Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) joins us live from the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. to discuss the growing crisis on the southern border between the United States and Mexico, and the lack of resources to deal with the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the border. Rep. Gaetz is joined by Rep. Chip Roy (D-GAETTO) and Rep. Ruben Navarrette (R, AZ) to discuss how the border is being turned into a "turnstile" for illegal immigrants, and what Congress can do to fix it. Firebrand is a production of Firebrand, a conservative political organization that focuses on conservative politics and issues related to immigration and border security. Firebrand's mission is to expose the deep-rooted racism, xenophobia, and anti-Americanism within the Democratic Party, and expose the root causes of the border crisis, so that Americans can have a voice and have a say in what s happening on the ground and in their local government, and in the law and order in their everyday life. Subscribe today using our podcast s promo code: "WEAPONS" to receive 20% off your first pack! at checkout to receive $20 off your purchase of a Firebrand T-shirt or hoodie! Subscribe to our new ad-free version of our new podcast Firebrand! and become a supporter of the show on Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your ad is sold out! . Subscribe, rate and review the show! Rate, review, and subscribe to Firebrand. and review our new episodes! to help us spread the word out there about our new show Firebrand and keep us spreading the word to the rest of the world! Thank you for supporting the firebrand movement! We re burning it everywhere! - The Firebrand Revolution! Timestamps: 4:00:00 - 5:00 | 5:30 | 6:00 7:15 | 7:30 8:15 9:40 11: What's the deal? 12:10 15:00s 16:00 s 17:00 Is the deal we should have a birthright citizenship? 17 :00 18: What s the deal with birthright? 19:00? 21:00 Or do we have a baby in Mexico? 22:30 Is it illegal?
00:04:47.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:04:55.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:04:57.000He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the clause.
00:05:00.000So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.
00:05:04.000If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:40.000We are broadcasting live out of room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here in Washington, D.C., our nation's capital.
00:05:48.000And today's episode is going to bring you behind the scenes into the negotiations and the specific policy prescriptions for this border crisis.
00:05:57.000And we know we're going to get no help from the Democrats at all, so it's critical to know what the leading Republicans are thinking, where the pushback is coming from, what we think we can do, where we see Poison pills and red lines.
00:06:11.000Chip Roy, the author of some of the best legislation to deal with the border crisis, joins Firebrand.
00:06:18.000We're going to have a great discussion for you.
00:06:21.000And we have got folks tuning in from everywhere.
00:06:23.000Just during our preview, folks checked in from Texas, Alaska.
00:06:28.000A lot of people from Ohio, Missouri, had some New Yorkers, Pennsylvania, a Californian, Oklahoma, Tennessee guy.
00:06:36.000And of course, the best state in the country, the Sunshine State, my home state of Florida.
00:06:42.000So last week, I left Florida, went to Yuma, Arizona, where the House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing on the condition of the border.
00:06:51.000And Americans living on the border are tired of being neglected.
00:06:58.000And before the hearing, We had this opportunity to get a grasp of the situation on the ground, seeing how services were stretched, how people were treated.
00:07:08.000And we visited the border itself, a hospital, a food bank.
00:07:13.000And believe me, what I discovered will absolutely shock you or even will it anymore with how much we've seen our border turned into a turnstile.
00:07:23.000Millions of people here without permission or process.
00:07:27.000When we went, the first thing we did when I landed in Yuma was tour the regional hospital.
00:07:32.000Now, you've heard Democrats talk about hospital access and healthcare and a whole lot of elections, but they don't seem to mind when the hospitals are overrun by illegals in communities on the front line of this crisis.
00:07:45.000And that's exactly what was going on in Yuma, Arizona.
00:07:50.000Newborn babies are not getting the care that they need to stay alive because illegal immigrants are clogging up the hospital.
00:07:58.000These illegals are coming in sick with some diseases that we didn't even know existed in the United States anymore.
00:08:05.000And they're speaking So many different languages.
00:08:10.000It's like the United Nations down there, and the hospital has to divert time from patients to go find translators for every language under the sun, from Russian to Cyrillic to Mandarin, you name it.
00:08:24.0001,900 migrants were treated during the last surge at just this one hospital in Yuma, and many of them were admitted due to pregnancy.
00:08:35.000These illegals are coming in pregnant, oftentimes so that they can have anchor babies and take advantage of our entitlement systems.
00:08:44.000In fact, the Mexican illegals in particular like to cross the border, have their babies in America, then go back and live in Mexico where it's cheaper, all the while sending their kids to our schools, collecting our welfare.
00:09:02.000Utilizing all of the privileges that we ought to preciously hold for Americans.
00:09:11.000They actually go have their mamacitas have the next generation of cartel talent born in our country.
00:09:19.000And some of these kids, these students, these minors that are going from Mexico to the United States are carrying and smuggling fentanyl because they know if they have not reached the age of majority, there will be a different penalty structure.
00:09:32.000So they bake that into their business plan.
00:09:55.000And we ought to protect and care about our birthright so much that we don't just hand it out willy-nilly.
00:10:02.000Americans continue to see our citizenship that is precious diluted.
00:10:09.000And this happens as our services are strained.
00:10:13.000The hospital beds that these illegals are taking are forcing American mothers to either wait to give birth in cases where you have a scheduled inducement or have babies at home.
00:10:36.000Now, the hospital we visited doesn't have enough neonatal intensive care unit beds to support all of the illegal alien babies and the babies who are there as a consequence of the citizens and legal residents of Yuma.
00:10:54.000That is because 25% of illegal births end up in the NICU. Let me say that again.
00:11:28.000Just imagine the fear and the wave of emotion that parents have to go through when they're traveling 170 miles away to a NICU bed in Phoenix.
00:11:40.000I cannot imagine putting people in such a vulnerable situation in life itself in a worse position.
00:11:48.000So watch this clip from our field hearing where we discuss the NICU situation with the president of the Yuma Regional Medical Center, Dr. Robert Trenchell-Ticholissen.
00:12:02.000Now, Dr. Trenchell, about one in four of the migrants who use birthing services at your hospital need neonatal intensive care unit services, NICU, right?
00:12:23.000And so when you have those beds that are full up because of the pressure of these migrant communities, where do you have to send the residents of Yuma when they have a baby that needs NICU? We would have to fly them to Phoenix or another venue.
00:12:40.000There are few prayers that I have ever seen more sincere and deeper than the prayers of parents when their little babies are at the NICU. And for all the folks on the left who want to lecture to us about how humane an open border is, there is nothing humane about putting a parent on a 170-mile journey when they need NICU services.
00:13:07.000So we're back live in just one hospital in Yuma alone.
00:13:11.000There's $26 million in uncompensated care that the hospital just has to eat as a consequence of these illegal aliens.
00:13:18.000Who knows how many Americans haven't gotten the care that they need to stay alive.
00:13:25.000Why should Americans pay astronomically high hospital bills when illegals are getting treated for free?
00:13:49.000They're not part of the cost structure or the finance structure.
00:13:52.000They just bring illegal aliens to the hospital, dump them off there.
00:13:56.000The hospital staff told me that they're having to take extra shifts because they are so overwhelmed by this phenomenon.
00:14:03.000And part of the reason they're so overburdened is because they aren't allowed to discharge illegal alien patients When there's follow-up care or outpatient care needed.
00:14:14.000That's because we don't know where the migrants will show up next.
00:14:19.000Patient A, patient B. They both present precisely the same symptoms.
00:14:23.000They get exactly the same care and they would both be ready for discharge.
00:14:27.000They'll discharge The non-illegal alien, but if there's like a two or three day follow-up that's medically necessary afterwards, they don't really believe that the illegal alien maybe is going to come back or whatever.
00:14:41.000They don't want to get sued for not providing aftercare.
00:14:43.000So they will keep that person in the hospital bed, meaning that it's not available for an American citizen.
00:14:50.000And all the while we're bending over backwards for illegals, I'm told The stories of how ungrateful some of them are.
00:15:45.000Next we visited a food bank and we met with the chairwoman of the food bank and local farmers that were generous enough to donate their extra crop to this non-profit out of community service and duty and obligation.
00:15:58.000The chairwoman of this food bank started off telling us how ungrateful so many of the migrants are.
00:16:04.000Apparently the migrants are picky about the type of food they want to eat and how much they get.
00:16:11.000Unsurprisingly, oftentimes we were told that it's the Haitians who are the worst offenders again.
00:16:18.000Everywhere they go, we seem to hear similar complaints.
00:16:23.000Meanwhile, as if dealing with this mess wasn't enough for the food bank, they're understaffed.
00:16:29.000And I kept thinking an obvious good solution here would be to have work requirements.
00:16:33.000If people are able to provide something to contribute or help, that they should get the benefit of that holistic engagement with the food bank.
00:16:46.000I think, federally, if you want other people to pay for your Medicaid or Your SNAP or your food stamps or whatever, there should be work requirements for able-bodied adults.
00:16:57.000Not the sick, not the infirm, not senior citizens, but like able-bodied adults who want help from others that are able to volunteer at a food bank, like the one I went to in Yuma, Arizona, should do so.
00:17:21.000The poor farmers we met with, oh my gosh.
00:17:24.000They tell me that they have to destroy massive amounts of crop every season because illegal aliens tread through their fields and defecate everywhere.
00:17:36.000When even so much as a human footprint is found, these farmers have to destroy all the crops in a five-foot radius.
00:17:44.000They put up no trespassing signs, but of course that doesn't stop illegal immigration.
00:17:50.000The people across the border illegally don't have much respect for private property rights.
00:17:56.000The Biden administration and Secretary Mayorkas need to step up and protect our farmers and our food supply and the safety of what we're eating.
00:18:04.000Chances are, if you're eating a green leafy vegetable that grows during the winter months, you're probably eating something farmed around our southern border.
00:25:30.000Supervisor Lyons, we hear Secretary Mayorkas come to us all the time on the Judiciary Committee and testify that the most important partnerships above all else for the Department of Homeland Security are the partnerships with local officials.
00:25:57.000And what was the substance of that lie?
00:26:00.000So the mayor and I had the opportunity to visit with Secretary Mayorkas and the Yuma sector chief, as well as the chief of the entire Border Patrol at sector headquarters almost a year ago.
00:26:13.000And during that meeting, he committed to, after reviewing the border, both from the ground and the air, to specifically address, quote unquote, nine of the 11 Yuma gaps.
00:26:26.000And how many of those gaps have been addressed?
00:26:43.000But in these circumstances, it seems as though it's not a great mystery where the pressure points are, where we have gaps in the wall, and where we have recalcitrant.
00:27:05.000We've followed up multiple times, as well as Yuma Sector Border Patrol staff and with undersecretaries, and we were told time and time again that they were issuing contracts, that we would have it no later than June of last year, then no later than September, then no later than November.
00:27:22.000Every time it kept getting pushed out.
00:27:24.000So would a reasonable person observe that this is on purpose?
00:27:28.000My wife says I'm not a very patient person, but I was patient every time that I called.
00:27:34.000And they continued to push this process out.
00:27:44.000And while we greatly appreciate the three of you being here to answer our questions, the day will come soon when Secretary Mayorkas has to come and answer our questions.
00:27:53.000And to my colleagues, if he'll lie to Mr. Lyons and lie to the community here, then he will lie to us and he will lie to the American people.
00:28:01.000And that's why I'm very proud to co-sponsor Representatives Big's Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas because this is not a lack of ability.
00:28:31.000Think about those parents who can't get access to their NICU beds, if nothing else.
00:28:35.000The crisis at our southern border is unsustainable.
00:28:39.000It's time we found the will to put a stop to the madness, and we need to secure our borders, and we must do it immediately.
00:28:46.000The time to act has but passed, and any Republican who refuses to do our critical oversight work It's certainly not serving the interests of their constituents.
00:28:58.000Now, one member who is is my good friend, Congressman Chip Roy of Texas.
00:29:39.000It is in this Congress, H.R. 29. And the bill's purpose was actually to try to capitalize on the fact that all Republicans seem to agree that we should enforce Title 42 during a pandemic.
00:29:51.000So my thinking was, why should that be limited to pandemic, right?
00:29:56.000Why don't we want to have the Secretary of Homeland Security have the power to be able to say, hey, if we've got a flood at our border, maybe we should be able to say we can use the same power that we were using under Title 42 and that President Trump very successfully used in his administration to turn away at the border unless...
00:30:16.000You've got the capacity and the beds and the ability to process asylum claims.
00:30:39.000Is it fair to assume, then, that if the royal legislation were a law, That everyone we encountered at the border, we would either detain or turn away.
00:30:51.000That is analogous to how we're enforcing Title 42 under the pandemic laws, but also inconsistent with what President Trump was doing with respect to the return to Mexico migrant protection protocols, saying, hey, if we're not going to be able to process you, you're going to stay there.
00:31:07.000And then we'll do the best we can to process you.
00:31:26.000Hey, we're going to actually affect trade policy.
00:31:30.000We could say, for example, we're going to shut down traffic coming across I-35 in Texas or the gas lines or whatever you want to do and get Mexico to the table.
00:31:45.000I'm sitting sick and tired of Americans dying from fentanyl and little girls and little kids getting sold into the sex trafficking and human trafficking trade because we refuse to do our job.
00:31:55.000Do you think that the detain or turn away policy gets communicated internally with the cartels and the human trafficking networks?
00:32:03.000Of course, because here's the thing, and the human beings involved, who's going to want to pay $5,000 or $10,000 to a cartel?
00:32:12.000To be transported up to the border to then be told, sorry, you can't come in and claim asylum and get released.
00:32:18.000They're in fact going to go through the whole effort of processing it.
00:32:22.000We just got data that for fiscal year 22, when they looked at all the reports, that it was about 10% of the total that had any kind of an asylum claim that would allow them to come in.
00:32:33.000And that's probably a pretty liberal interpretation of it, to be honest.
00:32:37.000But at the end of the day, there are people who deserve it.
00:33:12.000When someone you know is going to be persecuted, they're going to be targeted by government for their political beliefs or religious beliefs, you and I both believe and Americans believe compassionate country, help them.
00:33:22.000It is not a come here, flood into the country, turn our country upside down, and then make a mockery of the entire rule of law.
00:33:36.000And he goes, you've got to protect this country because where else would I go?
00:33:41.000Some of our Republican colleagues have said that your turn away or detain policy guts asylum and that doesn't provide asylum for people who are worthy.
00:33:50.000And that's the reason we have Republicans, Texas Republicans, matter of fact, saying that they're not going to vote for your bill for that reason.
00:34:06.000It doesn't change the existing laws whatsoever with respect to someone being able to come to this country and claim asylum.
00:34:12.000What it does is simply says you cannot be released into the United States until and unless we adjudicate your claim for asylum to make sure it's real.
00:34:21.000So right now, the people who show up tonight at Eagle Pass— And come across.
00:34:27.000They'll all say, you know, we're here for our official protection.
00:34:41.000Or until we have the judges lined up, if that's in three months or six months, we'll pull you in and we'll then make your claim and process it.
00:34:50.000The numbers would drop precipitously so that the people who have legitimate claims would still be able to come here and find a bed.
00:34:58.000In a lot of ways, the people with legitimate asylum claims are the victims of an over-flooded system where they can never get that adjudication because you've got people who...
00:35:20.000And by the way, by doing what we're doing, We're weakening our fellow neighbors in Central America and South America and the Western Hemisphere.
00:35:28.000We should be exporting the rule of law, having a strong world in the Western Hemisphere.
00:35:32.000That would push back on China without having to have endless wars abroad in the name of who knows what.
00:35:37.000And we should have a strong border for our betterment and their betterment and migrants' betterment.
00:35:42.000Frankly, it's much ado about nothing, but people are trying to wrongly claim things about this bill that are scaring people away, and it's intentional.
00:35:51.000So let's talk about the Republican strategy on this, because I would put up your bill, and I would be willing to allow it to fail, even if we didn't have the votes.
00:36:01.000Today we probably don't, to be honest.
00:36:02.000We probably do not have the votes to pass your bill.
00:36:04.000But I would like the American people to see who is willing to vote for detain or turn away, where the objections are, and then let's suss those out.
00:36:21.000Well, I'm still hopeful that it could happen, but I think it's because in this town, everybody's always looking to figure out how they can get the perfect scenario, and we only want to put forward things that everybody can vote for because it might hurt them in an election, rather than saying, look, we just want to advance good policy.
00:36:37.000You're going to have to either decide if you're with it or not.
00:36:40.000And sometimes you've got to take tough votes.
00:36:42.000I voted against a measure today on the floor that I generally supported the structure for, but I didn't think it went far enough.
00:36:48.000It exempted the ability for us to get reports about how inflation is caused by national security or emergency-related spending.
00:36:57.000I don't like our defense guys and others to be able to hide behind those important things to spend money we don't have.
00:37:03.000Sometimes you've got to take tough votes in order to get change.
00:37:06.000I even think the money we're sending to Ukraine is inflationary because that cash makes its way back into U.S. real estate markets through corrupt bank accounts in Switzerland and Dubai.
00:37:17.000It's also like our friend Thomas Massey would say.
00:37:19.000It's like every time you're printing money, which is where that money is coming from, we're printing it.
00:37:23.000Then you're actually diluting the value of our dollars, which is effectively a tax.
00:37:27.000You can buy fewer goods and services because of it.
00:37:29.000What border bill do you think this Republican team could pass?
00:37:33.000Because I'm starting to worry that the only border security bill that would have 218 votes today would just be legislation to increase the efficiency of processing people into our country.
00:37:45.000Yeah, so that's the real problem, right?
00:37:46.000So we'll watch and see what happens, what comes out of the Homeland Security Committee, even if it's in good faith.
00:37:51.000They say, well, we need some more dollars and some more vehicles and some more technology and more spending for more Border Patrol agents and maybe be able to give them, you know, retention bonuses.
00:37:59.000I can support some of those policies, but only if it's in conjunction with the policies that you need to provide Border Patrol to actually do their job.
00:38:08.000Because otherwise, what you're paying for is more processing.
00:38:12.000You're paying for more profits for cartels because you're incentivizing people coming to our country because your policy literally is encounter and release.
00:38:22.000And that just says to the cartels, keep them coming.
00:38:24.000There are only three things you can do with people.
00:38:27.000Turn them away, detain them, or release them into your country.
00:38:34.000And look, it's one of those things where right now people don't understand we're using a power of parole to release people in the United States, which literally says in the statute, case by case basis for special circumstances, something to those words.
00:38:50.000And this administration is just using parole to bring in blocks of people.
00:39:08.000Yeah, it takes three options down in two.
00:39:10.000So one of the other arguments Republican colleagues make is we have to take whatever the, you know, border hawk, Chip Roy theory of the case is, and we have to lash that to some feature of amnesty.
00:40:07.000As part of a package to try to improve our immigration system, end chain migration, end the diversity visas, fix it so it's skilled labor, and have an actual border security solution, which would have prevented a lot of what we're seeing now.
00:40:19.000But it fell short because the Republican leadership at the time, fully in the hip pocket of the Chamber of Commerce, wanted something a lot softer.
00:40:27.000And so the idea that we get attacked often and saying, you guys are just closed-minded.