Morning Wire - Asylum Seeker Crackdown & Environmental Justice Order | 2.23.23

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

The Biden administration introduces a new rule that could prohibit illegal migrants from seeking asylum, The White House signs an environmental justice executive order that was pushed by a controversial organization, and a State Department-funded non-profit cuts ties with a group accused of blacklisting conservative news outlets. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Balance of Nature: Get 35% off your first order as a preferred customer. Use promo code WIRE at checkout: https://www.balanceofnature.com/ Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ CarZing: Get pre-qualified and find the best deals near you: https://carzing.com/wire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. Start your morning with America's Coffee from black rifle coffee.com. The Biden administration has introduced a new immigration rule that could prohibit illegal migrants from seeking asylum. What's in the new rule and what effect does it have on Title 42? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, February 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. The White House quietly signed an executive order last week, relating to environmental justice.

But some on the right are raising flags about the group that has been contracted to spearhead the effort. We have to break down the monopolies. We have to delink money in politics. We have to build up local systems. And amid backlash, a State Department-funded nonprofit

has cut ties with a group accused of blacklisting conservative news outlets. Taxpayer money ought not to be going in this. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news. news you need to know. The American Heart Association recommends four to five servings of fruits and vegetables every single day. Now that's no small task, especially given your busy schedule.

Balance of Nature fruit and veggie capsules are a convenient way to consume essential nutritional ingredients on the daily. Go to Balanceofnature.com and use promo code Wire for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer. That's balanceofnature.com promo code wire. This week, the Biden administration introduced their strongest immigration order to date, cracking down on asylum seekers and empowering border officials to deport those caught entering illegally. Here with the details on that rule and what it means for those coming here illegally is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, what can you tell us about this new measure? Yeah, this is without a doubt the most aggressive action on the border that we've seen since President Biden took office.

Remember, last fiscal year, we saw 2.76 million illegal immigrant crossings that broke the previous record by more than a million. For context, if you put 2.7 million people anywhere in America, they would become the third largest city in the country. The White House took a few minor steps last year to try and stem that flow of illegal immigration, but clearly more substantive action was needed. On Tuesday, the Biden, DOJ, and DHS jointly proposed a new rule that would make migrants ineligible for asylum if they enter the country illegally. And the rule would also allow border agents to deport anyone who failed to officially request protection from other countries that they'd passed through. on the way to the U.S., so some pretty major changes. Now, not the kind of thing that we typically see suggested from the left. How is the White House framing this new rule?

Well, you're right. It's definitely not something that we typically see from the Democrat Party, and that should kind of give an idea of the sense of urgency that comes with this border crisis. The White House is well aware that 70% of Americans say there's a crisis at the border and that an overwhelming majority, 62% of the latest Rasmussen poll blamed President Biden for that crisis. Now, the White House says this new rule,

will hopefully direct migrants to seek asylum at designated border crossings or through other legal channels. At the moment, most migrants coming up through Mexico don't apply for asylum with officials there because they'd prefer to try their luck in the U.S. This law will punish those who do so. The White House says it will also, quote,

reduce the reliance on human smuggling networks that exploit migrants for financial gain. Now, we've talked a lot on this show about Title 42. That was the Trump-era immigration law that's set to expire this spring. How does that play into the timing? of this new rule? It is a huge part of this. Remember, Title 42 had allowed border officials to immediately deport illegal immigrants called at the border, but it's set to expire in early May. It's

no coincidence this rule will go into effect right after that order expires. The White House had hoped that Congress would take action on immigration before it expired, but that has not happened. So their hand was kind of forced, and they've been open about that. The White House official put it bluntly telling reporters, quote, to be clear, this was not our first preference or even our second and that this new rule is, quote, intended to fill the void that Congress has left by taking no action and to ensure the secure and humane processing of migrants when Title 42 does end. So the White House is essentially putting the blame for this new rule on the inaction from Congress. And what's the response been? Is the White House getting bipartisan support for

this? Not exactly. So Republican members have generally favored measures like this in the past because they, again, do give border officials more power to deport those coming here illegally and can also prevent abuse of the asylum system. But generally, their main critique is that rules like this still don't really mean that much if the border itself is not secure. And it's worth pointing out, Biden has actually gotten more pushback from the left on this, particularly the far left. They say the rule is anti-immigrant and that we should welcome those in search of a better life.

For example, over 300 immigrant and humanitarian groups send a joint letter to Biden calling the role, quote, Trump-like and inhumane. Other groups like the ACLU have already promised to sue the Biden administration once it goes into effect in May. So we're likely going to be hearing quite a bit more about this in the coming months. Sounds like it. Cabot, thanks so much for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips.

Coming up, President Biden partners with a controversial group to implement his new DEI Executive Order. If you love your morning coffee while you're listening to the show, you have to check out Black Rifle Coffee. They're constantly coming out with new roast to try, like their most recent. Beware the Delaware roast. Black Rifle Coffee is roasted by a veteran-led team of brilliant coffee graders here in the U.S. Go to Black Riflecoffee.com and use promo code Wire for 10% off your purchases and your first coffee club order. That's BlackRifel Coffee.com promo code Wire.

Black Rifle Coffee, America's Coffee. The Biden administration recently issued a new executive order. It says it's designed to address environmental justice. But the group that the White House is partnering with to implement these new policies, Justice 40, is being described as openly Marxist. Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now to explain what this executive order does, as well as why Justice 40 is considered controversial. So, Megan, what does the order accomplish? So this order piggybacks off of another one from 2021 that directed all federal agencies to initiate really a host of DEI programs that result. in billions of dollars of federal spending being directed to a lot of different social justice

groups and race-based initiatives. Well, this latest order goes even further. Among other things, it requires every federal department to establish what they're calling agency equity teams within 30 days. And they'll have to submit annual plans to officials in a new White House steering committee on equity. So really, this is the creation of a whole new DEI bureaucracy. And again, this was done via executive order, so without any input from Congress.

But then buried within it is a particular initiative related to climate change and infrastructure. And it mandates that at least 40% of federal spending addressing climate change and clean infrastructure must go to what they're calling marginalized communities. Basically, the administration's argument for that is that climate change and environmental issues impact minorities the most. So to that end, it said it's implementing an initiative with this group called Justice 40. So what's so controversial about Justice 40? Well, if you look on their website, you'll find a lot of black power imagery, for example, that raised fist icon. One of the leaders of the group, Jackie Patterson, has said that the U.S. needs massive systemic overhaul.

Our core issues with patriarchy, with racism. with classes, with the need to amass wealth and power of a few, all are what gets us to where we are today. So we really need massive kind of systems change, system by system. And then you also have some of her comments here on capitalism. Capitalism is predicated on the notion of winners and losers, and capital really is at the boot of it, the way capital is used now, and the way it's inexplicably connected to our political system

and who makes the decisions and who makes the rules. But I do believe deeply that we need to have much better distribution of wealth and means of production and so forth. So things like redistributing wealth and the means of production derived directly from Karl Marx's political philosophies. And that's what's really raising eyebrows.

Jeff Cunningham, former publisher of Forbes and Global Management Professor at Arizona State, describe the Justice 40 initiative as, quote, an executive order partnering with Marxists. Well, it's definitely something we will look further into. Megan, thanks so much for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. The National Endowment for Democracy, a State Department funded nonprofit, has cut ties with a global disinformation index or GDI,

a group accused of blacklisting conservative news outlets with the goal of starving them of advertising dollars. The move comes in response to explosive reporting, detailing how GDI received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State Department funded group. Joining us to discuss is the investigative journalist behind the reports, the Washington examiners Gabe Kaminsky. So Gabe, you first broke the story on GDI's blacklisting efforts, and there's been a new development here with the National Endowment for Democracy.

Can you catch us up? That's right, John. We learned the Washington Examiner that the National Endowment for Democracy will no longer be providing great. grants to the Global Disinformation Index, according to a spokeswoman. The organization said that, quote, we recently became aware that one of our grantees, the Global Disinformation Index, was engaged in an initiative funded by a different donor that focused on specific U.S. media outlets, given our commitment to avoid the perception that NED is engaged in any work domestically,

directly or indirectly, we will no longer provide financial support to GDI. And so this will impact future grants, but not current money that was given to GDI in 2020 and 2021. Right. How much money did the NED, the State Department funded group, give to GDI? Between 2020 and 2021, NED provided $545,750 to the Global Disinformation Index. And this money was earmarked for overseas activity to develop risk ratings for advertising companies. And NED's attempts to distance itself for GDI, according to its statement, were based on the fact that NED is intended to operate foreign and overseas, as that is primarily its focus, not domestically. But the argument here is that this money is ultimately fungible, so giving $546,000 for one

particular endeavor might leak over to other endeavors like this domestic blacklist. That's a very fair argument. Money is certainly fungible. Anytime you're going to be providing financial resources to an organization. And look, many people, First Amendment lawyers and members of Congress have been arguing that even though the financial resources that the NED gave to GDI were earmarked for foreign activity, it does not absolve NED from funding a group that is heavily involved in domestic affairs and attempting to censor outlets like the Daily Wire and the Washington Examiner. I think there is a fair role to be argued for the United States. and affiliated groups in the United States

to be involved in countering legitimate disinformation initiatives that the U.S. determines to be a national security threat. And that's something the NED attempts to do in places like China and Russia in which there are authoritarian-aligned governments that are contrary to the United States. It does come another question when an organization that receives taxpayer dollars is funding a group that is so heavily trying to put its finger on the pulse of what Americans who maybe listen to this podcast can read on a daily basis in their own country.

Indeed. Now, there's been some congressional activity around this. What kinds of actions are being taken by congressional leaders? The latest update we've heard so far is that Representative Matt Gates and Representative Jim Jordan, the chairman of the new weaponization subcommittee in Congress, both of those individuals told us last week late that they intend to include investigations in the State Department funding, of GDI in their subcommittee investigations. Similarly, Representative James Comer of the House Oversight Committee had said he does intend to press the Biden administration over this funding. Ultimately, we've heard a lot of word from lawmakers, including in the Senate, such as Eric Schmidt, Marsha Blackburn, Senator Ted Cruz, Rod Johnson, Marco Rubio, to name a few.

Now, the State Department is quickly backing away from GDI, but of course GDI is not the only player in this industry. There's other companies like NewsGuard, for example, creating their own ratings and advertiser lists and that are coming under more scrutiny now. What other groups are involved in this industry? There are several organizations similar to the Global Disinformation Index. We've reported on some of those, including Double Verify, which is a publicly traded company, Integral Ad Science, which is also a public company. And look, GDI, there's certainly an influential group given their ties to the U.S. government.

But there's a whole industry of groups doing similar activity, and we fully anticipate trying to reach out to those groups and also reaching out to the government to better understand if they're financially supporting other groups involved with the downranking of American outlets. Well, this is an extremely important First Amendment issue here, particularly when government funds are involved. We'll definitely keep following the money. Gabe, thanks for coming on. Thanks, John. That was Washington Examiner reporter, Gabe Kaminsky. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.

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