Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Congressman (R) Chuck Fleishmann to the newsmakers line to discuss the incentivization of illegal immigration by the Biden administration and whether or not it was an impeachable offense.
Leahy: We are joined now on our newsmaker line by Congressman Chuck Fleishmann, who represents the Third Congressional District of Tennessee. Welcome, Congressman Fleishmann.
Fleishmann: Michael. Welcome. And I am joining you from the greatest mid-sized city in America. Chattanooga, Tennessee, and always glad to speak with you and our great friends in our outstanding state capital in Nashville sir.
Leahy: I like that phrase. The greatest midsize city in the country. Chattanooga is a delightful place. I go down there a couple of times a year and I really enjoy it. Very beautiful. And I’m glad to see you’re so proud of the city you represent.
Fleishmann: Well, thank you so much. Actually, I’m so proud of the state I represent, Michael. As you know, I’m a graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
I love Knoxville. I love Nashville. I love Memphis. But really, when I speak with world leaders and national leaders, Tennessee leads in so many categories because we just get it right.
We’re about small government, no state income tax, and we are a right-to-work state.
We get it done right in Tennessee. It makes my job a lot easier when I’m articulating my conservative message in Washington.
Leahy: You are about to take over my role as the unofficial ambassador to promote the state of Tennessee because I do that on my program.
I get people that are calling in from New York City, and I tell them at the end of our interviews, hey, we have no state income tax in Tennessee. When are you moving? (Chuckles) Most of them are tempted by it.
Fleishmann: There you go. We are one of nine states that don’t have a state income tax. But we’ve also made sure that we didn’t let these other taxes kind of creep in like some other jurisdictions did.
And I have fought against taxation, really, before my time in Congress. And if you remember years back, we fought very hard to make sure that Tennessee never had a state income tax.
Leahy: Oh, yes.
Fleishmann: Great Constitution. But yes sir.
Leahy: Now, let me ask you about a problem that you’ve been on top of, and it’s quite bothersome and that’s this Chattanooga Migration Center child abuse scandal.
Fill us in on what the Biden administration has done, sort of behind our backs and against the specific instructions of Governor Lee.
Fleishmann: Well, Michael, as you know, my role as the ranking member, the highest Republican on the Homeland Security Subcommittee of Appropriations, puts me right in the thick of this.
I worked hand in hand with former President Trump on this issue. And we had great success with the buffer policies. We had record low numbers of people coming across. We were apprehending them.
We were building the wall. When President Biden and his administration took over from day one, they took us in the wrong direction.
They incentivized illegal immigration and migration to this country. And each and every time they’ve had a chance to deal with it, they’ve made the wrong decision.
They’re wrong and they are oblivious to this. But this migrant situation in May, as a relevant member of Congress on the relevant committees, I found out about this on the news.
I saw it on the news as did my good friend Bill Hagerty and my good friend Senator Blackburn, our two great senators. And really, it was shocking.
So what did we say? This is going to cause more problems. And just a few weeks ago, it did. The state has shut down this migrant facility.
This should have never happened to begin with. When it did happen, I said there were no problems. And it’s just a multitude of problems now. It’s a humanitarian crisis.
It’s a cost to the American taxpayer and it’s a cost to the people of Tennessee. So Bill Lee is right on this and Marsha Blackburn is right on this.
Hagerty is right on this. I’m right on this. And Biden again, is wrong on this.
Leahy: Let me ask you a big question here. Are you ready for a little bit of a curveball? Here it comes.
Fleishmann: I got it. I’m a baseball player. I’m a baseball player on Tennessee’s congressional baseball team.
Leahy: Are you really? Did you play baseball in high school or in college?
Fleishmann: I played some in high school. I didn’t play in college because I wanted to get through in three years. But when I went Congress the day at a baseball team, I went out and I tried out, and I played in the 100 games about a decade ago.
And have a great picture of that which kind of went viral. But I still play. Darryl Levins is my batting coach.
Leahy: There you go.
Fleishmann: But yes sir. I’m ready for a curveball.
Leahy: Here’s the curveball. So here’s how I look at it, and I’m going to ask you a big question and see what your response is. I look at our immigration laws, and I look at the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and it looks to me like not only is he not enforcing those laws, he’s doing the exact opposite of those laws.
He’s violating, in my view, his oath of office. Now he’s been confirmed by the Senate. To me, I think he has committed by violating our immigration laws.
I think he has committed impeachable offenses. Do you agree with me? And if you agree with me, would you propose articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas?
Fleishmann: The problem really lies with Joe Biden and the Biden administration. All of the other secretaries take their orders from the top.
And I don’t know where the top is taking their orders or direction from. I’ve said this from the inception that the Biden administration from the top, including Joe Biden, is rudderless and confused.
On immigration policy, he’s not rudderless and confused, he’s horrifically wrong and he’s hurting this country. But let me point to an example that proves what you said is correct.
We passed an appropriation bill, which the House, the Senate, and the president of the United States, former President Trump signed into law for fiscal 2021, which basically says roughly $2 billion will be used to construct a border wall.
President Biden refused to obey the laws that were on the books to build this, this year. He wanted to stop it. I want to be very clear about this.
It’s one of those things that he is so far off from what the American people want and has created such havoc on the border and this is going to be a crisis that is going to be felt by the American people for decades to come.
It’s a series of crises. So whether or not it’s impeachable or not, it’s just plain and simply wrong. They’re never going to really impeach them with Nancy Pelosi and the way the Senate is.
I stood strong against both fictitious attempts to impeach President Trump, which were ridiculous and wrong. I just want to fix this policy because it’s really hurting America.
Leahy: If the Republicans take over the House of Representatives in January 2023 and Mayorkas continues to violate immigration law and apparently you’re pointing at the top, which is very reasonable.
Biden would continue with that. Would that continued violation of the law by both Mayorkas and Biden? Would that be an impeachable offense in the next session?
Fleishmann: I think we would have to look at the specific conduct and or lack of conduct and apply the law to the facts. One of the horrible things and I felt so bad for our great former President Donald Trump when he was impeached the first time and then the second time was an out and out force that they tried to impeach him again.
The tool of impeachment was put there for our Founding Fathers to deal with a completely different set of circumstances.
I’m afraid now, regardless of party, we’re going to start seeing the use of the impeachment vehicle much more frequently. I don’t know if that is good for the Republic or not based on where things went.
But clearly, the Pelosi-led House degraded itself when it impeached President Trump twice. I want to be very careful with that. So we’ll wait and see.
I’m going to focus on doing my job and trying to make Biden and the American people realize the abject failure of the Biden administration in this key immigration situation.
It is crisis after crisis. It’s costing us money. It’s costing us national security and it’s got to be addressed.
Leahy: Thanks so much for joining us today and please come back again.
Fleishmann: Michael, keep selling the great state of Tennessee. We’ve got a great product, great people, and the best place in America to live.
Leahy: We are in total agreement. Thank you, Congressman Chuck Fleishmann.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to the newsmakers line to describe the first-ever lawsuit of its kind he is leading against the Biden administration by Texas sheriffs and ICE officials.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line our good friend Kris Kobach, the former Secretary of State of Kansas, now filing a lawsuit representing a group of Texas law enforcement officers suing Joe Biden’s administration over their immigration policies. Welcome, Kris Kobach.
Kobach: Great to be back with you.
Leahy: Kris, last time we talked was at the Breitbart Embassy where Steve Bannon lives. You had a little event there. We went and talked and had a great time. And hats off to you for continuing to fight the good fight.
Kobach: Well, thank you. It’s a really important punch we threw in the state yesterday.
Leahy: Tell us about the lawsuit, who you represent, and what you’re arguing about.
Kobach: I represent a group of Texas sheriffs as well as an association of ICE officers. And this is the first time ever that local sheriffs have teamed up with federal law enforcement officers to sue a President and his Department of Homeland Security.
And the reason that they are suing is that something extraordinary is going on. On February 18 a memorandum was issued within ICE, where basically, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ahead of DHS, told ICE officers, you may no longer deport basically everybody except for a narrow category of terrorists and aggravated felons.
You may not deport them unless you get special approval from your superiors. And it turned out that this approval was virtually never granted. And that violates three different federal statutes because back in the 90s Congress said, we’re sick of this catch and release.
We’re going to start passing statutes that take away executive discretion and say you shall deport people in this category shall deport people in that category. Like those who’ve already been deported once, and they reappear in the United States, people like drug offenders and people who have committed certain crimes.
And so basically, the Biden administration is ordering ICE officers to break the law. And it’s a pretty shocking state of affairs when it now takes a lawsuit for law enforcement officers to be permitted to follow the law.
But that’s where we are. And thankfully, the ICE officers and the sheriffs have stepped forward to do this.
Leahy: Kris, Crom Carmichael is in studio with me today, and he has a question for you.
Carmichael: Mayorkas is telling ICE agents to actually break the law. So there’s not a prosecutorial discretion type of thing here. He’s actually telling them, do not follow the law. My question is in a subsequent administration, is Mayorkis himself, can he be criminally prosecuted?
Kobach: Well, that’s a good question. I think probably the answer is no, just because you have sovereign immunity for people acting in their official capacity.
Carmichael: Even if they break the law?
Kobach: Mayorkis would say, oh, well, these lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security told me they drafted this well enough that it doesn’t really violate federal law. And that’s the thing.
I doubt that you would be able to prosecute the leadership because, of course, the memorandum in itself doesn’t use the words we are ordering ourselves, break the law.
It’s crafted in legalese and says, well, if you wish to deport anyone in these non-priority categories, you must seek pre-approval. And we’ve since learned that pre-approval basically never granted. Only in very rare cases.
Leahy: Can I ask you this question.
Kobach: Yes.
Leahy: I’m not an attorney. I don’t play one on the radio. But is this a memo by Homeland Security’s Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, an impeachable offense?
Kobach: You know, that’s a good question. Of course, the high crimes and misdemeanor words in the Constitution have been debated for centuries. I think at some point it has to be whether or not is it a crime?
And the answer to that is more complicated. It may not be, but it is. Even if it’s not an impeachable offense, it is so outrageous and it’s unconstitutional. We bring a separate claim, in addition to the federal statutes that are clearly being violated here, we also point out that it violates Article Two of the Constitution, which says that the executive shall take care to faithfully execute the loss.
There’s no question that’s being violated. So you have an order being given by the DHS Secretary, in effect by the whole Biden administration to not enforce the law, and indeed, to tell ICE officers themselves to break the law. Clearly, that’s not faithfully executing the law as our Constitution requires.
And interestingly, those words in the Constitution have very rarely been litigated. The Supreme Court has rarely spoken about them. It would be wonderful if this case did end up in the Supreme Court and if we finally got the court to say something about what that means.
Carmichael: What is the time frame? Because you’ve got people who are now being allowed to stay in this country, who are clearly dangerous and will clearly cause harm to Americans.
What is the time frame that this will wind its way through the courts and where the ICE agents will then be free under the law to do what they are legally required to do?
Kobach: That’s a great question. Obviously, as you and your listeners know, cases can take years. But one step we can and we’ll be taking very soon here is filing a motion for a preliminary injunction which asks the judge to say, look at this case.
There’s a good chance we’re going to win, we ICE officers and sheriffs. Please enjoin the administration from enforcing this policy anymore as this case is being litigated. Hopefully, we’ll prevail an emotion fulfill under injunction. We might get released within the next few weeks.
Carmichael: And then if you were to get that, then the ICE agents would be able regardless of the memo, we would be able to do their job.
Kobach: Yes, that’s exactly right. Let me add one thing here. I think the liberals or the people who support the Biden administration might be looking for some excuse and they might be thinking, oh, you know what? This is just a priority memo.
This is just the Biden administration saying we want you to focus on the high-priority criminals. That’s not what this is. This is a memo that says you shall turn loose onto the streets and people who commit all sorts of crimes.
And I just want to give you some examples which we site in our case. These are coming from the ICE officers. They have been forced to turn loose when they could have taken custody and would have deported them prior to this memo.
Rape of a child, aggravated sexual assault on a child, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, larceny, burglary, domestic violence, carrying a prohibited weapon, possession of drugs, resisting a law enforcement officer, and driving under the influence.
The list goes on and on and on. These are not minor crimes. These are illegal aliens who committed these crimes and now are being released onto the streets because of this ICE memo.
Leahy: Kris, I notice that you file this case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Now, it seems to me that if any judge is going to be right in the presence of this problem, it would be a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas. Do you think that your odds are of winning are better because of the venue you chose?
Kobach: The venue we chose was, of course, driven by the fact that these sheriffs are in the Southern District of Texas. The Texas federal district lines include sheriffs in the Southern District. They are in our group as well as the Western District.
So really it would have to have been brought in one of those two districts. But you’re right. The judges here can see the impact of illegal immigration. They can see the crisis firsthand. And so I think that may have some effect.
But, you know, at the end of the day, judges are supposed to be neutral wherever they are. They are supposed to look at the law faithfully, wherever they are. But as you and I know, sometimes judges can have a very different perspective.
Leahy: Yes, we certainly do.
Kobach: We hope that the judge here, we’ll see that this is a clear violation of the law.
Leahy: Kris Kobach, let me just say this personal statement to you. I salute you for your courage. I salute you for your devotion to the Constitution. And you have really been a true warrior for the side of the United States of America throughout your career. And I thank you personally for all that effort.
Kobach: Well, thanks for those kind words. I appreciate it.
Leahy: Kris Kobach, thanks very much, and come back again and tell us how this case proceeds.
Kobach: Will do. Take care.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Jackson County, Texas Sheriff, AJ ‘Andy’ Louderback to the newsmakers line to discuss the chaos at America’s southern border and the Biden’s administration’s denial of it.
Leahy: I’m excited to welcome on our newsmaker line. Our friend, Sheriff AJ Louderback from I guess it’s Jackson County, Texas. Sheriff, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Louderback: Thank you, Sir. I appreciate you invited me to say a few words this morning. Thank you.
Leahy: Well, look, we met two years ago in Washington, D.C., and had a great conversation there. It’s been a bad two years for border control, hasn’t it?
Louderback: It’s the worst we’ve ever seen in the history here at the southern border here with Texas. We haven’t experienced anything like what we’re seeing today from the effects of the policies of the Biden administration and the chaos and destruction they’ve created.
Leahy: Here’s my question to you as a Sheriff enforcing the laws of the state of Texas, you look at the failure of the Biden administration to enforce our federal immigration laws. And my question to you is, is this intentional on their part? And what impact does it have on you?
Louderback: Michael, it’s not just intentional. It’s strategic. It’s planned, it’s operational. It’s a very concerted effort. Probably a year or more prior to there’s evidence of a year or more prior to the Biden administration taking office and anticipation of the implementation of the policy changes to completely gut the INA were more clearly done on purpose to achieve exactly what we are doing today and we see every day.
So this is not anything that is haphazard. They were told repeatedly. It was written by senior staff of CBP. And if you do this, this is what you’re going to do. There is ample evidence of that from the directors at CBP.
People have been there for 30 plus years, true experts in border security told this administration repeatedly meeting after meeting what was going to happen if they persisted in doing this to the United States?
Leahy: The Biden administration knew this would happen, right?
Louderback: Absolutely.
Leahy: So as a Sheriff there, what recourse do you have against a federal administration that is violating federal law?
Louderback: Well, not much. Really the first duty here for most of us is to inform. I mean, that’s what most of us are trying to do. When the American people are uninformed or misinformed we don’t get any results at all.
And we see the results of that. We’re in the informed stage right now urging governments, state governments, to go to work here and try to alter these policies or trying to get them to all these policies, which is exactly what Governor Greg Abbott is doing in Texas.
Leahy: Now, you mentioned Governor Abbott. There was a big press conference where he said, we’re going to build a wall of our own and we’re going to arrest people that come across it. Now, that’s a good thought. How practical is that?
Louderback: The complexity of finishing portions of the wall exists. The ability for the state of Texas to strategically place the resources necessary to start filing criminal trespass and the child endangerment charges would probably two most prevalent other than human trafficking, smuggling.
The state of Texas put a ton of resources and over a billion dollars dedicated to some different changes. And, of course, there’s a special session coming up legislatively that would go along with the declaration of disaster that he has done.
These things, we hope, will start to turn. And, of course, one most significant thing, Michael was the signing of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact in Arizona. So as these movements build, where we see more and more states coming on board, where federal policies are destructive to states, we’ll see where this goes.
But it’s obviously moving in the right direction for the rule of law and for us to try and have some recourse to the border issue and to the national security issue and border security.
Leahy: What does this do to the morale of your department and your employees when you see that you’re being undermined?
Louderback: Well, in our business, we’ve been under attack before the Biden administration took office. We’ve been subjected to all types of things, from the funding to qualified immunity to just outright racist attacks that every law enforcement officer in the United States is a complete racist.
Which is absolutely wrong. But we’ve got to keep our heads up. I don’t like falling into that kind of trap like that. We’re going to do our job here. We’re going to keep our heads up. We’re going to enforce the law as we know and keep citizens safe.
And that’s what we have to do. Yes. It’s demoralizing. It’s more demoralizing for the men and women of the border patrol working there. Imagine working there or any job that you had in the United States. It’s no different than a County Sheriff saying to his deputies I’ll tell you what? (Inaudible talk) We’re not going to accept any cases. I don’t want you to arrest anyone unless they are .20.
Leahy: We’ll just make up that new law, right?
Louderback: Yeah. We’ll just make that up. That’s a policy now for us.
Leahy: By the way, what did Vice President Kamala Harris say when she went down to the border and visit with you? (Laughter) That’s a joke.
Louderback: Yeah. Understood. She won’t go to the border. Going to the border with her, she’s obviously unable to find it would simply prove that there’s a problem there, and they don’t see it as a problem. They don’t want the American public to see it as a problem.
Leahy: They think we’re really pretty stupid, don’t they? (Louderback chuckles) Well, I know you are measured in your statements, Sheriff. I can say that.
Louderback: Let’s move onto other questions. Regarding the Vice President, I think it’s pretty obvious as to what’s going on here.
Leahy: (Laughs) Yes, I can do that. And we won’t give you a hard time about it. Jackson County. Is that right between, like, McCallen and Corpus Christi? Is that where it is?
Louderback: Just passed Corpus. We’re on the geographical major corridor into Houston, Texas, which is, of course, a huge magnet for all time. Whether it’s narcotics or human trafficking or human smuggling.
Leahy: You have what? 12,000 residents. How many residents of the county?
Louderback: We’re just under 20,000. Under 20,000. I remember that now. Have you seen an uptick in this travel going through your county by illegal aliens in the past five months?
Louderback: (Inaudible talk) The bailouts, the crashes, they’ve stolen vehicles, license plates, the increased methamphetamine, increased fentanyl. There’s not an agency around me that doesn’t have increased narcotic issues. The empowerment of the cartel has been done.
Leahy: Nothing says safety and security of citizens of Jackson County, Texas like a Biden administration that won’t enforce immigration laws. Right, Sheriff?
Louderback: Yes, sir. You got it.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “AJ Louderback” by AJ Louderback.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed special guest Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council to the newsmakers line to discuss the man-made crisis at America’s Southern border.
Leahy: We are delighted to have on our newsmaker line, Brandon Judd, the President of the National Border Patrol Council which represents all of the folks that are there and our Border Patrol agents on the border. Welcome, Brandon. Thanks for joining us.
Judd: Always good to be with you. Thank you.
Leahy: Well, I know you’re just waiting breathlessly for Vice President Kamala Harris to go down to the border and take a look at this. It’s been how many days? It’s been 80 days now since she’s been charged with doing this by the President and have you seen her yet?
Judd: I’m holding my breath, and I think I’m going to die first. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: How do your members look at this kind of silliness from the Biden Harris administration? This kind of disdain for the job you do. How do you do your job every day in that environment?
Judd: It becomes very difficult. every time we put on a uniform and we go out and we try to do our job we know that we just don’t have an administration behind us that cares about the American public and that cares that we’re able to secure the border.
Vice President Harris, the other day, said that she’s an advocate for illegal aliens. She’s advocating for lawlessness. How can you put on a uniform and go out to try to do the job when you know that the administration is actively trying to support those people that you’re trying to keep out of the country to protect the American citizen?
Leahy: That’s a very interesting point. It’s almost like Alison in Wonderland kind of stuff, right? This is like the counter to logic, counter to what they’re supposed to be doing. To me, I don’t know.
I hear the Vice President say something like that and I think is this person trying to subvert the immigration laws of the United States?
Judd: It certainly looks that way when you consider that in the first five months of this administration, nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants have been allowed to get into the United States.
It’s crazy when you consider that we’ve had nearly 200,000 people that have been able to cross the border illegally and evade apprehension. Those are what we call got aways. Nearly 200,000 people have been able to get away.
And then on top of that, nearly 300,000 people have been released under the catch and release program. That’s 500,000 people in five months that have been added to the 11,000,000 illegal alien population that’s already here in the United States. That’s crazy! In five months, think about what’s going to happen over four years.
Leahy: I’m going to tell you how I see this, and I’d just like to get your reaction to it. We have immigration laws on the books, and the President and the Vice President are charged with enforcing those immigration laws.
To me, it looks like they are actually trying to subvert those laws. When a President and Vice President look to subvert those laws, it seems to me that that is a high crime and misdemeanor, and it’s an impeachable offense. That’s what it looks like to me.
Judd: As a federal employee, I can’t comment on that. I just can’t go there. But what I can tell you is that the immigration laws just are not being enforced the way Congress intended them to be enforced.
And when you consider that both Vice President Harris and President Biden, were both in Congress and they both helped pass the laws that we’re currently supposed to enforce it’s insane to think that they’re using what’s called prosecutorial discretion to create the current disaster that we have on the border.
When you consider that they’ve said that ICE can only arrest and deport people that have committed serious felonies, they’ve basically made every single city in the United States a sanctuary city.
If a local police department pulls somebody over for drunk driving and they’re in the United States illegally, and they call ICE, well, drunk driving isn’t one of those crimes that ICE can then go take them into custody, then they’re going to then have to release them.
That’s an illegal alien that we knew was in the country that ICE can’t go pick up. In essence, we’ve created sanctuary cities throughout the entire United States through what’s called prosecutorial discretion.
Leahy: So where does our country go on these issues?
Judd: I mean, we have to look at and we have to say, let’s go to the polls. We have to. If we don’t go to the polls, then we’re going to continue to see what’s currently happening. We have to be willing to look at and elect those people that care more about the citizens of the United States than they do about the citizens outside of the United States.
We elect people to look out for our interests, not the interests of people that are not here in this country or aren’t citizens of this country.
Leahy: Governor Greg Abbott of Texas announced over the weekend his intent to build a wall and have the state build a wall and to arrest any illegal aliens that they find. What do you make of that?
Judd: I’m grateful that we have governors that are willing to step up. We have to look at what’s been going on when border patrol’s resources are being pulled out of the field because we’re being overwhelmed by what we call getaways, those people that cross the border and basically wave their hands in the air, say, here I am, I’m going to claim asylum.
What happens is we pull so much of our resources out of the field to process those individuals that we create these artificial gaps that criminal cartels can then cross their higher-value products.
Whether that’s drugs, whether that’s criminal aliens, whether that’s aliens from special interest countries, it creates these gaps. Governor Abbott has sent DPS down to the border to help fill those gaps, and they’ve done a phenomenal job.
So he’s just looking at more solutions to try to get this crisis under control there in Texas. I wish other governors would step up to the plate and do the same thing that he’s doing.
Leahy: You anticipated my next question when you say, other governors. There are four states that border the Mexican border, going East to West. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Greg Abbott is a Republican. I think the New Mexico governor is a Democrat. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Republican. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Compare and contrast, those four governors and their policies towards the border.
Judd: So the two Arizona governors, Governor Ducey in Arizona, that’s my home state. And then, of course, Governor Abbott in Texas, they’ve both been willing to acknowledge that this is, in fact, a crisis.
They’ve both been out there saying this is a complete and total disaster. This is a man-made disaster. This could have been controlled, but this administration came in and reversed several policies that were working programs that got the border under control.
And they’ve done more obviously, than the Democrats governors in New Mexico and California. Governor Abbott has done more than Ducey. But Ducey has the resources that he has. He’s called up the Arizona National Guard.
He sent them to the border. So they are doing something. This is a federal government problem. And they just don’t have the necessary resources. The federal government, they do have the resources. They’re just not doing anything.
Leahy: And again, how many members are in the National Border Patrol Council?
Judd: 12,500 Border Patrol agents are members of the National Border Patrol Council.
Leahy: My cousin worked I think it was in Nogales, Arizona as a Border Patrol agent. And he’s retired now. I came from way upstate New York, and a lot of our folks worked as Border Patrol agents on the New York-Quebec border.
That’s kind of where they got started. And that was his background. And I’m telling you, he felt that this was a very, very difficult job. He retired about five years ago. So has a job gotten better or worse in the past five years or particularly the past five months? Let’s go with that.
Judd: It’s more difficult when you have a President that supports you. Under the Trump administration, the job was more difficult, but it was more fulfilling because we knew that we were doing a good job.
Under this administration, this job is easy because they don’t let her do anything. But it’s not fulfilling. We want to protect the American public and this administration is not letting us do it.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Brandon Judd” by Fox News.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed TN (R) U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the illegal immigrant minors being flown into Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his proposed legislation to prevent this from continuing.
Leahy: We are joined now on our newsmaker line by United States senator from Tennessee, Bill Hagerty. Senator Hagerty, welcome back.
Hagerty: Great to be back with you. Thanks.
Leahy: Well, lots going on in terms of what the Biden administration is doing with flying illegal alien migrant children into Tennessee. The governor says he doesn’t want them, but the Biden administration is doing it. You’re going to do something about that. Tell us what your plan is.
Hagerty: Senator Blackburn, Representative Fleishman and I introduced new legislation yesterday called the Migrant Resettlement Transparency Act that’s going to prevent this from happening again.
We’ve got to ensure that Biden administration is transparent with us, that Secretary of HHS, and the Secretary of Homeland Security consult with state and state local officials or any jurisdiction that’s going to be impacted by something like this.
And what they’re doing right now is flying these folks in under the cover of darkness. fAnd they’ve got to be able to tell us exactly how many people they intend to bring in to transport or relocate. Are these people being tested?
Do they have COVID or other health crises or illnesses? How many people because our schools, our hospitals, our law enforcement are going to have to deal with all of this. Our schools are going to be overwhelmed by what could be happening.
So we have an incredibly important right to know. And for them to be behaving in this manner is doing exactly what you’re not talked about before Michael. They’re turning every town in America into a border town.
Leahy: Senator Hagerty, I don’t know if you saw this. So Peter Ducey of Fox News was at a press conference yesterday with Jen Psaki, the press Secretary of President Biden, and he asked, well, the governor said we don’t want them in Tennessee.
And she said, well, they’re really just passing through. Passing through at 1:30 a.m. I don’t know. That doesn’t seem very credible to me or transparent.
Hagerty: It doesn’t. It doesn’t to me. And if you hold on a second, Michael, I’m going to read you a text that one of my friends sent me just the other day. He was flying on a commercial flight from Dallas to Chattanooga.
He talked with the escort on the flight, the adult that was escorting these young people. The guy spoke to him in English and he said that he was bringing these young people, again on a commercial flight.
This is not the fourth that was filmed in Chattanooga by the news station there. This is a different flight. But my friend said there were eight to 10 young unaccompanied minors. Let me just read you what he texted me when he saw it.
Good morning. My wife and I were on a flight from Dallas to Chattanooga last Tuesday. We landed in Chattanooga around 1:15 p.m. At the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, I spoke in the adult males that were escorting eight to 10 unaccompanied minor males that were on the flight. He told me he was taking them to a shelter in Chattanooga.
Leahy: That’s where you go. That’s not exactly passing through, is it Senator Hagerty?
Hagerty: It’s not exactly passing through. And we’ve been hearing rumor after rumor about this Temple dormitory facility there that know that’s been rented. It’s being set up. They’re running advertisements for bilingual people.
It certainly seems that that is a location where they’re housing these folks. And they’re not being transparent whatsoever with the local community or with Governor Lee, obviously. And we have demanded the right to know what’s happening.
Leahy: Senator Hagerty, what’s going to happen with your legislation? What committee does it go before? And what are the odds of passing?
Hagerty: We’re pushing it through right now. Again, its committees with jurisdiction over Homeland Security and HHS. I think there are a lot of senators that are concerned about this. Tennessee is the first to uncover it.
But the crisis is one that the Biden administration has caused because they caused our borders to collapse. This is going to put more pressure on them and I intend to put a tremendous amount of pressure on them to address the border situation.
Now, you know, we talked about this. I flew down to Guatemala and Mexico City just a couple of weeks ago to meet with the President of Guatemala, to meet with a foreign Minister in Mexico.
I met with a foreign Economic Minister to let them know this is a matter of utmost urgency to us. The Senate controls the power of the purse here in the United States of America. And I let them know loud and clear that we need this border crisis fixed now.
We need it fixed urgently because what it’s doing is not only increasing the flow of these migrant children, other migrant adults across the border. But it’s increasing illicit drug trafficking in Tennessee.
You talk to any sheriff, they’ll tell you that overdoses are up. Death from fentanyl is up since the borders collapse. We’ve got human trafficking in our state. This is precipitating crime throughout America, and we’ve got to bring it to an end.
Leahy: But Senator Haggerty, the President to Biden has said that Vice President Kamala Harris is right on the job. She’s been doing it for more than 45 days, I guess, is in charge of solving the border crisis. Has she done has she gone to any of these countries? Has she gone to the border? I don’t think so.
Hagerty: She’s scheduled to follow my footsteps next month.
Leahy: Next month.
Hagerty: I am a full month ahead of her. And I led the very first official delegation from the United States Senate since the Pandemic shut everything down. I don’t know why the White House has not been able to have a greater sense of urgency.
Leahy: I’ll give you one possible hypothesis to explain it. They want this crisis. They don’t want to solve it. They want it to continue. That’s my hypothesis.
Hagerty: I think your hypothesis has a high probability of being correct.
Leahy: (Laughs) Said with great caution, but accuracy by Senator Hagerty. (Hagerty chuckles) What does Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer say about your legislation?
Hagerty: Schumer is going to be under pressure from his members. Think about Mark Kelly, who’s in Arizona. He’s going to be up this cycle. He’s already criticized President Biden for his treatment of the border situation.
We need to make more and more senators understand that just like Chattanooga towns and their jurisdictions are going to turn into a border town too. They’re going to be overwhelmed the same way we are. Does their school have the capacity?
Do their hospitals have the capacity or will they be overwhelmed again? Law enforcement certainly wants to know what’s happening on a local basis. So everyone is going to be affected across the nation.
I predicted this when Biden let the border-collapse. We’ve got to go back to the policies that we’re working under the Trump administration. We’ve got to secure our border first, and then we can look at the longer term, the medium-term issues that are causing problems in those countries. But we cannot deal with that as long as this border is open.
Leahy: Have you asked Democrat Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona, to co-sponsor your bill?
Hagerty: We just put the bill out last night. Senator Blackburn and I did. And I think that is a great suggestion. Our teams are working right now to get co-sponsors today.
Leahy: Have your office let us know.
Hagerty: We’ll do it.
Leahy: He’s up for reelection in 2,022, isn’t he?
Hagerty: He is. And I think this is going to be a real issue for the people of Arizona. They’ve seen it manifest at the border. But now we’re seeing it manifest right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Leahy: Do you see perhaps Kristen Sinema, another Democrat Senator from Arizona, have you talked to her about possibly supporting those?
Hagerty: I talked with her last night. She is one of the people who tend to see things more as we do from time to time. Joe Manchin similarly. We get a couple of those Democrats sentence those who have voters more like our voters in Tennessee.
We may be able to get the type of bipartisan support that we need. But just as a matter of principle, as a matter of fairness, the administration shouldn’t be operating this clandestine transit operation under the stealth of night.
These people are entering our country illegally, and it’s not that Tennesseeans don’t have a heart. It’s not that we don’t care for people, but we need our laws followed. We don’t want to encourage illegal activity.
And by doing this and by continuing to make the border work like a turn style and resettle people in the interior of our nation, we’re just putting a big magnet at our Southern border, attracting more and more of these illegal activities to continue.
Leahy: When you talked last night with Senator Sinema, the Democratic Senator from Arizona about this, bill, what did she say?
Hagerty: She didn’t commit, but she was interested in hearing about it. What’s happening in Chattanooga is what I think has got a lot of people’s ears perked.
Leahy: That sounds like Senator Sinema. She’s very smart but very cautious. And she’s a Democrat. She didn’t commit, but she listened. I would be very curious to see what Senator Sinema says in the future and Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona. Are there any other Democrats you think might support this bill?
Hagerty: It’s going to depend on how the situation evolves over the next week or two. But what we’re seeing in Chattanooga has sensitized the rest of America to what can happen.
And I’ve got to believe that this is not the only situation. So as this unfolds I’m going to be aggressively reaching out to those senators that are affected, just like we are in Tennessee.
Leahy: Senator Bill Hagerty, I think this is a great bill that you’re introducing. Thanks so much for joining us today and talking about it. And please come back again and talk about what you’re doing up there in Washington.
Hagerty: Certainly. All the best. Thank you.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
