so four days later after my internship began, four days later, Minneapolis Police Department releases the George Floyd tapes. So Minneapolis starts rioting that night. The very next day, Los Angeles starts rioting. Then on the 27th, the riots came to Washington, D.C. And they actually started, the Black Lives Matter people started rioting at the White House where it got to a point that Trump actually had to go under a bunker. And my boss called me in the – it was like the middle of night and was like almost screaming at me saying like, Jorge, we have no reporters on the ground. The White House just – Trump just went under a bunker. We need someone there.

Can you go now so i jumped in you know jumped on the uber got down there and in my 10 minutes of being on the ground there was a fox news reporter named leland vitter who got attacked in front of the white house i actually filmed that attack yes at the break with what i didn't know at the time as an intern is i broke the biggest story in dc when that happened so basically what happened is i know i'm going a little uh no do it do it i love it but after i broke that story i mean fox news ran with the story cnn everyone they asked trump about it on on monday morning and tucker carlson opened up his monologue to that video and that felt like that moment that i arrived because then my twitter blew up i had all these blue checks started to follow me all these journalists in dc so it felt like that I arrived because then my Twitter blew up. I had all these blue checks started to follow me, all these journalists in D.C.

So it felt like that I arrived. And my editors in Daily Caller basically were like, hey, man, you know, we thought you were going to be a regular intern. You're ready to go. Like you're ready to be in this stuff. And then the best part of it was, you know, we didn't know at that time that the riots were going to go all summer. So that kind of gave me the lane to be the guy for the Daily Caller

to just cover the riots all summer. And that kind of gave me the lane to be the guy for the Daily Callers to just cover the riots all summer. And that's kind of what I would say propelled me. Where did you sleep when you were in D.C.? I actually had, I have, the funniest thing is we have a large Salvadoran population in Virginia and a lot of my family is out in the Manassas area. So I would stay with some uncles in Manassas. I had some family down in Belleville, Maryland too. So I would stay with them. So really grateful for my family to, you

know, for looking out. And the reason why I bring this up too, and I'm actually glad that you did bring that up is because the reason why so many people just like myself from a community college with parents from a working class, kids like me couldn't even get in an internship in DC because the internship that I got was an unpaid internship. So if it wasn't for my uncle providing somewhere to stay, I would have to pay rent, all that stuff with no income. And it makes it really hard for working class journalists to get into D.C. It's always those elites that take up all those internship spots because they could afford for them to take unpaid internships. spots because they could afford for them to take unpaid internships. So it kind of also creates this disadvantage because that's why a lot of these stories about working class Americans and

what they are going through never get told because these people are stuck in that DC bubble. I was thinking about going on a little rant right there. This isn't number three, but this is back to number two again. It doesn't matter that it's not fair. It's not fair two again. It doesn't matter that it's not fair. It's not fair for anybody. It doesn't matter that only the – it doesn't matter what he just said. It doesn't matter. It's just a story.

It doesn't matter that there's those elites. It doesn't matter. He still did it. Exactly. He still did it. It doesn't matter. He didn't go to fucking Cornell. He didn't go to fucking Yale.

He didn't go to fucking cornell he didn't go to fucking yale he didn't go to fucking harvard he fucking worked hard he didn't say that they're taking advantage of me they're not paying me for this internship he didn't say any of that shit guys he fucking put his head down and got the tennis ball fucking he got he fucking love it okay but but even though everything is what he's saying is true it's it's not it's not an excuse it's just a story it doesn't matter that it's harder for some people who gives a fuck those people have hardships too those people have hardships too let me tell you something all the fucking tall good-looking people i know are fucking miserable now the ones from high school sorry no one made fun of you for having being short and having a big nose. Now it's my fucking greatest asset.

I'm funny as fuck because of that shit. But it was hard in high school. It was hard in high school. OK, so so you're in D.C. and you do all the riots and you have the big breakthrough tape and and they realize. Oh, so let's go back to Sager for a second. We pronounce his name for me. The guy from Breaking Point. Sager.

Sager. Yes. Sager. So is Sager for a second. Will you pronounce his name for me, the guy from Breaking Point? Sager. Sager. Yes. Sager. So is Sager like so proud of you? He's like, yeah, that's my boy. He did it. I told you. Yeah, man.

He told me the whole time. He's like, hey, man, I know you're going to do something big. I know you're going to do something big. I have a good feeling. And I didn't know what it was that time. And it really feels good making someone like that proud of you know when someone is going to pick me man I want to make sure that that it does they don't look bad and that that it paid off and you know the Daily Call I think is forever grateful for that for that for Sager with that recommendation because I always you know for them it's like yo

that was that was Sager's guy and and he came through with a with a huge splash kind of out of nowhere you know kid out of community college college. We never heard of him before out of California. And he just came in here and outworked the kids from Penn State, from these other big universities, and just came out and really just grinded it, got it out the mud, how they like to say in the hip-hop community. What is Sagar? Is he Indian? He's Indian, yep. He's Indian. Have you ever met him in person yet?

Yeah, we've actually got to go lunch only one time because we've just been so busy. But it was a great conversation and he had great advice for me as a mentor. How old is he? Sagar, I believe right now is 29. He might already be 30 now. Yeah, he looks young as shit too I was scrolling through your Instagram I went all the way back

I didn't spend too much time on it Well I went all the way back to your very first post It was July 21st 2012 You don't even look like the same person And it It's a post of you holding a microphone It says really

nervous to interview david beckham did you end up interviewing david beckham um i did not um end up interviewing false advertising yeah so fake news there i i um i i did not end up uh interviewing david beckham but that um those experiences were great and the reason why i'm actually got so much access right there i was had field access at the LA Galaxy game, is because my uncle was a sports reporter for NBC. So he always wanted to give me something that could give me that vision. And he did a really good job of that. I really appreciate my uncle for doing that.

Is there a picture of you and him in one of your posts? Is he significantly older than you? Yeah, yeah. It should be us at a news desk. And I'm wearing a purple college shirt. That's my uncle. His name is Saul Rodriguez. Great.

Not only is he great for just giving me that vision, but my uncle is very old school. He's not the type to be like, oh, because I work at NBC, I'm going to give you an internship. He's the type to be really rough, tough, you have to earn it type of guy. So he's not this like, he's not a walker. He's a really tough individual. There will be times I do some of the best work of my life and he'll just come in and grill the shit out of me. But he was great at that and you need that in life. Is your mom's brother or your dad's brother?

Mom's. Mom's. But he looks – how old is your mom right now? Mom is – oh my god, I got a 50. Well, no, she had me. Oh my God, it's going to be bad. 46, 40, wait, 56, 56. It's crazy.

And a lot of the people you work with are as old or older than your mom. They're your peers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the, the, the lucky thing is at the Daily Caller, the people are very young. So we have a really young unit at The Daily Caller. Are young people cool?

No, but they're more creative and looking to step out the box. I would say overall, young people are not cool. But the people at Daily Call color are cool because we try to give i would say kind of a different view of to what's going on um and and not only are i just from my perspective but i'm 49 are young people not cool ah shit unless they do jiu-jitsu the jiu-jitsu community is amazing but are you are you still into the fight game i saw that you would yeah i love mma i love boxing i grew up in the household where like every set you know anytime Are you still into the fight game? I saw that you would. Yeah, I love MMA. I love boxing.

I grew up in the household where like every – anytime there was a big main event Saturday, all of our family would get together, big De La Hoya fans from back in the day. Awesome. I love the UFC. My first UFC fight I ever attended and still attended. I'm hoping to attend one soon, but it was when Conor McGregor fought Nate Diaz the second time. I saw that on your Instagram.

I was like, holy shit. Yeah, for me, that was the most greatest experience in the world. They went all five rounds, 25 minutes of just stand-up. How did you get into that? I just – well, I saved up all my money at that time. I believe the ticket was like $750 plus the hotel. At that time, I was dating a girlfriend that liked UFC, so she came too, which was really cool. But it was one of the best experiences of my life.

And the good thing is Conor McGregor, man, just being a fan of him, he's always giving these crazy inspirational speeches. Like his mindset is also just different. So I always would always listen to Conor McGregor interviews and just kind of try to take away something about his crazy mindset, especially about envisioning things. It's something spectacular. So going back – man, I went off on so many tangents. OK, what were we talking about? Your uncle, the first, the David Beckham, and then – shit, completely lost it. Oh, cool people.

So another problem with our industry, and I did more like TV shows, commercials, movies, and you're doing the news, but it's not really nice people. It's super-duper competitive. There's a lot of know-it-alls. People will act like they know shit when they really don't know shit. And it's like that from everyone, at least from my experience, from the guy who's setting up the lights to the guy who's like the star behind the camera. Everyone's kind of – like you're more likely to meet assholes than nice people. Like no one's like courteous. It always feels like you're getting – you know like when you get off a plane and everyone turns into an asshole?

It's like a rush to get off the plane. You're like, dude, what the fuck is going on? Is it still – is it like that? Like I'm kind of out of that space and doing my own shit now, but is it still kind of like that? Like everyone is kind of out for themselves? I think – I mean I think probably any industry that is involved in some type of media where it's movies, documentary, or like news is, is going to have that type of environment. Like you said, competitive, the know-it-alls, the, the guys who think they know it all are like, Oh, stuck in a cubicle while we're on the field. And like, we're telling them what's really going on. Um, so, you know, it's, it's very like that really competitive, got to

earn it type of thing. Um, and it's chippy and it's competitive, but that, you know, but you don't have to be that person to get ahead. right? I mean, you seem nice as shit to people. No, no, I just think, you know, like just working hard and getting out there and just almost like almost having that you can't deny me type of attitude. I'm always going to show up attitude. I'm always going to be in your face attitude. That's how I think you just get biased just by doing that because nothing at the end of the day, whether there's assholes, missed opportunities, or whatever, nothing is going to be actual,

like, working hard, and actual skill, and actual, you know, for what I'm doing is, like, content and news, so if I'm always doing that in your face, always out there, there's no way you could avoid me, I'm going to be at your doorstep regardless, so I think just, when you're in the, you know, documentaries, news, movies, movies entertainment you got to have that type of i'm always there um my dad my my dad really taught me the first one in the office last one out of the office type of mindset i think that's what you gotta really have out here yes um your parents your parents are immigrants and you go to the border now. And how many times have you been to the border?

I can't I can't count. I would say maybe 10 now, maybe a little bit more. And when you go down there, how much time do you spend down there? So it all it all, it all really, it all really depends. Um, a lot of my, yeah, it kind of all depends because it's, it depends what's happening in the news. And it's also kind of depending on how much funding I could get for the trip. Um, so the average, I would say what's would be four or five days, but I really like, holy shit. I like to do a week and longer so this last trip we did a full monday to monday seven days and i think the trip before that i did a full 10 days so

i like getting out there and just kind of getting the most out of a trip and when we're out there we're working from the daytime uh all the way till nighttime so we're documenting day stuff we're documenting the night stuff and we're doing that every day back to back to back. I think on this last trip was the first time ever that I'd gone 36 hours straight awake. And I think I went like 31 hours straight without eating, which I've never had to do before. But that happened on this last one. And did you drink a lot of coffee? A lot of coffee, a lot of Red Bulls, a lot of water.

Red Bulls are my best friend out there. Yeah, I went through a small Red Bull phase. You can't do that forever. You can't do that forever. So if you – let's say you did – let's say bare minimum you've been at the border 40 days, 12-hour days, 480 hours. hour days, 480 hours. Just to help people put that in perspective, that's 12 weeks of full-time work at the border. Holy shit. Okay. So now let's get down to business. So you go down there. What is going on at the border? How would you describe the border? And have you ever cried down there? Have you ever been like, oh shit, this is what my parents did or oh fuck

these people are me like you have this moment where you're like this is me not because you're El Salvadorian but because you're human you're just like oh my god yes um yeah I I do man I think for me I I think the first I had that moment um when you're just looking at the little kids and I think for me I always think about yeah the kids Jesus yeah I'm moment when you're just looking at the little kids. And I think for me, I always think about. Yeah. It's Jesus. Yeah. I'm thinking about, you know, what, what would happen, you know, if my parents didn't cross,

would this be me now in this caravan? You know, so I'm always, I always feel like I'm comparing myself to the young guys. You're looking, I'm meeting, you know, unaccompanied minors, but basically, you know, just to kind of give it. Unaccompanied minors. Yeah. I can't, I don't even believe it. I don't even believe it. Can't believe it. Yeah. Meeting unac it one accompanied minors. Yeah. I can't, I don't even believe it. I don't even believe it. Can't even believe it. Yeah. Meeting on an unaccompanied minor. So, you know,

you ask the unaccompanied minors like, Hey, where are your parents? They're always back at their home country, but you mean like a 10 year old kid? Oh yeah. And some, and sometimes even younger, you know, younger all the time we're, we're meeting from five years, five year old, all the way to 17 year old unaccompanied minors that come to the border all by themselves. And basically, I would tell people that it's a humanitarian crisis. So just really just take the politics out of it. Take the Democrat, take the Republican stuff out of it. These are human beings who are the most vulnerable people. These are not bad people, these family units, innocent folks.

They're just being taken advantage of by smuggling groups and these cartels who that you just use that use them and look at them just as a product almost like an amazon product with a shipping label um it's it's really some of the the saddest stuff in the world especially when you meet the migrant women and children who have been sexually assaulted raped on their way to the border um I've met family units, you know, when I asked him where the husband is, he's been kidnapped in Mexico. So a common thing is the cartels and drug smuggling groups, they'll keep the husbands because they'll abuse those males for drug runners or hitmen for the cartel. And I mean, these are just, I mean, I have countless stories of just the sadness, but just to kind of put it all together, it's a humanitarian crisis at record numbers, in numbers we've never seen before.

We've already had 1 million encounters at the border, which has never happened in our history. We're on the road to 2 million. July and August were the first months ever. Border Patrol history, we had back-to-back months with over 200 apprehensions at the border. NBC News is even reporting that these migrants have been reports of sexual abuse in these processing centers that are over capacity by over 500%. The New York Times even put out an article last month saying one out of every three unaccompanied minors that get released into the U.S. get lost in the system. We are losing migrant children into the the system. We are losing migrant children into the foster system. We're losing them into the United States. We can't keep track

of these people. We just had the 15,000 Haitians that hit our U.S. southern border and we released 12,000 of them into the U.S. public and we're most likely going to lose track of those Haitians. Also, those 12,000 Haitians were not tested for COVID-19 before being released to the border. And according to Secretary Mayorkas, those Haitians have a 20 percent positivity rate when it comes to COVID. It's a real crisis. It's a humanitarian crisis. And we have to take the politics out of it and figure out how the hell to solve this thing. I want to put a couple of things in perspective. The reason why I think Jorge said even NBC News and even The New York Times is because they don't want to tell this story.

And so when you see outfits like that telling that story, I think that's why Jorge said that. And the second thing I want to say is when Jorge says there's been a million encounters at the border, everyone should contextualize that. What that means is you have to ask yourself, what is a million? Okay, there's 240 million adults in the United States. That means one out of every 240 adults, if those people all were to cross the border and come in, would now be people who came from the South. I mean, those numbers are – I know they're hard to get your head wrapped around. I think the entire U.S. Postal Service might have a million people.

I think the United States military is 1.3 million people. I mean you have to contextualize it so you really understand the magnitude of human movement along this southern border. And even if we were to allow – the problem isn't – the problem is there's obviously a bunch of problems. But one of the big problems that no one wants to acknowledge is that we need an immigration policy. We need an immigration plan, and that immigration policy and immigration plan isn't what's written down, isn't what's said, isn't the law. It's what's actually happening. And so what Jorge is describing is a policy that's a complete shitshow and it's abusive to everyone. It's abusive to the police who are watching the border.

It's abusive to the people who live in the United States. And it's abusive to the people who are coming in. It has nothing to do with what they tell us it is. It's what it actually is. And it's a fucking mess it sounds like. Especially – why? So I was homeless, Jorge, for two years and by choice and my sort of by choice. My my peer group was all drug addicts and I was not a drug addict.

And when I mean all drug addicts, I mean all drug addicts. So I mean, so it was kind of a misnomer to call us homeless. It was really just we were really drug addicts who had become homeless. And people would be like, no, that's not true. Half of all homeless people are families, mothers and fathers with kids. Well, I didn't see those people. So that's fine. I might believe you.

But I'm talking about just all the dudes and chicks who are out on the streets. They were all drug addicts. I wanted to be like Christlike. I wanted to be like the Buddha and walk around barefoot and shit. But all my peers in the park, they were all drunk. They all smelt. They all didn't take care of themselves. They didn't have discipline.

They didn't have struggle. They panhandled. They took, took, took, and they did a disservice to humanity. If your measurement of your worth as a human being is what you provide to your fellow man, they were bottom of the fucking totem pole. They didn't provide shit. And that's just the way it was, and I was homeless in California, which is – for those of you who don't know, it's on the west side of the North American continent bordering the Pacific Ocean. And so when I hear – I was going to draw that in comparison to – so homeless people aren't really homeless people in my mind they're drug addicts what was i going to compare that to i was going to compare that to something that's going on at

the border who who are so who are these people who are coming from the border why that's what i wanted to compare to like what are they really you know how they say they're homeless people they're not homeless people they're drug addicts and their shit's falling apart and they can't get their shit together for the most part i think that would be more accurate what are the people what's the label that truly fits these people who are coming across the border um i would just you know they're coming from very obviously poor countries with gang violence some type of violence but um they're just regular, I would say, working class people. What is that? What do you mean? Give me even more.

Like who do they turn into when they come to this country? Well, that's a good question. And it's hard to really just give you that right answer because the thing is we don't really have information. So either they turn into just, you know, regular hardworking citizens or they turn into citizens that take advantage of our system, the welfare state, or they're, you know, they're going to have those that are going to be criminals that come into this country. Let's say I'm in the Rio Grande Valley. I'm running into these large family units, so the mom, dad, kids, and sometimes it's difficult for the Border Patrol to even verify if that father really is the father. So they could just be calling themselves a family unit, but there's really no way to verify. But you're just – you're encountering folks that actually want to be turned into the Border Patrol because they want to be processed. They want to be released.

The reason why – So that's what it looks like in your footage too they actually are looking so they're just stumbling around in the desert and they basically through habit and through they know where the border patrol is going to be so they actually aim for them because they want to get caught the cartels and human smuggling groups direct them and point them to the right direction to be apprehended by border patrol this is done so no one's trying to sneak across it's not that it's it's i'll kind of explain what i'm about to say but okay um so you have is the cartels and human smaller groups they'll push these large caravan groups into pacific air areas in the u.s border and the reason they do this is because they want to overwhelm border patrol with these large units and they have you know the border patrol has to do the processing separating family units from non-family units it's a whole ordeal that they

have to do right when they get hit with these caravans the reason why these cartels and human smuggling groups do this is because when they do this it opens up the border even more than it already is because it takes manpower away and having to focus on these groups so then they could smuggle drugs and human into this country. And I was speaking to a Border Patrol source that said that fentanyl has increased into the country by over 600% already with this new tactic. Now, that's the state of Texas. That's what we're seeing in the state of Texas, the majority. We're all in the state of Arizona. We're not seeing those family units as much.

We're actually seeing drug runners, those single males that don't want to be caught. We call these gotaways. The gotaways are the migrants that come into the country and we don't apprehend. So these are the people that don't want to be apprehended by Border Patrol either because they got drugs, humans, or they have past criminal records that are meaning pretty serious charges that would get them deported. So that's the scary number is the number of gotaways, which is really – it hard to estimate because border patrol can't get an estimate because they they didn't apprehend these people we have no information on them um do they once they can so that's interesting so it's it's kind of a um push the people through distract the police and take up their resources and then over here on the right bring the drugs in exactly and that's why border patrol

is overwhelmed because they're getting hit with these large family units then they're bringing these family units to process center to processing centers that are already overcrowded we're talking about some of these processing centers are overcapacitated by 500 percent and the people that are banking who are bankrolling this in is these drug cartels and human smuggler groups that continue to push these large migrant units up to the border. According to NBC News today, October, we could get hit with as much as 400,000 migrants at the U.S. southern border. And what do they do with them? You said they let the Haitians in. Why did they let the Haitians in? Why isn't everyone just turned around you can't do it so essentially what happened here is the Biden administration

was taking such a political blowback of having those Haitians living under the bridge it was bad optics for him so he ordered a department of homeland security to clear out the family units as fast as they can and just release them into the United States so that's exactly what happened now the single Haitian males got – Is that legal? Like don't we have like an immigration policy? Well, when I speak to Border Patrol, they also tell me that it's impossible to vet that many people. It's impossible to vet.

So we – so these people are getting released into the United States in record numbers that we've never seen before being flown all over the country. And you can see it on my Twitter where I'm interviewing these people and saying, have you been tested for COVID-19 even before being released? They tell me they have not. And like I said a little bit earlier, even Secretary Mayorkas said that they're testing positive by COVID by a rate of 20%. Are you tripping that you're seeing this? Is it kind of ever like heartbreaking to you?

You're like, oh shit, what a mess. I always thought like as a kid life was like so much more organized than this oh absolutely it's this is uh it's i'm trying to wake people up and tell them you know we have a humanitarian crisis here in the united states i think when when americans think humanitarian crisis they think yemen they think the middle east ethiopia exactly but they don't they don't think here so i've i'm blown away by this and to this day i don't understand why the the Biden administration doesn't get the handling of this. I don't know the political gain of not taking a handle to this.

His approval rating is actually really taking a hit when it comes to immigration. Have you worked for CNN? No. Have you worked for The New York Times? No. Neither of them have reached out to you um they've never reached reached out to me to get my perspective on the border at all uh washington post nope do do you have any peers down there um well i caught a couple other reporters that

that go down there bill malusion for fox news does a great job oh oh that sounded armenian what's his last name no um illusion he's a white guy but he does a great job. Oh, that sounded Armenian. What's his last name? No, Malusion. He's a white guy, but he does a great job. Julio Rosas for Town Hall Media also does a good job down there at the border. Do they go as much as you? Yeah. We all kind of have that same mindset where we kind of want to be out there as much as we can and we kind of have a kind of a friend i want to say i would say like a friendly ish kind of just competition but i i i've i've gone on trips where i report alongside

with hulu just because it's good to have another body out there watching your back julio and the other guy's name is illusion yeah bill uh malugin eden julio rosas julio malugin yeah with fox news really good he's a great reporter telling you that guy's arming in bill malugin. Yeah, with Fox News. Really good. He's a great reporter. I'm telling you, that guy's Armenian, Bill Malugin. Someone look that up who's listening to the show. And Julio Rosas with Town Hall Media does a great job as well. Have you ever shared one of your Red Bulls with – I'm trying to figure out how close you are with these guys. Have you ever shared a Red Bull with one of these guys? Like you had two and you gave one up to one of them.

Absolutely not. Red Bulls can have you shared. Not that close. Not that close. How did the Border Patrol treat you? Are they glad you're there? Do they embrace you? So, I mean, it's very minimal when it happens, but it still happens. So it's very minimal when we get there and they're like, hey, they're kind of like, they don't give us any room to actually speak to the migrants or film. They tell us to stay away.

That happens minimal. The majority of the time, they don't mind that we're there doing our thing. And then when I speak to them, they always tell me, hey, man, we really appreciate you being out here. And just showing the American people what's going on, showing what we have to go through every single day and night. They don't see this part. I wanted to show you something really quick as well. Please, please. Is these. Real quick before. Oh, shit. What is this? It's really quick as well is um please please is these uh real quick before oh

shit what is this it's really quick it's just these bracelets so these are the bracelets that um the migrants are are wearing when we encounter them they're wearing these bracelets because the human smugglers or the cartels put these on these people to show that they have already paid their purchase um to cross the river to the united states illegally so this is just more proof that these people are treated like shipping products so different color uh bracelets mean for different color groups uh right here in my hand i have red and black ones in spanish they say entregas which means delivered and these are put on the the uh the migrant so we try to um collect as much as of these bracelets as we can to show the american people the human smuggling business that's happening down there. Wait, I don't explain. Give me a little bit more with that. What? So how would that end

up on? Let's say some lady wants to come to the United States. They say, okay, give me your $500. And then they put that wristband on her and they say, wait here. And then sometime in the next few days, someone goes, okay, move with this group. And and they start crossing and then they have that bracelet on them the whole way um so so what's the point of the bracelet so the bracelet is is proved to show and and and for that for them the point is that these people have paid already to cross the river so without this bracelet you essentially can't cross into a river the cartels and human smuggling groups have controlled this territory so they make sure that they get the compensation for you to cross over so two things happen here so either the migrants sell everything back home and they fund this trip with that money or the cartel and human smuggling groups get connected with their family here back in the

united states which is very common and the family united states will send that money over to the coyotes also known as human smuggling groups, or these migrants, essentially, they don't have enough money to pay, but they want to come. So essentially, they'll become indentured servants for the cartels and human smuggling groups here back in the United States after they get connected with their family members in the United States. So you can't cross without having this basically proof of purchase because the human smugglers won't take you to the other side unless you have already paid your way over.

How did you get those? I got them from – on my first trips, I would find them on the ground. Then after that, we started encountering the migrants actually wearing them. So I would actually just tell the migrants to take it off and give it to me because we would be collecting these to show the American audience what's going on at the southern border. Do they like what, are they scared of you, the migrants? No, but sometimes they're scared to speak on camera and omit something. So if I asked if they paid here, they'll say no if they're being filmed

because I think they're just scared of any type of retaliation from a human smuggler or a cartel. You had that footage of the, i don't know what you call her she's a cop a homeland security or border patrol and she's carrying a baby oh yeah so that moment was really special man so that happened in del rio um tell me where's del rio exactly for those of us who are like me who are geographically lame? I'm geographically lame too, but the way I would explain it is that Del Rio is a border town in south Texas. So it's in the southern part of Texas, border town. Like below – like Houston?

How far from Houston? I wouldn't know, brother, to be honest. OK. I'll look on a map later. That area of Del Rio was – at that time when we were down there, they were getting hit by a huge wave of Venezuelan migrants who were crossing. So they're crossing over the river. The women that you see there is she's actually a Texas state trooper. So Governor Greg Abbott actually launched an operation called Operation Lone Star, which sent Texas state troopers and National Guard to the southern border to help border patrol agents. So this Texas state trooper was at the southern border due to that operation. And this one moment is really special because you see a migrant woman who just got across the river, who is struggling to get on the Texas soil on American land.

So she hands her baby up. And this is where the Texas State Trooper, she comes in and she lifts the baby. And she also has a moment where she kind of looks into the baby's eyes cradles it almost cares for it and you could you could also see the migrant woman climb up she she grabs her baby then her the texas state trooper and that baby just kind of have this special moment it kind of just shows more of a human element and that's the stuff that never makes the headlines when these texas state troopers or border patrols save people save migrants save children and i thought that was a very special moment. And the very next day, I actually returned to that spot and that Texas State Trooper walked up to me

and she actually thanked me for filming that video and posting it. And she felt that that was a very special moment that people needed to see. How did she know you posted it? She follows you? That one clip just went viral. So I figured that it got to her somehow because it just went really viral online i saw it shared by everyone it was it played on the news um like i said it was just one of those moments that that really spoke for themselves it's it's crazy it's gonna be even crazier to you when you have kids i mean i know it's crazy now

because you see yourself in it and you imagine yourself as a kid but when you see that like someone has to hand their kid to someone else so they can get out of the water, it's no bueno. It's not easy. So when you say it's a humanitarian crisis, why is it a humanitarian crisis? Why does it have to be so dramatic? Why can't it just be, OK, these people lived in fucked up countries and there's more opportunity in the United States. And so they're just coming here. What's the scary part? Well, the reason why I call it a humanitarian crisis at our southern border is because we essentially have all these humans, refugees, whatever you want to name them, crashing our border at one time, overwhelming the system, meaning that Border Patrol can't even keep up with these people,

the processing centers. And it's getting to the point that even if we wanted to help these people, we just can't because they're now being taken advantage of. They're being taken advantage by drug cartels. Like I said, the rapes, the assaults, the journey, the people, the journey that people are going through. So the reason I call it a humanitarian crisis is because we have essentially over 1 million people that we let into the country.

We have hundreds and thousands that are living in these processing facilities that need help but are getting sexually assaulted, that are being taken advantage of. Like I said, even the New York Times. You mean like in our holding facilities, they're so crowded that people are being raped in there? Yes. And are they being raped by like our police officers or or by just other migrants other migrants other other other migrants especially those single adult males of course and you know we have to think you know it's the children who are who are being human traffic human smuggled into this country um when we when we release these unaccompanied minors you

know um there's really nowhere to verify if they're really being released to a family member or not you know for all we know that could verify if they're really being released to a family member or not. You know, for all we know, that could just be someone else on the other side saying that. And all of a sudden now they have a minor that we have no information that they're most likely going to get lost in the system. We don't even have enough parents to adopt these kids. And if we did, the foster care system is known for losing thousands of thousands of kids into the system that cannot be trusted.

And these, you know, these people really don't have a voice anymore. And they're being taken advantage of at record levels that we've never seen before. Why do they think now is a good time to come? Is it because the rhetoric isn't, is it like, is it that Trump had all this, well, was it less during when Trump was in office and less when Obama was in office? Yeah, I mean, it was, it was less, it was less whenama was in office yeah i mean it was it was less um it was less when obama was in office i mean we were still we were still getting hit by a migrant search but nothing like it was now even under trump it really uh deterred the really the reason why it declined under trump

is because the policies that he instilled so one of the big policies that he put in place was the remain in mexico policy so for the viewers who don't know this, if you were a migrant, and if you crossed into the country illegally and looked into sick asylum, you would get a court order and you would get released into the United States. The problem with this is that Border Patrol told me that only 13% of that time those migrants even come to the court.

So essentially, we're just letting you into the United States. So there's no consequences. And migrants knew that. When Trump came into the office, he put the Rem in mexico policy meaning that if you did this you would get a court order but you would have to wait in mexico and you would have to wait in the border town and the border towns are very dangerous for migrants because

they're they're most likely always controlled by a cartel or a smuggling group it's good so what would they do how would they how would they enforce that people are coming across like what would they do in that in that instance like you were filming those people coming across the that rio grande river what would have what would they do in that instance like you were filming those people coming across that Rio Grande River? What would have happened during the Trump era? They would have scooped them up and drove them back? They would have got apprehended by Border Patrol. They would have got processed, but they would have been given a court order, but they would have been – flew back into a border town in Texas – I mean in Mexico.

So they would have had to remain in Mexico to that court order. Mexico to that court order. So for the thinking for a migrant was why would I risk my life? Why would I pay a cartel smuggler group to do all of this? Only be told to wait in the border town of Mexico, Mexico, which the chances of me getting kidnapped are pretty high as a migrant. So the risk wasn't there. The problem now is that when we transitioned from the Trump administration to

the Biden administration, the Biden administration put the bat signal out that they, you know, and this is not my words. This is Kamala Harris on the campaign trail, literally said, if you come here illegally and want to seek asylum, we are not going to deport you to your home country. We look at that as inhumane. What Kamala Harris and the Biden administration essentially did is they gave these cartels and smuggling groups their next marketing or sales tactic now. Because now they could have used that to convince the migrants the time to come is now.

Also, Biden's first day in office through an executive order removed the Remain in Mexico policy. There was a Supreme Court judge recently who said that the Biden administration must follow that Remain in Mexico policy from our reporting on the ground. We have not seen any proof that that policy is being instilled and being followed right now. So until that changes, I will report something different. But yeah, it's just like I said, it's overwhelming what's happening right now. So and what you're saying is if we're to just look at it with the most altruistic eyes possible, that the Biden administration had this idea that it was inhumane to make them wait in the border towns and to do the most benevolent thing we can and greet people and welcome anyone who wants to come into this great country to come in here. And they would come in here and we would set a court date for them and we'd figure out what their situation is.

And instead, what you're saying is that actually backfired and it created more of a humanitarian crisis because so many people have tried to come in that it's impossible to execute on that plan exactly and the situation has got kind of like what people were worried about about people overwhelming hospitals with covid but it actually is happening at the border it never happened in the united states but it's happening at the border it's happening at the border and it's getting to a point where now biden's approval rating is getting hit by it um Like I said, those Haitians living under the bridge, the optics were so bad that he ordered DHS to clear him out by next last Friday, which they did. And if they don't get a handling of that immigration problem, it's going to be the one policy or the one issue that takes Biden down in 2024 possibly.

What do I know you can't speak for all of them but like where i live there's a there's a ton of uh field workers there's a ton of i don't know if they're mexican i just i lump all you guys up who are south of san diego as mexican just because i just that's what i do all my friends all my brown brothers have all been mexican right so um what what and and our whole this is this is i live in steinbeck country right so many field workers here so many hard-working mexicans here i mean this is like it's crazy and um and and and but they've spread into everything now right like my i have mexican friends who owns gyms barber shops fucking you name it school teachers doctors they're fucking

everywhere mayors congressmen you i mean you see it you live in california and they're they're flourishing here and um and even maybe some el salvadorians like jorge ventura um but uh uh el salvadorians um but um what do they what my friends who live in um salinas and aromas and who are mexican they keep talking about something called lexit and they're basically saying that like all of their small businesses were were closed down during this this so-called pandemic and that that they're they're flipping the script they're running from the from the democrat party and they're and they're turning to the gop do you see that um i do see that and the data even uh backs it up um even in this last election Trump had the most

Latino vote that any Republican president has ever had in history when I'm down in South Texas all those border towns those border towns all used to vote overwhelmingly Democrats so in 2016 they all swung to Hillary Clinton by like over 80 percent this past election those all all those counties by the border they actually went conservative and And I think, um, you know, and those border towns are overwhelmingly Latino. They're like 80% Latino down in the Rio, McAllen, that Rio Grande Valley. So we're seeing the Latinos kind of say, Hey, you know what? We're not seeing the democratic party fight for us anymore for the working class. A lot of the majority of Latinos are obviously in the working class and they're seeing that. And're feeling that especially um not only with all these

issues with immigration but it's also a lot of the woke stuff a lot of the latinx talk and the you know the transgenderism things like that that's a big turnoff to old school latinos for you know for people don't know uh latinos are against abortion, so they're very conservative when you speak to them on these issues. So poster children for Catholicism. Yeah, we're seeing that wave right now. And like I said, even the data backs that up. And I said, like I said before, this one immigration issue, this is only going to swing more Latinos to the Republican Party if Joe Biden can't get a handling of this, which it looks like he doesn't have the urgency to. One of the things that I was – I had a bunch of people at my house one night for dinner this is a couple

years ago and people were talking about how fucking racist trump was racist trump was and i fucking hated trump right and i had voted for whoever i can't remember and um they're and they were talking about how racist trump was and all this bad shit he said about mexicans and latin and latins and i was like like, okay. So I started going on the internet and I started looking for it. I started looking for the video, started looking for the writings and I couldn't find it. And I started seeing where they took everything he said out of context that actually he didn't say anything racist. He didn't say anything bad about Latins. He didn't say anything bad about Mexicans. He just basically said that he was concerned that

they maybe even beyond concerned that they're sending their worst people, that, hey, we can't let them – we can't let these countries send their rapists. And then it was conflated to the fact that he was suggesting that all Latins were rapists, and it wasn't even close to that. Am I right? And that's what made my first – that's when I first put my ears up. I was like, holy shit, because it's pretty – growing up in California, it's a pretty serious accusation to call someone racist. It's like you do not want to be accused of being racist. It sucks. No, absolutely.

And so is the guy racist because I can't find anything on it, and yet all my liberal friends want to call him racist. And I'm like, well, can you just show me where he said Mexicans are bad or Latins are bad because I can't find it. No, I can't find it either. It's almost like the same comparison when they almost try to compare this guy to like Hitler or something. It's like it's pretty ridiculous and outlandish. And, you know, everyone has their opinion to themselves. I haven't seen anything racist. And at the end of the day, if he was racist, then, you know, you would have to say something to all those Latinos that voted for him in 2020.

Like I said, the Republican Party has never made this much progress with the Latino vote ever in their history. Yeah, it's amazing. It's almost like it backfired for them because someone like me, like I wanted to see that. And when I saw that it was made up, like I don't like to see someone being accused of shit that they didn't do. It's not cool. Jorge, what will you do next?

What happens? Do you get to do anything fun? Like will you get to – are you just going to be just chasing wild horses for the next 10 years? Like are you going to get to cover anything without – anything that doesn't want to make you cry? Well, look, man. Anything could happen. I really try to throw myself a lot of stories that get ignored. I obviously love the frontline stuff know, anything could happen. I really try to throw myself a lot of stories. I get ignored. Obviously, love the frontline stuff.

But anything could happen. You know, every ever since I would say I started, it's always been a new every year has been such a new journey. Like I said, last year, the whole summer was filled of riots. Obviously, I've never covered anything like that. So that was something new. Even when the riots were done, they came back to California. Then I did a mini doc on all the restaurants that were going out of business. So I really got to focus on the small business industry. I also then started focusing on

interviewing all the parents whose kids were having mental health issues with the constant lockdowns in California and the border came up. So you know what? It always changes. But I'm always looking to tell that story that is just almost like it's getting ignored or you're just not getting the full scope so i always do my best um but i'm ready for for new challenges i just got done like i said i this year i made a mini doc on the restaurant industry but i just got done with my very first investigative documentary it's gonna be full 40 minutes long where we you know investigated these cartels out in the desert. So that was the first time I ever done something like that. And I'm going to just continue to do the best I can to improve my storytelling for my

audience. Like I was telling you before, even just improve a little bit now with my camera equipment, want to take it to the next level. And you really just make almost movies for people with news and tell stories and travel. And, you know, I think one of the gifts I had or gifts, if you want to call it, maybe just a lucky trade or whatever, is that when I'm in those dangerous situations, you know, my adrenaline is going through the roof and I feel more alive than ever. And as long as I could get that feeling, I will do whatever it takes to chase that. But really just focus on telling stories that Americans care about,

giving them a different viewpoint. And, you know, I feel very blessed that people really support it and they really been taken, you know, taking a liking to it. And they really support me a big way.

Cause sometimes we do need funding when it comes to the road and, and people, you know, do donate and support. And I think that speaks volumes. That means that people trust what they see. And we have a really beautiful relationship with the audience. You have a Patreon account?

Yeah, I have a Patreon, have a Venmo, PayPal, Cash App. And, you know, so support any way people can. And it really helps us out because it literally goes back into our frontline reporting out there, getting on the grind. Actually, if it wasn't for people donating, we wouldn't actually been able to stay for a full week on our last trip so um you know really grateful that people really support but i think it gets people get a lot of value for people learn they get informed they get a a part of the story that you really don't get anywhere else and it's uh your instagram

is at jorge ventura just like it sounds j with george George with a J, Jorge Ventura, all one word. And then is there a link tree or something in there where people can see all these different avenues of getting access to your stuff? Yeah, exactly. So the Instagram is – it's my first name and last name. So it's JorgeVenturaTV. So don't forget the TV at the end. And if you click the link – They don't even need that.

You're the big dog. Yeah, yeah. So you just put in Jorge Ventura. He'll pop up at the top. Yeah, it should pop up. And if you click the link in the bio, it will direct you to everything that you need to be directed to but like i said guys we've got a really great documentary coming out next week that i think a lot of people are going to really enjoy and find information is this the restaurant one this is going to be actually on

the cartels in the in the desert so the the restaurant one we we released in the beginning of the year when those lockdowns were really crazy here in la county la county was the only county that did a band on indoor and outdoor dining so it was the only county where restaurants were stuck on takeout only that's what the documentary is actually called so if you just google takeout only you could you could find that on the restaurant industry how many i heard 30 percent of all restaurants in california closed their doors forever is that true that is true i i'm thinking there's even more but we're waiting for those more those figures i think to come out as a number so just keep coming out but at least 30 absolutely fucking unbelievable it's insane man and all those middle class jobs i gotta

go away to all those all those servers and waiters i mean you have to think about that impact on them as well hey and anyone who does talk shit about immigrants or migrants these are the jobs those people had these are the jobs my mom and dad had they worked at restaurants they cleaned dishes like my mom and dad my dad came to this country and had all those jobs cleaning houses while they went to school all that shit my mom and my dad it's crazy it's crazy it's crazy it's crazy and the crazy thing bro is is you know like like, you know, the Democratic Party more itself tries to aim itself as being the party of the black and brown people. I mean, these lockdowns in California, they affect the black and brown communities on every level the most. The most.

All the businesses that got shut down, all the black and brown kids who couldn't go to school. Of course. That put their parents in a very horrible situation when they did the online school, when these black and brown parents have to go to work. So they always vouch for the black and brown people. That's the people that got the most impacted by the ongoing lockdowns. So this morning I did a podcast with a gentleman named Corey Allen. He's a dude out of York, Pennsylvania. He was in prison and he found CrossFitfit and when he got out of crossfit

he opened a crossfit gym right and uh he's now has a successful uh well he he's trying to run a successful gym and he's got an amazing clientele but it's been extremely difficult right because his gym has been basically been forced to be closed down for the last 18 months right and he's a black guy he or my new word is to call people with black skin melanated. Cause I don't really care what skin color you're, you have, but, um, and he's telling me, he's all, Hey, something really weird happened. He told me this this morning, the podcast and I go, what? And he goes, a conservative group reached out to me. And I go, yeah. And he goes, and, and, and a bunch of small businesses in my town and they

got together and they're supporting us to stay open so that we don't go out of business. And I go, oh, that's awesome. I go, why is that weird? He goes, because I'm not conservative. And I'm like, oh, interesting. And the whole time I just am thinking to myself, and they paint the fucking conservatives as the fucking white supremacists and the liberals as the non-white supremacists. And I used to be liberal liberal so i love that narrative but it's the liberals policy that closed the business down of the black man and it's the

white supremacist party the conservative reaching out to to keep moving and i didn't point it out to him in the podcast because i was trying to just be cool but fuck man it just it just it breaks my heart that like i feel like i have to say it so I can point it out to people because people won't know it unless I like really point at it. Like, hey, look. There's another example. We got to have these conversations and not be afraid to have them. Call out the establishments. his expensive dinner, his fancy wine, while he closed down restaurants and businesses and nail salons and barbershops all over the state and really impacted those people. And, you know, to me, I got to really see their payment because, you know, I interviewed restaurant owners, waiters and servers that cried to me in our interviews,

expressing all the pain they had to go through, all the lost income, their dreams shattered. to go through, all the lost income, their dreams shattered. And just to see the politicians just doing the complete opposite, living in her pocket seat, it really felt that this is what one restaurant owner told me here in my hometown. You know, she felt like we were being the peasants and they were really being the kings, that this is the true example of elitism. And we were seeing it in every way. It's what happened regardless, whether that's the way the words you want seeing it in every way it's what happened regardless whether that's the way the words you want to use or not that's what happened and um you know at that time

i tried to do to do my best to just cover all those stories and give a voice to those small business owners the working class communities and especially also the parents who had their kids in deep depression man over over those those school lockdowns. I was speaking to parents that their kids were suicidal, cutting themselves. I met a dad in Washington State whose son shot himself in the mouth because of the ongoing school lockdowns. These are the stories that, for some reason, never make it onto mainstream media. They don't want to talk about these problems. So we try to just highlight that as much as we can, man.

Why do you have an Android instead of an iPhone? I had an Android my whole life, and for some reason I'm just so used to it. I don't know if I could ever switch. I might be switching soon. We'll see. Man. There's only one reason to switch to iPhone. It's because of that iMessage because they got us all hooked on it.

Like I wouldn't care if you were on a droid if I was on a droid. Right. But it's just the SMS is all fucked up. Yeah, people make fun of me for that. So I don't know how long I'll go with the droid, but we'll see if we can continue lasting with it. Okay, I'm not hating. I'm not hating. Do you work out?

Yes, try to do gym once a day, five times a week. It's good obviously for the physical, but it's more important for the mental. It's a good – I love it because it's a good one hour. I get it really clear in my mind, get that workout in, and it really helps me on mentally then. I kind of made a joke about it, but it's like trying to get buff before they put us in the gulag. Yeah, and you won't have to go you're you're el salvadorian just just pull the race card you're good um what there's things that you can do at 26 that if you're in shape that your your obese counterparts can't do and i know that because

i was a documentary filmmaker and a crossfitter at the same time and i could do crazy shit that other people couldn't do like you know just go on a 10 mile hike with a 10 pound backpack and all my camera gear through the mountains of china and just like deserts of wherever um is that important to you to stay physically strong run jump climb hold your gear grab a baby whatever you need to do oh absolutely man i think i think what taught me that was back in the rights because back in the rights i almost felt like you were covering a war because you had all this heavy gear and it was just you doing the trek. During these rights, there's no Uber. There's no car systems working. So it's everything on you all the time.. I was, I had, I had a bad diet. I was always eating McDonald's. And then, um, after that experience, I said, I absolutely want to change it up. So I'm eating a lot healthier now in the gym and it's just such a big difference. It's such a big

advantage. And you can feel it, man. When I'm not, when now, now I'm out there, I'm working out or I said, like working those long hours at the border and making the trek miles and miles. It feels good. I feel a lot better. And, um And I'm going to continue doing it. And then it's always nice to get the compliment from the female. So that always keeps you going. Yes. Girls are cool. Girls are cool. Jorge, thank you. It's crazy. What time did you wake up this morning? I think today, well, my sleep schedule has been all over the place because I just got back from California. So I woke up at four in the morning out of nowhere, Eden. I think I didn't wake up till 10, but usually I wake up at

7 a.m. But my sleep schedule got all flipped up and crazy when I was in Texas because we would just stay up till five in the morning, four in the morning working. And so it just got really messed up. So I'm trying to get it back to that. So hopefully we get it back. But I think today woke up at 10 just because I woke up at 5 out of nowhere. And it's all kind of messed up and jet lag and all that good stuff. All right. So it's a crazy long day for you today. Thank you so much.

Hey, if you ever want to reach out, we have each other's phone numbers. I'm going to watch you closely. I'm sure I'm going to bug you again for the next big story you break. But if there's ever any time I can help you with anything, please don't hesitate. I'll repost anything you want. I'll have you on whenever you want. I'll do whatever you want. You need a ride from the San Francisco airport, you give me a call. Awesome. No, thank you, bro. I really appreciate

you having me on. And I gotta say, this is for sure one of the more funner conversations that I've had doing this type of stuff. So really, thank you, man. This was a blast. This is your dress rehearsal for Rogan. You're headed to the top. I promise you, you're headed to the top.

You are cool as shit. No, thank you, brother. We definitely got to do this again. I'm going to send you that as soon as we get approved, as soon as I get that trailer for this new documentary, man. I'm going to send it your way, and I would love any type of feedback you got for us. Yep.

And, bam, we're no longer live. Awesome. That was good, man. That was fun. You're easy. You're so easy. You're so easy. Hey, that's so cool, all the people you know.

You're doing it. No, I appreciate you, man. And no, like I said, that was a lot of fun. I'll keep you posted on a lot of the stuff that we got man and i'll sing i'll send you this trailer pretty soon i know we're not too far from getting approved so as soon as i get a trailer approved send it your way you give us some feedback and um we'll love to come on again soon man okay cool you know i'm starting to get more and more big mma fighters on in a couple days i have alexander volkanovsky coming on okay cool if there's ever a time you want to dabble back in that,

I always have no issue always having someone else on and tag teaming, I guess. So maybe we can, we can build a, build a relationship and a friendship here and use each other. Yeah. Some synergy. No,

I agree, man. I really appreciate it. This was a, this was great. It was fun. And thank you, man. Really, really appreciate it really appreciate it take care brother and let's definitely speak soon awesome all right have a good night good night