A Memorial Day Thank You to Our Troops plus an Exclusive One-on-One w Tom Homan
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This is an iHeart Podcast. Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. It's nice to have you with us on this Memorial Day. And Senator, we're going to do a special show today. We are going to play an interview that we did recently with Tom Homan, which really went viral. And if you missed it, it was an important one about border security. But before we get to that, I do want to take a moment and for us to just say thank you to everyone that's ever served this country

and to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, and families that are listening right now, Memorial Day for them is a very somber day. Well, it is, and on Memorial Day, we want to take a moment to reflect and think back and say thank you to every soldier, every sailor, every airman, every marine, every Coast Guardsman, every guardian who gave their lives for our nation. You know,

Memorial Day is a very different holiday from Veterans Day. Veterans Day, we say thank you to our active duty military. We say thank you to those who have served, and we should do that today and every other day. But Memorial Day is set aside for those who gave the last full measure of devotion, the ultimate sacrifice, those who stepped forward and gave their lives. And every liberty we have, every breath we breathe as free Americans today

is because men and women have answered the call. They've answered the call going back to the Revolutionary War, to the War of 1812, going to the Civil War, World War I, World War II, going forward to Korea, to Vietnam, to the War on Terror. We have had servicemen and women for 250 years stepping forward and saying, America is worth fighting for.

And I'm willing to die for America. And far too many of them have had to give that final sacrifice. And so I want to say, I want to give a special shout out to Gold Star families. If you're a mom or dad, if you are a wife or husband, if you're a son or daughter of a service man or woman who gave their lives, let me just say thank you. We appreciate you. And let me tell you,

your loved one is not forgotten. The sacrifice that your loved one has given, we are grateful, and we know our freedom is because of that sacrifice. Look, Memorial Day is a great

I hope you spend time with your kids, with your spouse. I hope you play in the backyard. I hope you grill, although I do hope when you grill, you do a better job of grilling burgers than Chuck Schumer does. So do not put the cheese on raw burgers. That is a sign of being a messed up New Yorker who's never actually had a barbecue in his life. But for anyone that actually lives on planet Earth, have a great backyard barbecue, play with your kids, swim in the pool, laugh. But take a moment.

And let me encourage you for all the parents out there, take a moment to talk to your kids and tell them, hey, you may think Memorial Day is the beginning of summer. Maybe school is over. Finals are over. Now you just get to play. But but this is a day there are kids your age today who are not playing with their dad, who are not hugging their mom because they gave everything for this country. And we need to pause and give thanks and just say we love you and we are grateful.

Amen to that. And I couldn't agree with you more. There's so many people today that it is a tough day. It's a day that they're going to have to, they sit and they talk and they remember their family members to get the ultimate sacrifice to this country. And the way you said it, explain it to your kids and your grandkids so they know what truly what this day is about. Uh, and, and also enjoy your family. There's no doubt about that center. We also decided on this holiday that there was a really important interview that we had just done recently. Uh,

with border czar Tom Homan, and it was one that went viral. And if you missed it, we're going to play that for you today because it was such a important reminder of what is happening right now with our border and security and fighting to protect our kids from fentanyl and the drug trafficking and the human trafficking that's coming into this country. And it was a really exciting interview that we just did.

Absolutely. Tom Homan is doing a great job and President Trump is doing a great job securing the border and our families are safer because of it. It was a mandate from this last election. The chaos, the open borders we saw for four years was a deliberate political decision by the Democrats.

And the successes, look, I believed, and we talked in this podcast about the successes we were going to have if we won in November securing the border. But I have to say the magnitude, the speed,

The scope of it defies any reasonable expectation. And so this discussion with Tom Homan, many of you listened to it and yet yet a whole lot of people didn't. And so we thought it was worth putting out a second time because it's really powerful what's happening at the border. And it's something that the corporate media does not want to report, which is why this podcast is important, because we can get information out publicly.

that ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC will never acknowledge exists. And that's the value of every one of our listeners. So let me say, listen to it, but also share it with your friends, your family, make sure they listen to it as well. Absolutely. So without further ado, here is that conversation we have with the Borders Art Tom Homan. And happy Memorial Day to everyone. God bless all you that serve this country and those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. We remember you today as well.

Well, Tom Homan is serving as President Trump's border czar. He is the former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And he has been border czar since Trump resumed office as president. His formal title, which I like, is White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations.

And to be clear, his job is to secure the border, keep us safe and remove dangerous illegal aliens. He's doing a hell of a job. Tom, welcome to Verdict. Thanks for having me. So let's start with just how are we doing? We're four months in, almost five months into the Trump presidency. How are we doing? Tell us what has happened since President Trump became president again on the border.

Well, President Trump, today, where I'm talking to you today, Senator Cruz, we have the most secure border in the history of this nation today. The most secure border ever. I mean, we even beat Trump 45. Well, we had the Biden administration's most secure border we ever had at that time. But the data is even better now. And let me give you a few numbers, just a few numbers. Under Biden administration, we were dealing with 10,000, 11,000, even a few times 15,000 aliens a day.

Yesterday, it was 211. We went from 13,000, 14,000 to 211. And that's across the entire southwest border? Yes. Galloways under Biden, an average Galloway day under Biden was 1,800-plus. 1,800-plus. What was the Galloways yesterday? 39. Wow. And the most impressive number, the first 100 days on President Trump, 1,000.

Compared to the same time period last year under Biden, Biden released over 184,000 illegal aliens in this country. The Trump administration, one.

There was nine releases, but four more material witnesses. As you know, we want them to come here and testify in a cartel trial. So four of them we want to come in. Four came across the border in such bad shape that we had to call an ambulance and take care of the medical needs. We had an allotment and decided to do medical treatment. But we had one. One.

one discretionary release compared to 184,000 released under the same time period on Biden. Most secure border history of this nation. Interior enforcement operations, ICE has arrested three times more criminals than Biden did during the same time period. We got more arrests. We got many more arrests, but they're already hitting the ball out of the park, and we're going to keep doing it. We need to do more of it, and we're hoping for a budget. We're

real soon here so we can step up efforts there. But it's game-changing. President Trump's been a game-changer, and the men and women vice and men and women board of directors stood up, took it on the task, and President Trump did in seven weeks, but Joe Biden couldn't or wouldn't do in four years. My favorite line from President Trump's most recent State of the Union address is when he said, you know, Joe Biden stood here a year ago and said that he couldn't secure the border without new legislation passing Congress.

And then Trump said, it turns out we didn't need new legislation. We just needed a new president. And that's powerfully true. So let me ask just just a simple question for those. Look, you're you're an immigration expert. But for someone at home, how did the numbers drop so precipitously? What specifically are y'all doing differently than than what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did?

The biggest thing we've done is, the President's executive orders were a game changer. Remain in Mexico, a game changer. Have the third state-country agreement, a game changer. And finally, ending catch and release. People know you come to our border now, you're not being released. And we just follow the law because, as you know, under federal statute, an alien arrives at our border without proper documentation to enter.

The language is you shall be detained. Not maybe, not think about it, not parole them, shall. And that's exactly what we're doing. Those three things by themselves have been a major game changer. And all three of them were executive orders by President Trump. You mentioned budget a moment ago and how important it is to have the budget for you guys to continue your job. Explain for everyone listening, is that referencing the big, beautiful bill? And what is in there that you need so much to continue to do your job at the border?

Well, we want to make the border secure permanently, so we need more infrastructure, right? So we need to finish building that wall. Now, let's be clear. Every place they build a border barrier, illegal migrations went down, illegal drug flow went down. But most importantly, walls save lives. Women and children can't get over that wall, the most vulnerable. So they go to a place where there's not a wall. And what's waiting on them? The men and women of the Border Patrol, first of all. So the wall saves lives.

So we need to finish the border barrier. We need money to finish the technology within the existing border wall because not only did President Biden stop the construction of the wall, he stopped adding the technology in that smart wall, technology that lets us know when someone climbs that wall, touches the wall, dig under that wall, technology where border patrol agents in the middle of nowhere can get on the radio and use the wall as a repeater to talk to other agents for help. There are some places on the southern border

where they lose all communication. So all that technology needs to be done, more technology at port of entry to make sure no fentanyl is coming through. And as far as the interior enforcement, we need beds. Right now we've got about 52,000 people in detention. We're funded at 34,000. ICE is already in the hole.

We need about 100,000 beds because everybody we arrest needs a bed. We just don't arrest somebody in New York City and put them on plain leave. We've got to detain them for several days to several weeks to get travel documents, get flight arrangements, flight clearances. So we need beds. So we need, you know, so this budget, the pending budget right now, the big beautiful bill will give us money for those beds. They're going to give us thousands of more board relations, thousands of more ICE agents.

it's going to rise uh... budget to bring in more contract up what i mean by that badging gun should be submitted this doing reports are processing they should be submitted as to in travel documents and and all that all administrative duties that occur within the ice

you have a contractor senator network give that badging gun get him out on the street to wrestle public safety trust in national security threats so we need the money to like they would we're doing more invited but by the wasn't doing anything we need to ten times more money to not three times more now leave you with this we have seven hundred thousand illegal aliens this country

with a criminal conviction walking the streets of this country. We've got to get them. We've got to get them quickly. We've got 1.4 million illegal aliens who had due process at great taxpayer expense, were ordered to be removed by a federal judge, and didn't leave, and they've become fugitives. We've got a lot of work to do, and we need money to do more. We're doing good, but the more money we have, the more we can do. Well, and Ben, I'll say this, that Congress, we will get this reconciliation bill passed. It's going to take time. It's going to be bumpy, but

But we'll get it done. And when we get it done, we're going to have funding to build the wall. We're going to have funding for technology on the wall. We're going to have funding for more Border Patrol agents. We're going to have funding for more ICE agents. We're going to have funding for more detention beds. We're going to have funding for more fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. We're going to have funding for more drones and more infrared and technology. We are stepping in. Now, it's going to take a little bit of time to get the bill across the finish line, but I'm confident we'll do it. And I will say it really underscores something we've said on Verdict many times,

Which is the most important factor in securing the border, and this is what Tom said just a minute ago, is a policy decision. And it is a decision what happens when you apprehend an illegal immigrant. And if the answer is you put them on a plane and you fly them back home, they all have cell phones, they pick up their phones, and they call home and they say, don't come, they're not letting you stay.

And the flip side is true. If when you apprehend them, you let them go, you say, what city do you want to go to? And you put them on a plane, you put them on a bus and you let them go in every city in America, which is what Joe Biden was doing. Again, they all have phones. They pick up the phone. They call their friends and family and the numbers skyrocket. And so when President Trump left office the first time,

He had produced the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. That's what Joe Biden inherited. It immediately skyrocketed to the worst rate of illegal immigration in history. Joe Biden allowed 12 million illegal immigrants to come into this country. And regular listeners of Verdict will recall, I predicted, I said, we will see the numbers plummet.

And it won't take a year. It won't even take six months. It will happen immediately because on day one, catch and release is going to end and we're going to see the numbers plummet. Now, all that being said, Tom, let me ask you honestly, I will admit I predicted loudly that the numbers would plummet. I'll confess I didn't think they'd drop over 99 percent. Are you...

I'm surprised at just how massive the success is. Are you a little bit surprised or no? I'm not surprised about the success. I'm surprised how fast that happened. When President Trump, when he called me, asked me to be the border czar, of course, I didn't hesitate. I came back, and the first meeting he had, he asked me, how long will it take you, Tom, to secure the border? I said, sir, I need at least 120 days.

He says, well, look at it, 90. I said, sir, out of respect, 120 days he's been pushing that. We did this in seven weeks. Seven weeks, the number's already down. Yep, incredible. And you're exactly right. Everything you said was right, but I want to add one thing. When Joe Biden opened that border up, he's the first president in

in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose. This wasn't mismanagement. This wasn't incompetence. He ran on open borders, and that's exactly what he did. So when you tell the whole world you're going to enter this country illegally, don't worry about it. We're going to release you anyways. And when you've got a Secretary of the Monarchist on ice,

you can arrest somebody for being here legally unless they got a serious criminal conviction the whole world's gonna come you can cross the border illegally you get released in 24 hours you won't give your free plane ticket to the city of your choice we're gonna put you in a free hotel room we're gonna give you three meals a day we're gonna give you free medical attention and guess what hang out for 120 days we're gonna give you a work authorization the very reason they came here not because of asylum because they wanted a job so biden did what he did on purpose

And President Trump came back in seven weeks, again, seven weeks, did what Joe Biden couldn't do or wouldn't do. Repeat the numbers you said about how many illegals are in the U.S. right now who have criminal convictions. And to be clear, these are convictions for crimes other than crossing illegally into the country. Every illegal has committed that crime. But how many have convictions for murder, for rape, for other crimes other than crossing the border illegally? Just under 700,000.

I mean, that is a stunning number. And what you're saying, and I agree with you, is that Joe Biden deliberately chose, we're going to leave murderers here. We're going to leave rapists in America. We're going to leave child molesters in America. We're not going to send ICE to arrest them. We're not going to pick them up. We're not going to deport them. That they put partisan politics above protecting American families, above protecting our kids. Right.

And that's why I woke up every four years pissed off every morning. President Trump, when he called me, asked me to come back, and he said to me, you've been bitching about it for four years, you want to come back and fix it? And I did. Because I knew every morning I wake up, and Senator, you know this just as well as I do, I knew every morning when I woke up how many children died crossing the border last night, how many women got sexually assaulted, how many people on terrorist rosters got across the border, how many women and children were sex trafficking in this country, how many billions of dollars did the cartels make,

how many americans died last twenty four hours from pat not come across open border for four years i was pissed off president trump came back like i said seven weeks where the border down ninety percent seven weeks so you know that's it if you said it was matter of president matter of course law you know i'll tell you center cruising and i do you know every time i see me every every time i see you in a meeting i call you out i call you out to you benefit for the spirit of life

i appreciate your work in this year from texas you know came into oblast governor abby governor abed did he was more of a secretary home with security margaret ever better were part of the end so god bless the taxes they took that they took the first row on this and again i i can't thank you enough every time i see a call you out thank you for being the tip of the spear i see you everywhere's one the secure boring you're fighting hard for me in your fight are from men and women the border toll your point in the park

for the men and women of ICE. I love each and every one of those men that put their lives on the line for this country every day, men and women, and I appreciate your fight for them. You've had their six from day one, and I love you for it. I appreciate it. Well, Tom, thank you for that. I appreciate that, and I appreciate your passion and commitment. You're showing up, and you said something that I think is really important for our listeners to understand.

You and President Trump right now are quite literally saving lives. You are saving lives. There are Americans, and there are a significant number of Americans who are alive today because...

A violent criminal did not cross the border, was not released and didn't murder them. There are women who have not been raped because you've stopped the Biden practice of releasing rapists. There are children and the number of children who haven't been physically and sexually assaulted by human traffickers. It is already, I think, well into the thousands. And I want you to think about that.

Thousands of little girls, thousands of little boys have not been violently, repeatedly raped by human traffickers. Why? Because President Trump came in and because you've been the borders are implementing it and secured the border and those kids are no longer being trafficked. That is a profound legacy in just four or five months.

And let me go one step further. Trump asked me to do three things. Secure the border, run the largest deportation offers I've ever seen, and find these children. The Biden administration, over half a million children were smuggled into this country.

separated from their families from other this country and put in the hands of sponsors many unvetted sponsors the last administration lost track of 300 000 of them president trump's committed to finding as many as he can yeah we've already found over 7 500 of them wow some were perfectly safe with families some were perfectly safe and some weren't example just there for yesterday a 14 year old little girl

already into sex traffic, was pregnant, living with two men who were trafficking her, or they're going to prison and we're helping that little girl. So we're going to rescue every one of these little girls and make sure that they're safe because many of them are going to be okay with family members. They just didn't respond to call-ins or so forth. But many, and I guarantee you, I've been doing this for over 40 years, many of them are in sex trafficking, many of them are in forced labor, living a life of hell every day. We're committed to finding every one of these little children and making sure they're safe.

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Tom, you mentioned finding them all. Let's talk about sanctuary cities for a second. It's very clear Democrats are not backing off of that. How dangerous is the policy and who is being harbored in these cities that are refusing to work with you guys? Will there be accountability? Are they harboring MS-13 gang members and domestic terrorists, foreign terrorists, those that are putting the fentanyl out in society? How dangerous are these cities?

They're dangerous for everybody because in a sanctuary city, it means I don't have access to jail, arrest a bad guy, public safety threat, and the safety and security of the jail. Were the aliens safe? The officers safe? Were the public safe? When sanctuary cities knowingly release a public safety threat back in the street, it certainly puts the community at risk.

He even puts an alien at risk because anything can happen during a street arrest. And it puts the officers at great risk because now we've got to arrest a criminal alien, public safety threat on his turf. We have access to who knows what weapons. It's very dangerous. And yes, we'll hold sanctuary cities accountable. Spam Bonnie's already filed lawsuits against several.

We're working with DOJ now. Again, where's that line? When do you cross that line? You can sit there and watch ICE do your job because here's what irritates me the most. I don't care what party you're in. If you're an elected mayor, elected city councilperson,

or elected governor, your number one responsibility is the safety and security of your neighborhoods, your communities. ICE has been clear from the beginning with President Trump, we're going to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats. Why will you not help us?

Make your community safer. There's no downside on that. And sanctuary cities want to argue, well, we're a sanctuary city because we want victims and witnesses of crime if they're illegally in the United States to feel comfortable coming to the law enforcement without fear to work with us. That is a bunch of crap. Victims and witnesses of crime don't want the bad guy in the neighborhood either. And as far as the illegal alien community, I'll say this.

Despite being here illegally, many of them are God-fearing family people. They don't want a predator in their neighborhood either. They don't want someone convicted DUI ten times driving to their neighborhood either. So, you know, if you go to the immigrant community and ask them one simple question,

Would you rather have ICE operating in the jail or in your community? What do you think they're going to say? They're going to say the jail. So sanctuaries will be held accountable. Matter of fact, we're reissuing the ICE detainer. We just changed the new ICE detainer. We're letting them, black and white, let them know this person is a designated terrorist. This person is a designated return felon. We're going to let them know exactly who they're detaining based on biographic and biometric information and see what they do. Are they going to violate the Lake and Riley Act? No.

then we'll go out to prosecution. If they're going to nominate or release a terrorist, then we're going to go out to prosecution. So it's about to get a lot tougher, and it's the right thing to do. Well, and let me ask you, how worried are you that there are terrorists who came across the southern border in the last four years that are out there and that are planning acts of terror in the United States right now? I'm convinced.

We got over 2 million known gotaways. Why did 2 million people pay more to get away? They pay the cartels a lot more money to escape apprehension and get to New York or Chicago or wherever. Why didn't they pay less?

Why would you pay more to get away? Because you don't want to be vetted. You don't want to be fingerprinted. This just scared the hell out of every American. It scares the hell out of me. Some of these are going to be child traffickers. Some of these are carrying fentanyl. And some of these are going to be people from a terrorist-sponsored country. Under Joe Biden, we wrestle with 400 people on terrorist watch lists coming to the southwest border. If you don't think a single one of the two main gotaways didn't come from a country sponsored terror, it didn't.

Didn't come here to do us harm. Then you're just crazy. As you know, it was just a few months ago we arrested eight that were planning a terrorist attack, a Russian-type terrorist attack in the United States. Luckily, they tell us the community called them on some chat, and we were able to arrest them.

But we're not perfect. The intelligence community isn't perfect. They weren't perfect in Afghanistan. They weren't perfect on a lot of things. So God help us. I think they're here. There's intelligence reports saying they're here. We know where some are and being monitored, but we don't know where others are. So that scares the hell out of me. Well, and as you know, Chris Wray, the former director of the FBI, every few months would come to Congress and he would do everything but set off an alarm and bang a drum to say we are at major risk of a terrorist attack.

from the open borders. Hamas and Hezbollah have declared jihads on America. As you know, the Border Patrol under Joe Biden was advised be on the lookout for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists coming across the southern border. And one of the things, Tom, you said that was really important, of the 12 million illegal immigrants that came under Joe Biden,

Roughly two million of those were gotaways. That's by far the most troubling of all those folks. The other 10 million are people who are apprehended and apprehended in many instances is the wrong term, because, as you know, and I've spent a lot of time down on the southern border. I almost always go out on midnight patrol with the Border Patrol agents when I'm there.

apprehended doesn't even characterize what they were doing most nights. People would cross the border and they'd go look for a Border Patrol agent and actively turn themselves in because the result would be that Joe Biden would say, where do you want to go? And would fly them to wherever they wanted to be. Literally, the Biden administration was the last mile of the human trafficking network. But Tom, what you said is exactly right. Those two million gotaways are

are much more likely to be violent criminals, much more likely to be murderers or rapists or child molesters, much more likely to be MS-13 gang members, much more likely to be terrorists. And that's the population that is most worrisome. And speaking of MS-13 gang members, just when I thought politics could not get weirder, the Democrats have decided to go all in, making their central party platform

B, that we should admit more illegal aliens. And in particular, we want more Venezuelan gang members, MS-13 gang members here. And they've decided that Kilmar Abrego-Garcia is their poster child for the Democrat Party. Tom, how confident? Tell us about Abrego-Garcia. How confident are you that he's a gang member, that he's a criminal?

I'm very confident. And I've talked to the head of vice numerous times. He really understands. So he got no due process. Yes, he did. He got due process from two different federal judges.

who said he was a legal United States, a citizen of El Salvador, and he gave an order of deportation. He had a great due process, a great taxpayer expense. On top of that, men and women of ICE, when they sent those two plane loads of TVA and MS-13, hundreds and hundreds of hours were spent on every case. They went through the criminal history, the immigration history. They went through intelligence reports. They went through confidential informant statements. They went through wiretaps. They went through a bunch of stuff.

to certify these people were members of TDA and MS-13. So they got due process several times. Obrego Garcia's home. He's a citizen of El Salvador. And for those of the Democrats who say, well, they made a mistake. I still say it was a mistake. It was an oversight, a temporary oversight. Because here's the problem. He had a withholding order.

He did not return to El Salvador because he feared death from the gang. Two things have changed since that order was given. Number one, he's a designated terror, so that withholding order has been set aside. Number two, the gang he feared no longer exists in El Salvador because of the great work President Bukele did there. So the circumstances surrounding that withholding order are no longer valid. And here's what would happen. If somebody was to make this guy return to the United States, he would be detained and removed the next day.

If not to El Salvador, it's another country. He is not here. But as President Bukele said, he is a certified national of El Salvador. He is home. He is home. He is a certified MS-13 member, not just by ICE, by local police departments, intelligence reports, immigration judges, in the country of El Salvador, says his MS-13 member. He's home. He's exactly where he should be. This country, his wife, his neighborhood is a lot safer because he's locked up.

I want to go back to accountability for a second time. I want to ask you, there are a lot of people that believe that there were laws that were broken deliberately in the last administration. They knew they were breaking the law. One of those would be former Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas that you mentioned a moment ago. Should he be criminally prosecuted for his role in the border crisis if it was as deliberate as it now seems?

Look, I think what he did was borderline treasonous. I'm not an attorney. I'm not a prosecutor. But what he did, he did more damage to this country, him and the Biden administration, what they did to this country. I can tell you, when they opened that border up, sex trafficking in women showed increased tenfold. A record number of migrants died making that journey, over 4,000. A record number of Americans died from fentanyl that come across that open border.

And it's just what he calls this country. And from a national security perspective, because here's what his orders were.

Process quick, release quick. They didn't care about the crisis. They cared about the optics of the crisis. If there's no overcrowding, there's nothing to see here. So border trades were processing as quick as they could and releasing as quick as they could. And there's been several instances where they released so quickly, the FBI scan didn't come back, and it came back hot. Actually, they already been released. They came back hot. Wow.

as a non-inspector terrorist so you know he what he did with unconscionable what he did is is it by my opinion borderline treasonous he should be held accountable because a lot of death occurred under his watch elected like like the senator cruz said a few minutes ago right now ninety six percent decline in illegal immigration when ninety six percent less people coming only women and being raped how many children are dying crossing the border

How many no-inspector terrorists aren't getting in the country? How many pounds of fentanyl is not getting in the country? What are you going to see under President Trump's administration? Fentanyl deaths would decrease. Sex trafficking would decrease. Smuggling would decrease. And no-inspector terrorists, they got no open net anymore. Now that we got the border secure, every single border patrol agent is on the line, on patrol, doing his national security duty. Under Joe Biden, it was an average, most days, an average 70%.

7-0. 70% of agents were no longer on patrol. They were changing diapers, making baby formula, making hospital runs. The last time I went down there before the election, I talked to hundreds of board of trustees and told them, hang on, hang on, change is coming. I really think President Trump's going to win. But they told me, no, we're sick of being tourist agents. We're sick of being Uber drivers. We process and deliver these people to the very same people who pay for their smuggling.

They couldn't recruit. People were quitting. They were quitting before they even eligible for retirement. They couldn't read the recruiting numbers. You know, last month, ice, excuse me, Borbichaux had the highest recruiting numbers in the history of that agency just last month. That's fantastic. And look...

I will say Tom is not exaggerating at all. Like when I would visit with border patrol agents, the frustration, look, the men and women who sign up for the border patrol, they do do so because they're patriots. They do so because they love America. They do so because they want to keep our communities and our families and our kids safe. And they want to be out on patrol. Look, these that's what you sign up in the job. And they were sitting there just shuffling paperwork. They were processing paperwork.

and just running a revolving door to try to release as many illegal immigrants as fast as possible. That's what Mayorkas viewed his job, is accelerate illegal immigration, not stop it, but make it go more quickly. Let me ask you, Tom, you mentioned fentanyl. What do we know about the numbers of fentanyl traffic over the first four months of the Trump administration?

There's been a decrease, and I've got from three or four different sources, the percentage decrease is different from every source. The problem is the CDC doesn't have good metrics on fentanyl. But look, across the country, you can see the decrease in fentanyl. Fentanyl is being seized on the southern border. And the metrics, and that's maybe something y'all can work on up there in the Senate. CDC needs to track this more closely.

more accurately. Like I said, you got a number of deaths reported by states, you got a number of deaths reported by CDC, none of them match. But we do know there's been a reduction. You don't see, you know,

You know, 300 people dying every day from fentanyl, like we did see, right? We don't have two 9-11s a week happening from kids dying from fentanyl. So I don't have the exact numbers, but we already see the effects of a secure border. And Tom, let me ask you also, so one of the things we've talked about on this podcast, in 2018, the Mexican drug cartels made roughly $500 million from human trafficking.

Last year, the drug cartels made over $13 billion from human trafficking. That's a 2,600% increase. Do we have any data yet? Do you have any visibility on what has happened to the drug cartels' revenue? Because one of the worst consequences of what Biden's open border did is it turned these vicious, murderous crimes

transnational criminal organizations into incredibly wealthy powerhouses and it put huge resources in their pockets. Do you have any data on what's happened to their revenues?

Well, one of the first things President Trump did was designate a terrorist organization because these cartels have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined. We knew that's why there's so much violence in Mexico over the last four years. Cartels were fighting each other for control of the plazas. Why? Because they're making record amounts of money smuggling people, record amount of money in trafficking women and children, and a record amount of money moving dope across that border.

now with the more secure were hit and were hurt uh... you know smugglers down both drugs and people trafficking down we're hit and we're hurt that's why the latest intelligence force i see they're trying to produce and push more fat and all into asian european nations because their market here in the united states have been so brutally attacked uh... i wish what would happen

is that Mexico would agree with President Trump to let us help them take the cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. Because right now, they're like the Jalisco cartel. They're in 44 countries around the globe. They're like a Fortune 500 company. It's going to take the United States to take them out. Mexico's failed for decades to do it. And a lot of Mexico, you know, the military, police, and government forces are corrupt.

I'll say this. A lot of the corruption is forced corruption. Because you're a police officer in Mexico, you're making $400 a month. But a Mexican cartel comes up and offers you $10,000, look the other way, and you're going to take it or they're going to kill you and your family. I think Mexico would be a much safer, a much more prosperous country if you let President Trump help them wipe the cartels off the face of the earth. Look, that is absolutely right. And let me underscore that point.

A lot of people don't realize, particularly those on the left, that what Joe Biden and the Democrats did, it wasn't just horribly cruel to the American people. It was horribly cruel to Mexican nationals in Mexico. Turning these vicious criminals into the most powerful economic force in Mexico is

has increased the murder rate, the crime rate, the kidnapping rate. I visited with a Mexican mayor of a town on the other side of the border, and I'm not going to say which mayor because he told me in confidence because he was afraid, but he said in his town,

they had had over 3,000 disappearances. Just people, Mexican nationals living in Mexico who just ran afoul of the cartel and they just disappear and they find mass graves. And the suffering and murder and kidnapping that has happened in Mexico because of the Democrats' political decision, I think was cruel and horrible. And Tom, you're exactly right that that

The U.S. military can take out the cartels, and we've done it before in Colombia. President Uribe asked the military to come in and take out the cartels in Colombia, and we came in and did that, and we could do it again. And I do think it would be much better if the Mexican government invited us in. It would have transformational impact within Mexico.

Yeah, it would save a lot of lives. Like I say, the Mexican cartels have killed thousands of judges and prosecutors and journalists and citizens. So, you know, I wish they'd join with President Trump because that would be a game changer for Mexico and the United States. All right, final question. We saw just this week that New Jersey Democrat Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was charged for assaulting law enforcement at an ICE facility.

Tell me, tell us how important that is. And what do you think about about the fact that the charges were brought for assault? We saw during the Biden administration repeatedly law enforcement, Customs Border Patrol, ICE agents were subject to physical assault. No charges were brought. How important is it that these charges were brought?

The signs of strong matches is very important. It also proves I don't bluff. I'd send them the day of inauguration. If you want to not support ICE, well, shame on you, but you have that right. If you want to protest against ICE and protest against Trump's policies, that's fine. If you want to watch ICE come in and clean your city up because your sanctuary city don't want to help, you can do that too.

But I said from day one, you can't cross that line. You can't cross the line of impediment. That's a felony. You can't cross the line of annoying and harboring, concealing, and they will go in with mice. That's a felony. You certainly can't commit criminal trespasses at our facilities. And for God's sakes, you can't put hands...

on our officers and it happened or the same time frame the same week i want the blue mask in washington d_c_ in remembrance of the men and women law enforcement with a large amount like this country every day so we spent a week don't know just just just praise me man women to talk into the families who also pay the ultimate sacrifice may not the law born forever children lost her father's mothers and

mothers, fathers lost their sons and daughters. In the same week we're supposed to be honoring law enforcement, you got some member of Congress putting their hands and shoving an ICE officer, which makes that facility very unsafe. And I'm sick and tired of hearing, well, we have congressional oversight responsibilities. There is a right way and wrong way to do it. You don't force your way in a facility. You don't put hands on an officer.

We do oversight all the time. And what are they finding out as people are getting tours in that facility? That they have the highest detention standards in the industry, and it puts every other detention center and jail in the state of New Jersey, whether it's a county or a state,

It puts them to shame because our detention standards are so high. So when you go and cause that kind of practice, what we're trying to maintain of a city with very dangerous people inside, we've got to protect not only the criminals, we've got to protect the employees and the citizens on the outside. What she did was just horrendous. She put hands on an officer like,

Like they said for four years, no one's above the law. You're damn right they're not above the law, even if members of Congress. The president is above the law, but these are members of Congress.

Look, amen, and I will say, Tom, I've visited dozens of ICE facilities and CBP facilities. I've never found it difficult to refrain from physical assault on an officer. Somehow that temptation was never there for me, and in fact, for the opposite, it is my job to have their backs. That's a job I take incredibly seriously, and I just want to say, Tom—

You are a patriot. You are a great American. We have roughly a million unique listeners who listen to Verdict. And I want to say on behalf of all of them and on behalf of 31 million Texans, thank you for what you are doing. You are keeping my children safer. And Tom, I am grateful you are on that front line for us. And you and President Trump are making a massive difference for the entire country.

Well, I appreciate that, but I'm not going to take credit. Please give the thanks for your listeners. You see a Borbester agent? Yes, yes. Just say thank you.

because i cannot believe that he did that we knew they won't take a which is president got back in but they thank you could be men and women their mothers and fathers to they don't hang their heart on a hook at home we go to work they see a lot of terrible things that put the life on the line to a three o'clock this morning when everybody is sleeping me and senator sleep at three m this morning

There's border patrol agents standing on a dirt trail someplace going to take something on. They don't know if it's just an illegal alien or a heavily armed drug smuggler. They're going to take it on. And they're nearest back of us miles away. God bless the men and women of the border patrol. God bless the women of ICE. And God bless this great nation. We're taking it on. Amen.

Amen.

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