America's Talking - Border Czar Addresses Arizona Lawmakers, Cites Success on Crackdown

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

(The Center Square) – The massive crackdown on illegal immigration at the southern border is making the U.S. safer, but there’s more work to do, border czar Tom Homan told Arizona lawmakers during a joint session of the Legislature Tuesday. “In a matter of weeks, we’ve had illegal border crossings down 94%. President (Donald) Trump did in five weeks what Joe Biden wouldn’t do in four years,” said Homan, who advises Trump on border issues. Lawmakers in the Legislature, which has a Republican majority in both houses, applauded regularly during Homan's speech. Members of the Democratic minority walked out at the start of the speech to protest the Trump administration policies.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/arizona/article_af427476-9bcf-41db-952d-6b3d695a4efb.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America in Focus. I'm Eliana Kernodal. Tom Holman visited Arizona and spoke to the legislature there this week. Joining me with Moore is the Center Square's Dave Mason. Dave, what was the focus of Holman's speech and what were some of the highlights? Yes, hi. So Tom Holman was talking about the progress has been made by the Trump administration in securing the southern border. He made the point right from the start that Moore has been done in the last five weeks

then was done during the four weeks of the Biden administration. He pointed out that illegal border crossings are down by 94%, which is, of course, a large number. He pointed out that his priorities include making sure that the illegal border crossing stop, that there are deportations of people who are here illegally, and to find children who are missing. There are 300,000 children who are missing because of the border crossing. Many of these children sadly have been thrown into forced labor or are victims of sex trafficking.

So he would emphasize the importance of addressing this problem. Now, at the beginning of the speech, the Democrats in the state legislature walked out as a protest against the Trump administration policies. He did address the walkout and said that those people are not aware of the extent of the problem. and he questioned whether they were willing to learn about the extent of the problem. And one thing he mentioned was the concerns that have been raised about detaining families. What defense do he offer for that? Yes, that's correct. He's been criticized for his support of detention of the families, but he says it's necessary to detain the families in order to do DNA tests

because they don't know where these children are with their actual parents. or whether they're with sex traffickers. So he sees this as a crucial way of protecting the children. And you were able to speak to Arizona House speaker Steve Montenegro. He was there. He was sitting behind Tom Holman as he gave his speech. How did Montenegro respond to the speech? Well, he told me that he loved the speech,

that he found very refreshing to see some action being done on this problem after years of in action. He said it is terrible what is happening with the children. And he says that if we have allowed this to continue to happen to the children, to allow them to be missing, to be caught up in this wave of sex trafficking and forced labor, that we as a society are evil if we allow this. He pointed out that the Arizona legislature has been working on ways to help with the immigration problem. In fact, Tom Holman, his speech,

complimented the Arizona legislature on the bills, including what's called the Arizona the AS ICE Act, which is an Arizona law, which requires local estate law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. ICE officials in immigration issues. And he said, actually, that bill, which has passed in the state senate could be voted on as early as this week in the House. He also told me that the state lawmakers are looking at ways to increase the punishments for people who are caught during sex trafficking. And this bill, if it does pass, I know the state governor is a Democrat. Is she likely to sign this bill? What's kind of, has this been bipartisan?

What's the expectation there? She has said that she is willing to have cooperation between the district. for agencies. In fact, she's emphasizing parts of having a joint task force or having agencies work together in attacking things such as drug smuggling. Because a big problem, as

the speaker point out to me, is the introduction of so much fentanyl that comes across the border. And there has been some concerted efforts between the state and local authorities in trying to craft out on drug smuggling, which is a big reason of why Tom Holman and the Homeland Security Department is so focused on trying to curb the

problem of the illegal border crossings. Now, he does not know if she will sign the bill, but he can't fathom why she would not want to sign a bill. That would be crucial to the public safety of people Arizona. Now, you mentioned the Democrats. They walked out on Tom Homan's speech. The Democrats were not happy about Tom Holman being there. In fact, Senator Annalise Ortiz, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Election Committee said, quote, Tom Holman is not welcome in Arizona. The immigrants who have called Arizona home, the families that help the economy, who help take care of the community. They are welcome here.

For way too long, Arizona has long been ground zero for harmful policies, I guess immigrant policies. excuse me, I guess immigrant communities. And then she goes on to say that says Trump has taken office, we have seen hundreds of thousands of individuals deported people being detained for peaceful protests or heavy

tattoos and racist rhetoric spewed for both federal and local Republicans. Borders Tong Holm is behind all that. And then other people, the legislature are saying, other Democrats are saying that they feel left

the speech on Tuesday was a farce and that the people of Arizona deserve better. One legislature said that she walked out in protest because she refused to hear propaganda about it. And she felt like she has an obligation to speak out on this moment. So the Democrats see this as more of a racial issue. They see this as more of an issue of bigotry against the immigrants, that the immigrants are being treated unfairly. but the Republicans seeing this as more of a public safety issue. They see this as an issue of trying to crack down on drugs smuggling,

I've tried to keep the children safe from things from sex trafficking and forced labor, and they see this as a way of making sure that people follow on. Now, one interesting thing that the speaker told me is that he emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador when he was five years old. and he's been a naturalized citizen since childhood. And his own personal life experience is that our immigration laws do work if we follow them and if we enforce them. Well, Dave, thank you for sharing this story with us. You can follow this and other stories at thecentersquare.com.