ACLJ Breaks Down Biggest Stories of the Week

Today on Sekulow, the Biden administration pushing taxpayer-funded attorneys for illegal immigrants at the border. We'll talk about it today and more on Sekulow. We're still at work on improving a process and improving a system that was very broken when we took office.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. As you heard there, Jen Psaki from the White House trying to blame the Trump administration for the 190,000 encounters in June. Over 200,000 appears in July. The numbers at our southern border are out of control. We haven't seen anything like this, just to put it into context, this kind of numbers, since the year 2000.

So 21 years. 21 years since we've seen any kind of numbers like this at the border. If you can remember at the time, that led to a nationwide debate on immigration reform. But it became hyper-partisan, the discussion around it, and nothing moved. So the laws did not get changed, the laws weren't reformed, and we did see an emphasis by the Trump administration, though, on border security and doing what they could do while Congress remained divided, putting in the policies in place that worked, that brought these numbers down.

But we're now back to the levels that created the last immigration crisis, which was two decades ago. On top of that, the Biden administration's new idea is to provide taxpayer-funded attorneys, so federal government attorneys, to these illegal immigrants in their removal proceedings. Now, you and I don't get taxpayer-funded attorneys in a civil proceeding.

That's what this is. So we're not guaranteed that. That's not something guaranteed to U.S. citizens.

This would be something special for illegal immigrants. Again, I don't know where these trials are even happening. When you have these kind of numbers, the backlog here is not even a joke. It's not workable. There's no way to do this in a one-by-one-by-one situation and throw attorneys at it like that will solve a problem.

But on top of that, they want you to pay for it. Well, they're trying to placate the left flank of their party. So what you've got is, though, and this was, Andy, what makes no sense to me, 7,000 people that came in illegally were released, by the way, 1,500 of those with COVID, into their communities and into McAllen, Texas, just McAllen, Texas. Now, the idea that you would now throw government lawyers down to Texas to be involved in these proceedings is nonsensical.

Well, that makes absolutely no sense legally or any other way, as Jordan alluded to. What are these lawyers going to do, Andy? A person in the United States who claims his constitutional or her constitutional rights were violated in some fashion and files a civil action, which these deportation hearings are simply civil actions, would not be entitled to a lawyer. Cannot get a government appointed or court appointed lawyer. So you would be giving an illegal immigrant or an immigrant or a migrant, however you want to call them, an alien in the United States, a greater right, a right to counsel that does not exist for American citizens who claim their constitutional rights have been violated.

That doesn't exist. You would be creating something for an illegal migrant and the cost would be horrendous. No one talks about who's going to pay for all these lawyers. I'd like to know what branch of the government are these lawyers coming from? I mean, are they Department of Justice lawyers that have been reallocated to the border? Are they DHS lawyers? I mean, who are these lawyers? And what proceedings are they doing where all these lawyers are needed? But this is the problem when you have a policy in place that does not work.

And folks, clearly it does not work. Folks, Mike Pompeo will be joining us the second half hour of the broadcast as well, where you're talking about the rising crime in the United States. And then we see, of course, the crisis at the border and the blame game and the solutions, which are just a joke. But on top of that really bad policy, when you look at the big picture about how what everyone is dealing with and facing in our country, they always throw attorneys at that situation at the border.

That will that will not solve anything. In fact, might encourage more people to come free attorneys for your hearing. We'll be right back on secular. 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 ACLU 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 ACLU matching challenge for every dollar you donate. It will be matched. A ten dollar gift becomes twenty dollars.

A fifty dollar gift becomes one hundred. This is a critical time for the ACLU. 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 ACLU dot 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 forty years later. 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 dot org slash gift. So a situation on the board of the crisis is out of control, to say the least. And it plays into all the different issues are facing our country right now.

One that we're going to be talking about with Mike Pompeo, who's our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, the second half hour. He's got a new piece up going on ACLJ dot org about the rising crime in our country. We know there's direct correlations with the border. It's not all of the crime. But there is certainly increased criminal activity because of the lack of a controlled border. Second issue, of course, and the biggest one facing the country, during a pandemic. So during a pandemic, when there's restrictions in place in cities across the country and people try to figure out what to do in the next back to school on the border.

It's like it doesn't really exist. And if it does, it doesn't matter. And, you know, if you really do care about that issue and the pandemic issue and try to secure, be able to go back to school, get through all those issues, this should be a top concern.

Because if you put 1,500 people into one city who have no one to rely on, who are spreading COVID around, again, you are creating a humanitarian crisis that you're taking responsibility for. You start adding U.S. attorneys to that who have to be trained. They say the training will cost 30 million and they're going to spend 15 million on attorneys. Now, that's a lot of money. That is nothing. When you're talking about one month of 200,000 illegal border crossers, one month of 200,000, 15 million dollars is not even going to be a dent.

That's maybe a couple thousand cases of literally hundreds of thousands. So we have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Customs and Border Protection, the United States Immigration and Customs Office, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In it, we have requested and we demanded through this litigation that these agencies turn over documents, records regarding the handling of the border crisis, threats of crime and related crime. In other words, what is the actual information and why there was a cancellation and postponement of Operation Talon and the arrest of persons on the FBI's terror watch list, which was also stopped. We're also going to, of course, we filed that in federal courts.

Let me give you the exact status on it. We filed our response to the government's motion to dismiss, not a shock that the United States government would file a motion to dismiss. We filed our response on July 7th.

The agencies will respond on July 14th. After that, there will be oral argument. But what we're going to here is to try to determine basically what has happened that has led to all of this. I know the policy has been changed, but why was it changed? Because, Harry, as director of our policy, we cannot figure out what the plan is here. Well, I think the answer is there is no real plan. So Biden's border approach does not work.

In my view, it was never intended to work. Biden's policy prescriptions represent a sustained attack on President Trump's legacy, a sustained attack on the American people, and a sustained attack on common sense. In essence, the Biden administration has engaged in a premeditated, deliberate effort, perhaps unintentionally, to spread COVID throughout the United States and to spread crime.

Why? In essence, to create more long-term voters for the Democratic Party. So this policy does not work. The American people should see through what the Biden administration is doing.

Wes? Yeah, you know, this is chaos. If there's a policy, it's a chaotic policy. Four months ago, President Biden told people in the Northern Triangle countries not to come.

When Vice President Harris was there four months ago, she said, don't come. Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, said, the border is flat out closed. Jay, this is a break with reality. And this week, this week, the White House said, through Jen Psaki, we are making progress on the border.

Well, yes, they are if making progress, if your goal is to have two million people who have crossed illegally by the end of the calendar year. This is insane. Yeah, so Andy, we've got a federal lawsuit filed because we're trying to get to the bottom of what's happened here and who's responsible. Because in order to address this, for Congress to address, I'll go to Fan in a minute, and Jordan, but we filed this lawsuit to get some answers as to what happened here.

That's right. And that's the policy that we pursue under the Freedom of Information Act. We seek declaratory judgments and we seek injunctive relief against the government agencies who are refusing to give us the information.

And one of the things that we do in our FOIA practice is exactly this. When the government stonewalls us and refuses to give us information with respect to what they are doing, with respect in this case to the border, how they're handling the border situation, we go to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. As we have done in this case, our lawyers who are committed, knowledgeable lawyers, no immigration law, no constitutional law, no procedural law. And we filed these lawsuits and we expect federal district judges to, and most of them do, side with us in requiring the government to turn over the documents and information to us so we can find out just exactly what the Biden administration is doing, not just what they're saying they're doing. And this is not just a Republican-Democrat issue either, because I'm going to play for you Congressman Henry Cuellar, who is a Democratic congressman from Texas.

Listen to his very serious concerns. We're very compassionate. We understand. Most of us come from families from Mexico. You know, my father was born in Mexico, Guerrero Tamaulipas, became a legal resident, became a naturalized citizen.

They follow our procedures. And what they see, there's an underground tension in many ways in the Hispanic community saying, hold it, we followed this procedure, we followed these steps, and we're seeing people just come in. Now this is a Democratic member of Congress who's raising this concern.

So Than and Jordan, you know, Than first. Jordan, I want you to, the political ramifications of this have got to be serious with the midterms just a year and a little bit away. But Than, what is the reaction in Capitol Hill on this right now with DHS basically saying, well, we think it's getting better? Well, first of all, Congressman Cuellar is exactly correct. I wish more of his colleagues would take a look at the numbers. Jay, the numbers just don't lie. This is not political rhetoric.

This is not just empty bantering back and forth. The numbers unequivocally prove that the policies of the Trump administration, including the migrant protection protocols, including remain in Mexico, including Operation Talon, Jay, they were working. And Henry Cuellar looks at those numbers and he understands they were working and he understands that the suspension of them have taken the numbers the other direction. The other point here, Jay, and he touched on this in that soundbite, the people that this is hurting are those who are trying to do this the right way. The people who are trying to seek asylum, those who are trying to seek a better life in the United States, the people who are abusing the problem and the lack of enforcement at the border. Jay, those are the very first people that these bad policies are hurting.

Yeah, I think that unfortunately he may be an outlier right now in his party because there's this, again, this idea that there's nothing they can do. They feel like they're having their, if you listen to their sound, those are statements. This is Mayorkas from Homeland Security acting like they've got to build this, rebuild this from the ground up as if there weren't policies that were working by the Trump administration to stem this massive influx of illegal immigrants.

Take a listen, though, to Bite29 because they're acting like they've got to recreate everything from nothing. Let me, if I can, share with you what makes the challenge so acute at this point in time. We are following an administration that, frankly, dismantled our capabilities to address it, and so we are building it from the ground up. Wes, we could go through numerous policies. There was Operation Talon on the child smuggling and the human trafficking. There was the Immediately Return to Mexico, the Wait Mexico policy. I mean, I could go through the list, the building the wall. It's like none of that, they're trying to ignore that existed. That is what the last administration gave them, tools.

They decided to throw all those out the door. Yeah, which is why a year ago we had about 20,000 people being confronted illegally crossing the border, and in July, just last month, we had over 200,000. The Remain in Mexico policy was lauded by the President of Mexico because they had to wait in Mexico while their asylum claim is heard. Operation Talon takes convicted sex offenders and automatically deports them. They stopped that, too. You know, we actually gave aid under the Trump administration to the Northern Triangle countries on the condition that they would police their own borders into the southern part of Mexico, and that helped stop a lot of the illegal immigration because we tied our aid to those countries to helping us out with this problem.

All of those things the Biden administration has done away with. So far, this year, as of reports that came out yesterday, 1,111,000 people have been caught crossing the border illegally. Those are the ones that we have confronted and apprehended. We don't know how many more there are. That's enough people to populate a major mid-sized city in America. 1,111,000, they say, by the end of this calendar year, over 2 million people will have entered the United States illegally. You know, folks, we are, again, going to continue this discussion.

Get your comments in Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, Instagram as well. Of course, if you're listening to the broadcast, you always call 1-800-684-3110. Listen, second half hour, we're going to get into the rising crime issue in our country. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a part of our team in the ACLJ, has got a new piece up going on ACLJ.org about that. We can't keep ignoring this. We see it in the news. The news has got more shocking and more and more shocking images every single day, more and more shocking reports all across the country. And we are seeing this, again, all of these crisis issues.

It feels like, again, the government push, when the crisis gets out of control, then you end up giving more power over to the federal government. So how do you do that before that move is made where everybody throws their hands up in the air? We will be talking about that as well.

Take your phone calls. I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back. 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. 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.

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. Welcome back to Secio. Take your comments. Raymond on Facebook wrote, and I'm an immigrant. I support legal immigration. No one should be allowed to enter the United States without a sponsor or proving to be self-sufficient to support his or her family.

I want to go through. This is the current law. Section 292 of the Immigration Nationalization Act says, quote, that while you can hire attorneys, so the person concerned in a removal proceeding shall have the privilege of being represented. It says expressly, at no expense to the government by such counsel, it says you can go to the nonprofit organizations, you can seek out representation, you can have an attorney there, but then it should not, will not be paid for by the U.S. government. That means the U.S. taxpayer. They want to change that. The new proposal is to change that.

But I will tell you, it's not even, I think, one, it's a horrible idea. We don't have that right as U.S. citizens. It's a civil proceeding. You don't get a free attorney either.

You can hire an attorney, but it's not provided to you. It's not like a criminal proceeding. Second, if we go down this route, remember that New York Times op-ed about it doesn't matter if you're a citizen or not to vote.

It's the whole idea. You start giving people these rights over and say, well, what is citizenship anymore if you're starting to get benefits that maybe even citizens don't get. On top of that, which is very typical of this humanitarian crisis situation, when you look at the number they're talking about, it's not going to do anything. So even if they did amend the law and provide these attorneys, they're talking about $15 million. This is the same administration that wants a $3 trillion infrastructure plan, which two-thirds is human infrastructure, something we have not even defined yet in our country exactly what that means. So they know what real money takes to do anything. They know this is another — it's not even a mandate. It's not going to stop anything.

If you used all $15 million, you got as many attorneys as you could, you deal a couple thousands of cases, you got $200,000 in one month. Yeah, so I mean, Harry, I'm trying to figure this out from them. What could possibly be the policy rationale to just throw some lawyers at it? Well, I think to some extent it's a band-aid. To some extent it does not necessarily move the ball one way or another substantively, but I also think it does provide the administration with some cover with respect to its left-wing base.

And so I think that's what they're trying to do. So keep in mind they're doing this, but they have also quietly announced that they are now going to keep some Trump-era immigration policies, because I think even officials within the administration recognize that what they are doing is not working no matter how much they continue to blame Trump. Well, you know, and what makes no sense, if you look at the numbers, just look at the data. In July of 2020, 40,929 encounters on our border. That's July of 2020. July of 2021, Andy, 210,000. Same thing you could go to July — to June. 33,000 in June of 2020.

This June, 188,000. So the policy isn't working. No, it's not working. But just because President Trump had policies in place, like Talon, like Remain in Mexico, like the wall, anything that President Trump did was bad and has to be reversed and has to be dismantled and changed. This is the attitude of Biden and his leftists. If President Trump did it, it was wrong. There was no right in it. There was nothing laudable about it.

There was nothing good about it. We have to reverse it and we have to change it. And that is exactly how they have proceeded, Jay, from the very beginning.

OK, what are the results? In a year's time, we have had five times the number of encounters at the border, 40,000 in July 2020, as you said, over 200,000 people, migrants, encounters in the border, in the United States' southern border. And that's just the border, Jay. They don't stay in the border, these people. They don't stay in New Mexico and Arizona and California. They're exported throughout the United States.

They put them in planes, let's not forget, and take them to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and take them everywhere else and plant them. You know, as my grandmother used to say, I can't believe they had the unmitigated gall to actually blame this on the Trump administration and to look the American people square in the face and say, we're actually making progress. The border is closed and this kind of stuff. You know, and concerning the lawyers, I was looking at the stats just now on my phone. There are 1.3 million immigration cases on backlog in the court system. So exactly what are these lawyers going to do? And are they going to put these people just now crossing ahead of other people? We know they're putting them ahead of many people who go through the process in a legal way. This is absolute chaos, and the critical issues are now also the health issues.

With so many people being released into the United States, McAllen, Texas, one city since February, has had over 7,000 illegal immigrants who tested positive for COVID. This is a health crisis as well as a national security crisis, humanitarian crisis, and a morality crisis. You know, I want you to listen to Jen Psaki talk, because she's asked a direct question. Do you think your plan's working? Do you think that this is the right thing?

And then, I mean, the pivot is to something, you just throw your hands up in the air. Take a listen by 13. Almost two months since the vice President went to Central America to say, do not come, but people are coming in record numbers. Does the President think his immigration plan is working? Well, the President continues to convey to anyone, as you've said, who wants to come to the United States. Now is not the time to come.

It is not the time to come and try to go through a regular migration. We want to have an effective process where you can apply for asylum, where you can apply for legal status. We have increased our investment in areas like the Central American Minors Program, allowing people to apply from within country so they are not making that dangerous trip. There's more that needs to be done. More that needs to be done. None of this is working. And throwing, you know, 10 dozen, you know, 120 lawyers at it or whatever the amount of lawyers is not going to solve this problem. No, I mean, these are programs we haven't even heard of. It's like they're just pulling a random federal government program out of their pocket to say, oh, the Central American Minors Program, oh, people that can apply.

But when you talk to West, they understand this, too. If you apply, you're part of the 1.2 million. Good luck. We'll get you in failures. If you can get across the border illegally, you're here. And they're letting you in. They're not only saying, figure it out.

They're putting you in places to figure it out. So they're taking you away from the border. The COVID issue seems to not matter to this group in Washington, D.C., when we know that that's a serious problem with these migrants and with these communities. And, of course, the bigger issue is the crime. This is a mess. It is a full-on humanitarian crisis that then becomes a crisis for not just people on the southern border. These numbers are out of control, but they try to control it by not letting you see the imagery, not letting you see what's really going on and say, oh, we're going to send lawyers there for people. Where are their cases?

I mean, the people whose cases would be going on today are probably years old at this point. Oh, yeah, no question. I want to take a minute here before we go to our break and ask for a personal request. And that is some prayer, serious prayer, for my brother Scott, who is very ill with COVID, hospitalized, very serious condition. And I would encourage you that are listening to this broadcast or watching on our social media platforms to pray for my brother Scott in Atlanta. It's a very serious situation. Obviously, our entire family is very concerned, but I know the prayers of God's people will make a difference. And I just want to take a moment here to encourage you to pray for Scott. He's in a really serious situation with severe, severe COVID. And everybody, I'm just going to say this, protect yourselves from this disease. I'm not going to get into the particulars of what you do or don't do. I got vaccinated.

That's what I did. But I'm telling you, just protect yourself because I'm experiencing it firsthand with my brother. 55 years old, he has a daughter and a wife. Pray for Scott. Don't put comments in the comment page about what you're, just tell me you're praying.

That's all I want to say. Thank you. 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. I'm talking about freedom. I'm talking about freedom.

We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he's got a new piece that's going up at ACLJ.org about the rising crime in our country. These issues are all connected, obviously. The border crisis, the people not going to work, people unemployed, the homelessness crisis, the illegal immigration we've been talking about, the pandemic on top of... I mean, you add all this together, it's a perfect storm for criminals. They utilize these situations. They actually look forward to these situations where you have breakdowns at the border or breakdowns with law enforcement, breakdowns with policing, or just overwhelming.

And that's their perfect storm. When things are overwhelmed, when people are distracted, when you're looking the other way, criminal elements take advantage. And you see that on a mass scale, the reports every single day. It doesn't really matter where you live in the country, you're seeing these numbers. And it's kind of based on where you live. So where you might be someone who lives in a major city that has crime consistently, but you're still seeing a spike. You also may be someone who lives in a smaller town and you're seeing crime that you've never seen before.

So yes, it's relative to where you are, but it's increasing. It's becoming more extreme. Or the situations feel like, again, a little bit out of control. Now, they will try sometimes to say, well, it's the summer. But we're trying to focus right now on getting back to a normalcy for the fall, for school. So because if kids can get back to school, parents can get back to work, they don't have those same kind of concerns of what to do with their children. And, of course, the idea that they will, you know, how to get back, how to open these schools, whether it's fights with teachers unions or school districts fighting with state-level programs.

I just think it has to be clear. These are all real problems. And the solutions for some of these problems were in place. It didn't mean that there wasn't a problem at the border.

It didn't mean there wasn't a crisis. There was a reason to build the wall. There was a reason to have remained in Mexico. There was a reason to incentivize Mexico to stop these border crossers.

So take a listen, because this is not something that you're going to see a lot of like MSNBC or the left from Jen Psaki by 14. We've also instituted a number of additional steps recently, including expedited removals to move people out of the country more quickly. But we're still at work on improving a process and improving a system that was very broken when we took office.

One of those, the expedited removal that she's talking about was in place when they came into office. They broke the system. They broke a system that was using creative and new ways, going about working with those countries. They make a big deal about diplomacy, but it was the Trump administration who came up with plans with these countries to incentivize the militaries of those countries to secure the border to do something. These migrants that are coming out of Central America, they have to go through Mexico. Mexico has a military.

They have policing. Now, you've got to kind of incentivize it to get it done, because there's a lot of other issues they're dealing with too. So we did that, and things were starting to get better. You undo that, and you start incentivizing coming illegally.

The word they say don't matter. So now they're back to expedited removals and trying to utilize parts of the law on spreading disease to try. But these were all in place when they came into office. They undid them.

Andy, we've only got a minute here. They undid them, and it's almost like it's just their knee-jerk reaction to anything the former administration did. Yes, if President Trump did it, it's wrong per se. No question about it, whether it was valid, whether you examined it and see that it was working, whether you see that it was a policy that was protecting the United States, protecting our border.

If it was President Trump who did it, then it had to be wrong, and we have to undo it. That's the way the left is thinking. All right, folks, we come back.

Mike Pompeo will be joining us, talking about his new piece going up at ACLJ.org about the rising crime in our country. And all of this plays together. The pandemic, the closings, not being able to get back to work, not being able to get back to school, the border crisis, defund the police movements. You put that all together, and you've got the perfect storm.

Criminal elements take advantage of those situations. The proof is in the facts. It's in what is actually going on. We'll be right back on Secular. We will 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, 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. We talk about these kind of different issues facing our country, one that is kind of fueling it all together. It all comes together in the rise of violent crime. As I explained, it happens whether you are in a smaller city or a major city, the numbers that you might have been normal for your city to have to deal with have spiked. They are out of control. And so we're seeing just outrageous acts of crime. People just walking out of stores and saying, well, don't even try to stop them because it's not worth trying to stop them. Or the massive amount of homelessness in our country that leads to crimes, leads to drugs, it leads to so many issues.

The border crisis, the pandemic issues, people not going back to work or losing their work, so that leads to the homelessness issue. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the ACLJ, has got a new piece up going to ACLJ.org this afternoon. It's called We Can No Longer Ignore Rising Crime in America.

Secretary Pompeo, thanks for joining us. We know that this is not a normal summer spike as the administration may try to spin it. This is something that we've seen over the last year and a half as people are dealing with the pandemic, the defund, the police movements. It's starting to show what those policies mean when you don't support policing in communities and you allow your border to go out of control and people aren't back to work. Jordan, you did a very nice job there connecting all the various strains that have led to this increase in violence.

It is not a summer spike. This is going to continue to be a problem. And you're right, not just in our biggest cities, but I was in my home state of Kansas now just a few weeks back talking to some of the senior police officers. They can't get people to sign up.

People are retiring. Their recruitment classes are smaller. When you denigrate the very people who are charged with keeping public safety, protecting each and every one of us in our homes, you drive this up. You will find fewer people willing to take the risk to actually do the hard work to defend and secure freedom all across America when you denigrate these people.

And then the second thing is you have to impose real costs. The administration is beginning to do things that feel like catch and release, right? Not no longer actually processing these claims against people who are conducting violent crime. This is happening all across America.

It will put families at increased risk, and we can't allow this to continue to happen. Mike, you point out in your piece that 25 major cities in the United States have already started their significant cuts or proposing major cuts in police budgets. I was in an area of North Carolina, that is a beautiful area of the state of North Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina, where they had a lot of talk about cutting the police and dismantling the police. And crime has increased across the country. And these are not major cities, and these are tourist destinations. So this anti-police move that the left is pushing is having real consequences.

And by the way, those consequences, Mike, are on Republicans, Democrats, independents, people not involved, citizens, people, non-citizens. If you're there, you could be subject to the violence. Jay, you know this. It happens to me all the time. I have friends call me and say, Mike, I'm thinking about traveling to some city. It used to be they would call me, I'm traveling to some city around the world. Do you think it's safe to go there? They thought I might have some special insights. Now they're asking, if I travel to New York or to Washington, D.C., or to North Carolina, wherever it may be, is it going to be safe? They're seeing the images on TV. We've seen this before in America. We've seen where the left has attacked those who are trying to defend and secure freedom. We can't permit this to continue to happen. People just like the rising up about what's happening in our schools, they need to rise up.

And, Jay, we always know this, too. The communities most adversely impacted are the communities with the least resources. So we'll see highlighted pictures from a particularly nice place. But in the end, this violence and the drugs and the homelessness always come to attack the families who can least afford this violence. We, those of us who are conservative, believe in property rights and the protection of liberty in life. We need to make sure that we are doing all the work we need to protect everyone and in all ways, even in those difficult communities. You're right. These most vulnerable people in our society are often the victims of these.

And it's tragic. And if the inner cities that have enough trouble as it is, this just seems to complicate it worse. It's almost like defund the police, the idea, and Secretary Pompeo, to some extent those advocates of that, while they might not have actually some places put this into practice, some didn't. But the idea what you were talking about is people don't want to take those positions anymore. It was already putting your life in jeopardy to protect your fellow citizens. But we've now demonized that position. And so whether you actually defund the police or not, if the police had the money to hire but can't find people, it works the same way because you have taken out a pool of people who say, you know what, I'm not going to deal with the regular crime and also having no support from the city, the state, the community.

Yeah, Jordan, that's right. Look, your idea of connectedness is right. When you begin to say that the Second Amendment doesn't permit people to bear arms, when you defund the police, when you start attacking faith communities as well, who have always been in some of these most vulnerable populations, right? Their church, their place that their community gathers has always been a place of safety and haven. When you begin to undermine that and pull out these essential pins, you are systemically building the conditions for violence and crime.

You're you're rewarding it. Young kids will see that this may be their only way to take care of themselves is to be joined a gang or become part of a crime group. These are the things that create the conditions that are difficult to get back from. All we need mayors, county commissioners, city leaders all across America, even in these large urban places that have historically elected Democrats to understand that the people are being harmed by this violence. And the idea that you're going to undermine law enforcement is cataclysmally dangerous for these most vulnerable populations. Mike, we were talking earlier in the broadcast about the situation on the border, which is in record numbers of of of illegal immigration right now and the number of encounters is breathtaking. But as you're talking about crime, this whole situation on the border does not help our crime situation in the United States. It hurts it.

Of course. And it's not just in Texas, Arizona and California, you all have talked about this and the ACLJ's done good work on this as well. But they are transporting these people all across America. They're dropping them into communities with which they are not familiar. And it's not just not just the virus that they may be carrying.

They may have come from backgrounds where violence was the norm. And so the risk of increased crime is traumatic. You know, I also as we look at this, we try to look at not just here's the problem, but point to solutions. And you've run you've run the CIA. You are our secretary of state.

You've been a member of the United States Congress. I mean, you know solutions as we look at the crime situation. And this is it's everything from the kind of the attitude going on politically. What do you think is the number one priority that needs to be put in place to curb this? We need to make sure that our law enforcement officers are supported and that our district attorneys, the prosecutors around this country are empowered. And that we find the tools, the judicial and resources to make sure that these criminals aren't being released.

They're not being returned to the streets. The recidivism rates have to go down. And we need to make sure that we are actually prosecuting these criminals to the full extent of the law, such that they are not permitted to prey on the most vulnerable. Which goes back to basically the idea that the criminal justice system needs also to not only prevent crime, but be a deterrent from future crimes. Mike, it's really criminal justice 101.

It truly is. There's not an original thought here. By the way, we in America know how to do this. We've been in this place before and Democrat administrations allowed our cities to run wild. We've been in this place before.

We know how to get back from this. It is a deterrence model and a support model in these most vulnerable communities that can drive down crime and make sure that we are all protected. When people listen to this, we just got this audio because Cori Bush, she's part of the squad, a Congresswoman from Missouri. She's got a lot of security, but she supports Defund the Police. She's trying to explain away now. I'm not against anybody having security. Members of Congress, elected officials, former federal officials current. But at the same time, if you're calling for Defund the Police, that is kind of saying it's one thing for me and one thing for everybody else.

Take a list of how she tries to explain this away. It just happened. I'm going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life. And I have too much work to do. There are too many people that need help right now for me to allow that. So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend $10 more dollars on it, you know what?

I get to be here to do the work. So suck it up and Defunding the Police has to happen. We need to Defund the Police and put that money into social safety nets. Okay, Mike, this is where I think we're living in the land of the absurd. I have no problem with her spending $200,000 or whatever she needs to do for security.

You have security, we have security, we all have security if you're in a profile position. Okay, that's part of it. But to then tell the local cities and communities, Mike, they can't have security? Defund the Police? Really?

Jay, I suppose she would suggest a social program to keep her safe. That would be the logical corollary to her statement. That's absurd.

It's ridiculous. I hope the American people can hear that and understand that that is hypocrisy at the highest order and more importantly, dangerous. Thank you, Secretary Pei. You've got the new pieces up at ACLJ.org.

Be up this afternoon. We can no longer ignore rising crime in America. Just take it to effect. This has just happened, this statement. People are saying, well, what about all of your security? You know, she's holding a protest outside the Capitol, has lots of security, has obviously spent a lot of her budget.

I have no issue with that. Do not call at the same time to defund the police. Again, look at yourself. Why do you need that much security as a junior member of Congress, the House of Representatives? Maybe because there's not enough police. Maybe because you're calling for defunding the police. Again, the hypocrisy is just out of control.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. There's always talk about the squad in Washington, D.C. They get elected. They get to perform their policies. They should be treated the same as any other member of Congress. So when they're attacking Israel, you mean? When they're not attacking Israel, they're attacking the police?

Yes. Again, they are elected. So they have their right to make their positions, but that doesn't mean you can't call them out for being a hypocrite when they are taking the most hypocritical stance. So Cori Bush, she's got a protest going on right now in Washington, D.C., which I'm not even sure if you weren't a member of Congress. You could be on those capital steps to have your protest. But that being said, she is a member of Congress, so she can be there. But she's asked, wait, you're constantly talking about defund the police. You have hundreds of thousands of dollars of your budget has been spent towards your own private security. So what gives here? Take a listen.

This happened today on CBS. I'm going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do. There are too many people that need help right now for me to allow that. So if I end up spending two hundred thousand, if I spend ten ten ten more dollars on it, you know what?

I get to be here to do the work. So suck it up and defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets. OK, so she has her private security police department and she's telling everybody else that in the cities that don't have the funds to pay two or three hundred thousand dollars or ten dollars for that matter for security, that they don't get to have theirs. So, Harry, her policy is it's good for her to have security, but everybody else too bad.

Absolutely. So what she is saying is she wishes to expose even her own constituents to a crime wave, to losing their life so that she can have a platform. So, again, I do not decry the fact that she has private security.

That probably makes a lot of sense. But what about securing the homes, the livelihoods, the futures of the constituents that she represents? At the end of the day, her statement is incoherent.

It makes no sense. But that perhaps is why she is in Congress. You know, I'm shocked at what she just said, and I think every American should be shocked and indignant. She is saying basically that her life is more important than the people she represents. She's from St. Louis, which has an extremely high crime rate. Her life is more important than the six year old girl that was shot and killed in D.C. last week. Her life is more important than the mother of three who was killed in a carjacking attempt or the grandfather who was robbed and brutally beaten.

I'm sorry, she just said she is more important than most of the rest of us. There needs to be a political price for that kind of arrogance and elitism. The celebrity culture has been doing that forever, but they're not elected members of Congress, but they have massive security details with them. But then they tell everybody else they don't support the Second Amendment, don't protect yourself.

Everybody with them has got guns. I'm sure her security has guns. But she's against all of that.

To me, she's one of 435. She is someone who should have probably security because she's outspoken, she got elected. But making a huge deal out of that also while supporting Defund the Police is, again, is that where the Democrat Party is going? Because if it is, at some point you would think this does resonate with people to say, you know what, yeah, I get that they have security, but don't go around taking the police off our streets. Well, Andy, I ask you because you work with local law enforcement, have for many decades. What's the alternative that they're talking about? If you defund the police, what are you going to put in there? You're going to have a social safety network, whatever that means. I have no idea what that means. In other words, when your house is being burglarized, when someone is busting into your car, when someone is taking a shot at you, don't call for the police. Call for the social safety network to come in and counsel the criminal and say, now, you shouldn't be doing this. This is not right.

We have to talk to you about it. But that's the hypocrisy here is that when they are themselves the target, the first person they scream for is a policeman. Of course. And you defund the police and that policeman or policewoman is not going to be there and you're going to be murdered or burglarized or shot or in some way maligned. So I ask this to Than because I'm trying to figure this out, Than, politically.

Where is this defund? I know it's coming from the hard left of the Democratic Party, but then where does this make sense politically? Where does this get them a plus? I think it's incredibly short-sighted, Jay. Yes, it gets them donors.

Yes, it gets the base that writes the checks excited. But guess who is not excited about this? Her constituents, her voters. Jay, if you go to the neighborhoods where people are actually losing their lives like Harry was talking about. Forget attempts on her life for Clinton.

I agree with Jordan. She probably does need security. Her constituents are losing their lives and when they go into the ballot box the next time, Jay, I think it's going to backfire on her and others who are supporting these policies. They're going to get the funding. They're going to get the check from that type of base. When it comes down to voters, Jay, I think this is extremely short-sighted.

Jordan, it's such a non-starter. It's pure politics. There's no doubt about that. These are young members of Congress who have been indoctrinated their whole life into putting forth these policies, so there's only a handful of them, that's why there is a squad, that will actually go out and say these extreme things, try to defend their extreme records. But someone taught them this, Harry. This is not new. It is the kind of epitomization in real time of the radical left indoctrination that it stuck with them.

You know, a lot of people that go to school, it's kind of like, okay, one thing with the professor, I move on to life career. But this stuck with them. They're activists. I don't think that they are, they're not just saying this. I think they believe it.

Absolutely. So they believe essentially every power structure in the United States, every sense of order in the United States deserves to be destroyed, including the Constitution, including the rule of law. But at the end of the day, I think it will backfire because what that means long term is that the nation will face suicide and guess who will be on the firing line? It will be those politicians. So if you go to San Francisco, if you go to many other cities, you find that individuals are going into stores. They are looting in front of the state of this store security.

No consequences. And if indeed these individuals are being apprehended, you have prosecutors who refuse to prosecute them. They will make up excuses. These people are desperate.

So if they're desperate, guess what? This means that the rest of us have to have our lives put at risk so that these politicians can grandstand in front of the nation's capital. But Harry, what you just said is absolutely right. This is grandstanding. I mean, this is this is political theater. It's political rhetoric.

The problem is it's a dangerous consequence because I go back to what Andy and I were just talking about. If you take away the police and we're not saying the police don't need better training, of course, that's been very clear. But to eliminate the police, to defund the police is the mantra. That's the statement. Defund the police.

Really? The alternative is pretty bleak, Andy. Yes, it's pretty bleak.

It's dismal. In my view, when a policeman or a policewoman comes into the room, you stand up, you stand up and instead of defund them, you defend them. You show the respect for law enforcement that they deserve. You train them, but you respect them because they're out there every day doing the job of protecting you.

They've got that gun in their holster and they're the ones that are on the line and their lives stand between you and the criminal. And you better wake up and realize that. And when you talk about this nonsense of defunding the police, think about you may be next. Folks, I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org this afternoon. Mike Pompeo's new piece, We Can No Longer Ignore Rising Crime in America will be up. Share that with your friends and family. We always encourage you. You can always go back, share these broadcasts too. That's all the discussion today, starting with the crisis at the border to the crime that we're seeing all across the country and all those issues facing it.

The solutions aren't that difficult, but you do have to put them in place. You've got to have the political will to do that. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Secular. The 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.