The Daily Signal - Why Our Southern Border Crisis Could Soon Get Even Worse

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is facing the threat of impeachment should Republicans reclaim control of the U.S. House. An unprecedented border crisis and its ravaging effects prompted 133 House Republicans to write to Mayorkas on Monday, citing "grave questions" about his "suitability for office." Only once in U.S. history has the House impeached a Cabinet official; Secretary of War William Belknap was later acquitted by the Senate in 1876. Now, nearly 150 years later, pressure is building on Mayorkas. Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Trump administration, says the the problem on our southern border is about to get much worse. He joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to explain what's happening and why it matters to every American. That's one reason he supports Mayorkas' impeachment. "He's turning a blind eye. He has failed the United States. He has failed this country, so he should be impeached," Morgan tells The Daily Signal. Morgan, who previously served as chief of U.S. Border Patrol in the Obama administration and was acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is currently a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation (publisher of The Daily Signal). Read the lightly edited transcript, listen, or watch the interview at DailySignal.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, April 26th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Doug Blair. Every month, more and more illegal migrants make their way across our southern border. And according to former customs and border protection head, Mark Morgan, the blame for that spike in illegal migration can be placed squarely at the feet of President Joe Biden and his administration. Morgan joins Rob Bluey to discuss what can be done to solve this crisis in an interview from the Heritage Foundation's annual leadership conference. But before we get to Rob's conversation with Mark Morgan, let's hit our top news stories of the day.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the case of football coach Joe Kennedy. Kennedy was an assistant high school football coach just outside of Seattle, Washington for many years. And from the time that he started coaching in 2008, Kennedy had a practice of praying at the end of every game at the 50-yard line. In 2015, the school district found out about what Kennedy was doing, that he was praying on the 50-yard line after games, and they told him that he had to stop. Well, he didn't. He continued praying, and ultimately, he lost his job at the school. Kennedy filed a lawsuit against the school district. The case has risen through the courts over the past seven years and landed at the Supreme Court this week. Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Sarah Partial Perry has been following this case. and listen to arguments on Monday morning before the court.

Sarah, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. So what does this case really come down to? What is the central argument that the justices are considering? So they are faced with two questions. Was Coach Kennedy speaking within his capacity as a private individual and were his actions, which are really symbolic speech when he was praying, are they protected by the First Amendment?

And if they are protected by the First Amendment, does the Establishment clause establishing religion preventing the government from getting entangled with religion restrict that speech? In other words, can the school censor him to prevent what looks like an establishment of religion? So we were having to listen in on some very complicated arguments because even though this is all First Amendment, you've got speech concerns, symbolic speech concerns, religious free exercise concerns, Establishment Clause concerns. So it really took the justices a couple of times to wrestle through what they were hearing. But at bottom, Justice Amy Coney-Barratt said, listen, this really should be an establishment clause case. That trumps all the others. Religion is different. It has a special place in our jurisprudence. We don't even need to get to the school free speech cases like Pickering versus Board of Education or Garcetti versus Cabalos. These are more. more complicated questions, but we can really make this easy. He was not acting as a government employee. It was a private religious expression, and that's protected by the First Amendment. Okay, so as you listened to both sides present their cases before the court, what stood out to you? What were some of your thoughts as you listened to both sides that have, obviously, they're very

committed to their arguments, their way of thinking. What were your takeaways? You know, it was very interesting because one of the things that Council for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which was counsel for the Bremerton School District said, was that he had made himself, quote, the center of attention. And Kavanaugh took a real issue with that and said, how do we write an opinion based on using a standard like center of attention? That essentially doesn't make any sense. And Barrett agreed with him, as did Alito, which elicited a sigh from Council for Americans United, in which he got very, very important. exasperated because he recognized that the hypotheticals being put to him didn't have a solution under this kind of center of attention standard. In fact, when he was faced with a hypothetical about a coach crossing himself before the kickoff on a football game on the public sideline

at a school, would that have been different? And he said, well, no, as long as he didn't make himself the center of attention, that stood out to me significantly. Paul Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General, as counsel for Coach Kennedy, did a tremendous job and said, essentially, as Amy Coney-Barrid had clarified, we don't even need to get to the free speech cases. We can treat this just as a free exercise case. Religion is different from the other rights, and there's nothing preventing this court from making sure that the First Amendment rights of both teachers and students to engage in voluntary, quiet, private prayer should be limited. So I was encouraged. I do think we're going to see a good outcome in this case. Of course,

it's always dangerous to predict on things like this, but based on the line of questioning from all five of the conservative justices and including Justice Roberts, who is more moderate these days than anything else, it does indicate to me that we might see something along the lines of a six three when we see this opinion come out in June. Interesting. And we do, like you said, we expect that opinion to be out by the end of June. Yeah. Sarah, thank you so much for time We really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. After a weekend trip to Kiev, Ukraine, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary

of Defense Lloyd Austin declared that Russia has failed in its campaign to dominate Ukraine and that the U.S. is interested in seeing Russia weaken militarily. Here's Blinken via NBC News. We're seeing that when it comes to Russia's war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding. Russia has sought as its principal aim to... totally subjugate Ukraine to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed.

Secretary Austin added that America was interested in a weakened Russia. We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine. So it has already lost a lot of military capability. The pair was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they stopped short of calling for regime change. Twitter looks like it's changing hands. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has 83 million Twitter followers of his own, has formally reached a deal

to acquire Twitter. Musk reportedly became interested in acquiring Twitter after the conservative satire site, the Babylon B, had their own account banned. The satire site was kicked off Twitter after calling Admiral Rachel Levine their man of the year. Levine is a man who identifies as a woman and is the assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Babylon B's CEO Seth Dillon tweeted earlier this month, Musk reached out to us before he pulled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech.

He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. In a statement, Musk said, free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy. and Twitter is the Digital Town Square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. Hours before the deal was announced must tweeted, I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means. Twitter has faced criticism for its censorship in recent years.

President Donald Trump has been banned from the platform, and its rules against misgendering have affected other conservatives. Users do expect to see changes in Twitter under must leadership, so stay tuned. House Republicans are not happy with Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Majorcas. In a Sunday letter to the Secretary, more than 50 Republicans criticized Majorcas's handling of the southern border and questioned whether or not he was even capable of doing his job. The representatives wrote, Your actions have willingly endangered American citizens, undermined the rule of law, and our nation's sovereignty.

Your failure to secure the border and enforce the laws passed by Congress raises grave questions about your suitability for office. Signatories to the letter included Border Security Caucus co-chair Brian Babin, as well as top GOP House leadership, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and Elise Stefanik. The letter comes as the Biden administration is deciding whether or not to cancel Title 42, an immigration rule that allows for swift deportation of migrants over health concerns. Fox News reported that in March, Border Patrol had over 221,000 migrant encounters, marking the highest recorded number for the Biden administration. Now stay tuned for Rob's conversation with the former Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, as they discuss what's happening at our southern border. If you're tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger and bigger government, it's time to partner with the most impactful conservative organization, in America. We're the Heritage Foundation, and we're committed to solving the issues America faces. Together, we'll fight back against the rising tide of homegrown socialism, and we'll fight

four conservative solutions that are making families more free and more prosperous. But we can't do it without you. Please join us at heritage.org. We are joined on The Daily Signal by Mark Morgan. He's a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a newsmax contributor, and most important. Importantly, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Mark, there's so many things we could talk about when it comes to the Biden border crisis. But I want to just begin by having you give us an assessment of where things are today, here, the end of April, and what we're facing next month. Look, so far what we've seen in the first 14 months of this administration, it's the worst crisis we've ever experienced on a southwest border.

The numbers tell the story. If we move to just this fiscal year alone, the first six months of this fiscal year, 1.2 million encounters, over 300,000 godaways and a couple hundred thousand turnbacks. That's over 1.7 million illegal aliens that have tried to break into this country that shatters every 20-year record highs. And right now, it's getting worse. And I know most people have heard about the end of Title 42. Once that ends, I always steal Senator Kennedy's line where that's going to be like the Hindenburg crash into the Titanic. Tell our audience what Title 42 is, why it was put in place to begin with, and what the consequences of ending it will be. Yeah, I think that's very important. So Title 42, it's not an immigration policy. It's a public health policy.

When we're in the throes of the worst global infectious disease pandemic we saw, Title 42 allowed Border Patrol agents to further reduce the introduction of COVID-19 into the country. It made sense. So we were able to actually remove those that were illegally entering in a couple hours. Again, I think that saved countless American lives, saved untold amount of suffering. This administration and their, again, infinite wisdom of open border policies now have decided to end Title 42. They've used that in the past 14 months to remove well over a million illegal aliens. And so once they remove that, those illegal aliens they've been removing, now they're going to come into the United States. And they're anticipating it's going to take this catastrophic crisis, make it worse. And that's why I say it's going to be like the Hindenburg crash and into the type of time.

It's truly remarkable. So you gave us some numbers. So what does it look like? Are there any projections in terms of what we were currently seeing, which is overwhelming, and what it will be like at the end of May once this is rescinded? Yeah, I think this isn't a good question. So in March, what we just saw was about 220,000 encounters. The border show's own chief, I refer to him as the battle chief, because I don't think he's doing enough right now, is he's saying we're going forward, we're going to see sustained numbers anywhere between 7 to 9,000 for the rest of the year. And we're getting in, we're just now entering the peak season of illegal immigration. But then once Title 42 ends, you're going to see this additional tsunami. They're saying it could be anywhere from 18,000

to 20,000 a day for a little while. And the reason why we know that is because just the rhetoric, the cartels are already exploiting it. And they're telling the illegal aliens now, as soon as title 42 goes, they're going to release all of you in the United States. So we're seeing you, masses of amounts of illegal aliens that are kind of positioned on the Mexican side right now, waiting for Title 42 to end and when it does, that's why you're going to see this additional kind of tsunami come on the tsunami we've already faced. And what are they going to do with all of these illegal aliens who do come into our country? Because it's not just going to be Texas and New Mexico and Arizona and California. Right. They're going to go into communities all over this

country, I would imagine. That's all right. This is why I love talking to you, right? Because you've got this. You understand this. And that's the issue. So to actually address this, this catastrophic a crisis on top of a crisis once taught of 42 ends, they're not doing anything to reverse policy. They're not doing anything to secure the borders. They're not doing anything to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Nope. Their mandate right now is just to get better at processing and getting faster at releasing individuals to every town, city, and state in this country, and that's what we're seeing right now. And your colleague, Tom Homan, has a new piece in the Daily Signal about this idea of giving them phones so they can keep track, but there are some problems

with that as well. It is. It's kind of silly. Look, it's part of what's called ATD alternative to detention. It's really a part of a much larger issue. So, you know, sometimes they put ankle bracelets, now it's phones. It really doesn't matter because of the end. It's all failure. It's all about that they do not want to apply consequences. They will not detain anybody. So think about it. You illegally enter the country. They facilitate that. And there's no consequences and those deterrence because they're basically systematically ending detention. And so, they're releasing people in the United States, and then they won't allow ICE to remove them. And the phones, the ankle bracelets, it's a joke.

At the end of the day, when they get a final order of removal, they don't comply. It's a joke. And here's another thing, too, another false narrative. A lot of the illegalians coming in, they already have their own phones. You have spent your career in law enforcement. You've worked with the Border Patrol. You've seen this up close and personal. What's the morale of the people who are on the front lines trying their best to enforce the law and keep our country safe?

Yeah, I appreciate this question. I truly believe that the minimum United States border patrol are just simply heroes. I mean, every single day, even though every imaginable tool, authority and policy has been taken away from them to do their job to protect this country, every single day they're still getting up putting their badge on the chest and walk into the front lines of our nation's border risking their lives to do their job, even though it's virtually impossible right now. We've heard from the border patrol agents that they feel like now they're nothing more than a federal travel agency for the illegal aliens themselves. You know, I recently got information from a 26-year veteran in the Border Patrol that as he was getting ready and he's looking at the mirror and he's getting his uniform all squared away, he looked up and he said, you know, I had this rush come over me. And he goes, I realized, as he was looking himself in the mirror, he realized he said that I'm now part of the largest federal smuggling organization in the world. You know, my heart sank. He goes, I'm no longer proud to be a part of the organization that I've been for 26 years of my life.

It's devastating. We've seen some state leaders take action, Governor Abbott recently in Texas, Attorney General Mark Bernovich in Arizona, declaring it an invasion. He's been on the Daily Signal podcast to talk about that. With the federal governments seemingly inept and incapable of acting on the president's orders, what can states do to try to step up to the game and make sure that we are safe? Well, this is where we're at now. We need to be talking about this more. And we talk about the federal government's incapacity. Let's make no mistake. It's by design. They are intentionally abdicating their constitution responsibility in the Constitution thing called the guarantee clause, which says the federal government has the mandate responsibility to protect the states from threats from outside our borders. It's clearly this administration has abdicated that responsibility. I think that the case can be made for this is a full-on invasion of our southwest border driven by the cartels. So there's also this little thing in the Constitution, like you said, A.G. Branovich, his team did a really good job of walking through the analysis. I really encourage your listeners to take a look at that. Where he walks through, there's also a thing called, you know, states self-help part of the Constitution, where it says if the federal government fails to do their job, the states have a remedy within the Constitution to help themselves to protect themselves.

We first have to get over the hurdle. Is this a definition? I think A.G. Bavanovich is right. I think this satisfies what's happening in the definition of invasion from our forefathers, and that would allow states to not enforce immigration law because they can't enforce federal immigration law, but they can protect themselves from the threats point across their border. So one of the things that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has called on, and I believe you support as well, is the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas,

the Secretary of Homeland Security. Obviously, that's not going to happen with this current makeup of Congress, but perhaps in the next Congress, that'll be a situation. Aside from that, what are the other steps that members of Congress can take to really put the pressure on this administration to reverse course and really wake up to the threat that we're facing? Yeah, so there's a couple things. One, you're absolutely right. I do support impeaching Secretary of Myarchus.

Look, he knows. He's a smart guy. He was the former deputy secretary of DHS. He knows that his open border policies are negatively impacting every aspect of our nation's public health. health safety, national security. He knows it, but he's being driven by ideology. He's turning the blind eye. He has failed the United States. He's failed to this country, so he should be impeached. But there's a couple other things in addition that we do when we work with Congress. One is oversight, right? We need to hold this administration accountable from the president all

the way down. And so we're working with members of Congress right now to, so when they, hopefully, the right people get in place and they regain the majority, they can start having appropriate hearings and start calling the appropriate people to testify and hold them accountable. The other thing is legislation. Look, we've been saying in a long time, you can't, you just can't throw money in people at the border crisis and think that's going to solve it. It's not. It's going to take that plus legislation, really solid policy to end the open border policies we have right now. So we're working with Congress as well. I hope in, you know, January, as soon as the new members get sworn in, that House Bill 1 is down there with all the

the policies that's needed to secure the border. Do you think completing the wall will be one of those? It better be. Final question for you. I think there are so many issues confronting our country right now. Why should this be one of the priorities that the American people are focused on? Yeah. So look, that of all the questions, I really appreciate that question the most because there's a misunderstanding. And some of us done by design by this administration over border advocates that somehow what happens on the Southwest border stays there and doesn't impact anybody else. It's just a lie. It's not true. It's why we say every town,

city and state is a border town city and state. I promise the bad things and bad people that come across the southwest border that are making their way to every town, city and state. Let's take drugs, for example. A hundred thousand Americans died in a 12-month period because of drug overdose. That's more Americans that died from all the terrorist attacks, the Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan wars combined. A hundred thousand and 12-month period. Guess the leading cause of adults from 1845 is fentanyl. Guess where it all comes from, all the drugs? Southwest border. We never hear it. about that. You know, the six, seven, eight hundred thousand godaways that have evaded apprehension, they don't stay on the border. They make their way to every town, city,

and state. And there's some very bad people among them committing very violent crime in every state across this nation. That's why it's important to all of us. Well, Mark Morgan, thank you for making it front and center and doing all that you do, not only to focus on the problem, but put forward solutions. We appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe. to the Daily Signal podcast on your podcast listening app of choice. That's Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or IHeartRadio.

Please leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening, and we'll be right back here with you all tomorrow morning. 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 Kay Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Doug Blair. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and, John Pop. For more information, please visit dailysignal.com.