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Just days ago, a young U.S. Marine Corps veteran named Nicholas Quetz from Arizona was driving through Mexico very routinely. Who would think this could happen? For a beach weekend with his great friends, everybody loved to meet a lot of friends, when he was viciously gunned down on the highway and murdered by members of a Mexican cartel. And we're joined today by Nick's wife, Carrie, his father, Douglas, his mother, Patricia, his sister, Alexis, and his brother-in-law, Phil, and their beautiful people. And if they'd like to come up, I'd love to have them just to honor their beautiful boy. (Applause.) I'd love to have them. Come on up. Go good. (Applause.) That's great. This is a great family, a perfect family. And what happened to them should happen to nobody. So unscripted, I really wasn't planning on being here. Two weeks ago, I was a completely apolitical actor. Anybody outside my own home wouldn't have known who I would have voted for. Today, the situation changed for me. Last week, two weeks ago, Friday, my son was murdered by cowards and shot in the back on the way to the beach in Mexico. The reason I bring that up, and some people have questioned why was he in Mexico. He was in Mexico going to pursue his life, enjoy his life. We grew up as a military family, had been around the water. He loved it. We don't have Arizona Beach, so we call Rocky Point, Arizona's beach. A lot of people go there, hundreds of thousands a year, I think, transit there, plenty of Americans own property down there. So that happened. We got the call from the State Department, very professional, that night. No news in the United States to speak of. Sunday, still no news. Monday, still no news. Other than the very most local level with no publication, tried to get in contact with elected leaders, heard nothing. Tuesday, reached out to my local representative, he put me in contact with Senator Vance. Senator Vance coincidentally was coming to Tucson for a speech that day. I can't imagine how busy Senator Vance, President Trump, are running their campaign. Senator Vance asked for two minutes to talk to him, and I've met in my line of work, and I'm actually still a current federal employee, that's one of the reasons I've stayed apolitical. I'm a 20 year military retiree, so I've dedicated my entire life to this country. My son, who was murdered as a four year military veteran, the United States Marine Corps, he did, he worked on vertical assault from the Osprey, so he fast drove by the helicopters. My daughter is actually a drilling army reservist, and my son-in-law recently medically retired due to issues sustained on active duty, so our family is a military family with generations and generations of service. I bring these things up as an apolitical actor and somebody who struggled, the kind of Americans many are, who probably sit around their table and say, who are we going to vote for, go back and forth, decide what we think is important. And we struggle on that, and we actually prey on it, and many people ask me, how can I stand up here today, 13 days after my son was killed and talked in front of groups, and it is through the grace of God, and I do believe in God in a higher being. I do believe my son, Nicholas, has given me the power to be here, has given my wife the power to be here, has given my daughter, Nick, Karime, who is Nick's wife, and my son-in-law, Phillip, and Phillip has done such a great job, so now I have one living son, and that is Phil, because one was stolen by the cartel. So when I met with Senator Vance, and because I am apolitical, I've met many political, many leaders from up to the level of National Security Council, plenty of times working different issues for this government. I asked him a question, and I said, sir, before we talk, I need to know if I'm speaking to the candidate, the senator, or the marine. And he said, I'm JD, I need you to tell me what I can do for you, and you tell me what you can do for me. And he met it as a way of helping him to help me. So JD Vance was awesome. I asked for 90 seconds, he gave me 15 minutes. The very next morning, and after having tried to reach my elected officials for five days, President Trump's office called me. President Trump, in the fight of his life, offered to meet with us. President Trump gave me 15 minutes of his time to talk about what we could do. I asked him for some things, and he helped. I asked him, A, for U.S. involvement, and we know he's candidate Trump right now, and there is a seated president. I asked for U.S. involvement in the investigation with the Mexicans. I asked for extradition of the killers after I found out under the current U.S. code, not all can be extradited only if they're tied to RICO activities. In this case, they probably are tied to RICO activities, they are probably coming back, but I'll defer all questions on his investigation to the FBI. And I asked for a working policy in Mexico. In my career, one of the things I worked on was Plan Colombia, a very similar situation in security as to what we have in Mexico today. It was supported by Senator Biden. That's out in public record, you can look at it. We have no working policy with Mexico right now. Count the numbers of illegal immigrants, whether they're private, whether they're dangerous or not dangerous, and you'll see a number of about 25 million crossing back and forth. And then when somebody says, "Why was Nick in Mexico? My son was an hour from our house when he was executed by cowards." That's how close it is. But it is a national security challenge, not a local border state challenge. We have these type of things with Trandayagua and MS-13, anybody else you want to name, plus unnamed criminal organizations. The cartels, they operate with impunity in Mexico, they've infiltrated every level of their government. The local police are helpless because they're not properly equipped, state police a little bit better, but not in the federal. But we need to work with the Mexicans on this to go forward. So what I'm leaving you with, and I'll give this back to President Trump to whom you came to listen, not me, is this, for most of us in this room, and honestly, I would not have been in this room because it wouldn't have been political two weeks ago. You know who you're going to vote for. But for the sound bite and the people looking at this, after 12 days, I received a call from Senator Mark Kelly. That was the 12th day. And he was gracious, and he offered his condolences. And I told him, sir, I appreciate that because I'm a respectful person, I'll work with anybody. But what I want is sponsorship of a couple of things. One is change to U.S. code so that if people are, if committed crime against U.S. persons, especially murder, they are brought back here to face our justice. Number two is legislation that is enacted that takes us someplace closer to Plan Mexico that will institute not only military capability but also institution building. And if we break out the numbers of what it costs, we can do that for much less than we spend on illegal immigrants, and we can make both sides of the border secure. People are coming here. Some come from economic, and we talk about that. But many of those people are actually fleeing due to the insecurity in their own country. If we can help them, we can help ourselves. Senator Kelly, and as I said, so this is bipartisan, but we need a leader who can enact it. And the leader is standing right next to me because he's promised to enact it. Bipartisan. And I will tell you, former President Trump, however you want to name him, and I had some really good conversations there. We had conversations between ourselves, two men looking at each other. The man had a tear in his eye when he saw the picture of my son. And the person that those that are on the – that are not – have not committed and don't know, he's a decent man. He tried to help us, and he promised to help us. He also made a promise to me that will be between the two of us, but if he's elected, I do believe he'll keep it. Sir, I can't thank you enough – sir, I can't thank you enough for what you've done for my family in terms of calling attention to this. It was unreported in the media. Go back and check for anybody who looks. And I will tell you – and importantly – and importantly, like I said, Senator Wal – our Governor Walz was in Arizona last Saturday, he had a convention, we tried to go, we asked to go. I've got electronic proof of it so we can show pictures of our going to release the media. We're told it was full. It was in a high school auditorium, and we weren't allowed to speak with him. So when you wonder about where America really is and what the stories are, you don't have to wonder anymore. The man next to me and his vice presidential nominee, a current seated senator, both met with me within 36 hours of asking. And both took up the call. And for any troll that is out there and says your son shouldn't have been in Mexico, if it's safe for 25 million people to come here, how can it not be safe for my son to go an hour south of the border? And for the trolls that say we're politicizing my son's death, I will tell you to go to the root of the word. It is the policy that contributed to my son being killed. It is the policy that's contributing to the death of other Americans, just like the video you saw that young lady. It is the policy that's contributing to fentanyl coming into the United States. Those are political failures. And we need to end them. Thank you for your time. I'm asking you, help us get justice for Nicholas. I'm asking you, help us get justice for Nicholas. I'm asking you, help us get justice for Nicholas. That's incredible. And frankly to do that, to be able to do that, literally just a few days after this horrible event happened is pretty amazing, I'll tell you. We'll take care of it. We're going to take care of it. We're going to get that guy. We're going to get him. We're going to get him. They know who he is. Can you believe it? They know who he is. Nothing's done. Mexico's going to give him to us. Mexico's going to give him to us. They have to. They have to. It's going to be real easy.

Transcribed automatically. Expect errors in names and numbers.