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 author and former acting director of ICE Tom Homan to the newsmakers line to discuss the motives of the Biden administration’s lack of law enforcement at the southern border and pending lawsuits.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmakers line by our good friend, former acting director of ICE under the Trump administration. And like me, a native of upstate New York. The man from Watertown, New York, Tom Homan.
Homan: Good morning sir.
Leahy: Well, Tom, I look at this disaster on the border over the past, what is it now? Almost going on six months. And my question to you is, is what Joe Biden doing, is what the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas is doing, violating the immigration laws of the United States, is that an impeachable offense in your mind?
Homan: I think it is. Their number one responsibility to protect this country and protect your sovereignty. And they have abdicated their responsibilities to secure our border.
They’re ignoring existing law. What they’re working really hard at, they’re making illegal immigration legal. They’ve already told ICE they can’t arrest anybody for just being in the country illegally.
They are releasing people at the border without any court date. And now they’re talking about and in the process of reinstating the CAM project, where people can apply for asylum in their home countries, and we will transport them at the taxpayers’ expense in the United States to reunite their families.
It’s at a point where I actually wait for they cannot believe where we’re at as a nation.
Leahy: Tom, what’s the solution to this problem?
Homan: You know, we can’t wait for 2022. I’m involved with several lawsuits. With the state of Texas, they’ve got five separate lawsuits filed against this administration. I’m a party to four of them.
I’ve written more affidavits, against the Biden administration than I’ve written in my entire career against criminals. (Inaudible talk) I’m a part of the Arizona lawsuit.
So I’ve been acting as an expert witness for a lot of the state attorneys general suing the Biden administration before and they’re doing exactly what you said they’re doing.
Not only are they ignoring the law, we believe they’re actually breaking laws. One of the lawsuits clearly says in the statute in Title Eight of the United States immigration law says that ICE shall detain those convicted of certain drug offenses, those who have final orders of removal from an immigration judge, and those who have committed crimes in perpetude.
It says I shall detain these people. They’re not detaining any of them. They’re releasing them. And I’m not blaming the ICE officers.
They’ve been put in a tough decision by this administration. They were given a memo basically saying that you can only use somebody in the United States for being here illegally if they have been convicted of a serious crime.
So for some, it’s almost like being in this country illegally isn’t illegal anymore? And they don’t think that serves as another enticement for cartels.
Look, we’ll get you to the border and we’ll get you in the country, you can even lose your case. And you win because no one’s looking to remove you.
This administration, I said many times, isn’t mismanagement. This is incompetence and by design. This is what the border looks like.
Leahy: I think you are right. I think it is by design. Let’s talk about this character, Alejandro Mayorkas. He seems to be perhaps one of the most practice liars I’ve ever seen.
In other words, he tries to set forward an explanation, couched in legal terms to explain why he’s violating the law. What’s your take on this guy?
Homan: I don’t recognize him anymore. When he was deputy secretary, I was third in command of ICE back in 2014, 2015.
We had a similar surge, not this big, but we had a surge. He knows what causes surges, and he knows how to stop them. I’ve had over 100 meetings with him.
Leahy: You’ve had over 100 meetings with Alejandro Mayorkas?
Homan: Yes. Back in ’14, ’15. And we stopped the surge. How did we do it? We built detention facilities with over 3,000 family beds. 3,000 beds.
We tell people long enough to see a judge. And when a judge order to remove which 90 percent would be able to removed, we removed them.
The numbers went down. He’s doing the complete opposite of what he knows works. They are not detaining them and they are working as quickly as they can to release them as fast as they can.
They’re being released without a court date. And we can’t remove them because ICE can’t remove someone for just being here illegally anymore.
He’s done the complete opposite of what we did in ’14, ’15 when he was a Deputy Secretary on how to stop this surge. That’s what I’m saying. This is by design. He knows how to stop this. He just won’t take the steps.
Leahy: Would you say Mayorkas is a highly intelligent man?
Homan: He was a US attorney. He’s an attorney by trade. He’s not a stupid man at all. What he’s doing with these open borders is he sold out to the progressive left, just like Joe Biden did.
And they’re running that an open borders agenda and he is facilitating it. Here’s a sad thing. I’m 59 years old. We have the first president in the history of my life and I’ve been in immigration law for 35 years, and the first Secretary ever that is actively facilitating illegals entering this country. Actively facilitating cross-border crime.
Leahy: Now, let me ask you about this. What’s the motive here? In your view? You react to what really is right. You probably don’t look at motive that much.
But I look at this and I say, okay, who’s behind this? Is this Biden’s desire? Is it Mayorkas’s desire? What are they trying to accomplish?
Homan: In my opinion, the open border advocates have control of the White House.
I know for a fact, a lady by the name of Esther Olavarria is working at the White House as a senior policy advisor who is an immigration activist out of Miami.
She and people like her have hijacked this administration. Like I said before, Biden sold himself out to win the progressive left. He knew it was important for him to get the votes from the progressives to become president.
So he sold out just to become president. And I think about this all the time. What could actually benefit? Here is who benefits. All these people come across the border, millions of them are going to sanctuary cities.
What happens then? Well, Biden also overturned the Trump census, which means then I’ll be counting the next census. But what’s that equal?
It equals more seats in the House for the Democrats which leads to the Electoral College. They’re offering amnesty to millions of people.
They think they’re future Democratic voters. This is about Democrats set the stage playing the long game for perpetual power.
And I’ve met with 20 Republican congressmen out in Texas about a month ago, and I told them, you guys need to pull your head out of your butt and pay attention to what’s going on.
Leahy: You didn’t say butt, I’m pretty sure I did.
Homan: No I didn’t. I said, maybe you don’t care, but you won’t win another election in 15 years if you don’t wake up. The Democrats are playing the long game and you’re ignoring it.
Leahy: Yeah, I think that’s it. Let me ask you this. Mayorkas. Now you’ve been in with him. He’s an interesting fellow to me. I think he’s very, very clever, but totally amoral in my view.
I’ve never met him. But you said you’ve been in hundreds of meetings with him. Is this like a one on one meeting you’ve been in? Or meetings with like 500 other people?
Homan: Mainly one on one meetings and many group meetings. And I would tell them how do we ran into this surge in ’14, ’15 and what we need to do to stop it.
And Jeh Johnson listened to us. And they did it. Listen, Jeh Johnson when he was Secretary and Mayorkas was deputy, we built with their approval 3,000 family beds.
You never see them do that today. And the so-called cages and what everybody is screaming about and said that Trump built, no, those were built when Alexander Mayorkas was Deputy Secretary.
That’s why I’m saying he’s doing the complete opposite of what he knows works. This isn’t an accident. He is not the same man he was back then.
He believed in border security. He let us do things to stop the surge. You can’t name one thing. You can’t name one single thing they have done to slow the flow or to add a consequence and returns.
They just keep making things easier. They stood out on the national stage a month ago saying, hey, look, there is no overcrowding border trouble cities.
We’re processing these quick kids quickly and getting them out. That’s a success. You may call it a success, but I call it a failure.
Because the quicker you release people and brag about it, the more they’re going to come because they know they won’t be detained.
Leahy: Yeah, that’s my sense. You were an acting director of ICE for a period of time. What’s morale in ICE like?
Homan: It’s never been this bad in the history of the agency. I mean, last month, you said the lowest number of arrests in the history of the agency.
At the same time, we have a record number of people coming to that border and entering illegally. The lowest number of arrests.
They’re not allowed to do their job. And I said before, and I mean, this is I can put in one sentence. An immigration agent or a law enforcement officer can no longer arrest somebody from being in the country illegally.
An illegal alien gang member can walk up to an ICE agent today and say, I’m here illegally. I was ordered to be removed by an immigration judge last year.
I didn’t go. What are you going to do about it? The answer is, they can’t do a thing about it. They can’t arrest them. This is where we’re at as a nation.
The men and women of Border Patrol and of ICE truly feel the President United States has abandoned them. They truly feel that they don’t support them. The Secretary or the President or the Vice President won’t even admit there’s a crisis on the border.
Listen to the full first 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.
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 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 Jackson County, Texas Sheriff, AJ ‘Andy’ Louderback to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the crisis at the nations southern border and Biden’s unraveling of Trump policies.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by our friend, Sheriff AJ Louderback from Jackson County, Texas. Welcome, Sheriff Louderback.
Louderback: Good morning. Good morning.
Leahy: You and I met back, I think, a year and a half ago when you were in Washington, D.C., with a group of folks that were part of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. And right then you talked about the problems on the border. Since the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 21st, what’s happened to Jackson County? You’re about halfway between Corpus Christi and Houston. What have you seen that’s different in the past two months?
Louderback: I guess the best place to start is with these policies that have Joe Biden’s signature on them. We went from a very stable border to mass chaos here in Texas. So in the interior of Texas, where ICE has been completely nullified from their activities to the point where they have to even call a supervisor and have written express authorization to do almost anything.
We’re feeling the effects here as all Texas towns and towns throughout the United States are where we have people coming through again. We have illegal aliens showing up on people’s door steps from bailouts. We’re having our trucks stolen here in this area. We live geographically on the major corridor into Houston, Texas. And so it’s the number one human trafficking corridor and huge narcotics trafficking hub of Houston as they spread out to the rest of the United States. So it’s again: where to start, Michael?
It’s the same thing over except this one is much more pronounced and much stronger. ICE and CBP have both been completely taken out of the picture. I used the term gutted back in the Obama administration, and I don’t have a better word today other than they’ve done a much more thorough job of nullifying the federal law about this through policies and executive orders.
Leahy: Would you say the big administration is violating our immigration law?
Louderback: Clearly. They’re completing now through the NGO programs the final leg of the journey into the United States that the cartels used to do, and the cartels are still doing it. But the U.S. government is essentially complicit in that or however, you want to call it. But in McAllen, Texas, which have numerous friends on border patrol and ICE and so forth, and I get the video he sent to me and long been a proponent of a secure border.
I just think that that’s essential to having a country. And obviously, I’m in disagreement with the administration where we have no borders. I call it a zero border today. And we feel the effects here as every state will feel the effects as more and more come in and are transported into the cities and counties across our nation.
Leahy: If the federal government is going to not enforce immigration law, what role can the state government, what role can county governments, and county sheriffs like you, what can you do to stop that?
Louderback: It’s a fascinating area. That’s the one I’ve explored extensively over the years because, obviously our founding fathers I consider much about this as far as a border state and states rights. That’s exactly what the governor can do in the state of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. So I know it’s being explored extensively.
I’ve seen some things out of our Texas governor here, Greg Abbott, and expecting some more. Our Texas AG here has lashed back with lawsuits on the deportation. And we were able to get a 100-day pause on that or so. It appears right now that we don’t have a lot of options or options that are actually being exercised. So waiting on that and exploring that and urging states to pay back in this issue as we become invaded here over and over with a steady stream of people.
Leahy: Sheriff Louderback, I saw that here is an idea from somebody who doesn’t live on the border, but who looks at what states can and cannot do. I saw that Governor Abbott deployed about 500 Texan National Guardsman to be on the border. Was that effective? Is there an opportunity to do more of that kind of thing or not?
Louderback: Well, Michael, I think it has value. Is it the most effective? I’m not sure. I’m glad that something’s being done. And I’m sure the extra help is certainly needed down there. They need resources and those guys are already exhausted. They’re demoralized to the point where imagine you went from a secure and stable border to a policy that completely destroys everything you’ve worked for, for the last two years with policies, no matter if anybody liked them.
The border hadn’t been that stable. And I like that word because the border is a unique area between any country. And it was very stable. We didn’t have any problems. It was more stable and had been in probably 50 years as far as the policies that were in place by the Trump administration. The military was down there and he sent extra troopers down there under Operation Loan Star.
The state lacks the ability currently to be able to turn back the tide and say, look, go back into Mexico and we’re going to restore some type of order on legal immigration coming into this country. Border security under its basic concept would be you were able to do that exactly the way we’ve been doing it in the last two years. So instead, we have mass chaos.
Leahy: If the President of the United States does not enforce existing administration in immigration law, in your opinion, is that an impeachable offense?
Louderback: Well, for me, certainly. I’m a strong advocate for a secure border, and I think you should be able here in the United States to control who comes into your country and who doesn’t? Just the very concept of that is just very basic to me. Very fundamental. As far as being a country obviously, there are people who disagree with that. We shall feel the effects of this. We already are.
The cartel grows ever stronger and enriched by these policies to the point where I don’t think most Americans understand the amount of money that the cartels have and their business model which is one of the most efficient in the world. And I don’t think most Americans understand exactly the types of money and how they profit from this policy here. So we actually have a war going on now on both sides because there is so much money involved. The cartels will actually even fight each other.
They’ll fight law enforcement. They’ll fight Mexican law enforcement. They sent two over here the other day to kill a law enforcement officer in the United States around the Yuma-Cochise County Arizona area. One was captured. I’m not sure if they capture the other one yet, but there are explicit orders from the cartel to take out at least one U.S. police officer.
Leahy: Was the U.S. police officer hurt in that?
Louderback: No. One was intercepted. But intelligence was very clear on it as to what was going on. So it resulted in a four-day search or so. Again, this is in Arizona from the sheriffs there that relayed this to Texas authorities that certain areas where the cartel gets upset with things and then they’re certainly able to put hits out on just about anybody they want.
Leahy: Sheriff Louderback of Jackson County, Texas. Please come back in about a month and tell us if it’s gotten better or worse. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Louderback: That’s good. Thank you, Sir.
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 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. – Leahy was joined on the line by author and former Acting Director of ICE Tom Homan who weighed in on the severity and legality of the actions being taken at America’s southern border immigration surge.
Leahy: Joined on our newsmaker line now, by fellow upstate New Yorker, Tom Homan, former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tom, you were on FOX yesterday saying the border crisis is not incompetence. It’s by design from the Biden maladministration. Maladministration. My word, not yours. What do you say about that, Tom?
Homan: Well, I think it’s obvious. President Biden during the campaign made all these promises that he knew what cause a surge. that he was used vice President in 2014 and 2015 during the last surge, so he knows what causes the surge. I met the White House guys, and I met with the Deputy Secretary Mayorkas.
Leahy: You met with Mayorkas?
Homan: Numerous times.
Leahy: So so tell me this about Mayorkas. Mayorkas strikes me as a zealot who does not want to enforce our laws instead wants to manipulate them to open borders. That’s my take. Am I right or wrong or a little bit off?
Homan: During 14 and 15 We did enforce laws. We built thousands of detention facilities that would help them use remove up when they were all removed. But under this administration, now that he’s Secretary threw a complete opposite. they’re not detaining people. They try to release them as soon as possible. They’re not letting ICE remove anybody. So they’re doing the complete opposite of what they know works.
Leahy: Is this an impeachable offense on Marcus’s part because he’s not enforcing our laws properly? My view. Well, my view is because Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is not enforcing our immigration laws intentionally. That it is an impeachable offense. That’s my view. What’s your take on that?
Homan: Well, absolutely. He’s not enforced in while he cut the head off ICE. And he opened the board to illegal immigration. I think he facilitated illegal legalization by what he’s doing.
Leahy: What can we do to stop this terrible derogation of duty by the Biden Maladministration and Secretary Mayorkas?
Homan: I think Congress is at. I think the American people need to call you Congressman Senator, and demand the enforce laws are the books.
Leahy: What can Congress do to Tom? Because it’s controlled 222 by 210 by Democrats? Are there any border state Democrats in the House of Representatives who could switch and Act in a way to require Mayorkas and Biden administration to enforce our immigration laws?
Homan: Very few. You got Henry Quail in Texas, I think is tired of the open borders policy. His communities are raised in House, so I don’t think there’s enough. I think we’re in trouble until the ’22 election. I think America got you the elections as consequences, and we’re in trouble right now for next.
Leahy: Well, I know we’re in trouble. And look, I’m just pushing for this. You would need probably six or 7 Democrats to flip choir as one. I think you’re right. Politically, I don’t think there are enough Democrats who have the courage to flip if Congress won’t do anything. What can be done to stop this disastrous surge over the next year?
Homan: Doing what we’re currently doing. Suing administration. I’m the expert witness on the Texas lawsuit. I filed an APA Dave with a Florida lawsuit. So we got counter Republican Texas Attorney General Susan. And so far, we’re doing really well. So we’ll take them to court the same way they took President Trump the court every two weeks.
Leahy: So the Texas attorney general is suing the Biden administration for this open border policy. Where does that court case stand? And what can we expect to happen from that?
Homan: Well, they just one part, the 100 day moratorium the judge says they can’t do that now. We just follow lawsuit saying we don’t like the Ice priorities. They are to go back to Ice arrest people who are in the country legally. Florida is doing the same thing. They’re suing on the policies of Bite administration that are resulting in open borders situation we’re currently in.
There are several other States I can’t speak about right now because it’s in the process. So I think you’re going to see four or 5 States joining together, and they’re all Southern border States to Sue the Bite administration to make them enforce the laws of Congress and acting and not letting them ignore them.
Leahy: What is this country going to look like in October of 2022?
Homan: I think our borders will remain open. I think I see hundreds of thousands of genes across that border that are not going to be held accountable, but also on the flip side, I think the American people will have enough. I think you will see the Republicans take back Congress. I think people are now beginning to see what a bad policy the Biden administration has because, on the Southern border and other things such as oil refineries, I think the American people will finally get to see what President Trump said was going to happen during the election.
Leahy: Will the country be able to recover from this debacle?
Homan: We are a strong country, but it’s going to take a while. You can say there’s going to be hundreds of thousands of people in a country like that won’t be removed. And we have got to hope and pray they don’t get the Amnesty bill passed because that’s going to give Amnesty to almost a million illegal aliens that cross more than the last three years. In the same way, families that were arrested, released, order removed, and never left. I really have other than the States suing the federal government, I don’t have a lot of hope all fixes in the next two years.
Leahy: Tom Homan, former Acting Director of ICE, you grew up in the Watertown, New York area just a few miles from the Canadian border. I saw a report that Secretary Mayorkas may be considering taking immigrants and crossing the Southern border, flying them up to the Northern border states, and processing them up in the Northern border crossing areas because they just don’t have the capacity down in the Southern border. Have you seen these reports? Do you give any credence to them?
Homan: Yes, it’s happened before. Where I’ve never seen time to Northern border, but I have seen them in ’14 and ’15. They formed other states to be processed because there the border is so overwhelmed. But on one hand, the Secretary of my orca says there’s not a crisis on a second again, people all over the country because they can’t handle the surge on the border. So I’ve seen it happen before. Not to the Northern border. But we’ve done it before. We moved around the middle of the U.S during ’14 to process. So it certainly makes sense to me. I have not verified it’s going to happen, but we did it back in ’15. I think you’re going to see happen again.
Leahy: Tom Homan, will you stick with us over the next couple of months and keep us updated on the progress of this litigation that you’re an expert witness on and let all of our listers know?. And, by the way, thanks for everything you’re doing from a media standpoint and on the ground.
Homan: I want to fight, and I’m going to fight for the right.
Leahy: Anybody from Watertown, New York iss a fighter that I know. Tom, thanks for joining us this morning.
Listen to the first 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.
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 to the show to talk about the crisis at the border and what the Biden administration can do to fix it.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line by Brandon Judd who is the president of the national border patrol Council. This is a labor union set up back in 1967. It represents eight border agencies and support staff on the United States border patrol. 18,000 members. They endorsed Donald Trump in 2016 and in 2020. Brandon, according to Jen Psaki the press secretary for Joe Biden, there’s a challenge at the border. But not a crisis. Do you agree or disagree?
Judd: Oh, you have to look at it historically speaking. You have to put it in context. We have dealt with these numbers on different occasions. When I joined the border patrol and was patrolling the border back in 1997 we were dealing with numbers that that were a little bit bigger than what we’re currently dealing with.
Now, then you go to 2014, 2019 it’s definitely a crisis at this point. And the way I define a crisis, again when I patrol the border if I don’t have the resources to deal with what is commonly crossing the border illegally, it is a crisis if our resources are being overwhelmed and if we have to pull agents off the line and put them in processing.
Or we have to put agents off the line and we have to be in the holding cells because we just have too many people that we’re holding then we’re in a crisis. And we are there. We don’t have the resources that we need to do the job that we need to do to protect the American public, to protect the border. So absolutely were in a crisis.
Leahy: How any illegal aliens are crossing the border like every day since Joe Biden became president of the United States?
Judd: So in February, we had over 100,000 apprehensions. That’s just what we apprehended. You have to remember there’s an awful lot of people that cross the border illegally that get away, especially when our resources are in fact overwhelmed. If you look in the Tucson sector and that’s where I work if you look in the Tucson sector in the last five and a half months we’ve had 40,000 people that have gotten away that we were able to detect but that we were not able to apprehend. So again, I mean where we’re headed right now, we are on pace in this calendar year to apprehend more people than we’ve ever apprehended in the history of the border patrol.
Carmichael: When you apprehend them, what happens to them?
Judds: (Chuckles) That’s the that’s the problem and that’s why so many people are crossing right now. because the Biden Administration has changed Title 42 how we apply Title 42 and because they got rid of the migrant section protocols what we’ve done is we’ve effectively gone back to the catch and release program.
We reintroduced the magnet that the last administration was able to do away with that. And that magnet is what draws people here. And that is catch and release. if people know that they can cross the border illegally just to be released into the United States, Of course, they’re going to cross the border. There are no consequences for violating our laws and that’s what we’re seeing today.
Carmichael: From a practical standpoint. What’s the difference between someone who is apprehended in someone who is not apprehended? don’t they both end up in the u.s?
Judd: There’s there’s very little difference. the only difference is that we know that you’re here in the United States. If you don’t show up to your court appearances, we know we have fingerprints. We have that different data. That’s the only difference. But ultimately you’re in the United States and the chances that you’re going to be deported are slim to none.
Carmichael: So what you’re saying is in February there were 100,000 apprehensions and maybe 30,000 who were not apprehended? Is that a reasonable guess?
Judd: So the ones that were not apprehend? Yeah, that would be my would have to look at the stats nationwide on the border. But yeah, that’s absolutely reasonable.
Leahy: Brandon, let me ask you this and this is just from afar. I’m not an expert on this. We just write about it at the Tennessee Star. But it looks to me like the Biden administration actually wants to encourage illegal entry into the United States by illegal aliens. Do I have that right or wrong or what’s the reality of it?
Judd: So I’m not going to go as far as saying that they want to encourage. But what I can say and what I’m very very confident in saying is that the Biden administration is pandering to the hard left. And what’s very interesting about that is President Biden was able then-candidate Biden was able to defeat Bernie Sanders because the vast majority of the Democratic caucus did not want to go far left and they wanted him to stay in the middle.
Yet since he’s been president he has gone extreme left in an awful lot of areas. But let’s just talk about immigration because that’s what I’m an expert in. From an immigration standpoint and especially from border security and illegal immigration he’s going to the extreme left and that’s not what the public wanted him to do. So, I don’t know that he necessarily wants to encourage people to cross but he is definitely pandering to the extreme left right now.
Carmichael: When you say catch and release we’re talking about now adults without children. At least that’s what I’m asking about. So they’re caught and they are released. Where do they go?
Judd: So not all adults are released. That’s going to be the smallest segment of what gets released. The numbers of people are being released right now are mainly family units because we’re still able to put adults into Title 42 and expel them immediately. The problem is the Biden administration has opened up different classes.
And so if you’re not going to expel Haitians, if you’re not going to accept Cubans if you’re not going to expel Venezuelans, that’s where you’re going to see the people coming from. And so once you create classes, of course, those are the people that you’re going to see crossing the border illegally. But to answer your question when we release them, they go everywhere.
They go everywhere in the United States. Just to give an example back in the late 90s early 2000s when we were getting flooded with people from Brazil the vast majority of those individuals that were coming across were either going to Georgia or Boston. We see them cross the border illegally and they go throughout the United States. You name it and they’re going there.
Leahy: Brandon Judd the President of the National Border Patrol Council. The labor union of 18,000 border patrol agents here that serve the United States border patrol. What is your recommendation to solve this crisis and will the Biden administration follow your suggestions?
Judd: So it’s pretty simple. This isn’t rocket science. All you have to do is look at what the Trump administration was able to do. Once you get rid of catch-and-release if people know that they’re not going to be released into the United States they’re going to stop coming. President Trump was able to drop illegal immigration to 45-year lows twice during his presidency at different points.
What the Biden administration needs to do is they would set up courts if they would hire immigration judges and they would hold people in custody pending their asylum hearing this would stop. The vast majority of people come across the border and claim asylum. They do not qualify for that asylum relief here in the United States and so they should be going back.
But because judges don’t hold them in custody and send them back immediately that’s that magnet that brings them in. So we have to hold them in custody. We have to put them through their asylum proceedings. And if somebody does in fact qualify for asylum, then we need to let them into the United States, but if they don’t they must be removed.
And if we do that, we will stop we will get rid of that magnet. It will be done once and for all. And then border patrol agents will be able to focus on the criminal element that’s on the border. The cartels the drugs that are coming across the special interest countries of aliens are coming across the criminal aliens that are coming across. We will be able to focus on that and we will be able to protect the American public.
Leahy: Last question. We’ve got one minute here, Brandon Judd will the Biden administration do what you suggest?
Judd: I am confident in Secretary Mayorkas. He does know this issue. Whether the Biden ministration is going to listen to their own secretary. That’s another question. We’ll have to see.
Leahy: Well come back and tell us in a few months whether or not they’ve followed your advice. Brandon Judd the President of the National Border Patrol Council. Thanks so much for joining us.
Judd: Thanks for having me. Have a good day.
Listen to the third 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.
