The Daily Signal - New Mexico's Rep. Yvette Herrell Shares GOP Solution to Border Crisis

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

The crisis on our southern border has never been worse. Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants have crossed into America, and violent cartel members import drugs and violence into our cities. The Biden administration thus far has failed to seriously address the crisis. "This really is a frightening scenario for us to be watching play out, and the administration could actually stop it, but they just haven't had the political will," says Rep. Yvette Herrell, a Republican who represents New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District, which borders on Mexico and is the fifth-largest House district in area in the nation. Herrell joins the show to discuss what the GOP plans to do to address the illegal immigration crisis, and how a Republican-controlled House and Senate would push back against the Biden administration's worst instincts. We also cover these stories: Speaking in Buffalo, New York, the scene Saturday of a deadly mass shooting, President Joe Biden calls white supremacy a “poison” in the U.S. and condemns those who spread the "great replacement theory." A federal district court judge rules that religious employers and health care providers can’t be forced by the Biden administration to pay for or perform transgender medical procedures. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., is booed during a university commencement speech after claiming the “existence of two sexes” is a “fundamental scientific truth." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs legislation banning picketing and protesting outside individuals' homes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have to make sure that we have the tools in play for our border patrol and ice agents, but there also needs to be consequences for those that are coming across the border. This is a Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, May 18th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Doug Blair. The crisis on our southern border has never been worse. Scores of illegal immigrants have crossed into America and violent cartel members bring drugs and violence into our cities.

The Biden administration has thus far failed to handle this crisis. What you heard at the top was Congresswoman Yvette Herald, a Republican who represents New Mexico's second congressional district. She joins the show today to discuss what the GOP plans to do to address the crisis and how a Republican-controlled House and Senate might push back against the administration's worst instincts. But before we get to Doug's conversation with Congresswoman Yvette Herald, let's hit our top news stories of the day. During remarks delivered Tuesday in Buffalo, New York, following a mass shooting there that saw 10 dead and 3 wounded, President Biden called white supremacy a poison in the U.S. condemned those who spread the Great Replacement Theory. The Great Replacement Theory is the idea that immigrants from places like Mexico

are being imported into the United States to dilute the votes of Native-born Americans. Here's some of Biden's speech via CNBC. We need to say as clearly enforced as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. none. However, some were critical of Biden's visit to Buffalo. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, expressed his frustration that the president found the time and resources to visit Buffalo, but didn't visit Waukesha in his state, following a mass killing there.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Johnson said, last year when Darrow Brooks murdered six innocent people and injured over 60 during the Waukesha Christmas parade, the White House claimed President Biden couldn't go away. to Waukesha because it would require too many assets and resources. But within hours of the most recent senseless tragedy, the White House apparently found the resources to plan a presidential trip to Buffalo. These horrors deserve equal attention from the president of the United States, and the media should be pointing out the disparity in his response. A ruling from a federal district court says religious employers can't be forced to pay for employees' transgender medical

procedures. The Biden administration issued two mandates that would force religious employers to pay for or religious health care providers to provide treatments, procedures, surgeries, and counseling that aims to alter an individual's biological sex. District Judge Danielle Trainer of North Dakota has temporarily blocked those mandates. The Christian Employers Alliance filed the lawsuit against the mandates and is being represented by the Christian Legal Organization Alliance Defense. sending freedom. Shannon Royce is the president of the Christian Employers Alliance and said in a statement that the administration's mandates are crippling for the countless Christian-owned and operated businesses seeking to care well for their employees without the fear of punishing fines,

burdensome litigation costs, the loss of federal funds, and even criminal penalties. To be continued. Republican Senator Cynthia Loomis of Wyoming was booed this Saturday at a graduation ceremony. at the University of Wyoming for claiming the existence of two sexes is a fundamental scientific truth. Here's what that sounded like via the Casper Star Tribune. Even fundamental scientific truths, such as the existence of two sexes, male and female, are subject to challenge these days. You know, I... Lumas later apologized for her remarks.

She released a statement saying, I share the fundamental belief that women and men are equal, but also acknowledge that there are biological differences and circumstances in which these differences need to be recognized. That being said, it was never my intention to make anyone feel unwelcome or disrespected. And for that, I apologize. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday banning picketing and protesting outside individuals' homes.

If you want to protest outside a private residence in Florida, you will now need a permit. Those who protest outside someone's house without a permit will be given a warning from law enforcement to disperse. If protesters do not disperse, then police can make arrests, and protesters can face charges of a second-degree misdemeanor. DeSanta's decision to sign the legislation comes as pro-abortion activists have repeatedly protested outside the homes of the more conservative Supreme Court justices houses, following the leaked draft opinion of the Dobbs case. DeSanda said that sending unruly mobs to private residences like we have seen with the angry crowds in front of the homes of the Supreme Court justices is inappropriate. This bill will provide protection to those living in residential communities. The bill is set to take effect on October 1st.

Now stay tuned for my conversation with Congresswoman Yvette Herald as we discuss the crisis on our southern border. The Heritage Foundation has a new website to combat critical race theory, CRT, as it's known, makes race the centerpiece of all aspects of American life. It categorizes individuals into groups of oppressors and victims. The idea is infiltrating everything from our politics and education to the workplace and even our military. Heritage has pulled together the resources that you need to identify CRT in your community and the ways to fight it. We also have a legislation tracker so you can see what's happening in your state. Visit heritage.org slash CRT to learn more.

My guest today is Congresswoman Yvette Herald, who represents New Mexico's second congressional district. Congresswoman, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Very, very much an honor for me to be here. Of course, well, we wanted to talk to you about immigration, which as a member from a border state is probably near and dear to your heart. You sent a letter on May 6th to the Department of Homeland Security, the Secretary Alejandro Majorcas, encouraging him and the Biden administration to keep Title 42. immigration policies in place? What made you send the letter?

Well, we actually introduced the POS Act a year ago. In fact, it'll be a year ago in February. And in fact, just a couple of weeks ago, Senator Mike Lee and Senator Cruz introduced the same bill on the Senate side because we understood that the Trump policies were working, especially the Remain in Mexico and the Paws Act. And what made the POS Act, I think, so helpful was here we were in a pandemic situation. So essentially, this gave Border Patrol the ability to do quick, process on the border and then expel those coming into the country illegally, either to Mexico or

Canada. And it was all because of the pandemic. And we had some language in this bill. We still have the language in the bill that said until the pandemic is completely done, until our economies are stabilized and all the mandates are lifted, and until the travel restrictions are lowered to a level one to Mexico, Canada. And, you know, it's interesting because we've had over a million people come across this border illegally with no COVID test. We know that infectious diseases, not just COVID, are coming across with them. And yet we're holding the American people to a different standard. You know, take the vaccine or lose your status in the military, wear a mask to school, you know, close your business. I mean, I think the American people are very much tired

of this double standard. Absolutely. So you mentioned the Paws Act a couple of times. For our listeners, maybe who aren't aware, what is the Paws Act? Yeah. So the Paws Act is the bill that we introduced that would have allowed Title 42 to stay in place. And again, the bill is important because it really takes on one of the Trump administration era policies regarding the border and just keeps it, we're saying, you know, don't get rid of it. Pause here and let's keep that in play until we get through this pandemic. And like I said, we've tried over a year to have a hearing on the bill through committee, through the floor, cannot get it to move. And here's the thing.

To me, border security is not, in my opinion, a partisan issue. It's an American issue. It's national security issue. The pressure now that we're putting on our communities, and you've probably heard this, every state's a border state because of just the influx of people and what we're doing in terms of the economies, the costs to not just those that live in and around the border, but to those now that live further inland because of, you know, what we're doing. We're seeing now people being flown all the way to New York in the middle of the night.

Right. In fact, a friend in mine in New York calls it night migrants because they only come in on these planes, you know, at 2 o'clock in the morning. And that really puts the American people at such a disadvantage because now we are talking about the pressure on the communities, but the influx of the fentanyl. And the winners in this whole scenario are the cartel. No doubt about it. I've had multiple meetings, as many of us had here on the hill with. you know, Brandon Judd, with Mark Morgan, with others who are very much engaged or were very engaged with the entire process of immigration. And this really is a frightening scenario for us to be watching play out. And the administration could actually stop it, but they just haven't had the

political will. Now, before we started the show, you actually showed me some photos of these cartel members that were crossing the border. And I mean, it was a wide open stretch of land. It seemed like they just walked in. How has the cartels kind of infiltration of the United States affected your state as a border state in New Mexico? Well, 100%. We're seeing a major uptick in drugs specifically. Of course, there's the human trafficking. Every week on the news, you're hearing someone else being pulled over with multiple people in a cargo hold in, say, a semi-tractor trailer or, you know, stash houses. that's where they actually have people and drugs stashed until they can find the mules to bring them across the border.

But what we're seeing is this fentanyl especially, in fact, I was in a county that's like five counties away from the border, and they were getting reports of a backpack. So the local police went down to check it out. Sure enough, it was a backpack full of fentanyl left in a yard at somebody's, you know, rule. This is kind of now, we're talking rural New Mexico. But any kid could have gotten that. Right. I mean, it was, you know, so how it's impacting, it's putting pressure on our law enforcement,

our first responders, our communities, especially during COVID, our elderly. You have to remember our state is very poor in some ways. In terms of poverty, we don't have a lot of extra cash laying around in a lot of our communities. And most of our police departments are understaffed. So thank goodness there is collaboration between local, you know, county, local, and even board patrol services so that we can help protect the border. But here's something else people need to know. Our governor will not deploy the National Guard to the southern border in New Mexico.

Here's the problem. We have wide open spaces where there is no board patrol agent whatsoever because so many of them, up to 120, are being used as processors in the processing facility over in El Paso, Texas. So we are leaving not only the people of New Mexico in the country, but those that live right there are so vulnerable. And so we're seeing an uptick in livestock death, you know, stolen vehicles, damage to private property, water lines. And under this administration, we've had more migrants die on U.S. soil than ever before.

So this is a humanitarian crisis for both sides of the border. Given all of these issues that you've mentioned, including the human trafficking and the drugs, do congressional Republicans have a solution to this? What is the legislative proposal that you guys have in place? Well, the Paws Act is a great start. But I think also we need to be very realistic. You know, there's two separate issues, immigration reform and securing our border. And we have to make sure that we have the tools in play for our Border Patrol and ICE agents. But there also needs to be consequences, you know, for those.

that are coming across the border. You know, certainly technology, the border wall, more boots on the ground, but certainly there has to be a consequence, you know, for somebody who is breaking the law. And here's, I think, what people in America are starting to understand. People are breaking the law, coming here, and then getting free access to education, health care, housing, a telephone, money, a job. I mean, they become, you know, when they set foot here, they have status. So they're able to go and get a social security number.

And that's going to impact the ability for us to put people back to work by our own right. So it's not just the border wall or just this. It's multiple things we can do. Of course, it's protecting the American sovereignty. It's national security, but it's the health, safety, and welfare. So multiple things we can do. The POS Act is a great start only because it gives the Border Patrol that opportunity to just expel immediately. Because we can't even consider immigration policies until we get the border secure.

I mean, that's just how it has to be. We just can't handle this influx. And I'm concerned about the number of people that are talking about Brandon Judd with the Border Patrol counsel mentioned, you know, and we've heard it on TV that, you know, it could be up to 18,000 people. This is, we can't handle what's coming across now, let alone. and we know there are large number of migrants waiting in the wings. And here's what's interesting. I've had seven different ambassadors in my office since I took office having conversations about the border, specifically immigration and what's happening.

And you'd be surprised at the countries that are very disappointed, Guatemala, you know, that this president more or less campaigned on an open border scenario and didn't have a consequence. And so they're losing their workforce. I mean, this affects the, you know, GDP for a lot of other countries. You know, you look at countries like Panama where they're just being overrun, especially when the Haitians were coming through. And, you know, this has profound impacts on a lot of countries besides just America. And unfortunately, the news isn't always accurate in talking about asylum, political asylum.

You know, it's against a law to come to another country just to seek a better job. It hasn't worked that way. But I think, again, the double standard talking about the humanitarian crisis. Well, what about the Americans now that are being killed by those here illegally? What about the over 100,000 people that overdosed with fentanyl just last year? And, you know, what are we thinking about when we're going to say, you know, we've got to address this humanitarian crisis for those coming here, legally, but we're not addressing the humanitarian crisis for the American people. Sure.

And I think that is part of the dialogue that needs to take place. Absolutely. Now, Congressman, I have two more questions for you. Okay. First of all, obviously from the legislative perspective, there is divided government. Yes. Do you anticipate that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be of any assistance in getting this type of legislation passed?

I think the closer we get to the midterm, sadly, the more we will see, I think, some willingness. And as time has gone on, especially since the conversation about Title 42 being eliminated in May, I believe we've had 20 to 30 Democrats finally start. Senator Mark Kelly is talking about it. Others are starting to say, wait a minute, slow down here because they understand this really shouldn't be a Republican Democrat issue. This is an American issue. And Title 42 is very important to the American public. It pulls very high around the country because people are starting to understand the impacts of having an influx of not only people, but of drugs and everything else. So I believe that as we get a little bit closer, now will this president decide to back away from his decision?

I don't know. I wish he would because, again, it should not be an election issue. It should be an American issue. And holding up our Constitution, protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the American people. should obviously have presidents over, you know, election cycles. Absolutely. And that's, we were here to do a job. And this is just unfortunate.

And it's frightening, especially border states, but non-border states alike, are feeling the push of all this happening at the southern border. And one final question for you. If Republicans take back the House and the Senate in the 2022 midterms, what is the plan to get the border crisis under control? Yeah. And there will probably be a couple of different policies, but certainly I think that we would see something similar to the POS Act or possibly the POS Act since it's been introduced in both chambers. But again, the path to really getting this border secured, whether it's finishing the wall, but also technology, also consequences, more judges on the bench, a better way to do the paperwork for those that are waiting.

I have people in my district that have waited five, ten years to come to our country legally. So they're very, very disgusted and frustrated with this process. So I think there are multiple facets in which we can really look at focusing on securing the border. Because again, this is a national security issue. Once we secure the border, then we can actually have the conversation that's been kicked down the road for decades as far as real immigration reform. But we have to secure the border first. And so I think there could be a potential of two or three different bills that come forward. But the one thing I can tell you is more than likely you would see real a coal-esque, you know, around policies that they know will strengthen our borders.

And we're listening to the experts. You know, the guys who've had, you know, 20, 30-year careers with border, you know, in and out of the border with border security, board patrol, ICE. And the American people, I think, are ready for something to happen to protect our nation. That was Congresswoman Yvette Harrell, who represents New Mexico's second. Congresswoman, thank you so much for your time. I'm so glad to be here. I'd love to come back sometime. Of course.

And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and IHeart Radio. And please take a moment, leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and spread the word to other listeners. Thanks again for listening. We'll be back with you all tomorrow.

The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. The executive producers are Rob Blewey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Doug Blair. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, please visitdailySignal.com.