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 current surge of Haitians under the Del Rio International Bridge and how it is up to the people educate themselves to make a change to the Biden administration’s border policies.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line right now by Brandon Judd, the President of the National Border Patrol Council. Brandon, apparently there are reports that there are more than 10,000 Haitians are under the Del Rio International Bridge on the southwestern border of Texas with Mexico. How do they get there and what’s happening with them?
Judd: I spent all day yesterday, and I’ll spend all day today down under the bridge. And what we saw is at the height, it was 14,870, some odd people that we had under the bridge. Now, these people were not in custody.
And as long as they didn’t try to further their entrance into the United States, they were able to stay under the bridge until we can take them into custody, transport them, process them, and then determine what’s going to happen with them from there.
The idea and these stories that are coming out by The Washington Post, by The New York Times, by all of these outlets are saying these people are going to be deported. That’s just not true.
Only a quarter of these individuals are going to be amenable to Title 42 and are going to be expelled because the vast majority of them are family units. And we know the Biden administration doesn’t expel family units from the United States.
The vast majority of these individuals crossed our borders illegally, they violated our laws, and they’re ultimately going to be rewarded for violating our laws.
And as long as we do that, we create this magnet that draws all of these people to come here to the United States illegally. And it’s completely and totally surreal. It’s a situation that we’ve never seen before.
And if you are able to get down there personally, what you’re going to see is that it seriously appears to be like a war zone. It’s crazy what is taking place right now.
Leahy: How does it happen? I mean, how do 14,000 Haitians get from Haiti to a bridge under the bridge of the Del Rio International Bridge on the southwestern border of Texas and Mexico? How does that happen?
Judd: Oh, they walk for the most part.
Leahy: They don’t walk from Haiti. That’s an island.
Judd: The cartels facilitate it. What’s very interesting about this is the majority of them are not coming from Haiti. The majority of them are coming from Chile or Brazil. Back in 2010, during all of the disasters that were taking place in Haiti, a lot of these people left and went to South America for economic reprieve.
And Brazil and Chile excepted these people in. Now that the pandemic has hit those two countries hard, and there’s been a huge economic downturn, these people are leaving those two countries and they’re coming to the United States.
They didn’t have to take boats up to where we’re at. They were able to come straight up through South America and Central America, up to the United States and the cartels, they facilitated this.
The cartels were able to get them up. And this is what’s amazing about what’s taken place is the cartels understand that all they have to do is cross really large groups. We’ve never seen anything like this before, but they know that all they have to do is cross really large groups then the border patrol will have to deploy the resources to that area.
And when we deploy our resources to that area, we create all of these artificial gaps in our coverage along the border. And when we do that, they’re able to cross their higher-value products such as criminal aliens and drugs into the United States.
It’s completely and totally crazy that we continue to operate the way that we do because we’ve conceded control of law enforcement operations to criminal cartels.
Leahy: Is this intentional on the part of the Biden maladministration?
Judd: That would be speculation on my part. If you were to ask me, I don’t have evidence of it, but, yeah, I believe it is. I believe it is. But, again, that speculations. That’s just my opinion. I don’t have any evidence of it. But I do believe it is.
Leahy: I don’t have evidence, but I have logic. I can’t see any other way this would happen unless this were intentional on part of a Biden maladministration.
Judd: When you look at the Biden administration bringing back the catch and release magnet, that then-President Trump was able to get rid of, we dropped to a 45 year low in illegal immigration.
The Biden administration almost from day one, when they came into office, reintroduced that magnet. And that’s why we have 200,000 apprehensions two months running. We’re expecting to see those apprehensions to be over 200,000 again in the month of September.
So, yeah, it’s crazy what’s going on. And until the people recognize that the policies of this administration that it’s not just border security.
It’s everything. Look at the economy right now. Look at the jobs market. Look at Afghanistan. Everything that’s happening in this country, these policies are horrible. And until the country stands up and recognizes this, he’s not going to change.
He’s just not going to make any changes as it pertains to the border. He’s not going to make any changes as it pertains to this very hard leftist movement and the defund, the police, and everything that comes with the negatives of a very liberal government.
Leahy: What does this do to the morale of the National Border Patrol agents out there?
Judd: All of the agents were all completely defeated. When we put on that uniform, we want to go out and we want to do the best job that we can for the American public. Our desire is to protect the American public.
Our desire is to be able to enforce the laws properly so that the public is safe. And when we see what’s going on, we basically become caretakers. We become babysitters if you will. And that’s not what we signed up to do.
We signed up to be able to go after the criminal organizations, the criminality that exists on the border. We’re looking at it. We know that all we’re doing is reporting to work to be babysitters caretakers, and prison guards, if you will. And that’s not what we’re supposed to be. Now we’re all defeated.
Leahy: Well, when you say defeated. Is it temporary? Is it permanent? Is there hope? What do the Border Patrol agents want to have happen?
Judd: There’s always hope. If we can get back to the mission that we originally signed up to do, that morale is going to jump right back up. But until that time when we say there’s always hope, there’s hope that the public is going to put enough pressure on this administration to do the right thing.
If that doesn’t happen, the morale is going to stay in the tanks. Now, the one thing, even with the moral being, what it is, I’m so proud of the agents that we have. I’m so proud of everybody that goes out there day in and day out.
We’re still going to do the job. We’re going to go out there and we’re going to do the best that we possibly can. We just don’t feel good about it right now.
Leahy: Well, that makes perfect sense. I mean, you’ve got three and a half more years of the Biden maladministration. Is there anything or anyone in the Biden maladministration, my words, not yours, that you trust? Or that wants to actually implement the law?
Judd: (Sighs) That I know of? No. If you look at DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, anytime that you change administrations, they’re able to come in and they’re able to appoint political appointees in very high-level positions.
The leader of the Department of Homeland Security is a political appointee. The leader of Customs and Border Protection is a political appointee. And the leader of the Border Patrol is not a political appointee.
The Border Patrol falls under CBP, Customs, and Border Protection. Customs and Border Protections fall under DHS. And even though the leader of the Border Patrol isn’t a political appointee, that person must do what those political appointees want them to do.
Otherwise, they can be removed from that position. They can’t be fired, but they can be removed from that position and just reassigned somewhere else. The political appointees will do exactly what the administration tells them to do.
If the Biden administration knows that the public is upset with what is going on, then you can see a change in the stances in the operations and the leaders of the agencies. They will fall in line with that.
There has to be enough public outrage. And if there is, then we will see changes. But anytime that you have The Washington Post, The New York Times sugar coating and telling half-truths, then you’re just not going to get the outrage that we need for the public to let him know that they want change.
And that’s why we have to look at both sides. You have to not just listen to those left-leaning outlets. You have to seek out the truth when you find the truth. If the outrage exists, then a change can happen.
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 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 State Representative (R), Chris Todd of Jackson to the newsmakers line to discuss the recent Southern Legislative Conference and the potential of passing his resolution regarding U.S. term limits.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome to our newsmaker line our very good friend from Jackson, State Representative Chris Todd. Good morning, Chris. How are you today?
Todd: Good morning, Michael. I’m doing wonderful. How are you guys?
Leahy: Well, we’re great. So the Tennessee State General Assembly is not in session, unlikely to come back until January. So obviously, all of you state representatives are just goofing off now and not doing any work, right? (Laughs)
Todd: Feet propped up, hands behind their head. Yes, Sir.
Leahy: (Laughs) Now, tell us what you’re really doing. You’re meeting with your constituents. You’re having meetings. You’re probably just as busy as when you were up here in session.
Todd: I would say so. We’re a citizen legislature, a part-time legislature. Most of us are back home making a living. As a matter of fact, this morning, I’m working on a bid for a project that I’m hoping to get.
So it’s a scramble. But I am in Nashville. We’ve had a Southern Legislative Conference this week. And legislators from 15 states and some other countries have gathered here for discussions about policies and experiences with different types of laws and things like that, which is eye-opening to see what other states are doing.
As you know, the states are kind of testing ground for a lot of ideas, so we can look to other states and see what their experiences are.
Leahy: I knew that you were meeting with the Southern legislatures here. Is it still in session or is it wrapping up?
Todd: We just wrapped up late last night.
Leahy: Ah ha! So what did you learn from these 14 other Southern state legislators? The state legislators from 14 other states, rather?
Todd: We met on a variety of topics. And each of us is assigned a certain committee assignment based on our interest or our service and the legislature now.
And so I sat in on a couple of agricultural committees that I sit on, and then I also went to some energy and environment committees. I got information out of both of those.
One interesting thing that I found in the energy sector, TBA a presentation along with some other folks, about the comparison with the renewable energy and the issues that we had in Texas earlier this year with the bad weather, and how their system was down for a while, and how close that was to a huge disaster.
I’m talking about millions of people. Twenty-something million people possibly being out of power for a month or more. They were very, very close to that.
Leahy: Wow.
Todd: Because of the way their mix is and the way their grid is set up. And so TBA was talking about the things that they had done for so long to make sure that never happens.
They have resiliency built-in redundancy, built-in for all kinds of things. And then another thing I was curious about is getting away from coal.
They’ve primarily been doing that for a different reason than what I thought. They’ve really been doing that because of the age of their coal generators.
They have long outdone their useful life. They have been basically converting those over to either gas or something else or closing them altogether.
Even then, they’re re-utilizing that property for other things. So it’s really neat to see the long-range plan they have and how well thought out it is versus assuming what they may be doing.
Leahy: Here’s a big question. Were state legislators from Texas among those 15 other state legislators from those 15 Southern states at this event?
Todd: Absolutely. Yes, sir.
Leahy: Now, the big question is, (Chuckles) how many of them were Democrats?
Todd: That I do not know. I didn’t get into parties. I didn’t get to discuss with people what party they are in. So I don’t know. Generally, this group tends to be a little more conservative.
It’s right in the middle, from what I’m understanding. This is the first conference I’ve ever attended with this group.
Leahy: Well, what’s interesting is, of course, the big news was on Monday, 67 House Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives during their special session decided to travel and flee the state of Texas to go to Washington, D.C. on privately chartered jets because they did not want to conduct the business of the state and didn’t want to address election integrity bills.
Was there any discussion there about the propriety of fleeing your state during the session of the state legislature?
Todd: I did not hear anything about that. On a shuttle yesterday I think someone mentioned it to me and we briefly discussed it.
In Tennessee, we have a law where they can be physically brought back by law enforcement. I don’t know what they have in Texas, but they may have to exercise something like that.
Leahy: The governor said, when you come back in the state, we’re going to arrest you. (Chuckles)
Todd: Yeah. (Chuckles)
Leahy: To me, it’s very childish, I think, to do it that way.
Todd: Absolutely.
Leahy: Isn’t the purpose of a state legislature to gather and convene and debate and discuss?
Todd: Absolutely. I think they’re shirking their responsibilities to play like that. It’s a strange tactic.
Leahy: We had Glenn Jacobs, mayor of Knox County, on. He’s the chairman of the Tennessee U.S. Term Limits group. And you are the sponsor of the resolution to introduce term limits to federal legislators that you got through the House last year.
It’s going to come to the Senate this year. What are the prospects for it?
Todd: I think very good prospects. I think our citizens need to let their senators know what their feelings are about it. I still hear almost weekly how folks are excited about this.
They really want to see that. And most don’t get into the details about what type of terms but they need the process to start.
They see the problem in Washington, D.C., how they have over the years become a non-citizen legislature – Not actually non-citizen.
Leahy: But a professional class.
Todd: A very professional class. They are career politicians. They just have to be. That’s the nature of that game. And it’s unfortunate because I think what we have as a part-time legislature is the model that our founders set up.
They went home. George Washington went home and went back to the farm for a period of time every year. And I think that’s what it’s supposed to be.
We have to stay in touch with the people and stay grounded in our principles, or things go awry.
Leahy: Yeah, I agree. You know what? Just as an aside, I see every state that has a full-time state legislature, the big states, appear to have out-of-control budgets.
I’m in favor of the part-time state citizen legislators. And by the way, you’re out there making a living. You’ve got a bid for a contract. I wish you good luck. And I hope you win that bid.
Todd: Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate you very much.
Leahy: State Representative Chris Todd, thanks so much for joining us today.
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 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 senior editor-at-large at The Epoch Times Roger Simon in studio to discuss former GOP chairman Allen West’s opportunistic career path and his race for the 2022 governorship of Texas.
Leahy: In-studio, our newest all-star panelist Roger Simon. Roger, you know, Crom and I have been learning how to shoot at the Nashville Glock store.
They have there something called the Shoot 270 Ranges. I’ve been using that, and I’ve learned a lot about shooting in that shoot 270 range.
Simon: I’ll go down there.
Leahy: Have you shot very much yourself?
Simon: Yeah, I have a fantastic shot. The first time I started to shoot was with Rick Perry,
Leahy: Oh yeah. The governor of Texas, I hear he’s a pretty good shot.
Simon: Oh, he was the first one I ever saw use a laser gun.
Leahy: Oh, wow.
Simon: He refutely shot a coyote running when he was jogging.
Leahy: That’s a great story, even if it’s just a story. But it’s interesting. They’ve got these Shoot 270 ranges. It’s not like just a lane range. When you shoot, do you go into places where they just have one lane?
Simon: Yes.
Leahy: You’ve got to go to the Nashville Glock Store because they don’t just assign a Lane. At Shoot 270 you get trained. There’s a big difference. You should use shoot270.com. Go ahead and book a session. Tell them you’re my friend.
Simon: Discount?
Leahy: They might. I don’t know. Just say, hey, I’m a friend of Michael Patrick Leahy and Crom Carmichael. Go to shoot270.com so you can log in there right now, Roger, and try it.
I know you’re a big fan of the shooting experience. You’re probably more experienced than I am. I’ve had three lessons. They’ve been great there, but I’m just beginning to get a little confidence.
I’m the kind of person Roger, as you probably know, I like to master something, right? I feel confident when I master it. I’m moving up the learning chain on this. Shoot270.com.
Simon: Do you want to hear my shooting story, Michael?
Leahy: I would love to hear about your shooting experience.
Simon: My baptism by shooting some years ago out of nowhere when I was running PJ Media. As you know, I got an email saying, would you like to come shooting with the governor of Texas, then Rick Perry, for who I ended up writing speeches, by the way.
I said well, that’d be a lot of fun. Only I didn’t know how to shoot. And I figured, the governor of Texas, he probably is good at this.
He invited me and the late Andrew Breitbart because we were sort of honchos of Blogdom at that point. So I went down in near LAX there’s a shooting range run by Marines.
And I went in there and I said, I got to go shoot. I didn’t say the governor of Texas, I didn’t want to show off. I just said I got to learn to shoot. I went in the range with a Glock.
And I missed everything in sight. (Leahy laughs) So the guy said, do you play a sport? And I said, yeah, I play tennis. (Chuckles) And he said, well, what do you do in tennis? Do you follow through?
And I said, yeah, I follow through but you don’t follow through with a pistol. I mean, you go, boom, and that’s it. And he said, just try it. And I said, okay, I pretended to follow through and then boom, boom, boom.
I’m hitting the bullseye. And to this day, I don’t know how that works. But anyway I went down to Texas, and I did it again. So if you go online, you can find a video with me and Governor Rick Perry plus Andrew Breitbart.
Leahy: I’m going to find that video.
Simon: It’s called Shooting With the Governor. I’m going to find that video. And I shot the video myself while in it with a little bit of help.
Leahy: That’s quite a story. Are you ready for a curveball? Because I know you’re a big baseball fan.
Simon: I’m not that big of a baseball fan.
Leahy: You were as a kid.
Simon: I’m a big tennis fan. Which is a very sad moment to see yesterday the great man, Roger Federer lost at Wimbledon for the first time since he was a pup.
Leahy: I did not know that. Well, what’s the tennis term for throwing a curveball?
Simon: Hitting a twist.
Leahy: Okay, I’m gonna hit a twist here. Are you ready? So you might have a little insight into the story. You’re talking about the former governor of Texas, Rick Perry.
Well, there’s a current governor of Texas. His name is Greg Abbott, and he’s been endorsed by President Trump although I’m not sure if there’s necessarily they’re completely aligned.
He has been endorsed by President Trump. President Trump went down to the border with him on June 30th. Now, here’s a question for you. There’s a guy by the name of Allen West.
Simon: I know Allen West. He worked for me at PJTV.
Leahy: Everybody worked for you, me, everybody at some time. I worked for you, Allen West worked for you.
Simon: And now I’m working for no one. (Laughter)
Leahy: But I have to get your insight into this. And I saw this, and I thought hmmm…
Simon: He’s running for governor. He served in the Army. A Lieutenant Colonel. Had some controversy there.
Simon: You shake hands with this man and you know it. I mean, he’s got a right hand on him.
Leahy: Yeah, he’s a wrestler. He focused on being fit. He’s a fit guy. So he served for one term in Congress in Florida. He was defeated for reelection.
Moved to Texas, where he was to head up the National Center for Policy Analysis. And I’m just going to state the facts. About a year after he went to run it, they went bankrupt.
You know that story. So that is first a little bit of a question mark to me. And they’d been around for, like, 35 years.
Then he decides, having lived for all of a couple of years in Texas, that he’s going to run for chairman of the Texas GOP.
Simon: I think it was even in one year or something like that.
Leahy: So he runs. He wins. He defeats my friend James Dicky, who was an early Tea Party guy. And he serves as the chairman of the GOP for about a year. When you are the chairman of the party, your job is to build up the party.
Simon: Theoretically.
Leahy: You’re not supposed to advance your own interest. Well, magically, he resigns as chairman of the party and then announces last week he’s going to challenge Greg Abbott in the Republican primary for governor. Do you have any thoughts on this, Roger?
Simon: Yeah, I read the same thing, and I’ve known Allen for a while. I haven’t seen him in a long time. My thoughts, I think, are not dissimilar to what you’re implying.
And your thoughts here, (Leahy laughs) I think enough already. I mean, Abbot has been maybe mediocre.
Simon: Mediocre to mildly disappointing. On the other hand, he seems to be getting it somewhat better.
Leahy: That’s my take, too.
Simon: And I think that that’s what I think is Trump’s take too.
Leahy: Trump’s endorsed him.
Simon: Yeah, I know. And I think he does that strategically.
Leahy: Oh, yeah.
Simon: And therefore, at this point, there are so many more important gubernatorial primaries coming up, like here in Tennessee, that we should be focusing on and changing the governor.
I think that’s a sidebar. And I think it’s a little bit of ego coming in there. Maybe a lot of ego.
Leahy: Let me just say the phrase you use was a little bit of ego. Or maybe a lot of ego. I’m kind of looking at this, and I’m thinking, so you lived in the state for a couple of years.
You’re the chairman of the party for a year. You resign midterm two weeks later. You announced you’re running for the party nomination for governor. It just strikes me as a little bit like…
Simon: Like Hillary Clinton?
Leahy: It just strikes me as a little bit opportunistic.
Simon: Yeah, right. I think so. Opportunistic. Plus, you know, power-hungry. (Laughter)
Leahy: Your words, not mine. I’m not gonna necessarily take issue with that characterization, Roger.
Simon: And I have to add, my dealings with him is that he was a nice guy. We got along fine.
Leahy: I have a similar reaction. I sat next to him at an event in D.C. to chat.
Simon: He takes up a lot of space when you sit next to him. (Chuckles)
Leahy: He does.
Simon: He’s got the biggest shoulders than 14 states.
Leahy: You’re exactly right on that.
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.
Photo “Allen West” by the Republican Party of Texas.
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 Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies Mark Krikorian to the newsmakers line to discuss the repealed immigration policies of Trump that has lead to the Biden administration’s inability to control the border surge.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line right now by our good friend, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian. Mark, what a terrific piece you had on Thursday in the National Review about Vice President Kamala Harris’s, your words, layover in El Paso.
I wanna take this sentence from your article and just get you to elaborate on this. ‘As hard as it is to believe the Biden-Harris administration was taken by surprise by the border surge that it caused.’ Can you tell us more about that?
Krikorian: Yes. The administration probably knew that there was going to be some increase at the border when they undid all of the things Trump had done which successfully stabilized the border.
I mean, Trump didn’t solve everything but definitely had stabilized the situation. They basically expected a little bit of a surge, but Mexico would help them suppress it, and people would listen to their pleas not to come.
Remember, the Vice President went down there and said, do not come, do not come. They’re kind of like Jimmy Carter back in 1980. I know it’s a long time ago, but Jimmy Carter basically did the same thing with regard to Cuba.
He said, anybody who gets out of Cuba, we will welcome them with open arms and open hearts. And Castro looked up and said, hey, that’s a great idea. So he emptied his jails. 120,000 people streamed out of Cuba until Jimmy Carter was like, oh jeez, that’s not what I meant.
(Leahy laughs) But he was able to shut it down because he hadn’t run on immigration. He wasn’t boxed in politically. This administration has run as the anti-Trump. And since immigration was one of Trump’s top things, they had to undo everything Trump did, creating this disaster that they really don’t have any good idea about how to fix.
Leahy: Yes. It seems very obvious they don’t have any good idea how to fix it. Crom Carmichael is our all-star panelist in Studio. Chrome has a question for you, Mark.
Carmichael: Well, if, Mark, if they do want to fix it, then the obvious answer is to return to Trump’s policies.
Krikorian: Of course. But my point is they can’t do that just psychologically or politically. Right? It’s not going to happen.
Carmichael: I think the obvious conclusion is they don’t want to fix it because there’s an obvious answer on how to fix it. I guess my question to you is that they’re not going to return to the policies of Trump. And so the surge is going to actually get worse. Would you agree?
Krikorian: Yeah, sure. There’s no question. In the summer, it may actually dip. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. The numbers may actually go down a little bit because it is unbelievably hot down there this time of year.
And frankly, if you are planning on sneaking into the U.S., not just Central Americans, but now we’re getting people from Romania, Uzbekistan, India, and everywhere trying to get in on the action here, some of them may figure, well, let’s cool our heels for a couple of months somewhere where there’s air conditioning, and then we’ll come.
So the numbers could go down a little. But even if they do, they’re just going to go right back up in the fall. Not to get too long into it but this is not some long historical thing we always have to deal with.
This surge is the result of specific loopholes in the law that was passed in 2008 and 2009 and other changes since then. So this is not something we just have to deal with in perpetuity. Congress and the President over several administrations created this problem.
Trump stabilized it again. That’s what I mean by he didn’t fix the loopholes, but he did stabilize it. Biden took something that was fixed and broke it. And it’s not going away until we fix those loopholes and change the things that make it attractive to sneak in. Because the odds are good that you’ll just be let go.
Leahy: What are the major loopholes and what are the chances of fixing them legislatively?
Krikorian: The chances, I can tell you now are zero until there’s a change in Congress and the White House. But not to get too wonky, there’s a provision that says so-called unaccompanied minors, and we kind of take your word for it that you’re under 18 can’t just be returned home.
They have to be given hearings. They have to be delivered into shelters and delivered to their parents who are here illegally often paying to smuggle them. That has to be changed. There’s a court ruling that Congress can overrule that says minors, even if they’re with their parents, can’t be held in immigration detention for more than three weeks.
But they have to be let go, including the parents. There’s more to it than that. But that’s the kind of thing that we have basically created the situation in a time when there weren’t a lot of kids or families coming over.
People in Congress figured out what’s the harm? Make us feel good. Virtue signaling, and it won’t really have any consequences. Well, within a few years, the problem exploded because these things started really in 2008, and 2009 is when these were passed.
It blew up under Obama in 2014. It’s just been getting these ups and downs, but it’s just been getting worse ever since.
Leahy: What you take on the job, direct Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has been doing?
Krikorian: Terrible but terrible because that’s what he was hired to do. In other words, he’s doing the job that this administration hired him to do, which is, first of all, not to enforce immigration law.
ICE, which is under his purview, is basically not permitted to do immigration enforcement except in the most extreme cases of terrorists and spies. And that sort of thing. Other than that, illegal immigrants have a free pass.
Leahy: Let me ask you this about Mayorkas. Is his failure to enforce our immigration laws an impeachable offense?
Krikorian: That’s kind of up to the Senate. They could impeach him. The House in the Senate, and frankly, they probably should, but they shouldn’t have approved him in the first place. And anybody who replaces them is just going to do the same thing because this is what the President promised to do.
This is a political problem in the sense that we’ve got to get rid of or change who’s in the White House and then change who’s in the majority of Congress before any of this can change.
Carmichael: Mark, is Mayorkas not upholding the law, or is he exploiting loopholes? And the reason I’m asking the question is in a new administration, once he is out of office, could he be indicted for not upholding his oath of office?
Krikorian: I don’t know. Probably not. I don’t think he’s upholding his oath of office, but I don’t think the president’s upholding his oath of office. The Constitution requires the executive to faithfully execute the laws, and that’s not what Biden is doing.
It’s not what Mayorkas is doing at Biden’s instruction. So, I mean, potentially, I guess. But I don’t like the criminalization of politics. I think what we need to do, and this is me talking as a citizen, CIS doesn’t get involved in elections, but as a citizen, the solution is to get rid of these guys from office and put in somebody who actually is going to do what’s necessary.
Carmichael: Here is I guess question, and you’re hitting on an excellent I’m asking you something in your responses philosophical in nature, which is appropriate. But if Republicans were to retake the House and have a majority in the Senate, but not 60 and have the presidency, you can’t fix immigration legislation with less than 60 votes.
Krikorian: You can’t fix everything, obviously, because of the filibuster. But the filibuster is protecting us this time. Do you know what I mean? There is a great reason for it. But there’s a lot of smaller things that can be changed that some of them the Democrats may go along with.
You put package deals together. Okay, they get some of this. We get these four immigration loopholes fixed. It’s not impossible. The first thing is, you need to get control of the majorities in Congress and get somebody in the White House.
Leahy: Last question. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the chances of fixing any of this over the next three and a half years?
Krikorian: Oh yeah. I mean, pessimistic isn’t a word. There is zero possibility of any of this getting fixed.
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.
