Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 12, 2026


BONUS POD： What the Numbers Show： Criminal Convictions Dominate ICE Arrests


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

153.82428

Word count

2,524

Sentence count

152

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

We now have data from the first year of President Trump's time in office when it comes to illegal immigrants and who has actually been arrested. We also now know that there were quite a few on the terrorist watch list that the President has been able to take off the streets. This as there s new concerns about sleeper cells in the U.S. that have been activated because of the war in Iran.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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00:00:28.040 No hesitation. No half-minute.
00:00:30.640 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:34.760 Good Thursday morning. It's nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update,
00:00:38.880 and we've got a very big story for you.
00:00:41.320 We now have data from the first year of President Trump's time in office
00:00:45.500 when it comes to illegal immigrants and who has actually been arrested.
00:00:50.060 We also now know that there was quite a few on the terrorist watch list
00:00:54.540 that the president has been able to take off the streets.
00:00:57.080 This as there's new concerns about sleeper cells in the U.S. that have been activated because of the war in Iran
00:01:04.100 This year marks a critical moment for our country
00:01:07.600 As the opposition grows more aggressive and unapologetic
00:01:11.800 The fight now reaches into the everyday decisions we make
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00:02:42.220 It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now.
00:02:46.120 Story number one.
00:02:47.200 I want to start with a story that the mainstream media doesn't want to spend a lot of time talking about.
00:02:52.840 Because it completely destroys the narrative that they pushed for years about border enforcement.
00:02:58.660 When Donald Trump ran for office again, he made a very clear promise to the American people.
00:03:04.700 Secure the border and remove the most dangerous criminals who entered this country illegally. 1.00
00:03:10.460 Now let's be clear, this is a story right now that matters when it comes to national security.
00:03:16.100 We all know about the real concerns over sleeper cells, terrorists that came in across our southern border.
00:03:22.840 that have been activated because of what we are doing in Iran and in the Middle East in general.
00:03:29.600 That is a reason why this story of immigration is now coming back to be a much bigger story
00:03:35.520 than just people running across the border from Latin American countries.
00:03:39.560 There are many people that came across our southern border that was wide open under the Biden administration
00:03:45.100 who were, in fact, on the terrorist watch list.
00:03:48.840 How do we know that? Because our own government, including during the time that Joe Biden was present, said it was actually happening more than any of us could have imagined that men and women were coming across the southern border and many of them were on the terrorist watch list.
00:04:05.760 Now, when Trump ran for office, he said, I promise to the American people, I will secure that border.
00:04:12.220 And not only has he done it, but he's done it in the way that many Americans say was a very humane way of doing it.
00:04:19.480 Now, he didn't just talk about securing the border, as many others have done in the past.
00:04:23.940 He literally did it.
00:04:25.540 And now that promise is being backed up with hard numbers.
00:04:29.620 According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security,
00:04:35.240 Enforcement operations surged almost immediately after President Trump took office again.
00:04:40.780 In the first 50 days alone, we now know that federal agents arrested more than 32,000 illegal immigrants in nationwide enforcement operations.
00:04:51.380 Let me repeat that. 32,000 arrests in just the first 50 days.
00:04:55.600 And here's the part that the media won't talk about at all.
00:04:59.240 Nearly 70% of those arrests already had criminal convictions or were facing criminal charges.
00:05:07.780 These weren't random people being picked up.
00:05:10.180 These were criminals, many of them violent and some of them on the terrorist watch list.
00:05:15.400 Now, out of those arrests, we also have learned now that more than 14,000 of them were illegal immigrants already convicted of crimes, not in other countries, but crimes in the United States of America.
00:05:29.240 Another 10,000 were facing pending criminal charges, not in other countries, but in the United States of America.
00:05:37.680 And then when you dig deeper into these numbers that we now are seeing, it gets even more shocking.
00:05:44.680 Federal agents were now being told arrested 1,155 suspected gang members in the first 50 days.
00:05:53.420 44 foreign fugitives wanted in other countries 29 individuals flagged as suspected terrorists
00:06:01.820 yes i'm going to give you that number again in the first 50 days that donald trump was back in
00:06:09.300 office 29 individuals were flagged as suspected terrorists that is what the democrats led into
00:06:18.960 this country with open borders, and they knew it. Now, the story gets even more disturbing when
00:06:24.160 you look specifically at crimes against children, because one of the top priorities of these
00:06:30.220 operations under Trump's leadership have been tracking down illegal immigrants who are accused
00:06:35.900 or convicted of sexual crimes involving minors. For example, in just the Houston, Texas region
00:06:45.280 alone. ICE reported arresting 214 illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of child
00:06:53.240 sex crimes in the first six months of the Trump administration. That is 214 child predators
00:07:01.100 in one single region. And officials say the number has already surpassed the total arrests
00:07:08.680 of those crimes during the entire previous year when Joe Biden was in charge. Now these cases
00:07:15.580 included crimes like sexual assault of a child, child molestation, sexual exploitation of minors,
00:07:23.200 possession of child pornography, and now we've gotten the newest numbers to add to that base.
00:07:29.560 We now know from ICE that 414 illegal alien child sex offenders were arrested in the Houston area alone during President Trump's first year in office.
00:07:44.720 Why is the media not telling you this story?
00:07:47.480 This isn't nationwide.
00:07:48.720 This is in one city.
00:07:50.160 The headline from the local paper reads this way.
00:07:53.180 More than 400 criminal legal aliens have been charged with or convicted of child sex crimes have been arrested in Houston, Texas.
00:08:02.400 An official stated parents can sleep a little bit better, knowing those individuals are no longer a threat to their family.
00:08:09.560 Now, these are the same people the Democrats want you to feel sorry for.
00:08:12.880 ICE announced on Monday that the enforcement and removal operations in Houston not only netted the hundred and no, wait, I'm sorry, the 414 illegals during President Trump's first year back in office.
00:08:26.460 But officials said the number almost doubled that of predators arrested during the final year of Joe Biden's administration.
00:08:34.360 As a group, the arrested criminal legal aliens accounted for 761 child sex offenses and 525 other criminal offenses ranging from homicide to robbery, the announcement states.
00:08:52.600 ICE then listed some of the arrestees who came from countries such as Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, and the United Kingdom.
00:09:01.600 Now, these are the crimes that have been committed, and some of them are absolutely heinous.
00:09:08.100 Illegal aliens have been accused of or convicted of committing crimes against children in the United States of America at extremely young ages.
00:09:16.660 One report in January was that an illegal alien was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl with autism in the sanctuary state of California, for example.
00:09:25.860 The following month, an illegal alien fugitive was charged with possession of child sexual abuse material, commonly known as child pornography.
00:09:34.880 In another case, Texas Highway Patrol troopers on horseback tracked and arrested an illegal alien on a remote border ranch in Maverick County on New Year's Day.
00:09:45.800 The troopers closed in on their target just outside of Eagle Pass, Texas, shortly before noon.
00:09:51.320 Troopers identified the man as a previously deported illegal alien.
00:09:55.260 a convicted sex offender with multiple convictions for child-related sexual crimes.
00:10:02.740 ICE has also arrested 1,505 illegal aliens in November,
00:10:07.640 including gang members, child rapists, and foreign fugitives the outlet also reported.
00:10:12.580 And there's also, yes, more on the terrorist watch list.
00:10:16.800 Now, regarding the 414 illegal aliens convicted of or charged with child sex crimes
00:10:22.740 who were caught in Houston alone?
00:10:25.160 Ice Enforcement Removal Operations acting field director said this.
00:10:29.960 While elected officials and media pundits across the country
00:10:33.320 were zealously trying to manipulate the American public
00:10:36.480 with fake news stories about ICE, public safety missions,
00:10:40.300 the brave men and women of ICE, were quietly going about their business
00:10:44.160 to arrest and remove more than 400 dangerous child predators
00:10:48.660 from our local community in Houston.
00:10:51.760 Thanks to their tireless efforts, parents across Southeast Texas can sleep a little
00:10:56.360 bit better tonight knowing that these pedophiles and child rapists are no longer a threat to
00:11:01.360 their children, which brings us back to the big part of the conversation.
00:11:06.180 Why is the media not covering this?
00:11:09.520 And why is it that the media, which is now obsessed with sleeper cells in the country,
00:11:14.580 even new warnings of possible attacks in California, for example, by these sleeper
00:11:19.620 cells. Why are they not telling you about how many people on the terrorist watch list have been
00:11:24.240 caught? How many of them came across the border that we know are in this country illegally and
00:11:30.400 that the Biden administration knew for a fact that the open border policy was allowing for terrorists
00:11:36.740 to come into America. Many of them may be in the sleeper cells that so many are now concerned about.
00:11:43.540 This is exactly why I wanted to spend the time talking to you about it right now.
00:11:48.620 Not only is the border a national security issue, but it's also a national security issue,
00:11:53.800 not just from a terrorism perspective, but from a child safety perspective.
00:11:59.360 There are so many people that came across our border and the former administration and the
00:12:04.760 Democratic Party knew that there were really bad people that were coming across.
00:12:10.360 And they deliberately chose to allow those people across while flooding this country 1.00
00:12:15.660 with tens of millions of illegal immigrants.
00:12:18.920 Why did they do it?
00:12:20.060 Because they want to fundamentally change this country.
00:12:22.740 They want to change the fabric of this country,
00:12:24.980 the values of this country,
00:12:26.300 just like we are witnessing right now in Europe
00:12:29.200 and other nations around the world.
00:12:31.980 That is the plan of the Democratic Party.
00:12:34.660 Now, the president of the United States of America
00:12:36.360 has one thing that is really working to his advantage.
00:12:40.020 There is new CNN polling that is out right now
00:12:43.480 that says today that Dems are pulling worse on immigration than they did during Trump's first term in office.
00:12:54.240 Which party do you trust more on immigration?
00:12:57.280 Take a listen to this from CNN's own reporting.
00:13:00.160 I think it's so important to note, after all the events in Los Angeles, after all the events in Minneapolis,
00:13:05.340 after all the events of the last year on immigration, can Democrats actually take advantage on this issue?
00:13:11.580 And a look at the polling suggests, actually, no, they're in a worse position than they were at this point during Donald Trump's first term.
00:13:19.320 Take a look here. Trust which party more on immigration.
00:13:21.700 In 2018, Democrats had an edge of about six points.
00:13:25.040 You come over to this side of the screen now, look at that.
00:13:27.740 Republicans are the ones who actually have an edge on immigration.
00:13:30.440 So this whole idea that Democrats are going to be able to take advantage of the immigration group, of the immigration issue, actually doesn't bear itself out in the polling despite everything that's been going on.
00:13:43.320 In fact, Democrats are in worse position than they were during Donald Trump's first term.
00:13:47.020 Yeah, maybe they don't like what Donald Trump, the president, is doing, but they don't think Democrats will do a better job.
00:13:51.700 Correct. They think Democrats will do a worse job on immigration than Republicans.
00:13:55.180 All right. What about border security in general?
00:13:57.020 Okay, border security in general. So this is immigration at large. What about border security? Look at this. Look at these numbers. Hello, party trusted more in border security. Again, at this point, Trump's terms. Look at this. In 2018, Republicans had a 13-point advantage. If anything, the advantage is a little bit larger now. Republicans up by 15 points.
00:14:14.640 So when you put it all together, you put immigration with border security and the idea that Democrats will be able to take the ball and run away on it.
00:14:21.220 The polling data suggests, no, no, no, this is actually an issue that Republicans should be more comfortable running on than Democrats.
00:14:28.660 Democrats running on immigration may actually be to the Republicans' advantage.
00:14:32.280 So you listen to CNN's own reporting now, and now you realize that the Dems are polling worse on immigration than they did during Trump's first term.
00:14:42.000 Why is that? Because of this.
00:14:44.640 nationwide. Immigration officials say roughly 70 percent of all ICE arrests now involve illegal
00:14:52.480 immigrants who have already committed crimes in the United States of America. That means the focus 1.00
00:14:58.220 of these operations is very clear. They are literally removing the most dangerous offenders
00:15:03.220 first. When you look at the broader enforcement picture under President Trump, the scale of the
00:15:09.060 crackdown becomes even clearer. Federal authorities say immigration enforcement teams are now targeting
00:15:14.160 violent offenders, gang members, terrorists, repeat border crossers, human traffickers,
00:15:21.240 sex traffickers, and child predators, all part of what the DHS calls a strategy to remove the worst
00:15:27.880 of the worst. So even as Democrats claim that the Republicans and Trump and law enforcement
00:15:34.220 are just rounding up random sweet people, that is a lie. More than 70% of ICE arrests now involve
00:15:42.320 illegal immigrants who have already committed crimes in the United States of America. President 0.72
00:15:48.900 Trump campaigned on restoring law and order at the border. And according to federal law enforcement
00:15:54.400 statistics, tens of thousands of arrests later, including hundreds of predators targeting children
00:16:00.160 and people on the terrorist watch list. The Trump administration says that promise is now becoming
00:16:07.500 a reality. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make
00:16:13.580 sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in-depth
00:16:19.200 news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.