What A Day - Biden's Executive Order For The Border

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order today that would severely limit the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The details still aren’t totally clear, but reports say Biden’s order would cap asylum requests at an average of 2,500 a day.In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become the nation’s first female president. She won Sunday’s election in a landslide with roughly 60 percent of the vote. She’s also the hand-picked successor of the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Lorena Rios, a freelance journalist based in Monterrey, joins us to talk about Sheinbaum’s historic win and what it means for U.S.-Mexico relations.And in headlines: Dr. Anthony Fauci sparred with House Republicans during a congressional hearing about the U.S. response to the pandemic, Israeli officials confirmed the deaths of four hostages in Gaza, and a Georgia court has tentatively set a date to hear former President Donald Trump’s appeal to kick Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis off his election interference case.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Tuesday, June 4th. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And I'm Traevel Anderson, and this is What A Day, the show where we're feeling pretty jealous of our neighbors to the south in Mexico who just made history by electing their first woman president, Claudia Shane Baum, in a landslide. Electing a woman president? And she's only 61. She's like, basically a kid. Listen, our presidential candidates looking really crusty and dusty right about now. On today's show, Dr. Fauci testifies before a testy Congress.

Plus, the Sandy Hook families want their money from Alex Jones. But first, President Biden is expected to make a major move regarding immigration today. Mayors from border towns have been invited to the White House for an event where the president will sign an executive order that would severely limit asylum requests at the U.S.-Mexico border temporarily. Yeah, there's been speculation for months that Biden might do something like this, especially after Senate Republicans blocked border legislation back in February. So what do we actually know at this point ahead of the official announcement? According to reports, they're saying that the executive order would basically impose a numerical cap on asylum requests at the southern border. That cap will be a daily average over the course of a week of 2,500.

Once requests hit 2,500, border crossings will close to asylum seekers and only reopen once that number declines to 1,500. Now, it's not clear yet how all of this will work. Hopefully, Biden will clarify that today. But what we do know is that daily totals at the border were a record high in December, when 10,000 migrants a day were coming into the U.S. undocumented. And though those numbers have declined in recent months, daily totals currently exceed the 2,500 cap. So if the order is signed, it would have an immediate impact and be the most restrictive border policy of Biden's. Correct me if I'm wrong. Some of this sounds a little familiar, this very severe restriction of the border, severe restriction of asylum.

Where have I heard this before? Yes. So it does sound familiar. That's because convicted felon and former President Donald Trump tried to do something similar to curtail immigration back when he was president in 2018. It was blocked by federal courts as a result of the ACLU's lawyer, Lee Gelernt, among others. And he told the New York Times, quote, any policy that effectively cuts off protection for desperate migrants would raise serious legal problems as it did when the Trump administration tried to end asylum.

So, you know, Josie, we can definitely expect that there will be a legal challenge to the executive order on the horizon. You mentioned earlier that mayors of border towns are going to be at the White House today. A number of them, as well as other elected officials of both major parties, have been vocal for some time about what they describe as a crisis at the border. So how are they reacting to the news and how are pro-immigration activists reacting to this news? Yeah, so it's a mixed bag for sure. For example, Representative Henry Cuellar, he's a Democrat from Texas.

He told the New York Times that he supports the order because he's been advocating for similar measures for years. But then you also have pro-immigration advocates who say Biden's order would be antithetical to American values. Sarah Rich, an attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement, quote, the decision by this administration to criminalize migrants, many of whom are fleeing harm, is deeply disturbing and misguided. Prosecuting people seeking safety in the U.S. for these immigration violations will lead to more Black and brown people being incarcerated at the expense of immigrant families and communities.

So, you know, we can definitely expect a lot more reaction once the order is actually signed later today. But of course, this is an election year and the race is tight. Thank you for that, Chabal. And speaking of elections, this week history was made when voters in Mexico elected the nation's first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum. She is the handpicked successor to the current president, Andres Manuel Lopez Alberto, known as AMLO. And he remains very popular in Mexico as his term winds down. And she won the election in a landslide. She got roughly 60% of the vote against two challengers, more than twice the second place finisher. Viva el presidente López Obrador!

Viva México! Viva México! Viva México! Y que viva Claudia Sheinbaum! To get a better sense of what Sheinbaum's historic victory means for Mexico and for Mexico's relations with the U.S., I spoke with Lorena Rios. She's a freelance journalist based in Monterey, Mexico, and her work has appeared in The Washington Post. I started by asking her what drove Shane Baum and her party's landslide success in the election. So behind this win is, of course, President López Obrador.

Claudia Shane Baum is López Obrador's handpicked successor. And she, of course, robs off the popularity that AMLO has. I mean, he's finishing his role with about 80 percent approval rating and a few wins in the back that led to many people choosing for continuity with Shane Baum and the government she plans to have in this next six years. Yeah, so as you mentioned, she is AMLO's handpicked successor. Is she promising anything different than him? Not explicitly. I mean, she ran on a platform of continuity, of building the second floor of the movement and the vision that the president, López Obrador, has opposition and from many Mexicans within the political spectrum. Because Claudia Sheinbaum, I mean, she is a highly educated politician with a long career, starting in social movements when she was a university student. She's an environmental engineer. So there's hopes that she will deviate from some of the tendencies that

López Obrador has shown that are detrimental to the environment and favor clean energy and investment on renewables. There's also hope that she will sort of defend the feminist causes and approach the ills of gender based violence that are a big problem in Mexico. And there's also hopes that she will deviate from the president's move to militarize a country. That's what critics called the president's security strategy of relying heavily on the armed forces to address the security crisis. But in her campaign, it's hard to tell how far she will distance herself or decide not to follow the president's footsteps. Mexico has been struggling with an epidemic of gang violence. And six years ago, AMLO tried to take a different approach to the problem than previous Mexican presidents. He campaigned on this message of, to translate to English, hugs, not bullets.

But the violence continues to grow in some ways, including political violence. 34 candidates were killed during this election cycle. So how is Shaneinbaum saying that she will address this issue? Some of Mexico's most pressing issues and what really concerns citizens the most did not make it into the top of the presidential campaigns of the proposals. So it's not very clear. But what Sheinbaum boasts herself is that when she was mayor of Mexico City, her administration managed to decrease homicides by 50%, so cutting them by half, as well as other violent crimes. And her strategy differs from the president's national strategy in the sense that she focused on strengthening local police forces, on increasing their wages, in training, in also creating recreational centers and programs for at-risk youth. So some experts hope that Claudia Sheinbaum will mimic that approach nationally

rather than continue strengthening the armed forces to carry out public safety. And just to talk about another issue that Mexico is facing. So immigration is an issue that Mexico has been struggling with too, just like the US. Hundreds of thousands of migrants from all over the world have been forced to wait in Mexico for appointments to claim asylum in the U.S., not to mention those who enter without documentation.

So what is Scheinbaum saying about immigration? She's saying a little about immigration, again, these hot button issues like security, like immigration, like U.S.-Mexico relations, she's sort of set the bare minimum, she will encourage even the U.S. to take part in addressing the root causes of migration. So by creating jobs in countries of origin, so countries in Central and South America, by providing aid or assistance because Mexico claims to be doing this in countries in Central America like job creation programs for the youth or giving cash to migrants as incentives to go back to their home countries. We know that Mexico is doing much more than that, that it is acting as a de facto wall for the U.S. and that it's doing sort of the hard work of stopping migrants from reaching the U.S.-Mexico border and also returning migrants to their countries, like just pushing them back across the border with Guatemala. But that's something she hasn't really addressed. So it will

be up to the relationship she manages to have with the future president of the United States. So that's also to be seen. So that's what I was actually going to ask next. So what has Schoenbaum said about the prospect of having to work with Trump, who could very well win here in November, right, and who is promising a huge crackdown on immigration in the U.S., bigger than last time? You know, that's a main kind of part of his campaign. She hasn't explicitly or specifically said anything about the possibility of a Trump presidency. And López Obrador claims to have a good relationship with President Biden and to have had a good relationship with former President Trump. So when Claudia Sheinbaum came out to give her victory speech, she did mention that she wanted to have a friendly relationship with the United States.

But so far, again, she hasn't really given much information of what her stance would be or her take on some of Trump's very belligerent comments in the past towards Mexico and Mexican migrants in the U.S. That was my conversation with Lorena Rios, freelance journalist based in Monterrey, Mexico. Shane Baum will not take office until October, so we'll be sure to keep an eye on the transition until then. But that is the latest for now. We'll get to some headlines in a moment, but if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share with your friends. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before Congress on Monday as Republican lawmakers accused him of covering up where COVID originated.

The hearing was called by a GOP-led panel investigating the federal government's response to the pandemic. Republicans used the hearing to criticize Fauci's decision to recommend masks, social distancing, and vaccines in response to the pandemic. Fauci defended his leadership, saying that he had, quote, nothing to hide. He also became emotional when asked about the death threats he and his family have faced ever since the right began targeting him. Every time someone gets up and says I'm responsible for the death of people throughout the world, the death threats go up. The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said on Monday that four Israeli hostages in Gaza have died,

according to New Intelligence. The IDF said that the families of the hostages were informed that their relatives are, quote, no longer alive, and that the circumstances of their deaths are unclear. A spokesperson for the IDF said on Monday that they believe that the hostages were killed in the Han Yunis area, quote, during an operation there against Hamas. Han Yunis is not too far from Rafah, where Israel is continuing its assault on the Strip's border crossing with Egypt. One of the four hostages was reported dead last month by Hamas officials, who said he was killed during an Israeli airstrike. The Georgia Court of Appeals has tentatively said in October 4th hearing in Trump's continued pursuit to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis from his election interference trial. Willis has admitted to a prior romantic relationship with the prosecutor she hired to work the case, who has recused himself, but Trump's lawyers argue she should also be removed. The hearing is not guaranteed. There's a chance the court will stick with its

original decision to allow Willis to prosecute the case. The families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting filed an emergency motion to liquidate Free Speech Systems, the media company owned by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He repeatedly told his audience that the shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators, was a hoax. Jones filed for reorganization bankruptcy after losing two lawsuits to the families who sued him for defamation and emotional distress and was ordered to pay $1.5 billion. On Monday, a judge told Jones he has two weeks to go about business as usual while the court decides if his assets should be liquidated. They need to liquidate those assets today.

Liquidate them all, honey. Don't give this man two weeks to send his money who knows where. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. You might have seen Lovett in his reality show debut on the latest Survivor trailer. But don't fret. The show's lineup of special guest hosts is holding down the fort here on Love It or Leave It.

We just enjoyed back-to-back episodes with Matt Rogers, and on deck we have Guy Branum. Head to the Love It or Leave It YouTube channel to catch up on the fun. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. And if you live in the District of Columbia, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota, it is primary day. So don't forget to vote and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just court transcripts of judges yelling at Alex Jones like me, well, today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe.

I'm Trevelle Anderson. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And pay up InfoWars. You want to talk all that talk? Yeah, I want to talk all that. Now you got to pay all that money. Yep. Play stupid games.

Win stupid prizes. It's true. Well, today's a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We have production help today from Michelle Alloy, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our showrunner is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.