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 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 U.S. (R) Rep. Mark Green, a Tennessee congressman to the newsmakers line to outline his new bill that establishes illegal migrant children’s status that are coming into Tennessee and preferential treatment of refugees in Central American countries.
Leahy: On our newsmaker line our good friend, Congressman Mark Green from Tennessee. My congressman who does a great job, by the way. Good morning, Congressman Green.
Green: Hey sir. How are you? Good to be on your show.
Leahy: Well, we’re delighted to have you on. And we want to have you in studio someday soon. You’re introducing a new bill apparently or have to address the issue of migrant children being brought to Tennessee. Tell us about that.
Green: Yes. We found out that with this incredible border crisis, the open door and open border policy that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have created, it’s resulted in a lot of children showing up at our doorsteps.
And what’s happened with the federal government and its clandestine methodologies decided they just fly these folks to Tennessee without letting Tennessee know. In fact, they asked Governor Lee and Governor Lee said no but they sent them anyway in the dead of the night.
The problem is the incentives that have been created, we have to shut the incentives down. What we’re basically saying is that the federal government has to ask the governor for permission.
The governor has to give permission. But one of the things we’re doing to make sure that the children are still taking care of we’re moving them from the control of HHS and the refugee program to Homeland Security so that it’s still an immigration issue and not some kind of refugee issue.
Making those guys be classified as migrants keeps the legal status in a way that the federal government can’t force them on Tennessee. The other issue is with this bill is we’re addressing the preferential treatment to certain countries in Central America that get automatic refugee status.
And so we’re trying to fix that as well. And then, of course, to take care of the children. We leading their ability to be housed with HHS because DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, the actual law enforcement folks don’t have the resources to house these children.
So if we leave that portion in law and then change their status, we can address the immigration issue and still take care of the children. And so that’s kind of what the bill does.
Leahy: So it’s interesting you mentioned something that was kind of a mystery to me. I never understood exactly why the Office of Refugee Resettlement was involved in moving these kids here.
Were they trying to just flaunt the law or using a loophole in the law by bringing them in under the Office of Refugee Resettlement? The issue is in the weeds but it struck me as interesting.
And I was wondering, well, how could they do that because these are illegal aliens because they are not coming in through the refugee program.
Green: So that doesn’t make sense in the law. And it’s very interesting. We approached multiple people, former immigration judges. We approached the folks here in D.C. who write the bills for us.
They’re our lawyers on our side that are Republicans and think the way we think. And no one seems to be able to agree on the status of these children and whether they could technically be refugees or not. And so we want to clarify that ambiguity by making sure that the unaccompanied children are, in fact, unaccompanied migrants.
And they can’t, therefore, be treated as a refugee because once they’re treated as a refugee, the state either has to get out of the refugee program completely, which governor chose not to do, or we don’t have to say at that point.
Leahy: Exactly. By the way, this was a very good catch on your part. I’m delighted you’ve done it because you’re kind of solving a bit of this mystery because there is an act called The Refugee Act of 1980 that governs refugees.
Green: That’s exactly correct. With Tennessee in the program, we can’t basically block refugees being resettled in Tennessee as long as the state is in the program because of the court rulings and the way the court rulings found on those original refugee laws.
So that’s why these children, I’m trying to classify them as unaccompanied migrants. And therefore, when they get into that status, it’s a law enforcement and a migration issue and not a refugee issue.
Which is essentially what they truthfully are. So that’s the dilemma we’re fixing. The bill, we’ve had it vetted by tons of different people. And I will tell you, Michael, the people in Tennessee who are smart on this came to us.
We shared the bill. They are the ones who provided the idea on this. This is constituents informing their congressman and educating me on some of the nuances of this that resulted in a much better bill.
Leahy: Well, what’s going to happen with this bill when you introduce it?
Green: What we’ve got to do is find four or five Democrats who are willing to buck Pelosi, which in this day and age is hard to find. It makes it hard for us to get anything done.
Leahy: Do we need to give you Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s phone number? Do you think she’ll be one of the four or five? That’s a joke. (Laughs)
Green: I don’t want that on my phone.
Leahy: (Laughs) That’s a bad joke on my part.
Green: (Chuckles) She’s the wrong one to go to. But there are a couple out there that are trying to save their seat and what’s going to happen in the next cycle.
Leahy: Will it be a Democratic member of Congress from a border state?
Green: There are a couple, actually, that are pushing for Kamala Harris to come down there. So we might be able to get those guys to say, hey, yeah, Let’s do it.
Leahy: But it could also be somebody from a state like, I don’t know Tennessee. Do you think Jim Cooper is going to jump in and say, oh yeah, we don’t want these illegal aliens shipped in here in the dark of night? Or Steve Cohen, you’re good friends?
Green: It’s hard to read where Jim is going to be on this one because of just the dynamics of what’s happening to his district. It’ll be a little bit hard to predict where Jim will be. We could sit down and talk with him about it. I would have to do that.
Leahy: I would like to be a fly on the wall when you have that conversation with Jim Cooper.
Green: Yeah, we’ve had several. (Laughter)
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 Wednesday 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 Star National Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to discuss the unmasking and verification of the woman that blocked Senator Ted Cruz’s right to film migrants at the detention facilities on the southern border and a Harris presidency waiting in the wings.
Leahy: In studio with us is state Senator Mark Pody, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. On the newsmaker line, breaking stories left and right our Washington correspondent Neil McCabe. Good morning, Neil.
McCabe: Hey. Good morning, guys. Really good to be with you, Mark and Crom.
Leahy: So I was not in the studio on Wednesday. I just have to give a note of congratulations to you, Neil for breaking that great story about John Kerry, former Secretary of State, of whom we captured a photo of him on a plane not wearing a mask, which is, of course, something that Joe Biden says you can’t do. The regulations say you can’t do it. But we got that photo that was all over the place two weeks ago for about 48 hours. It was the only picture that apparently you could see on Fox News. And it was a Tennessee Star breaking story. Congratulations on that get.
McCabe: Wasn’t that fun, Mike? And it’s always funny when you’re working with you and Christina before a story posts, you think you have something, but you’re not really sure. And it’s like we reached out to American Airlines. They came back to us and they said, what was the flight number? I told them what flight it was, and they passed our deadline. We gave them another 15 minutes. But you just can’t hold that thing forever. And once it took off, it just took off.
Leahy: It really did. It’s been the most-watched or viewed story in the history of The Tennessee Star. It was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of page views. So good job on that. Now we have another story. We are giving the other side an opportunity to respond. They haven’t responded yet, but we’re about to break a story today. Again, you’re breaking another story. We have apparently the identity of the woman who was blocking Senator Ted Cruz from taking videos of the young kids in these, I don’t know what you call them. In very terrible circumstances on the border detention centers.
McCabe: They are detention centers and it’s a horrible situation. I read yesterday that there are now more migrant children in custody under Biden than there ever was during the peak of Trump. And they just keep coming. And this woman was going left when Cruz’s camera went left. She went right when he went right.
And she quite literally was violating the constitution. A senator has a constitutional obligation for oversight. And the idea that somebody in the executive branch would jump in front of somebody’s camera while he’s trying to narrate a video and keeps interrupting him and talking over him. If she is willing to do that to a U.S. Senator, you can imagine what they’ve been doing behind the scenes to reporters.
Leahy: Exactly. And, Neil, we’ve had this story since, I think, Sunday night. And we know the identity. We have given the Department of Homeland Security plenty of time to confirm or deny. And I think we’ve given them until nine o’clock this morning. To borrow the old Howie Carr line, when the phone didn’t ring, we knew it was the Department of Homeland Security calling back to confirm or deny the identity of this person. Crom Carmichael.
Carmichael: What you’re doing is you’re giving the Department of Homeland Security the opportunity to deny that you have correctly identified this person.
Leahy: We are doing that.
Carmichael: You’re not asking for confirmation or they could confirm it? You are at least giving them a chance to say no. I’m sorry. You got the wrong name.
Leahy: Exactly right.
Carmichael: Neil, is this person an employee of the Department of Homeland Security?
McCabe: Absolutely.
Carmichael: So it wasn’t somebody from the Biden administration sent down there to tag along with the senators and try to disrupt them?
McCabe: Yeah, she’s a political minder. She’s like a commissar who’s been sent alongside the delegation and it’s her job to sort of corral.
Carmichael: So she did travel. She wasn’t somebody who worked there with those children day in, day out. She traveled down. Interesting.
McCabe: No, no, no. If we have ID her correctly, and I believe we have, she’s someone who’s from Texas, but someone who works in a very senior position in the Obama administration in the Customs and Border Protection. And she has returned to a similar position at Customs and Border Protection. So she is working in Washington. Ted Cruz already said at his press conference that she went to another Senator and demanded that he delete the photos that he had taken and threatened that if he did not delete them, she would throw them all out of the facility.
Leahy: Under what legal authority was that, Neil?
McCabe: No idea. (Leahy chuckles) Michael, we asked them what was her role and what rules were they supposed to be following? Now I will say that it is considered a violation of people’s rights if someone is in a refugee or detention or prisoner status, you’re not supposed to exploit them, which is why Cruz made the point that he would blur their faces. But other than blurring the faces of children that are only for propriety.
My view is if I can see and I’m on the sidewalk and I see something, I can take a picture of what I see. It’s not a secret. But we’ll see what happens when this thing launches. I also want to say with Biden coming out with a new tax increase and he’s putting that in front of the infrastructure bill that he’s going to release. And then he’s got behind that a gun confiscation or a big restriction of gun rights bill coming up.
And Biden is really loading some barrels onto that wagon and he doesn’t have the horses to pull it. He’s absolutely running out of time. I’ve said this before. He hasn’t yet addressed Congress. He does not yet have a director of Office and Budget Management confirmed. They haven’t even nominated secretaries of the Army and the Air Force and a slew of other positions. And Nancy Pelosi has a five-seat margin in the House. That is very very high. And as these Democrats look at the polls, and they look at that red wave that’s coming in 2022, they’re not going to go down with the Biden ship.
Leahy: But the good news, of course, is that the legal but not legitimate occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Joe Biden has given an assignment to Vice President Kamala Harris, which is to go down to the border. What’s happened with that assignment?
McCabe: Yeah, she’s pretending she never got that assignment, and it’s a very interesting dynamic. And it happened a lot sooner than I expected is that you are now seeing the Biden and the Harris camps really develop into factions. And now you’re seeing some embarrassing leaks about Harris that she’s supposedly uncomfortable at Blair House. She’s impatient to get into her mansion. And that sort of comes from the Biden people.
And wait for the Harris people to start leaking. And remember, Harris’s sister, Maya Harris is married to Tony West, who is number three in the Obama Justice Department and who was basically in the running to replace or take the place instead of it going to Loretta Lynch. Loretta Lynch got that top job. But Tony West is very much a part of that Obama legal machine. And in Maya Harris was very much running her sister Kamala’s campaign. There is a government waiting that is centered around Kamala Harris. And the Biden people are showing that they don’t want to leave or be pushed out so quickly.
Leahy: Deliver us oh, Lord, from a Kamala Harris administration. That’s my prayer for today. Neil McCabe thank you so much for joining us. We’ll talk to you next week at the same time.
McCabe: Thanks, Michael. Be good.
Listen to the 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.
