Bipartisan Bill to Push Biden on Border Crisis

This is Jay Sekulow breaking news. A bipartisan bill is introduced in Congress on the issue of the border and the Biden administration still a no-show.

Live from Washington, D.C. Sekulow Live. Cartels have operational control of our border, period. Anybody who's following it knows that. Tomalipas, the state right across the border from Texas, is run by the dangerous cartels, the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel, and the cartel del Norreste of Lozetas. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. They are using human beings as shields for profit. They're moving people into Texas, into our communities, into San Antonio, which I represent. We've stopped vehicles with human beings that are being sent to stash houses in Houston to be used for profit into human trafficking and sex trafficking.

And now, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow. So now a bipartisan bill has been introduced in Congress. It's a bipartisan bill introduced by Senator Cornyn and Senator Sinema. It's got a Republican and a Democrat. They introduced a bill that is designed to blunt the southern border crisis, which of course this administration doesn't want to call a crisis. This is despite the fact that in just the last few days, let me give you the statistics, just in the last few days of what's going on at the border. More than $4 million worth of meth, methamphetamine, from one shipment.

It's called a fresh produce. More than $97 worth of fentanyl and meth during one traffic stop. Not for the whole week.

Not for the whole day. One stop. More than $275,000 worth of cocaine during one stop at the border.

Nearly $200,000 in meth alone during a single stop. You're talking about a billion dollar industry crossing our borders illegally and the industry is illegal and puts Americans in harm's way and increases the drug dependency issue, which is already an epidemic proportion. Maybe they'd call that a crisis. And meanwhile, for whatever reason, I still cannot figure out the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Vice President, Vice President Harris, refused to show up on the border.

Now, Logan, maybe it's atmospherics, but I don't know what it is, but they will not go. And now you've got bipartisan legislation coming in place. Well, you know, you look at what they're talking points right now.

It's preaching all things are good. We're moving towards positivity. Obviously, COVID rates are dropping.

America, woohoo, we've done some great work. And yes, there's been great stuff that's happened. But they're intentionally ignoring what's happening, so much so that they refuse to actually visit. They refuse to use specific words because they decide that that's the narrative they want to spend to specifically, you know, it subverts people with this whole, like, will they say crisis? Will they not say crisis? Because all that does is take the attention away of really what's happening, which is a nightmare.

Yep. It is a nightmare. And by the way, folks, we're going to get into this in greater detail in the next segment, but this is not a nightmare just for California, Texas, Arizona on the border. I'm telling you, it's impacting all 50 states and the Economos, Senior Counsel for the ACLJ also, as I have been, has been a prosecutor. And in Georgia, where any prosecuted cases, the impact of these border, illegal border crossings are real and have real impact.

They really do, Jay. It's not just a matter of the border states on Mexico and the states in the southwestern part of the United States, but this impacts severely states such as Georgia, border states of the Gulf, such as Florida, and has a tremendous impact on the ingress of people who are been on engaging in criminal activity. So it's not just in the southwestern part of the United States. We see tremendous incursions of illegal drugs coming in that originate in Central and South America, similar to what you outlined in great detail in the southwestern part of the United States. And this is a crisis situation. You can call it circumstances, you can call it anything you want, but it's a crisis situation of epidemic and biblical proportions if you really want to say the truth. Well, truthfully, with the sex trafficking that's going on as well, I mean, this is a monumental mess. We get back, there's also talk that the United States has lost operational control on portions of the border. What does that mean?

It sounds ominous, because it is. We'll talk about that when we come back from the break with Wes Smith. I want to tell you, as we go into a break, we are in the last week of our matching challenge for April. This is the last matching challenge for a while. This counts, and we are filing today an amended complaint in our case in California protecting churches and their right to worship in light of the pandemic. Support the work of the ACLJ. You go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

In any amount you donate, we get a matching gift for you. Again, ACLJ.org. If you want to talk to us on air about the border crisis, if you live on a border state, we'd love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110.

800-684-3110. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, a play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. So Senator Cornyn and Senator Sinema have introduced bipartisan legislation targeting the migration surge and the problems at the border. Problems, crisis, dilemma, whatever they want to call it. Fan, quickly tell us what this bill is going to do, and then I've got a couple other questions for our team here. Yeah, we're going to get a look at the text today, Jay. But first of all, the first thing it indicates is that the officials that are actually looking at the situation on the ground are willing to work in a bipartisan manner, even though they're not getting support from the White House. The two main things that we expect this legislation to do, Jay, would be to authorize resources to address the surge capacity that is happening at the border right now. And then also to sort of reinstate a Trump era policy on asylum, which we actually worked very closely on to make sure that the proper people that were applying for asylum were not only allowed in, but that their cases were adjudicated in a timely manner. Jay, and I just think on a top level issue, it shows that if the White House were willing to engage across party lines, there would be bipartisan participation in the Senate. But we've got to get that signal from the White House first.

To me, it's numbing to me. I don't understand the resistance, Wes, on the ability of the administration to engage on bipartisan legislation here. I mean, what is there to lose at this point, except acknowledging that it's a real problem?

Exactly, which they do not want to do that does not fit their narrative, and it would detract from other things that they're trying to tout its accomplishments. You know, when I was in school working my master's in counseling, one of the things that our professor used to say is that the beginning of insanity, the beginning of mental illness is to break from reality, to deny reality. If you wonder why so many of the Biden's policies concerning the border seem insane to the average American, it's because they are breaking from the reality of what's happening on the border. This is a true crisis. And last Saturday, when the President slipped up and called it a crisis, here's what the White House said later on to walk it back.

The crisis, they said, is in Central America, not at the border. But, see, Logan, this is where, you know, because you deal with theater and imaging, and there's obviously some method or some approach they're taking that they think this is actually a good thing by denying the reality of the situation. I don't think we ignore it. A large portion of the audience won't see it. You know, you have a very segmented media group right now, so if, you know, the more liberal leaning outlets or social media platforms don't show it, it's not happening. And that's just sadly the truth right now. It's not that it's not happening, it's that it fits the narrative, because if people won't cover it, you won't see it. So if they ignore it, it's effectively as if it's not happening. And that's why you do have to keep your, and look, that happens on both sides.

You have to keep it very diverse with how you consume media, because you're only getting part truth. It's very easy to fall into a little suburban bubble and go, the world is great, everything is great in America, number one, we have no problems. Clearly there are real problems that are happening, and the worst thing you can do is just pretend they're not and ignore. And that's what we're having right now. I want to get into this issue of operational control at the border being lost, but before we do that, I think it's very important that we continue to set the stage for what the problem is here.

So you've got Senator Cornyn and Senator Sinema, both bipartisan introduction of legislation to stop the surge and to get help at the border. This will also enable all 50 states that are dealing with this. And again, Andy, I think it's very important to understand that it's not, I gave the list of drugs that were apprehended.

By the way, that wasn't in a day or an hour, that was just an individual stops. But those drugs find their way to Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, South Georgia, Florida, Chicago, all over the country. Gets inundated with this, becomes a supply line.

It does. Jay, the figures that you gave us with regard to the drugs, the fentanyl, the cocaine, and so forth that you mentioned is an alarming figure. And it ought to scare anybody who's right thinking into realizing that as you just said, it doesn't just stop at the place of seizure or just if it makes it through. It spreads like a spider web throughout the United States and goes to all the points of distribution throughout the United States. So don't see this as just simply a one-off situation where, well, it's just in Southern California or Arizona or New Mexico or Texas. These become problems nationwide.

Why? Because outlets, media outlets like TikTok that solicit coyotes and solicit young men and young women to carry these drugs and to solicit and to spread them throughout the United States is real. It is happening. It is happening in Georgia. It is happening in South Georgia.

I can tell you that from personal experience. The influx of drugs is alarming. And if it's happening in South Georgia and Northern Florida and Atlanta and other states, it's happening throughout the United States and not just in the Southwest.

As I said, the figures that you gave are alarming and ought to scare us into reality. Those were individual stops, folks. This was not for a day. Now, you said this thing about TikTok. Logan, there's a lot of people that are listening to this broadcast that probably don't know what TikTok is. This has become a recruiting device.

Once people are brought in illegally by the coyotes, they're then moved around. Not unlike Twitter or any social media. I mean, bad guys are going to use it for bad reasons. Obviously, TikTok had some controversy last year because of who was maybe owning and who was behind it and where your information was being stored. There's a lot of issues that came up with TikTok last year due to sort of its influence from China and other areas of the world. But beyond that, obviously, it's a social media platform and kids are on it. It does skew younger. So you have a lot of people who are very easily influenced. But they're only doing this like it's an Uber app to go pick these kids up.

I mean, I'm sure it's done a little bit more, you know, a little bit seedier, if you will, in the way it's set up. TikTok isn't just set up to run this way. No, I'm not blaming TikTok.

I'm just saying they're using it. All social media, when you have a lot of influence, you have all countries, all people from all different parts of the world who are coming in and infiltrating. Look, if you look at what a lot of people believe, whether those are real news, fake news, conspiracy theories, a lot of this stuff doesn't come up from nowhere. Remember that there are a lot of foreign players involved that are trying to break us apart as a nation.

They're getting involved in Facebook groups for specific people and you can do your research on what that is. And look, that's from everything from COVID conspiracies to climate change to election. A lot of that is not started right here in America. It may appear to be, but this is to cause issues beyond just things that are legal and illegal, which you obviously see that trade happening. But beyond even that, you see social media being used to hurt our nation beyond, you know, things that you think of. Because that's where a lot of these quote unquote conspiracy theories start. They really start by Russia or they start by China or whoever it is, gets into these communities, creates chaos.

So then we have a country that is split apart and that's really what's happened. To explain this a little further, what the drug cartels are doing. They are going on TikTok recruiting American teenagers who live in that part of the United States to go to the edge of the border and to pick up illegal immigrants. And to take them to stash houses. They are offering on TikTok as much as $3,000 a trip so that what is happening, it's not just that they're offering. American teenagers have actually done this. Some parents have been dismayed to find out that their teenage daughter has been arrested for transporting migrants trying to earn $3,000 a trip. And I'm sure, look, they're probably very deceptive and they tug at the heartstrings of these kids and they get a lot of money.

So, you know, it's kind of the best of all worlds. You think you're doing the right thing. Yeah, except, Andy, that these people that are utilized have been utilizing TikTok and then they get these young people involved in it. These young people are now involved in a criminal enterprise. Well, yes, these young people are involved in a criminal enterprise. And here you're starting to talk about youth and youthful crimes. And this is where you start them and hook them up in doing these nefarious schemes here as young people and get them involved as adults in doing crimes which they learned as their children. So they learned acts of behavior. Look, most of the people that I have prosecuted had criminal records as juveniles.

They started out in criminal communities and criminal enterprises and it was mostly in the area of drugs. So it's not surprising that this, again, exists and is happening in the area of drugs that we see proliferating from the southern border. So, Than, let's talk about this legislation.

I mean, I know you haven't seen it yet, but what are the prospects here? Well, you know, immigration as a whole, Jay, as you know well, is a tough one in Washington, D.C. There's always bipartisan talk. It's very difficult to get comprehensive pieces of legislation across the line.

But I think there's a couple of pieces here that do have a chance. This corn and cinema piece of legislation, if it is what I expect it to be, which would be additional resources for security at the border, and then increased levels of visas, especially in the asylum and seasonal visa realm. Jay, I think those are things that there is probably at least 60 senators in support of both of those things.

I think that could move. The other thing I would throw out, Jay, is the conversation you just had with Andy. There's a solution to this and there's a solution with the bill out there.

We've talked about it on this broadcast before. It was put forward by Senator Blackburn that says if a minor comes across the border, there has to be a DNA test for the person who is bringing that minor across the border. Jay, if Vice President Harris, who's in charge of this problem, would look at that bill and say, you know what, it's not the whole solution, but it's part of the solution for this humanitarian crisis involving children, I support that bill, guess what would happen, Jay?

It would be signed into law in a matter of two weeks. She needs to show leadership on this. She's not reading that bill because she's tweeting on climate change and not worrying about what's happening, or maybe worrying about it, but not showing the kind of... You have to go to the scene of the crime.

I mean, this is as old as Law 101. I used to call it, you know, when we were handling cases internationally, sometimes you just had to show up. Ministry of Presence, you have to be there. But unfortunately, and this is what I say, it's unfortunate, this situation is getting worse by the moment. When we come back, Rick Grenell's joining us because we've got a situation now with Russia and Ukraine and how that and Iran, issues with Israel and some attacks, we've got a lot to talk about. When we come, second half hour, I'm going to get into this loss of operational control at the border.

Sounds ominous, we're going to get into that as well, so there's a lot to talk about. But don't forget, we are filing a lawsuit, an amended lawsuit today, Defending Churches Right to Worship in California. Go to ACLJ.org and sign right now to become a supporter of the ACLJ.

It's a matching challenge. Do it today, ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast. We've been talking about the crisis on the border, but we're going to switch gears a little bit, although I've got a question for Rick Grenell, his senior advisor to the ACLJ on international issues, national security, former acting director of national intelligence, and ambassador to Germany. Before we get into Russia and Ukraine and Iran, Rick, you're in California, and this border crisis, we were just talking about how it doesn't just affect the states on the border, that it has an impact for all 50 states because the number of drugs coming in, the sex trafficking of minors, it's unreal.

What's your sense of the situation right now on the border as you see it? Well, one of the problems that we have is that there's a border largely almost completed in California, so a lot of the California politicians are not concerned about the border crisis because it seems to be happening more in Texas. You ask yourself, why is Nancy Pelosi, a Californian, disinterested?

It's because she's protected largely. This is a problem for Texas, and it's got to be solved, but you're not going to get help from California politicians because they've got theirs. They've got their border. Yeah, because they've got a border wall and a border fence, and they have checkpoints. The problem is once these individuals get in, it's affecting all 50 states, but we talked about that for the last segment.

Let's talk about this. Richard Haass, President of the Council on National and Foreign Relations this morning on MSNBC, says none of us know what Putin's intentions are with Ukraine. Now, he's amassed about 100,000 troops. You served in addition to director of national intelligence. You also were the ambassador to Germany, so you know this region of the world well.

What's your sense of what's happening here? Look, there's a lot of hypocrisy from the NGO community and the smarty-pants people in Washington, D.C. that have controlled foreign policy for a long time, and including in Brussels. Look, we've had a case where the Russians have redefined European borders.

Let's be honest about that. When they grabbed Crimea, redefining of European land is such an outrage, and there's been a lot of talk and ideas being pushed about other places in Europe to redefine land. The Europeans, rightly so, go crazy, and they absolutely say, no, do not redefine borders and land. There's a very strong reaction from European leaders whenever this idea pops up, except there was a lot of talk and absolutely no action from the United States under President Obama and Vice President Biden when Putin just grabbed Crimea and redefined European borders. And so the idea that somebody now would say we don't know what Putin has in his mind, well, let me just remind all those smarty-pants people in Washington, D.C. that we've seen it.

We know exactly what's on his mind. It's redefining borders, and that is supposed to be unacceptable. We need more action. We certainly don't need to be feeding the beast of Russia by having European countries like Germany buying gas from Russia while they're trying to bully the rest of Europe. And they are trying to bully the rest of Europe. I mean, I think we've got to be realistic, and Colonel Westmith is, of course, one of our senior military analysts, a legal analyst also, and was retired colonel in the United States Army.

You served during the time that Rick was just referring to. When Crimea was basically – not basically, it was taken by the Russians. Taken with impunity.

Absolutely nothing happened. And to Rick's point, too, part of my frustration now, whenever Russia does the things that they do and they're trying to redefine borders, not only did the Obama administration do not virtually nothing, they did absolutely nothing. Even now, the European Union, those countries still provide some impunity for Russia still with their behavior because of their interest in gas and oil and things like that. But recently, you know, Russia put the equivalent of four armored divisions on the Ukrainian border, the most since 2014 when they actually invaded and attacked and took Crimea and all of that. And yet the world is standing by and watching this, Rick, and it seems like no one's really, really willing to confront Putin and say stop it. I mean, Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, reached out to Putin who did not respond.

How do you handle the situation? Look, for one thing, we've got a whole bunch of people in Washington, D.C., a whole bunch of Democratic congressmen and Democratic senators who spend a lot of time talking about Russia and their involvement and their bullying. And yet the Biden administration has a philosophy right now that we're not going to put America first. We're going to let the Europeans decide how we have policies, whether it's the Iran policy, whether it's our relationship with China, our relationship with Russia.

We are – let me also add Serbia and Kosovo. The new strategy is to let the Europeans decide. Well, the Europeans sit around and they wait for the Americans to take action.

That's their policy. So now we have Putin troops about ready to do something. We know the history of what they've done. What we have to be able to do is put forward what America's policy is, not wait around for the Europeans because they're just waiting around for us to take action. We need to lead on these issues, and if we don't lead through diplomacy, then nothing is going to be done because the Europeans will continue to, you know, analyze and talk. You know, you mentioned Iran briefly.

Let me update everybody on this. So Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard has been flying – this is now confirmed – dozens of drones over American aircraft carriers that are in the Straits of Hormuz. And they've now released this video of showing our planes exposed.

We're showing it right now for our audience to see. That's a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Straits of Hormuz and international waterways, and that is an Iranian drone. Now, you talk about up to no good. We know the – I remember when the Iranians captured our Navy, members of our Navy. So this is another one where we're leading from behind. They're so desperate to get back in this deal, they don't even mention it.

Rick? It's really important, Jay, that we recognize what this is. So this – we can talk about this, and I can talk about this, because it's now a video that is out. But make no mistake, this is the tip of the iceberg, and we must react. We must realize that the Iranian regime hates America, they hate Israel. The idea that they're going to somehow be honest about their centrifuges, the number of centrifuges, or their percentage of enrichment is laughable. The Israelis have already proven, through finding a locker full of information, that the original JCPOA deal was built on a lie that the Iranians hoodwinked the Americans and the Europeans.

And so the idea that now we're going to sit back down and trust them is laughable. We have to learn from these mistakes. Just a quick reminder for everyone, because you brought up when Iran seized a few of the naval ships. That was only in 2016. It feels like it was a lifetime ago. That is only five years ago, and of course, under a different administration. Yeah, no, the political reality is something. But I think I want to clarify, because in people's heads, I feel like that happened 20 years ago.

But realistically, it happened just over five years ago. Rick Rinnell, senior advisor to the ACLJ on international affairs and national intelligence, thanks as always for your insights and your call to action, which is important as well. We can't just talk about it, folks.

We're going to find out. We're going to go to court, find out if we have to, through our FOIA litigation, whatever it takes. Your support of the ACLJ right now makes a huge difference. We're in a matching challenge campaign.

We're going to court in California today on these singing bands and churches still going on. Your support at ACLJ.org during this last week of our matching challenge makes a huge difference. That's how we have people like Rick Rinnell as part of the team here at the ACLJ.

And that's how we bring you this broadcast every day as well. ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

Back with the second half hour in just a moment. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

And now, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow. All right, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. If you're just joining us now, let me tell you, the crisis at the border continues to grow, and in fact, now there is bipartisan legislation being introduced targeting the migrant surge. Now, let me give you just a for instance.

I said this at the beginning of the program. This is not in one day or one week. This is just in a couple of stops at the border. More than $4 million worth of methamphetamine.

One shipment, deemed a fresh produce. More than $97 worth of fentanyl and meth during one traffic stop. More than $275,000 worth of cocaine during one traffic stop.

Nearly $200,000 in meth alone during single traffic stop. And don't think this just means Texas. It affects any economy, former district attorney and former state attorney and former U.S. attorney.

This affects all 50 states because that's just the entry point for the distribution. You can put drugs in it, you can put sex trafficking in it, all of it. Human trafficking, it's all in there.

Absolutely correct, Jay. This is just the, as you pointed out, entry point for these dangerous drugs. Cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and other dangerous drugs and drugs that undermine society, corrupt the youth, corrupt adults and create crime and violence in our nation because drugs are really at the basis of so many of the other offenses that I have prosecuted because they're almost always involved in some fashion in an assault case or in a murder case.

You're always going to find some history there on the part of the perpetrator of drugs. Well, where do you think they're coming from? They're coming from the southern border right now in huge quantities.

You mentioned exactly the points of seizure of these drugs, but a lot of them are getting through. Not just the ones that are seized, but a lot of them are getting through and they're being spread throughout the United States, including cities and states in the northwest, the northeast and the southeast. It's not just a southwestern United States problem.

It is an American problem all throughout the country. All right, let's go to the phones. Let's go to Stacy on Line 2 in Pennsylvania. Stacy, you're on the air. Hi, Stacy.

Hello, Jay. Thank you for taking my call. It's just a comment about the far reaches of the border crisis, and I'll use that word, crisis. Very good.

Go ahead. Living here in Erie, Pennsylvania, we have the International School, which is used for refugees, political asylum, different things to get them ready for naturalization, citizenship and things along those lines. But recently, some of those children were brought to Erie.

There were 70 some children. So they were looking to have them vaccinated for COVID. They cannot be vaccinated because there is no documentation of their other vaccinations ever being done. Go ahead, Logan.

Yeah, sure, Stacy. I mean, obviously, one thing, the vaccine, I wonder if it has to do with the fact that it's not approved yet for kids. But when you look at it in general, that is sort of another hurdle we have to go over when it comes to these situations. The fact that there are just, it is an odd situation where things are, kids are just being sent to feels like random cities across the country. Be like, you take this, but you take this.

It just seems like that's not the best way. I mean, this is a humanitarian crisis. It is a humanitarian crisis. It's a moral crisis. And you take the same issue that the caller talked about. You know, President Trump was using Title 42 to let the CDC control and put more restrictions on people coming in because of COVID, because it is a health crisis, as we've all been told for the last 13 months.

And yet the Biden administration, what did they do? They suspended Title 42 so they're no longer using it in order to be able to do what the caller was just talking about. When we come back, we're going to talk about the loss of operational control at portions of our borders. Sounds very ominous. What does it mean? What is the impact of all this? We'll take your calls too.

Again, if you're from a border status, certainly, boy, Texas, California, Arizona, we'd love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. Van, very quickly, this legislation is being introduced when? Today? It's supposed to be introduced today. We should have a look at it. Hopefully by tomorrow, Jay, we can have some specifics on it. Any indication from the White House where they're going to stand on it? I've not heard a word.

Not a peep. All right, folks, your voice is going to matter, and that's why we're here. ACLJ.org. We want you to join with our Matching Challenge campaign.

As I said, we're going to court in California today defending churches. Your support at ACLJ.org during this last week of our Matching Challenge campaign is critical. ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate, we get a matching gift.

We're back with more in a moment. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Congressman Chip Roy from Texas has said that cartels have now taken operational control over portions of the border, especially in Texas. And then he points out that Vice President Harris has basically done nothing and hasn't visited the area. Let me play for you what Congressman Roy said, and we're going to talk about what that means. Cartels have operational control over our border, period.

Anybody who's following it knows that. Tomalipas, the state right across the border from Texas, is run by the dangerous cartels, the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel, and the cartel del Norreste of Lozetas. They are using human beings as shields for profit. They're moving people into Texas, into our communities, into San Antonio, which I represent.

We've stopped vehicles with human beings that are being sent to stash houses in Houston to be used for profit into human trafficking and sex trafficking. All right, well, let's break this down because this is a very big statement. First of all, the loss of operational control.

So let me go to Colonel Smith. That's really a military term, is operational control. What does it mean? Yeah, operational control is whenever you have the ability to initiate and conduct an exercise or a mission. In military terms, it implies and involves, and it does here as well, command authority to control two things, what we call the battle space in the military. In this case, it will be territory and people. When you control the land, the territory, and you control the people there, then you have operational control over this.

And to this point, Jay, this is what loss of operational control looks like. Under the Trump administration, illegal border crossings were averaging 832 a day. Under President Biden, it's just 102 days. It's 6,000 a day. In December, in between the administrations, there were 71,000 illegal immigrants detained. Last month in March, 168,000. And that's not counting the estimate of 1,000 a day who aren't caught.

That's 30,000 more a month. Jay, this is a loss of land and control of people. It is operational control by the drug cartels. Andy, when you lose operational control, and we have in portions of our border apparently, that impacts also the justice system because, you know, first of all, prosecuting this stuff is not easy, time-consuming, expensive, and you're not catching everybody. No, you're not.

You're not catching most, actually. Exactly correct, Jay. You cannot prosecute all these criminal offenses that are going on when you don't have operational control in the ingress into the United States. The prosecutorial functions basically cease. They're nullified. They don't exist.

They're absolutely made zero. Prosecutors cannot enforce the criminal laws of the United States under those kinds of surge situations and the statistics that Wes Smith just gave, which are mortifying to a prosecutor who knows that you want to prosecute these criminal offenses, and yet the influx is so great that the criminal justice system simply cannot happen. And so, in effect, in the Texas border in the area that he mentioned, you don't have a criminal justice system. You don't have prosecution of crimes.

You've got lawlessness. And to the Congress's point, I will say this, you know, that this loss of operational control is not where there are checkpoints and border patrol agents. This is where the open borders are that we've lost control, which is why it's so important to have a wall and to have checkpoints and to have agents who are not back taking care of doing child watch care but actually serving at the border. So the loss of operational control, to the Congress's point, is not everywhere.

It's wherever there is open border, which is a lot of our border. Alright, we're going to go back to our phones at 800-684-3110. We'd love to hear from you. Go ahead, Logan, who's next? Go to Mary Ellen in Illinois on Line 1. Mary Ellen, welcome back. Hi, Mary Ellen. Go ahead, you're on the air. Oh, thank you.

Great job. And I'd like to echo everything you're saying. Now, let me – I'm going to go to three points in time. This is a Democrat-held city forever. Back in the late 90s, I was working with the church, trying to stop all the gangs and the shootings, and they always blamed it on the guns. So then now, looking to go to 2009, I saw an article where they showed how the cartels were penetrating the border and heading for Chicago, because that was the chief distribution center to all the states across the country.

Now, go to today. It's lawlessness. You don't even hear about all the shootings, but the drugs, their business, or I should say the gangs' business is the drugs. No, here's a point, and I think this is important for everybody to understand, and Andy goes back to the distribution points. So you lose operational control, which means people then get through the border. Where they hit is major expressways initially. That is how they get to distribution points, so they go up I-65, I-75, 2010, all the major interstate routes, which hits all the major cities, and from those major cities, they then disperse it into the local communities. That's exactly right, Jay, and don't forget one of the biggest routes, and that's I-95, which goes from Miami all the way to Maine, and goes through Miami, through Central Florida, through Jacksonville, through Savannah, through Brunswick, up through Charleston, and all the way up through to Washington. Interstate 95 has been always one of the main corridors for the distribution of narcotics and dangerous drugs, and it's being used again.

The stops that we have in the circuit that I used to represent, down there as an assistant district attorney, I cannot tell you the number of stops that we've gotten from drug for drug seizures, that an interdiction that occurred when the drugs had egress from not that part of the United States, but from the southwestern part of the U.S. You know, it also seems like that unfortunately the sex trafficking goes hand in hands with the drug distribution. Now, here's what I don't understand, Van, in Washington, D.C. We've got a real, this is a concrete problem where we actually could have some real solutions, and it seems to me that instead of focusing on real solutions, what we have happening is even with bipartisan approaches to legislation, which Senator Cornyn, Senator Sinema would be, that you need no response from the administration. Well, yeah, that's what it seems like to you, Jay, because that's exactly what's happening. Look, I think it's time for Congress to force the administration's hand here. Yes, Democrats have control of both the House and the Senate, but I want people to think about this for just a moment. If there were just three Democrats in the House of Representatives and a single Democrat in the United States Senate that would sign on to two pieces of legislation, the one we already talked about that Senator Blackburn has to address the sex trafficking issue, and then Jay, the one that you referenced from Yvette Harrell and Chip Roy during the break, the one that says, oh, you know those CDC COVID protocols that were in place under the Trump administration?

Maybe pitch it to them as the CDC recommendations, because that's really what it was, and the left says they want to follow CDC protocols. Jay, three Democrats in the House, one Democrat in the Senate, both of those two pieces of legislation in a bipartisan fashion could become law. I'm going to play another soundbite from Congressman Roy, because there is also laws on the books that could be applied here, except the administration under prosecutorial discretion is saying, nah, maybe not.

Take a listen. Title 42 is the tool they've got to be able to stop the flow at the border and be able to hold the line, and the Democrats in the White House have already gotten rid of it for kids and families, but now they're rumbling about getting rid of it for everybody. If they do that, the bum rush at our border will make the 171,000 in March seem like a trivial number. Logan, I'm going to ask you this question, because it would seem to me that Democrats are usually fairly media savvy.

Yeah. They're getting horrible poll results for even Democrats about how the border's being handled. I mean, I think, what was it, 25% total? I don't know if they care right now about their poll numbers. I don't think that, you know, we're so early into this, it feels like we never leave an election cycle, but I purely don't think they care, and clearly, someone has come up with a strategy saying the best possible thing to do is to just ignore, ignore, ignore, and it'll go away.

And look, they may not be wrong when it comes to their voting base. I bet there's a lot of people, how often do you see on your social media pages people talking about the border crisis that are more from the left? Not that often. Not that often. It has become a talking point for conservatives, which is crazy, because just six months ago, it was the exact opposite.

Yes. I mean, you had people like, you know, Idina Menzel, when she tweeted out the day that Joe Biden was certified as the winner of the election, put, you know, my son or my daughter said, yes, that means no more kids in cages, and then you have the flip side of what's been happening right now, which is it's only gotten worse. Look, and look, we've said before, we said when that was all happening, those pictures were coming out. Last year, it was horrible then, it's horrible now. We don't approve of Idina.

It was bad all around. These are not simple solutions that certainly are not handled by who gets put in, but they certainly can be at least treated like real issues. And I think that's where the American people, when it comes to those poll numbers, are just, they've had enough of this becoming some, you know, fictional thing that we live in this perfect world where this stuff doesn't happen, and it's happening over and over again. And we said this earlier, Wes, and you're also a pastor, it's a humanitarian moral crisis as well. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, how can you deny that? When you look at the drug trafficking that Andy was talking about, and then you look at the human trafficking, the underage girls, and in some cases, boys, who are brought across, you know, by sex traffickers into the United States, and as Andy will, I'm sure, bear out, they also use the interstate system in America to take these young people across the country. It is a huge moral crisis. And, Fan, you think it's also a political issue that's really at play here?

I sure do. Logan is spot on on this one. Look, there is a long track record that if you're actually trying to solve these problems, there could be a bipartisan approach to do it. But, Jay, this is a very effective thing to run on to the left base. So if the issue goes away, you can't campaign on it, Jay.

That's a real problem. All right. Well, coming up on our last segment of the broadcast, can't believe we're already there, we're going to take your calls and questions on these topics, others as well, 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110.

You could also get your comments and questions in via Facebook and also, of course, on YouTube. So we encourage you to do it both ways, 1-800-684-3110. Remember, we're back in court in California today defending Church's right to worship.

Back with more. That's why we have a matching challenge campaign at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Welcome back. Last segment, we're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. To be precise, this is a recent Quinnipiac poll found that only 29% of Americans approve of the President's handling of the border crisis, which means 71% do not.

So that cuts across all kinds of political lines. All right, let's go right to the phones. 800-684-3110.

We'll also look for comments on Facebook and on YouTube. Let's go to Daryl in Maryland on Line 2. Daryl, welcome to the show. Hi, Daryl. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, or whatever it is. Question is, isn't the Biden administration aiding and abetting crimes across the U.S. states, et cetera? By not enforcing the immigration laws?

Is that what you're talking about? Well, this brings up an interesting question because, Andy, we had this under the Obama administration. This is like, Logan said, this is like a replay, and that is they have prosecutorial discretion to prioritize what they want to prosecute. Well, they do. They have the right to prosecute or not, depending upon what the evidence is and what the prosecutor believes the way his chances or her chances of getting a conviction are. But to the caller's point, there is a statute, 18 U.S.C.

Section 2, that says whoever counsels, procures, aids, abets, assists, encourages and promotes someone to commit a crime and facilitates the commission of a crime is as guilty as the main perpetrator. So an argument can be made that we have an aider and abettor here. Well, I mean, or an ignorer. I mean, it's like, I've asked Logan this before, I'll ask it again, it's as if they want to ignore this one. It's not going to go away. That's what I don't think Joe Biden understands. It's not going away. No, it's not going to go away, but they can effectively remove it from the political narrative if they remove it from the news and quit talking about it and try to ignore it. Sure, the conservative outlets will follow. Remember who's watching the conservative outlets?

The conservatives. So it doesn't really matter if they can keep it out of the mainstream press, but when you do see the plummeting numbers, that does mean eventually there will be outcry. So eventually they're going to have to deal with this issue. And again, we're not silly enough to say this is something you could solve in five minutes. This is a huge complex, complex deal.

It needs a complex resolution. However, by just ignoring, pretending it's not happening, it's just simply not how we operate in the country. What we're witnessing, Jay, is not just prosecutorial discretion. We're witnessing selective indignation. The things that should upset some of the people on the left doesn't appear to upset them. And the things that should not upset them, they get all riled up about.

So it's selective indignation and hypocrisy on steroids. It really is. All right, let's go right back to the phones at 800-684-3110. Let's go to Linda in California, line one. You're on the air, Linda. Hi, Linda. Hi there. Thank you for all your work.

I listen to you daily. Thank you. We just were notified through the email and public information system that they had put a call out in San Diego for all foster families to take in, volunteer to take in some of these ladies, the girls, young, very young girls too, from Guatemala and Ecuador on Monday, I believe it came out. And I don't know what the response has been, but it's so sickening. So obviously the system, wherever they are taking them, is overburdened everywhere.

They're full at the convention center, I believe, or they wouldn't be asking for the foster care system to take these girls in. Go ahead, please. Yeah, look, we've said it. I mean, we said it early on the broadcast then. This is a human crisis. It's a moral crisis, a humanitarian crisis.

And you can't blame these young kids. Yeah, I really think, Jay, this is going to be the issue that gets the American people and forces the administration to take action. Look, the reality is once someone is in the interior of the country, they're going to be all over the country. There is, of course, a fiduciary obligation, certainly a moral duty for the administration to maintain operational control to address the humanitarian crisis. But look, Jay, the American people are compassionate people. When they see this crisis, they are not going to tolerate these kind of abuses forever.

And whether they're right, left, or in the middle, Republican, Democrat, or independent, when they see these kind of abuses, they expect their government to address it. Eventually, I think that's the breaking point. Yeah, I think so, too. All right, let's go ahead and take another phone call. Again, 800-684-3110.

Yeah, if you do want to get on the air, 1-800-684-3110. Britt from Tennessee is on the air. Britt, welcome. Hey, Britt.

Hey, good morning, fellas. What I wanted to say, I'm a retired Border Patrol agent, and we don't need more bills in Congress. Just allow the Border Patrol and the U.S. Attorney's offices to enforce the laws that are already on the books. It's kind of like gun crime. They're constantly adding new laws. Oh, we need a law for this. No, just enforce the laws that are on the books. Well, look, I'm going to go to Andy accountable, former U.S. Attorney, because that's a – I mean, look, there are laws on the books that can be utilized, but it's just not happening, Andy.

Well, that's true, Jay. There are statutes that are in force and have been for decades that talk about trafficking in narcotics, about illegal importation of narcotic drugs, about people who are coming into the country illegally, the use of firearms, the possession of firearms by convicted felons, and a plethora of other drug-related and other criminal offenses that can be used. Why are prosecutors not prosecuting these cases? It can't be for lack of evidence.

We've got evidence all over the place. It seems to me that it is the fault, concerted fault, of the Department of Justice not to target these offenders and to prosecute them on a wholesale basis as they're doing in, for example, in Oklahoma. There is a program there to prosecute Native American criminal acts, both committed against Native Americans and by Native Americans. This is a program that the Justice Department started. I know a young prosecutor who went out there to help clear up the backlog.

You can do the same thing in the area of drug abuse, drug interdiction, and the sex trafficking that is going on if only the Justice Department and the Biden administration had the will to do it. You know, it's interesting, Andy. Catherine on YouTube said, it's so sad when the children have become commodities.

But Logan—I'm going to go to Logan and Wes on this—that's exactly what's happened. Yeah, and I think that's why people have always had a personal issue with this. It's just how we respond. And as we can see, the big response is not just to ignore this. It's to take it head on and figure out this complicated issue and how we can at least come to some better version of what we're doing now.

And that's really what we're looking for. Because it doesn't work. The solution may be years down the road.

It may not even be a solvable thing in terms of completely solving it. But at least we can make steps forward. And that's really what the American people want is just seeing baby steps even and baby steps forward. Yeah, and I think really when it comes down to it, you know, President Biden ran on this theme partly that he was going to have a more compassionate response to the immigration issue.

Jay, this is not compassion. No, it's not. Now, Thanh, you said that there is legislation pending that really could help the effort in enforcing existing statutes. Quickly tell us what that is. I think people need to know.

Yeah, I mean, the caller is correct. You don't need new legislation. There's authority that's already there. But if the administration is not going to use it as they're not with these COVID protocols, there is an avenue for Congress to force the administration to do it. That's what Yvette Harrell and Chip Roy are doing to try to reinstate the Trump CDC COVID protocols. Jay, again, said it earlier. I'll say it again.

Only three House Democrats, one Senate Democrat, and then the administration would be forced to put those protocols back in place. Look, we're going to work on getting some solutions here, and the kids are the victims. I mean, let's be clear.

The kids are the victims, and then the rest of the country becomes the victim as well. I do want to say this. We're in the last week of our matching challenge campaign here at the ACLJ. What does that mean? That means that this is a very important week for our finances at the ACLJ. It helps us budget for the rest of the year. That's what these matching challenge months do. Your support of the ACLJ in that regard makes a huge difference. So we have a matching challenge campaign.

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Talk to you tomorrow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.