Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1355 ｜ Can Talarico Take Texas？ Troubling Polls & the Moral Dilemma

00:00:00.000 Can Tallarico take Texas? The kooky progressive may have more of a chance to become the next Texas senator than you think, but we're taking an honest look today at the two candidates, Paxton Tallarico, both personally and politically, as well as talking to my brother, U.S. attorney Justin Simmons, about what is really still going on at the border.

00:00:21.980 We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by

00:00:25.340 our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com. Use code Allie for a discount. That's

00:00:29.780 goodranchers.com, code Allie. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is

00:00:44.580 having a wonderful week so far. If you love this podcast, would you please leave us a five-star

00:00:49.060 review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen, subscribe to YouTube. If you're not

00:00:53.760 already subscribed and if you haven't shared relatable with your friends, especially your

00:00:57.400 friends who are trying to figure out what the heck is going on and they want to leave feeling

00:01:01.540 a sense of clarity, but also some encouragement, then I encourage you to share relatable with them

00:01:08.220 and y'all can have good discussions about everything going on in the world. Today is

00:01:12.320 promised. We are going to talk about what is going on in the state of Texas. Now I know I've

00:01:17.020 gotten a little specific some of the past few episodes. We talked about Southern Baptist

00:01:21.900 convention. Now we're talking about Texas and you might be thinking, Allie, you're just talking

00:01:25.100 about things that you like that are relevant to you, the circles that you are in. But I will tell

00:01:30.080 you the same thing about the SBC that I will tell you about Texas. Not only does the SBC matter for

00:01:36.120 larger Christendom and really American politics, but also the state of Texas. I am a born and

00:01:42.500 raised Texans. So yes, I do really care about this, but it really affects the rest of the

00:01:47.000 country. And of course the makeup of the Senate really matters. We don't have very many senators.

00:01:51.440 And so how they vote and whether or not Republicans are in the majority, it matters for Trump's

00:01:57.120 ability to carry forward his agenda for us to pass legislation. That is actually good. So in

00:02:03.040 the state of Texas, we have finally, um, we have finally found out who the candidate, who the

00:02:08.780 Republican candidate is going to be that goes against the Democrat, James Tallarico. And his

00:02:14.360 name is Ken Paxton. If you don't know, Ken Paxton is the former Texas attorney general. Now he is

00:02:20.240 the Republican candidate for the Texas Senate. He won in a runoff primary election against

00:02:25.200 longtime Republican incumbent, John Cornyn. This was quite the surprise for a lot of people.

00:02:31.080 Now for a long time, Trump really didn't want to get involved in this. I think he kind of wanted

00:02:36.640 to see who was going to win. He didn't want to burn a bridge with whoever did win the election

00:02:41.820 and gotten to the Senate. So he kind of declined to endorse a candidate. But this changed abruptly

00:02:48.640 when one week before the runoff election, Trump endorsed Paxton, praising him as a loyal ally,

00:02:53.700 criticizing Cornyn for not supporting him. And then during the original primary, there was also

00:02:58.740 some talk about Trump endorsing Cornyn. So it seems like he went back and forth just a little

00:03:02.980 bit, but right before election day for this runoff, he said, yeah, Paxton is my guy. And

00:03:09.900 apparently that worked. It proved extremely effective. Paxton won 64% of the vote. There

00:03:17.400 are a lot of interesting things I could say about this Texas election. Mays Middleton won the

00:03:22.140 attorney general debate or the attorney general election. You might remember that I moderated

00:03:26.700 the attorney general primary, um, debate. And it's interesting that Ken Paxton won,

00:03:33.220 but the guy who was very Ken Paxton ask. So Aaron writes, uh, he did not win the primary.

00:03:39.780 There was also a runoff for the attorney general of Texas between Chip Roy and Mays Middleton

00:03:44.020 and Mays Middleton took it away. So lots of exciting, interesting things happening in the

00:03:50.180 state of Texas. So James Tallarico, Ken Paxton this November. James Tallarico is a very progressive

00:03:57.980 Democrat. You have heard me talk about him many times before. You've probably seen him on social

00:04:03.080 media and depending on what side of Instagram or TikTok or X you're on, you have either heard him

00:04:09.440 say things that are kind of reasonable sounding and you might think, okay, this guy seems like

00:04:14.620 a nice guy. Maybe you're even thinking you would consider voting for a moderate seeming guy like

00:04:21.280 this. Or if you're on my side of Instagram and X and TikTok, you have seen the absolutely out

00:04:26.620 there things that he has said. For example, God is non-binary. So that is one of the, that's one

00:04:34.080 of the battles that we're having here is that there are two very different sides of James Tallarico

00:04:38.360 that a lot of people, especially Christians are seeing and debating. What's interesting about

00:04:43.420 James Tallarico is not just that he's far left. It's not just that he says these very out there

00:04:48.000 progressive things that a lot of Democrats are actually running from right now, but he regularly

00:04:53.020 uses his version of Christian theology to justify his liberal stance on things like abortion or

00:04:58.680 gender immigration and his support of the abolition of all prisons. Literally, that's one thing that

00:05:04.120 he believes, which we'll get into. Now, you might wonder when you hear all of that, like, why even

00:05:09.700 talk about this to my Christian conservative audience. And the reason is because Tallarico's

00:05:14.680 brand of Christianity is very palatable to some of your friends who are maybe deep feelers. They

00:05:20.700 have really good intentions, and they might believe that the biblical approach to politics

00:05:24.940 is one that outsources our generosity to the state or our theology to politicians. And then

00:05:31.680 you have people who, for a good reason, just they don't like Tallarico, but they just aren't jazzed

00:05:36.280 about Paxton. And that's because Paxton has a litany of allegations in his past. So what I

00:05:41.880 want to do today is I want to take an honest look at both Paxton and Tallarico's character,

00:05:47.260 what we know of it, and then their policy positions. And then I will talk through how

00:05:51.720 I navigate choices like this one. It's a very familiar discussion. If you remember any of the

00:05:58.420 debates around Kamala and Trump in this last election or Trump and Biden or Trump and Hillary,

00:06:04.720 you have this kind of dichotomy that plays out in the media that, yeah, you know, someone like

00:06:10.600 Tallarico, he's got some out there policy positions, but he's a really, really good guy.

00:06:16.080 If you remember my debate and discussion with David French, that was something that he said.

00:06:21.000 He wrote an article saying that Tallarico is so Christlike. He represents Christianity so much

00:06:26.340 more than all of these other politicians. And I want to get into today whether or not that's

00:06:30.340 really true. But first, let us look at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican

00:06:35.840 candidate, because he does have significant allegations against him that I think are worth

00:06:41.320 talking through. So if we go back to 2018, he confessed to his top staff members that he had

00:06:47.220 an extramarital affair with an aide. Then in 2025, his wife, Angela Paxton, also a state senator

00:06:54.760 in Texas she filed for divorce the Daily Mail recently issued a report alleging that Paxton

00:07:01.260 had had an affair with Tracy Duhon a married Christian influencer and mother of seven according

00:07:07.240 to the report they met at the Kentucky Derby in 2024 and then later entered into a relationship

00:07:12.960 the report claims the affair contributed to the breakdown of both of their marriages now Paxton

00:07:20.080 has dismissed these reports claiming they are tabloid lies. I do find it interesting that when

00:07:27.840 Paxton's team responded to this report, they didn't talk about the specific allegations.

00:07:33.380 They just talked about, you know, the fact that the Daily Mail is a tabloid and trying to distract

00:07:38.840 people from this particular race. And so again, I just want to say this is an allegation. We don't

00:07:44.360 know if this is true. The previous affair in 2018 does seem to be verified by Paxton himself.

00:07:53.520 It's not just the affairs and alleged affairs and the divorce from his longtime wife that has made

00:08:00.920 headlines. Back in 2023, the Texas House of Representatives voted 121 to 23 to impeach him.

00:08:07.780 He was eventually acquitted by the state Senate, and the reason they impeached him is because they cited a longstanding pattern of what they called abuse of office and public trust.

00:08:19.100 The investigation stemmed from Paxson's request that lawmakers approve a $3.3 million settlement in a whistleblower lawsuit.

00:08:27.940 We could go into so many details of this, and we can link some sources in the description so you can check it out yourself.

00:08:34.560 but in the interest of time and conciseness, I'll kind of summarize it that way. Four former aides

00:08:41.640 alleged he fired them after they reported suspected bribery and abuse of office. Again,

00:08:48.300 state Senate ended up acquitting him of these charges, but he doesn't have a squeaky clean

00:08:54.580 record when it comes to some of these things. Now we will get into his policy wins or his wins as

00:09:00.760 attorney general rather. And those are very significant too. But I also wanted to tell you

00:09:05.300 why you might have some friends who were uncomfortable with Ken Paxton or who just

00:09:10.680 felt like they could not support him in the primary, even if they didn't like Cornyn,

00:09:15.800 because maybe they're looking at some of these things. Then we have our good friend,

00:09:20.360 James Tallarico. Now, James Tallarico, I do just want to say, I'm sure he's not the biggest fan of

00:09:26.580 relatable, maybe has never even heard of relatable, but I would love for James Tallarico to have a

00:09:31.840 conversation with me. Obviously we are on very different sides of the issues, very different

00:09:36.980 side of the aisle, but I really do think that it would be a productive and polite and very

00:09:43.940 intriguing conversation between two people who love Texas. Both of us say that we love Jesus and

00:09:51.760 we love the Bible and we land in completely different places when it comes to policy and

00:09:56.280 social cultural issues. We've been trying to do this for a long time. We have invited him.

00:10:01.580 I understand that he might not want to do that, especially in the middle of an election,

00:10:05.940 but I just want to put it out there one more time. I would absolutely love to have that back

00:10:10.760 and forth. But until we can get him on relatable, unfortunately, we have to talk about him. I'd

00:10:16.020 rather talk to him, but we've got to talk about him and talk about where he comes from. Let's

00:10:20.800 talk about a little bit of his personal life. We know less than Ken Paxton, but we know some

00:10:25.340 that paints a picture of who he is. But before we get into that, let me pause really fast and

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00:12:21.740 get 20% off weheartnutrition.com code Allie. Okay. We've got James Tallarico. It's so interesting

00:12:33.720 that Democrats decided to put out another person like this because they tried better at work.

00:12:38.640 They tried. They really tried. They tried the skateboard. They tried that against Ted Cruz

00:12:43.360 and it did not work. He had a ton of support. He had celebrity endorsements and all of that.

00:12:50.920 And it just wasn't effective. But what is different about James Tallarico, Beto also

00:12:56.880 tried to the whole, like, I'm going to be crass. I'm going to say the F word and things like that

00:13:01.540 to see if he could be cool with the kids and cool with millennials. Millennials love profanity and

00:13:06.040 marketing, not me, but millennials in general do. It's like one of the cringiest parts of

00:13:10.940 millennials. You go somewhere and you see these products on the shelves. And I saw something

00:13:15.360 yesterday that was like, manifest that S. And it was like, F this, I'm going to write in my

00:13:22.160 diary about it. Why? I don't know why millennials like stuff like that. It is so insanely cringe.

00:13:26.700 It didn't work with Beto though. He didn't appeal to enough people. And so now they have someone

00:13:31.060 who is totally different than that, who appears to be very clean cut, who appears to basically

00:13:35.960 be a priest. And so they're trying this persona to see if it'll work because Democrats know

00:13:41.800 that they've got to win over the Christians. They tried for a while to just demonize the

00:13:46.060 Christians. Well, that didn't really work. There are just too many of us. And so they've got to

00:13:50.460 chip away the evangelical support for Republicans. So James Tallarico, he attends a church called

00:13:57.660 St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin. It is radically progressive. It was recently exposed

00:14:03.280 by The Daily Wire for having explicit LGBTQ books in its bookstore aimed at children. And when we

00:14:09.220 say explicit, like we are talking about sexual stuff for kids, like this book is gay. We've

00:14:17.160 talked about a lot of these books in the past that talk about sexual interactions between teenagers

00:14:24.020 that are aimed at minors. So just to give you a taste of what this church is, their church

00:14:30.500 bookstore is carrying basically pornographic LGBTQ books aimed at kids. I won't even go into

00:14:39.980 all of the things that are in these books, illustrations of sexual acts, again, in a church.

00:14:46.080 The church is also an ardent supporter of Planned Parenthood. You can go to their website

00:14:50.240 in our SC or go to a website in our SC.org that shows this. They're supporter of Planned

00:14:56.340 parenthood. They set aside some of its budget to fund them. So again, the tithing dollars from the

00:15:02.380 congregants in this church are supporting the slaughter of Texas babies. That is the church

00:15:07.780 that Tallarico is a part of. The church has also hosted events with the Muslim group CARE, the

00:15:12.400 Council on American Islamic Relations. And this is not a friendly group to the West. This is not a

00:15:18.280 friendly group to Christians. They're not a friendly group to America. Governor Greg Abbott

00:15:22.140 recently designated CARE as a terrorist organization. We will include the link in

00:15:26.560 the description so you can check out all of the reasons that he did that. Tallarico earned his

00:15:32.200 master's in theological studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Again,

00:15:36.420 extremely progressive institution. And then he also has his own kind of personal scandal that we

00:15:43.540 very unfortunately had to read about last November in the New York Post.

00:15:47.980 Um, they found that he was following on his official account, at least 10 OnlyFans models.

00:15:55.860 Tallarico liked multiple photos posted by at least one of the accounts and exchanged private

00:16:01.060 messages with another. Yikes. Okay. We don't know as much about his personal life as we do

00:16:08.760 attorney general Paxton. And that's just because he hasn't been in the public eye for as long.

00:16:14.360 he hasn't held as prominent of an office as Texas Attorney General. More things may come out. I'm

00:16:21.500 not saying they will. I'm not saying I hope that they do. I'm just saying, like, if we're already

00:16:26.580 liking accounts and messaging OnlyFans models as a professing Christian, like, we obviously have

00:16:33.140 a sexual immorality issue going on there. Now, you'll remember, as I mentioned a little bit

00:16:38.660 earlier, that people like David French have praised his behavior as Christian, even if they

00:16:43.140 don't agree with his policies. He might present his ideas in this kind of soft spoken, friendly

00:16:48.380 manner. But at the end of the day, they're evil. They're evil. Like he has repeatedly blasphemed

00:16:55.280 God, saying God is non-binary. And I think we have that clip. We can play it. He's advocated

00:17:00.160 for the gender mutilation surgeries of kids. He has pushed for the killing of unborn babies

00:17:04.320 through abortion. And these aren't just policies. We'll get to the specific policies, but they're

00:17:08.700 not just policy positions. Like this is Tallarico's rejection of God's order, rejection of

00:17:14.680 God's justice, his order of male and female, his desire to strip innocent babies of the right to

00:17:19.160 life. It's a spiritual position. It's a theological position. And his politics are just downstream

00:17:24.240 from the immorality and the corruption that's in his heart. So I'm fine talking about personal

00:17:30.620 morality and personal failures and foibles when it comes to these candidates, but I'm not willing

00:17:36.940 to say that, well, Tallarico is just this gentle and faithful Christian and his policies are kind

00:17:43.340 of wacky, but then you have someone like Ken Paxton who has all of these personal failures,

00:17:48.000 but his least policies are okay. No, we're looking at two centers. Okay. We're looking at two

00:17:52.060 centers. I don't think the Tallarico's personal life is any cleaner than Ken Paxton's. Okay. So

00:17:57.300 let's just settle that score. Let's make sure that we're on the same page there and realize

00:18:02.280 that we're not talking about a squeaky clean person versus a dirty guy. We're talking about

00:18:06.480 two people that got some questionable things in their background. So let's look at some of their

00:18:11.340 policy positions because Tallarico has been very forthright about them. Tallarico is very pro

00:18:16.520 abortion. When you look at his voting record as a state representative, he votes on the side of

00:18:22.980 lax abortion laws and against any measure to protect the life of unborn children. And here he

00:18:28.940 is when he's asked about, Hey, do you support any restrictions on abortion? This is how he responds.

00:18:34.660 I trust Texas women to make decisions about their own bodies, to shape their own destinies in

00:18:43.160 consultation with their family members, their doctors, their faith leaders. I don't believe

00:18:49.980 that's a place for government. That's a belief I hold, not despite my faith, but because of my

00:18:56.620 faith. Jesus never talks about abortion. The Bible is silent on abortion. And when that happens with

00:19:05.580 a social issue as important as abortion, we Christians have to take scripture as a whole,

00:19:12.000 and we've got to try to make some kind of ethical determination.

00:19:16.180 I just want to remind you that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So don't allow his

00:19:22.160 humble seeming gentle sounding disposition and tone of voice fool you into thinking that this

00:19:28.180 is reasonable or biblical just reminding you what abortion is it is the poisoning and the starving

00:19:34.080 and the dismembering of living innocent babies inside the womb that's what he's talking about

00:19:39.920 and he's saying that he trusts texas women to make that decision that is a euphemism for i don't

00:19:44.520 believe in restrictions we trust them to make that decision well obviously if a woman is having an

00:19:49.620 abortion, we can't trust them to make the decision about the baby inside the womb because that's a

00:19:54.940 bad decision. That's an evil decision. You are choosing to end the life of an innocent person,

00:19:59.660 and that's always wrong. The Bible isn't silent on abortion. Thou shall not murder made the big

00:20:04.760 10. Babies inside the womb are humans. All humans are people. And in order for you to support the

00:20:10.800 position that some humans are not people, and therefore it's okay to murder them, you're going

00:20:15.240 to have to tell me how that distinguishes you from a Nazi. You're going to have to tell me how

00:20:19.320 that distinguishes you from anyone who has ever justified any atrocity in which you dehumanize

00:20:24.420 someone in order to justify killing them. Okay. Just because he sounds nice doesn't mean that

00:20:30.140 what he is saying is right. I'm glad that he is not using the story of Mary now to justify

00:20:38.260 his stance on abortion. You'll remember on Joe Rogan's, uh, Joe Rogan's show, he said,

00:20:43.880 oh, because Mary consented to the conception of Jesus, then that makes him pro-choice.

00:20:51.400 Mary didn't actually, he just, she just said, okay, it will be done to me as you say,

00:20:56.940 let it be done to me as you say. She didn't actually say yes or no. Let me think about

00:21:01.700 that for a second. And also she was consenting to, or you could just say that she was assenting to

00:21:07.200 conception. She wasn't deciding whether or not she was going to kill baby Jesus inside the womb.

00:21:12.720 So he's a wacky, wacky guy. Now on abortion, he likes to mix abortion with his stance on

00:21:18.220 transgenderism by saying things like this. I want to acknowledge that our trans community

00:21:24.500 needs abortion care, too. Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day.

00:21:31.280 OK, do I even need to say anything about that? I mean, I think we got it right.

00:21:36.420 OK, then we look at Paxton and Paxton has been pretty consistently pro-life. He supported and

00:21:41.120 defended the 2021 Texas Heartbeat Act banning abortions after six weeks. He has sued out-of-state

00:21:47.020 abortion providers for allegedly mailing abortion pills into Texas. He's additionally sued the Biden

00:21:52.920 HHS for guidance requiring hospitals to provide abortions in emergency rooms overriding state

00:21:59.140 pro-life laws. He joined a lawsuit with Florida suing the FDA, trying to stop the circulation

00:22:05.200 of abortion pills, which are now responsible for the majority of abortions in Texas and in the

00:22:10.360 country. And so his record has been one of fighting against the abortion lobby. And I really

00:22:15.960 appreciate that. The same cannot be true of Tallarico. Let me pause again and tell you about

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00:23:22.200 Okay. Here is Tallarico and the infamous God is non-binary clip. Sod three.

00:23:28.880 God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary.

00:23:39.080 Okay. Come on. He's obviously trying to make a point there. The truth is, is that God is spirit

00:23:46.980 and does not have a body like man. God, the father. That is the truth. He is referred to

00:23:52.560 exclusively though, as he, as King, as father, Jesus is an embodied man. He has a male body.

00:24:01.660 We know that about him. And so this idea that God is this political identity that rejects the

00:24:11.020 binary of male and female, when it is God who created us male and female in his image, of course,

00:24:16.920 it's blasphemous. I mean, this is making God in your own image. Like this is using God,

00:24:24.140 making him as an idol for your political ends. And it's really, really gross, but it makes sense

00:24:31.080 because he says that one thing that he loves so much is kids who block their puberty using

00:24:39.200 dangerous chemicals. So for, I love, I'm just saying this because it's on my mind. The

00:24:46.920 trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capitol to advocate for their humanity

00:24:52.420 they shouldn't have to but it was an inspiration to watch all right there's another thing as a

00:24:57.380 trans child okay it's not possible to transition genders at all it's definitely not possible for

00:25:01.680 a boy to say i'm a girl and to become a girl by declaration or vice versa and purposely infusing

00:25:07.540 children with that kind of confusion that leads them to the procedures that will sterilize them

00:25:11.840 forever is evil. It is evil. I don't care how clean shaven he is. I don't care that he looks

00:25:18.280 like he is a priest. It is evil what he is advocating for. And he even says that these

00:25:23.520 men in women's locker rooms or taking women's scholarships, that it's all just a conspiracy

00:25:27.760 that we shouldn't care about. And then in terms of other issues, Governor Abbott has filled this

00:25:33.620 special session agenda with with far right conspiracy theories about about trans children

00:25:40.140 causing problems on sports teams, which we know does not occur in the state of Texas,

00:25:43.780 or critical race theory, which we know is not being taught in classrooms in the state of Texas.

00:25:49.600 Critical race theory is being taught. It was being taught. That was a conspiracy theory that the

00:25:55.080 leftists ginned up, just like him, saying that that wasn't something that was going on. And he

00:25:59.920 specified there in the state of Texas, because he knows this is something that is nationwide,

00:26:04.940 mind that there are absolutely boys and men competing against girls and women and taking

00:26:10.680 their scholarships because boys and men are generally physically a lot stronger and faster

00:26:17.260 than women and girls are. And there is nothing ever, ever, ever that is going to change that.

00:26:22.840 And then if we look at Ken Paxton and what he's been like, uh, in this arena, Paxton sued the

00:26:30.040 NCAA for allowing men in women's athletic events. He also sued doctors for providing puberty

00:26:36.340 blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to minors. He recently reached a historic settlement

00:26:41.420 requiring the Texas Children's Hospital to start the first ever detransition clinic. You'll remember

00:26:48.360 we had Vanessa Sivage. She won the first chair of the Arrows Award. She was on our show. We had the

00:26:53.920 wife of Etan Haim, who was the doctor, who was the whistleblower. They both worked at Texas

00:26:59.780 Children's down in Houston. And they were like, hey, these kids are illegally being prescribed

00:27:05.280 things like puberty blockers and hormones. And this is not this is not good. And so the Texas

00:27:12.080 Attorney General Paxton did something about it and reached this amazing settlement. And so now those

00:27:17.320 who are detransitioning, we've interviewed so many of those detransitioners who need help.

00:27:21.400 Now they can go there and they can actually get the help that they need.

00:27:25.100 Tallarico voted against a bill when he was a Texas representative saying that referring to

00:27:30.860 a child's biological gender is not considered abuse. Okay. So he apparently thinks it is

00:27:37.060 considered abuse for a parent, for a teacher to call a boy he, if that boy is confused about his

00:27:44.360 gender. So could not be further apart, further apart when it comes to that. And then when it

00:27:49.160 comes to immigration, this is a really big issue. Yes. For the nation, but also, uh, for the, for

00:27:54.780 the state of Texas, got a really large border that is connected to Mexico. And we'll be talking

00:27:59.480 more about that issue specifically with our guest in just a minute. But Tallarico's position is that

00:28:05.420 our border should be like our front porch. It's not six. We should treat our southern border

00:28:09.300 like our front porch. We should have a giant welcome mat out front and we should have a lock

00:28:15.000 on the door. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. You have a right to know who's coming

00:28:19.540 into your house and you should be welcoming the stranger into your home and providing that

00:28:25.100 hospitality. Okay. But you're not, let's think about that. If you had a hundred people showing

00:28:31.380 up on your front porch, James Tallarico, you didn't know them. They just said, look, I need

00:28:36.880 something. I need some food. I want to come in here. I want to sleep in your bed. I want to sleep

00:28:40.680 on your couch and I want to hang out with your girlfriend. You probably wouldn't let them in,

00:28:45.840 right? Like you'd probably call the police or you'd probably say, I can't have all of you.

00:28:50.060 And I can have one of you in after I get to know you. And after I understand who you are and why

00:28:55.540 you're here and what it's going to be like for you to be here, but I can't let all of you in

00:29:01.200 indiscriminately just because you're strangers who say that your house isn't as good as my house

00:29:05.720 or because your neighborhood isn't a great neighborhood. And so you can make that metaphor

00:29:09.680 all you want to, but unless you are living out that application in your own life, I'm not really

00:29:15.260 interested in it. So many of these politicians aren't affected by the consequences of their bad

00:29:20.380 policies. He just wants he just wants us to let them in to our front door on our front porch. But

00:29:27.340 he's not willing to do the same. And then, of course, when we look at Paxton, he's filed

00:29:31.240 multiple lawsuits against Biden era immigration policies. He sued the Biden administration in

00:29:35.680 2023, alleging it weakened a federal law that bars immigrants from obtaining green cards if

00:29:41.100 they're likely to rely on government assistance. He also joined an Arizona led lawsuit that

00:29:45.800 required the Biden admin to continue enforcing title 42, the emergency health policy used to

00:29:52.100 expel migrants to Mexico without processing asylum claims. The illegal immigration issue

00:29:57.680 is so important and thankfully under Trump and thanks to the DOJ, um, it's gotten a lot better,

00:30:04.160 but it's really important that we have people in the legislature that we've got people in

00:30:10.240 Congress who are representing the interest of the American people when it comes to something

00:30:15.240 like voter ID, which Congress has been really hesitant to get past. We need more support for

00:30:22.800 voter ID, not less. And Tallarico is against it. Saudi. Are you OK with voter ID? So voter ID is

00:30:30.620 currently required in the state of Texas. I opposed having to have a driver's license to vote. How

00:30:34.840 about having to send your ballot in? Should you have to prove who you are? Because that's what

00:30:38.200 Democrats are opposing. Pete, I just said I oppose voter ID. Currently, it's a law in Texas,

00:30:42.740 but I oppose that law because I think you don't need voter ID. You don't think the most sacred

00:30:48.280 obligation of our republic, you should have to prove who you are in order to vote. So there are

00:30:53.800 a lot of Texans, actually hundreds of thousands who don't have a driver's license. Okay, well,

00:30:58.400 they should get a driver's license. There seems to be a pretty easy solution to that rather than

00:31:03.800 truly disenfranchising American citizens by saying you don't even have to prove your citizenship

00:31:08.480 that you have a stake in this country in order to vote. And so obviously the SAVE Act is not going

00:31:14.820 to pass with Tallarico's support. And so if you as a Texan don't want your interests represented

00:31:20.800 in Congress, then you should definitely vote for Tallarico. Okay. So there we've got the two

00:31:27.020 candidates. We've talked about some of their moral failures, and then we've talked about their policy

00:31:32.300 positions. And I could go on and on for each of these. And we could go through all of the biblical

00:31:37.100 responses to Tallarico. But honestly, I feel like I've done that so much. And we can link past

00:31:42.300 episodes so you can go back and listen to me respond to him in detail with what scripture

00:31:47.280 actually says about these theological and political issues. But instead, I want to talk

00:31:52.380 about a couple things to end this segment before we get into our interview. And one, the question

00:31:57.480 is, can Tallarico win? And then two, like, how do we think about some of these moral failures

00:32:02.520 versus policy positions as Christians? So first let me look at these polls. So out of the 12

00:32:07.080 polls conducted in the last three months, Tallarico has led Paxton and Cornyn in every poll,

00:32:11.760 but two, one which had Cornyn leading by plus one and one that had Paxton and Tallarico even.

00:32:18.380 Okay. So that means people in general, according to these polls are a little uncomfortable with

00:32:23.420 Paxton. A Texas public opinion research poll had James Tallarico leading Ken Paxton 46% to 41%.

00:32:30.640 Tallarico had an even greater edge with moderate voters by 49 points. 19% of self-identified

00:32:37.180 somewhat conservative voters said they would support Tallarico over Paxton.

00:32:42.500 That is really troubling. James Tallarico had a plus seven net favorability rating while Paxton's

00:32:48.760 is minus 10. For comparison, the Republican party had a plus two rating. Donald Trump

00:32:53.180 had a negative two rating and the Democratic party had a negative 12 rating. 21% of voters

00:32:59.520 ranked affordability and the cost of living is the most important issue. That is something to

00:33:03.500 Tallarico's credit that he talks about a lot. I don't agree with his solutions, but he talks about

00:33:08.240 it in a way that people resonate with. So that ranked higher than immigration, democracy, voting

00:33:15.380 rights, abortion, and reproductive health issues. People really care about affordability. I would

00:33:20.000 just say, Tallarico is not going to change that for you. He's not going to make that better for

00:33:23.760 you. I promise he's not. And January Democrat was able to flip Texas's ninth Senate district,

00:33:29.340 which Trump won by 17 points in 2024. So I would say it is possible for Tallarico to win. It is

00:33:35.900 possible. I personally still don't think it's plausible. I think it will be close. I think he

00:33:40.860 is too kooky, kookier than Beto to win. I think he said too many weird things. Honestly, you might

00:33:48.660 think that's a superficial reason that can win or lose elections. He has raised $27 million in the

00:33:54.560 first quarter of 2026, bringing his total fundraising to over $40 million. Paxton raised

00:33:58.900 7.6 million. Not surprising. That is not necessarily a determinant of who's going to

00:34:03.460 win. Again, you look at Beto. He was able to raise millions of dollars as well. Tallarico is still

00:34:09.500 consider the underdog, it's the state of Texas and people have overlooked things on both sides

00:34:15.520 of the aisle. People have overlooked issues like the ones that Paxton has had. Um, and so I think

00:34:22.960 that it's going to be possibly a nail biter. And so I will just say like, we got to vote that I

00:34:28.900 believe is a responsibility here. So let me just kind of lay out how I think about this. And it's

00:34:35.080 very similar to the Trump-Kamal election and the conversation we were having there.

00:34:39.280 So moderate pundits pose this dichotomy that we've talked about a lot that paint the Republican

00:34:43.480 candidate like Paxton or Trump is less insane policy-wise, but completely intolerable morally.

00:34:49.780 And therefore, the inferior candidate to someone like Tallarico or Kamala Harris,

00:34:54.960 whose radical policies they downplay in light of their pristine moral character as they present it

00:35:01.080 to us. That is not an accurate description of these candidates. It's just not. It is true that

00:35:06.400 Paxton and Trump have better policies, obviously, when it comes to law and order, the border

00:35:10.740 transgenderism, duh. It's also true that they have serious moral flaws. I take the Paxton

00:35:16.760 allegations actually even more seriously as a Christian because Paxton professes Christianity

00:35:21.180 consistently and Trump doesn't really do that. But it is not true that Tallarico or Kamala Harris

00:35:28.320 are above reproach morally. Both profess to be Christians. Tallarico was caught following and

00:35:33.700 allegedly messaging the OnlyFans stars last year. Kamala used an affair with a married man,

00:35:38.160 Willie Brown, to advance her career. Both of them are avid defenders of everything that opposes

00:35:43.300 what God calls good, right, and true. They are fierce defenders of murdering babies in the will.

00:35:48.140 They support chemical castration for minors. Their history on immigration is defined by a

00:35:52.600 total lack of concern for the issues that come with illegal immigration. Tallarico believes in

00:35:57.120 abolition of prisons. We didn't even get to that. Sorry, we are running out of time,

00:36:02.560 but we'll play that soon. We'll be talking about Tallarico a lot. He believes in the abolition

00:36:07.540 of prisons and Kamala advocated for releasing criminals in the 2020 era and the George Floyd

00:36:14.120 season. So I see that both publicly and politically Tallarico is opposed to so much

00:36:21.460 of what Christians should support. And even when it comes to things like poverty, Tallarico's

00:36:26.200 position is not the Christian one. It's not the Christian position to outsource our generosity to

00:36:30.620 the state. It's not that's not generosity by definition. Taxes are not generosity. And the

00:36:35.920 tax funded programs that disincentivize work are not actually loving. They're not actually

00:36:40.180 productive. Now, my preference will always be to have a candidate that is morally upright

00:36:44.860 and politically solid. That's actually why I haven't voted for Trump in a primary.

00:36:50.100 There's one of the reasons I voted for him in all the general elections, and I'm glad that I did.

00:36:53.980 I don't regret a single one of those votes. But in the primaries, I voted for Rubio and I voted

00:36:58.620 for DeSantis. When it comes to the general election, I have to choose between two centers,

00:37:04.080 one whose policies support order and liberty and one whose policies support destruction and

00:37:08.600 depravity. So in this case, just like in the 2024 election, I'm going to choose the center with

00:37:15.460 the better policies. That's how I think about it. And when it comes to one of these policies that

00:37:20.160 is so important, especially in the state of Texas, but to all of us to immigration. I really want us

00:37:25.220 to understand what's going on there. I feel like the immigration issue doesn't make headlines as

00:37:29.100 much, but there is a lot that is going on at the border and specifically in the department of

00:37:33.900 justice. So for that conversation, I wanted to bring on my brother whom you have not met. His

00:37:38.400 name is Justin Simmons, and he is the U S attorney, uh, for the Western district of Texas covering

00:37:45.680 the entire border, everything that's going on there with the cartels. He's got

00:37:49.480 some fascinating facts that we really need to know and that we need to keep in mind when it

00:37:56.040 comes to elections, because when it comes to elections, it's not just about that one person

00:37:59.900 that you're voting for, but everyone and everything else that follows that one decision.

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00:39:14.300 Well, Justin, thanks so much for taking the time to join Relatable for the very first time.

00:39:19.320 We always ask at the top, tell everyone who you are and what you do.

00:39:23.220 Yeah, thank you, Allie. Really appreciate it. My name is Justin Simmons. I'm currently

00:39:26.640 the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas. The Western District of Texas

00:39:32.200 covers 93,000 square miles. I sit in San Antonio. That's where my main office is,

00:39:38.880 but we have seven offices across the district, Waco, Midland, Alpine, San Antonio, like I said,

00:39:46.720 Austin, El Paso, and Del Rio. That also covers 68 counties in Texas and one-third of the entire

00:39:55.560 U.S. border with Mexico. So that's about 660 miles of Mexican border. So we've got a lot of

00:40:02.120 area to cover, a lot of cases that we handle here in the Western District, and I'm really honored to

00:40:07.220 be in this position, having been put here May 30th of last year by then Attorney General Bondi.

00:40:16.140 And then later, that appointment was continued by the district court judges, which I can go into

00:40:21.620 that process if you want to. But yeah, been here almost a year now. So really, really enjoying the

00:40:26.780 job and the good work the folks in the Western District are doing on a daily basis. I can't

00:40:31.700 believe it's been a year. And most notably, you are my eldest brother. You didn't include that,

00:40:36.760 but I'll include that for you. Okay. I think most people don't. Yes. I don't think most people

00:40:43.300 understand that border control is not just border patrol, that it's not just ICE. It's not just

00:40:50.500 deportations. It's not just the people standing at the border and making sure that no one enters

00:40:55.060 illegally, but that the DOJ and specifically your office, the Western district of Texas

00:40:59.820 has a lot to do with making sure that our border is secure. So I know this is like down to the

00:41:06.400 basics, but what exactly do y'all do to make sure that illegal aliens aren't coming in here and

00:41:11.980 committing crimes? Well, there's a lot we do. When Border Patrol or our folks at CBP, which those are

00:41:19.480 two different things that both fall within DHS, basically CBP watches the ports and makes sure

00:41:25.080 nobody comes through a port of entry or brings something in that shouldn't be here. And then

00:41:28.760 Border Patrol monitors those areas between the ports. So if you cross at a place that's between

00:41:34.340 a port of entry, then Border Patrol is the one who's going to pick you up. And once one of those

00:41:38.860 entities picks you up at the border, then it's our office that's going to prosecute you for the crime

00:41:45.860 of illegal entry. If you're somebody who has entered previously and been removed, you will

00:41:52.360 also, you will be prosecuted for illegal re-entry. And illegal re-entry actually extends beyond the

00:41:57.500 border. You can, you can catch an illegal re-entry charge anywhere within the interior United States.

00:42:03.280 So while most of our cases at the border in our border offices like Del Rio and El Paso, we get a lot of illegal entry cases, we get a lot of illegal reentry cases at our interior office in San Antonio, Austin, Waco, and those offices, Midland as well.

00:42:21.940 So that's really the role we play in border enforcement.

00:42:24.920 It's not just the illegal entries either.

00:42:28.600 It's also all the spinoff crimes that go with that.

00:42:31.520 you know we have a lot of alien smuggling that happens in the western district of texas these are

00:42:37.120 groups usually associated with a cartel that are paid by these individuals who want to come

00:42:43.040 into the united states they're paid by those individuals to be brought into the united states

00:42:48.160 so we get a lot of those cases as well they catch large groups of people that are coming across

00:42:53.440 although i will say overall the numbers for illegal crossings have gone down significantly

00:42:58.800 You know, when I first started this job last year, the Border Patrol chief in the El Paso sector told me that they had gone from 2,500 encounters a day to 60 or 70 encounters a day, which is an amazing, one, that we ever had that many folks that we were encountering, and two, that it reduced that quickly.

00:43:20.720 I mean, that's just within, you know, five or six months of President Trump being inaugurated.

00:43:27.720 We had already seen that much of a decline in the number of encounters.

00:43:31.180 So it's just amazing work they've done.

00:43:33.440 You know, and then obviously, you know, with border crimes, you get a lot of drugs that come across, you know, from the South coming into the United States.

00:43:41.040 You also get a lot of guns and money going from the United States into Mexico to both fund and arm the cartels.

00:43:47.400 So we handle a lot of that as well.

00:43:49.460 But understand, it is illegal immigration and alien smuggling that facilitates a lot of the money that the cartels earn on a on a regular basis.

00:44:02.940 That's where we can really hit them hard is right in the pocketbook by stopping the illegal immigration and the alien smuggling that comes across.

00:44:11.760 You know, we had a case here. Now, this is a long winded answer, but we had a case here a couple of years ago.

00:44:17.640 we just had the sentencing last year. We had 54 illegal aliens that died in the back of a semi

00:44:25.440 truck here in San Antonio. They were being transported from Mexico into the United States

00:44:31.160 in the back of a semi truck in June in Texas. So it got really hot and they basically all died from

00:44:37.860 hyperthermia. So really, really sad situation. But we learned that each one of those people paid

00:44:43.760 $12,000 to $15,000 a piece to this alien smuggling organization to be brought across. So if you do

00:44:50.900 the math and you think 10 million people have come across over the last several years, let's say it's

00:44:57.240 even half that. Let's say they didn't pay $12,000 to $15,000, only paid $5,000. That's $25 billion

00:45:03.500 to the cartels. That goes to them buying more drugs to bring into the United States, buying more arms,

00:45:11.500 paying off more politicians. I mean, it really does probably constitute most of the money or

00:45:19.380 a significant portion of the money that the cartels bring in, just the alien smuggling

00:45:23.060 operations they facilitate. It seems like it's a totally different subject, but we had the head

00:45:28.840 of a persecuted Christians organization called Open Doors on just a couple weeks ago, and he

00:45:35.000 was talking about actually one of the most surprisingly hostile countries towards Christians,

00:45:41.660 specifically evangelical Christians, is Mexico and how the cartels sometimes will terrorize

00:45:47.580 these Christians. They kidnapped a bunch of Christians, put them in a church, basically

00:45:52.260 made them die there without food or water for several days as an example to everyone else,

00:45:57.800 that if you're like these people, then we'll do the same thing to you. And that's just to make

00:46:02.100 the point that what the doj is doing here specifically in the western district of texas

00:46:06.980 to try to stop that illegal trafficking of guns and money and people over the border is trying to

00:46:13.560 target the pocketbook of the cartels that are then using that weaponry and using that money

00:46:18.540 to terrorize all kinds of people in mexico and in america too and specifically targeting christians

00:46:25.160 And so just the ripple effect everywhere is actually kind of incredible.

00:46:31.080 And then also this U.S. Sentencing Commission, they just came out with some recent numbers

00:46:37.320 that are showing the number of sentences in fiscal year 25.

00:46:42.760 I won't even get into the numbers.

00:46:44.320 I have them in front of me, but you explain it better.

00:46:46.760 Tell us what this report shows about non-citizens and illegal aliens and the kinds of crimes

00:46:51.320 they're committing.

00:46:51.800 Yeah, let me let me just comment real quick on what you just said about the persecution of Christians. I did hear that interview last week. That was really good, really important. But I think what that really comes down to is that these cartels have zero value for human life, even the lives of their own cartel members, much less their countrymen who aren't cartel members.

00:47:12.040 There is zero value for human life. There's a lot of kind of like voodoo type religious practices that they engage in, like Santa Muerte and things like that, that are just purely evil.

00:47:24.580 And that that pure evil plays out in their day to day lives and how they treat people.

00:47:30.960 I've sat across the table from multiple cartel members that recount for us the horrible things that are done to intimidate others to if not fully joining the cartel to at least cooperating or keeping their mouth shut so they don't say anything in the future.

00:47:50.600 So the complete unvaluing of human life, the lack of value for human life they have is so apparent in so many things that they do, not to mention how they use and treat children on a day-to-day basis.

00:48:05.380 I mean, they recruit these children to work for the cartels.

00:48:08.640 I mean, people get outraged about child soldiers in Africa.

00:48:12.360 We've got child soldiers two and a half hours from where I'm sitting right now.

00:48:17.040 They work every day for the cartels, either as lookouts or sometimes sicarios.

00:48:21.240 We've had folks tell us of sicarios as young as 13 years old, being given a machine gun and going to work for the cartels.

00:48:29.480 It's an awful, awful situation going on with these cartels just, you know, a couple hundred miles from where we live.

00:48:39.220 It's really terrible.

00:48:40.780 And there's a lot of good work that needs to be done there.

00:48:42.820 That's why this mission that we're on to eradicate cartels is such a righteous mission. It's not just about drugs. It's about really transforming, hopefully transforming Mexico into a place where people can thrive, which if Mexico is a place where people can thrive, then America is safer.

00:49:01.220 America is better. And that's why it matters, you know, for for us to be doing this work that seemingly only affects things in Mexico, but in reality affects us here very, very directly, actually.

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00:50:30.120 so on the sentencing commission and this ties into the illegal illegal immigration conversation

00:50:40.500 we were having earlier the sentencing commission first of all the sentencing commission is a

00:50:45.140 commission built up of practitioners judges and other folks who they set the sentencing guidelines

00:50:55.340 for federal sentencings in the United States.

00:50:58.620 And so it's way more complicated

00:51:00.780 than we want to get into here,

00:51:01.980 but there's all kinds of different things

00:51:03.680 that go into determining how long of a sentence

00:51:06.880 someone should get when they're convicted of a crime.

00:51:10.440 Now, judges don't have to follow the guidelines.

00:51:13.800 They are advisory,

00:51:15.480 but it is something that they weigh heavily

00:51:18.280 in determining what a sentence should be.

00:51:20.400 So the sentencing guidelines are very, very important

00:51:23.500 and the folks on this sentencing commission

00:51:25.160 and the rules that they set are very important to determining how long folks go to prison,

00:51:31.620 at least for federal cases.

00:51:33.940 And the Sentencing Commission releases stats really on a rolling basis,

00:51:37.160 but they release annual stats every year.

00:51:40.240 And a few weeks ago, they released stats for fiscal 2025.

00:51:44.300 And one of the stats in there said that of the 66,000 people sentenced in the United States,

00:51:52.260 28,000 were non-citizens now not 28,000 were illegal aliens because there's a difference

00:51:59.540 you can be a resident alien and have legal status here so 28,000 were non-citizens but

00:52:06.280 of those 28,000 91.6 percent were illegal aliens now I will say most of those illegal aliens were

00:52:13.460 charged with those immigration offenses we talked about earlier illegal entry illegal re-entry but

00:52:19.460 understand, it also encompasses a much broader group of criminals. It's those people who engaged

00:52:25.080 in alien smuggling. It's people who are engaged in some kind of immigration documents fraud.

00:52:30.280 So it's important to understand the full context of what all is included in that number.

00:52:35.400 But 91.6% of that 28,000 non-citizens were illegal aliens. So this mission that we're on to stop

00:52:43.700 illegal immigration is so important. You can see, you can just imagine how much money we would have

00:52:50.020 saved if we didn't have to incarcerate all those folks who have broken the laws of the United

00:52:55.480 States, who have shown their unwillingness to follow the laws of the United States upon entering

00:53:00.000 this country, save us hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars every year. So it's just

00:53:07.500 such important work that we're doing on this immigration front, and the sentencing statistics

00:53:12.100 really bear that out. Yeah. I mean, if you look at some of these and we can, um, put up when we

00:53:18.620 put out this episode, actually the chart that it shows. So these are all non-citizens and we're

00:53:24.260 looking at things like murder, manslaughter, sex abuse, child sex abuse. The vast majority of those

00:53:31.280 heinous crimes among the non-citizens are being committed by the illegal aliens. So not the

00:53:37.040 non-citizens with legal resident status. Very few of these crimes, the majority of them are

00:53:43.440 being committed by the legal non-citizens. Most of the most heinous ones, stalking, harassing,

00:53:49.960 kidnapping, drug trafficking, the vast majority of those are being committed by these illegal aliens,

00:53:56.600 which just shows how dangerous the situation is and why this really is. It's a human rights issue

00:54:03.700 because, you know, I hear a lot people say, well, there are more crimes that are committed by

00:54:08.620 citizens, by maybe by legal non-citizens too, than illegal aliens. But I say the difference

00:54:15.860 there is, even if that's true, I don't even know if that's true because these people largely are

00:54:20.480 undocumented. So they're a little bit harder to track and to count. But even if that's true,

00:54:25.120 every kidnapping, every rape, every assault, every manslaughter, every instance of drug,

00:54:31.340 drunk driving that is committed by an illegal alien should never have happened in the first

00:54:36.220 place. It was preventable. Um, for the most part, not every single crime is always preventable.

00:54:43.080 We do what we can, but it's not always foreseeable or preventable. But when it comes to the people

00:54:47.520 who should never have been here in the first place, who have no right to be here in the first

00:54:50.980 place, we are talking about largely preventable crimes. That's why it matters so much who's in

00:54:55.880 office, but also why it matters so much who is in your position. Because not everyone has the

00:55:01.560 same values and the same priorities when it comes to protecting America's border and protecting us

00:55:06.820 against the cartels. No, you're exactly right, Ali. It is so important. And I'll tell you another

00:55:11.200 thing too. We tend to see folks that have worse criminal history when we pick them up for illegal

00:55:18.600 reentry offenses. So these are in our interior offices. What I've seen just anecdotally looking

00:55:24.380 at the criminal history of these folks, those folks that are in and around the Austin area,

00:55:29.160 which Austin is one of those cities that has a reputation as being maybe not a full-on sanctuary

00:55:34.680 city, but definitely has policies that are there to benefit those who are in the country illegally.

00:55:42.920 We see a much worse criminal history for those folks than ones we find elsewhere. And it stands

00:55:50.340 to reason. I mean, you would be attracted to a place that has more lax policies on immigration

00:55:56.540 enforcement. And that matters even at the state and local level as well. But you're exactly right.

00:56:01.240 This is such an important issue because it does affect us in so many ways. And like I say,

00:56:06.180 we've got enough criminals in the United States. We don't need to import others.

00:56:11.060 Yep, that's exactly right. I've heard you talk about the flood of habeas petitions

00:56:15.140 that are being filed by those in immigration detention. That's lawyerly language. Break

00:56:21.320 that down for us. What does that mean, and why does it matter? Yeah. So habeas is short for a

00:56:28.180 petition for a writ of habeas corpus. And that's simply somebody saying, hey, I'm being imprisoned

00:56:34.620 wrongly, and I should be let out for these reasons. And what has happened over the last

00:56:40.060 several months is we've had thousands of habeas petitions filed by folks in immigration custody

00:56:47.360 across the country. But the most have been filed here in the Western District of Texas,

00:56:52.480 and that's because we have multiple immigration detention facilities in the Western District. So

00:56:58.320 we've got, I think, as of last Friday, we had just over 5,000 petitions that were filed

00:57:04.700 since about October 1st of last year,

00:57:09.540 which is just an amazing amount of volume.

00:57:11.860 And our folks in our civil division,

00:57:13.920 which most folks don't know,

00:57:15.200 in the U.S. Attorney's Office,

00:57:16.680 we prosecute crimes,

00:57:18.180 but we also represent the United States

00:57:20.080 in civil litigation.

00:57:21.860 So this is one of those things

00:57:23.880 where we're representing the United States

00:57:25.680 in these habeas cases.

00:57:28.600 And it has been just a ton of work for those folks.

00:57:31.220 They've done admirable work.

00:57:32.480 They've been proven right on the law

00:57:33.860 by the Fifth Circuit on one issue already as an interpretation of a statute, which I won't go into

00:57:39.140 detail on for fear of boring everyone. We have another issue in front of the Fifth Circuit right

00:57:44.440 now related to due process and how much process folks who are here illegally in an immigration

00:57:50.420 detention are entitled to. We'll see how that comes out. I think there's probably, there's

00:57:56.100 already circuit splits on that issue. So I imagine the Supreme Court will ultimately have to decide

00:58:01.260 this, but we're waiting for, at least for now, for the Fifth Circuit to decide the due process issue,

00:58:07.700 and hopefully it'll come out our way. What we can have, and what some courts have held, is that

00:58:14.240 these folks who enter the country and evade detection, they enter illegally, and then they

00:58:22.620 evade detection for a long amount of time, get more due process rights than you would if you

00:58:28.420 were caught right at the border. And that to me is just a preposterous place to land. It makes

00:58:36.220 no sense that if you're good at crime, you get more due process rights as an illegal alien when

00:58:42.860 the reality is Congress for illegal aliens has set the due process, the process that is due

00:58:49.220 to illegal aliens. And that's the way our system works. If you're an illegal alien, you do not have

00:58:55.080 the full panoply of rights that is available to American citizens. You can't vote, for instance.

00:59:00.420 You cannot own a firearm. There's all kinds of other restrictions on what you can and can't do.

00:59:05.600 You can't work without authorization. I mean, there's all kinds of things,

00:59:09.240 ways that we limit the rights of illegal aliens. And the process that has been laid out for our

00:59:14.660 immigration system has been laid out by Congress. And that's what we should follow. That's what we

00:59:19.660 believe we are following. And, you know, we'll see where the Fifth Circuit lands and ultimately

00:59:24.600 where the Supreme Court lands on that. But in the meantime, we're working really, really hard

00:59:28.580 to represent the interests of the United States in this area. Yeah. What can you tell me also about

00:59:34.700 this new National Fraud Enforcement Division? Does your office have anything to do with that?

00:59:40.960 What do we need to know about that? Yeah. So this is born out of all the fraud we saw that,

00:59:46.440 was it Mr. Shirley pointed out in Minnesota with the folks saying that they had these child

00:59:53.980 development centers and really it not being anything but a door or a storefront, nothing

01:00:00.540 else. It was really born out of that. I know I saw in the news this weekend or late last week that

01:00:06.160 indictments have been filed in Minneapolis on folks who were committing that fraud. And so

01:00:12.340 this is really born out of that. It's a main justice program, which main justice is what we

01:00:17.940 call the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. But all the U.S. attorney's offices have point

01:00:23.640 people that are part of that effort in the western district of texas we see most of our government

01:00:30.680 fraud which is what the the fraud enforcement division is really focused on um most of our

01:00:37.400 government fraud is like medicare and medicaid fraud so we see a ton of that however we've had

01:00:41.720 some big cases related to military contractor fraud as well i know one case i prosecuted as

01:00:48.200 an a usa i was an a usa down here for four and a half years before i was elevated to this position

01:00:53.640 was against a woman named Janet Mello, who worked for the Army as a civilian and over the course of

01:00:59.520 about six years stole $109 million from the Army. So, you know, there's lots of different ways that

01:01:07.220 people defraud the government. Medicare, Medicaid is very, very common. So we do a lot of those

01:01:12.880 cases. But being a military city here in San Antonio, we also have a lot of contractor-related

01:01:18.000 fraud as well. And all of that falls under that umbrella.

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01:02:26.960 You know, something I've heard you talk about, something I've heard

01:02:30.620 Harmeet Dillon talk about as well, is just the need for more like-minded, America-loving

01:02:40.000 attorneys, to join the government, to join the DOJ. Um, and that's tough, not just at your office,

01:02:48.560 not just in your area of the DOJ, but when it comes to the civil rights division, which Harmeet

01:02:53.900 Dillon is a part of, it can just be tough. So like how, how does the DOJ approach that? How

01:03:00.960 are y'all recruiting attorneys? And, um, what is, what's your pitch? If there's an America loving

01:03:06.300 attorney out there and they're thinking about it, why should they join your team?

01:03:11.480 Well, to me, if you love the rule of law and you love making America a place where people can

01:03:17.180 live their lives, enjoy liberty and pursue happiness, this is a great time to join DOJ.

01:03:23.180 I'd say if you're purely ideologically driven as an attorney, you probably should not join DOJ.

01:03:31.220 I mean, as an attorney, you have a duty to represent a client regardless of your personal

01:03:35.760 ideology. And what's sad to me is we've seen so many people leave because they don't necessarily

01:03:41.340 agree with the president's ideology. And to me, those people fundamentally don't understand what

01:03:46.780 it means to be an attorney. It means you setting aside what you personally believe to do what is

01:03:51.920 in the best interest of your client. You may not like that, but that is the job. Any of us like

01:03:58.220 myself who've worked in private practice, we have represented people we don't necessarily like and

01:04:02.920 don't necessarily agree with, but we have a duty to represent them and represent them in a way

01:04:08.840 that advances their cause as long as their cause aligns with the facts and the law. And if it

01:04:14.300 doesn't align with the facts and the law, we tell them that as well. And that's sometimes a hard

01:04:18.540 conversation. But that's what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. And if that's something you're

01:04:23.720 interested in, you should come join us. I mean, every U.S. attorney's office in the country is

01:04:27.840 recruiting heavily right now. Most of that is driven by the deferred resignation program. We

01:04:34.560 had a lot of people that took advantage of that program last year after the president was

01:04:39.460 inaugurated. And great program, great for them. A way if you're close to retirement to get out.

01:04:45.020 A way if you were one of those people who could not align themselves ideologically or could not

01:04:50.020 set your own beliefs aside to get out with a handsome payday as well. But obviously with that

01:04:55.880 many people leaving, now we've got a lot of openings. I will say, though, I heard a stat

01:04:59.800 the other day, and I forget what the period is, but looking at the same period in the last

01:05:05.200 administration versus the same period in this administration, in the last administration,

01:05:09.820 they had filed 100,000 criminal cases. The Department of Justice nationwide had filed

01:05:15.560 that many cases. In that same period, the following year, during the Trump administration,

01:05:20.320 we filed 140,000 cases. So that's a 40% increase with a significantly less amount of attorneys. So

01:05:29.140 we're doing a lot of great work. We're doing a huge volume. We're doing it well. I'm proud of

01:05:33.760 the folks that I work with, not just here in the Western District, but across the country. I've

01:05:37.440 gotten to know many of them so well. And they just want to get in here. They want to do their jobs.

01:05:41.660 They want to enforce criminal law and just wake up every day, like you say, and do the next right

01:05:46.780 thing. That's what I love about my job is that's all I have to do every morning, wake up, do the

01:05:52.340 next right thing. And that's it. I don't have to think about like finagling ways to try and keep

01:05:57.380 my client happy or anything like that, that might not align with the law. I wake up every day,

01:06:03.400 do the next right thing. And it's like a warm blanket every day that I get to wear coming to

01:06:08.100 work. And it's a really, it's a really great thing. So if you want that same feeling out of

01:06:12.860 your work, then I'd say apply either here in the Western district, which is great. You're going to

01:06:17.480 get a ton of great work or in the many other districts that are hiring. Yeah. And it seems

01:06:22.560 like a little bit of a paradox to say that there's like a comfort in getting up and doing a job that

01:06:27.800 is kind of dangerous. I mean, you're dealing with dangerous people and dangerous things who have no

01:06:32.260 moral compass, like you said, but the comfort is in knowing that you're fighting for the right

01:06:36.800 costs and you're fighting against evil. I mean, there are a few clear examples of this is evil.

01:06:43.620 This is good. This is the good side of things. And like, there is something just so encouraging

01:06:50.220 and comforting about that, even when it comes with risk. And it also just reminds me as you're

01:06:55.360 talking of what we say, like politics matter because policy matters because people matter.

01:06:59.680 You're not a politician, but for whom you vote matters so much because you're not just voting

01:07:03.920 for that one individual. You're voting for their entire administration. You're voting for every

01:07:08.420 appointee, every judge that's appointed, every attorney that's appointed. And the worldview of

01:07:13.660 the people in charge, it trickles down and it really affects things like the border, which then

01:07:18.200 affects children's lives and the lives of Christians here and abroad. So just realize that, that the

01:07:23.260 choices we make at the ballot box is a lot, it's a lot more than just that one choice. It has an

01:07:28.940 effect on so many other things. All right. Is there anything else like that you would just

01:07:33.900 encourage people that you wish that people would know when it comes to either what the DOJ does

01:07:39.420 or our involvement as people who aren't lawyers, we're not in the government, what we can do to

01:07:44.780 support you guys and to help advance the kind of good change that you're talking about?

01:07:50.440 Well, I think one of the things people can do is just really support their local law enforcement,

01:07:54.560 those federal agents that are working in your areas. They are out there. They're just regular

01:07:57.880 folks trying to do their job. They don't have any personal animus against anyone they're going

01:08:02.920 after. They have a job to do, which is enforce the laws of the United States. And that's what

01:08:08.860 they're trying to do on a daily basis. And that's what all my prosecutors here, all my civil

01:08:13.360 litigators are trying to do on a daily basis. Many of them may not agree necessarily with

01:08:21.200 ideologically be perfectly in line with everything this administration wants to do,

01:08:26.560 But they've put aside those things and they've represented their client well. And I'm so proud to say that about them. And, you know, it's a very difficult time to be in law enforcement right now. It's a very difficult time to be a prosecutor in many places. But our folks are committed to the mission. They see it as being worthwhile, as something that is worth doing.

01:08:48.260 And we really, at the end of the day, what everybody needs to remember, you only have one life to live.

01:08:53.280 And if you're living your day-to-day life on a cruise, like you're on a cruise ship, like you're the main items in your schedule, or maybe you got a couple calls in the morning, but your main focus is lunch.

01:09:03.900 And whether you're going to play tennis in the afternoon or pickleball or whatever it might be, like there is more to life than that.

01:09:10.560 And I would ask you to get engaged however you can.

01:09:14.860 Maybe it's not working for the Department of Justice.

01:09:16.700 Maybe it's working for some organization in your community that is trying to push back

01:09:21.020 against the darkness in the world because we only have one life to live and pushing

01:09:26.000 back against darkness is a great way to spend it.

01:09:29.380 I love it.

01:09:30.280 That's so good.

01:09:30.780 I'm ready to take the bar exam right now.

01:09:33.900 I'm sold.

01:09:36.020 Justin, thank you so much.

01:09:37.380 That was so good and very enlightening.

01:09:39.140 Thanks.

01:09:40.240 Yeah, we'll have to do this regularly because, you know, we don't hear that much about what's

01:09:44.000 going on at the border anymore.

01:09:45.160 it's kind of like problem solved. But the truth is, this is an ongoing battle for justice. So

01:09:49.280 thank you so much. Well, thank you, Allie, for having me on. I really appreciate it.

01:09:58.140 All right, y'all. Politics-heavy episode. Hope you enjoyed that. Hope it gave you a lot of

01:10:03.360 needed information. We don't have time for Lifestyle Pitter-Patter with our Hillary Clinton

01:10:08.680 segment opener. Um, we'll have to save that for later. We just have so much good stuff to talk

01:10:14.980 about every time. And I have a lot to say. And so we'll save that for next week. Um, thanks so much

01:10:20.060 for listening. If you've got ideas for what you would like me to cover in the future, guests

01:10:24.760 you'd like me to have, feel free to send them my way on Friday. We will have Seth Gruber here.

01:10:28.700 There is none like him that is able to just bring the truth and clarity so boldly. And so

01:10:32.900 stay tuned for that. We will see you back here then.

01:10:38.680 We'll be right back.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 03, 2026

Ep 1355 ｜ Can Talarico Take Texas？ Troubling Polls & the Moral Dilemma

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