Verdict with Ted Cruz - Border Czar Tom Homan - Exclusive One on One

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.640 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.360 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, Senator.

00:00:09.700 One of the best things about getting to do this show is having on brilliant minds

00:00:14.640 from within the administration who get to talk directly to the American people.

00:00:18.680 And today we get to have another very special guest.

00:00:21.860 A good friend of yours, the Border Czar, is joining us, and I'll let you take it from there.

00:00:26.500 Well, Tom Homan is serving as President Trump's Border Czar.

00:00:30.500 He is the former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

00:00:35.560 And he has been Border Czar since Trump resumed office as president.

00:00:40.640 His formal title, which I like, is White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations.

00:00:49.240 And to be clear, his job is to secure the border, keep us safe, and remove dangerous illegal aliens. 0.95

00:00:55.560 He's doing a hell of a job. Tom, welcome to Verdict.

00:00:58.920 Hey, thanks for having me.

00:01:00.760 So let's start with just, how are we doing?

00:01:04.500 We're four months in, almost five months into the Trump presidency.

00:01:09.680 How are we doing? Tell us what has happened since President Trump became president again on the border.

00:01:16.220 Well, President Trump, today, where I'm talking to you today, Senator Cruz,

00:01:19.620 is we have the most secure border in the history of this nation today.

00:01:24.780 The most secure border ever.

00:01:26.220 I mean, we even beat Trump in 45.

00:01:28.240 Well, we handed the Biden administration the most secure border we ever had at that time.

00:01:32.320 But the data is even better now.

00:01:34.440 And let me give you a few numbers, just a few numbers.

00:01:36.580 Under the Biden administration, we were dealing with 10,000, 11,000, even a few times, 15,000 aliens a day.

00:01:43.540 Yesterday, it was 211.

00:01:47.080 We went from 13,000, 14,000 to 211.

00:01:52.400 And that's across the entire southwest border.

00:01:55.880 Yes.

00:01:56.580 Gotaways under Biden, an average gotaway day under Biden was 1,800 plus.

00:02:01.820 1,800 plus.

00:02:04.040 What was the gotaways yesterday?

00:02:05.820 39.

00:02:07.340 Wow.

00:02:07.660 And the most impressive number, the first 100 days on President Trump, compared to the same time period last year under Biden,

00:02:16.560 Biden released over 184,000 illegal aliens in this country.

00:02:22.800 The Trump administration, one.

00:02:25.980 There was nine releases, but four more material witnesses.

00:02:28.840 As you know, we want them to come here and testify in a cartel trial.

00:02:31.960 So four of them, we want to come in.

00:02:33.020 Four, it came across the border in such bad shape that we had to call an ambulance and take care of the medical needs.

00:02:38.940 We had to allow them and decided to do medical treatment.

00:02:41.920 But we had one, one discretionary release compared to 184,000 released under the same time period during Biden.

00:02:50.060 Most secure border history of this nation.

00:02:52.400 Interior enforcement operates.

00:02:53.840 ISIS arrested three times more criminals than Biden did during the same time period.

00:02:58.720 We got more to rest.

00:03:00.220 We got many more to rest.

00:03:01.620 But they're already hitting the ball out of the park, and we're going to keep doing it.

00:03:05.160 We need to do more of it, and we're hoping for a budget real soon here so we can step up efforts there.

00:03:10.320 But it's game-changing.

00:03:12.220 President Trump's been a game-changer, and the men and women vice and men and women board of charge stood up, took on the task.

00:03:17.980 And President Trump did in seven weeks, but Joe Biden couldn't or wouldn't do in four years.

00:03:22.000 My favorite line from President Trump's most recent State of the Union address is when he said, you know, Joe Biden stood here a year ago and said that he couldn't secure the border without new legislation passing Congress.

00:03:35.280 And then Trump said, it turns out we didn't need new legislation.

00:03:38.620 We just needed a new president.

00:03:40.880 And that's powerfully true.

00:03:42.800 So let me ask just a simple question for those – look, you're an immigration expert, but for someone at home, how did the numbers drop so precipitously?

00:03:52.660 What specifically are y'all doing differently than what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did?

00:03:59.060 The biggest thing we've done is the president's executive orders were a game-changer.

00:04:03.900 Remain in Mexico, a game-changer. 1.00

00:04:06.980 Have the third state country agreement, a game-changer.

00:04:10.080 And finally, ending catch and release.

00:04:12.880 People know you come to our border now, you're not being released.

00:04:16.240 And we just follow the law because, as you know, under federal statute, an alien arrives at our border without proper documentation to enter.

00:04:24.620 The language is, you shall be detained. 0.98

00:04:27.480 Not maybe, not think about it, not parole them, shall.

00:04:30.540 And that's exactly what we're doing.

00:04:31.680 Those three things, by themselves, have been a major game-changer.

00:04:35.200 And all three of them were executive orders by President Trump.

00:04:38.180 I want to talk to you real quick about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

00:04:42.480 Most of us, when we go to bed at night, we don't have to worry about there being an explosion that awakes us in the middle of the evening.

00:04:48.640 We climb into our beds, we turn off the lights, and we sleep in relative safety.

00:04:53.520 But the people of Israel are facing nonstop threats on seven different fronts.

00:04:59.020 They do have a red alert system to warn of incoming attacks.

00:05:02.660 And last month, red alerts blared nearly 50 times every single day.

00:05:08.380 Something we can't imagine living with.

00:05:10.760 The toll on families and first responders is brutal.

00:05:14.180 And right now, Israel's first responders are facing an urgent need.

00:05:18.300 Life-saving supplies that are running low.

00:05:20.860 And that's why the work of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is so critical.

00:05:24.960 Your gift of only $150 will help provide first responders with helmets, flat jackets, medical rescue bags, and even armored service vehicles to keep people alive.

00:05:37.460 Your gift is urgently needed.

00:05:39.680 And if you want to stand with the people of Israel, you can call 888-488-IFCJ.

00:05:46.100 That's 888-488-4325.

00:05:50.420 You can also give securely online at ifcj.org.

00:05:55.400 That's ifcj.org.

00:05:58.700 You mentioned budget a moment ago and how important it is to have the budget for you guys to continue your job.

00:06:04.760 Explain for everyone listening, is that referencing the big, beautiful bill?

00:06:09.040 And what is in there that you need so much to continue to do your job at the border?

00:06:14.420 Well, we want to make the border secure permanently, so we need more infrastructure, right?

00:06:18.620 So we need to finish building that wall.

00:06:20.680 Now, let's be clear.

00:06:21.540 Every place they build a border barrier, illegal migrations went down, illegal drug flow went down.

00:06:26.720 But most importantly, walls save lives.

00:06:29.220 Women and children can't get over that wall, the most vulnerable. 0.78

00:06:32.040 So they go to a place where there's not a wall.

00:06:34.180 And what's waiting on them?

00:06:35.120 The men and women of the border patrol, first of all.

00:06:36.960 So the wall saves lives.

00:06:38.560 So we need to finish the border barrier.

00:06:40.120 We need money to finish the technology within the existing border wall.

00:06:43.920 Because not only did President Biden stop the construction of the wall, he stopped adding the technology in that smart wall.

00:06:50.460 Technology that lets us know when someone climbs that wall, touches the wall, dig under that wall.

00:06:54.680 Technology where border patrol agents in the middle of nowhere can get on a radio and use a wall as a repeater to talk to other agents for help.

00:07:01.500 There are some places on the southern border where they lose all communication.

00:07:04.640 So all that technology needs to be done, more technology at port of entry to make sure no fentanyl is coming through.

00:07:12.160 And as far as the interior enforcement, we need beds.

00:07:14.660 Right now we've got about 52,000 people in detention.

00:07:17.940 We're funded at 34,000.

00:07:19.800 ICE is already in the hole.

00:07:21.140 We need about 100,000 beds.

00:07:23.180 Because everybody we arrest needs a bed.

00:07:25.520 We just don't arrest somebody in New York City and put them on a plane to leave.

00:07:28.100 We've got to detain them for several days to several weeks to get travel documents, get flight arrangements, flight cleansers.

00:07:34.900 So we need beds.

00:07:36.000 So we need, you know, so this budget, the pending budget right now, the big beautiful bill, will give us money for those beds.

00:07:41.600 They're going to give us thousands of more border agents, thousands of more ICE agents.

00:07:45.220 It's going to give ICE a budget to bring in more contracts up.

00:07:49.180 What do I mean by that?

00:07:50.420 Badges and guns shouldn't be sitting at a desk doing reports of processing.

00:07:56.000 They shouldn't be sitting at a desk doing travel documents and all the administrative duties that occur within ICE.

00:08:03.220 You can have a contractor sitting there doing that work, give that badge and gun, get them out on the street to arrest the public safety threats and national security threats.

00:08:10.780 So we need the money.

00:08:11.740 Like I said, we're doing more than Biden did, but Biden wasn't doing anything.

00:08:15.540 We need to do ten times more than Biden did, not three times more.

00:08:18.600 And I'll leave you with this.

00:08:19.780 We've got 700,000 illegal aliens in this country with a criminal conviction walking the streets of this country.

00:08:25.280 We've got to get them.

00:08:26.520 We've got to get them quickly.

00:08:27.920 We've got 1.4 million illegal aliens who had due process at great taxpayer expense, were ordered removed by a federal judge, and didn't leave, and they become fugitives.

00:08:36.900 We've got a lot of work to do, and we need money to do more.

00:08:39.940 We're doing good, but the more money we have, the more we can do.

00:08:43.120 Well, and Ben, I'll say this, that Congress, we will get this reconciliation bill passed.

00:08:48.820 It's going to take time.

00:08:49.720 It's going to be bumpy, but we'll get it done, and when we get it done, we're going to have funding to build the wall.

00:08:54.460 We're going to have funding for technology on the wall.

00:08:56.460 We're going to have funding for more Border Patrol agents.

00:08:58.760 We're going to have funding for more ICE agents.

00:09:00.640 We're going to have funding for more detention beds.

00:09:02.420 We're going to have funding for more fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.

00:09:05.260 We're going to have funding for more drones and more infrared and technology.

00:09:08.460 we are stepping in now it's going to take a little bit of time to get the bill across

00:09:12.600 across the finish line but i'm confident we'll do it and and i will say it really underscores

00:09:18.060 something we've said on verdict many times which is the most important factor in securing the

00:09:23.980 border and this is what tom said just a minute ago it is a policy decision and it is a decision

00:09:29.460 what happens when you apprehend an illegal immigrant and if the answer is

00:09:33.860 you put them on a plane and you fly them back home they all have cell phones they pick up their

00:09:39.840 phones and they call home and they say don't come they're not letting you stay and the flip side is

00:09:44.680 true if if when you apprehend them you let them go you say what city do you want to go to and you put

00:09:49.380 them on a plane you put them on a bus and you let them go in every city in america which is what joe

00:09:53.340 biden was doing again they all have phones they pick up the phone they call their friends and family

00:09:58.460 and the numbers skyrocket and so when president trump left office the first time he had produced

00:10:07.120 the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years that's what joe biden inherited it immediately 0.98

00:10:12.700 skyrocketed to the worst rate of illegal immigration in history joe biden allowed 12 million of the

00:10:19.220 illegal immigrants to come into this country and and regular listeners of verdict will recall i predicted i 0.96

00:10:25.640 said we will see the numbers plummet and it won't take a year it won't even take six months it will

00:10:32.260 happen immediately because on day one catch and release is going to end and we're going to see the

00:10:37.760 numbers plummet now all that being said tom let me ask you honestly i will admit i i predicted loudly

00:10:44.480 that the numbers would plummet i'll confess i didn't think they'd drop over 99 percent or are you

00:10:50.360 i'm surprised at just how massive the success is are you are you a little bit surprised or no

00:10:57.240 i'm i'm not surprised about success i'm surprised how fast that happened when president trump when

00:11:03.260 he called me asked me to be the borders are of course i didn't hesitate i came back and the first

00:11:07.180 meeting he had he asked me how long would it take you down to secure the border i said sir i need i need

00:11:12.300 at least 120 days he says well look at the 90s sir how to respect 120 days even pushing that we did

00:11:19.780 this in seven weeks seven weeks numbers already down yep and uh and you're exactly right everything

00:11:26.060 you said was right but i want to add one thing when joe biden opened that border up he's the first

00:11:30.560 president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose this

00:11:36.900 wasn't mismanagement this wasn't incompetence he ran on open borders and that's exactly what he did

00:11:42.060 you know so when you tell the whole world you can enter this country legally don't worry about it

00:11:46.340 we're going to release you anyways and when you got a secretary of my orchestra on ice you can't

00:11:51.000 arrest somebody for being here legally unless they got a serious criminal conviction the whole world's

00:11:55.520 going to come you can cross the border illegally you get released in 24 hours we won't give you a

00:11:59.700 free plane ticket to the city of your choice we're going to put you in a free hotel room we're going

00:12:04.380 to give you three meals a day we're going to give you free medical attention and guess what hang out

00:12:08.760 for 120 days we're going to give you a work authorization the very reason they came right

00:12:12.160 not because of asylum because they wanted a job so biden did what he did on purpose and president

00:12:18.660 trump came back in seven weeks again seven weeks did what joe biden couldn't do or wouldn't do

00:12:24.780 repeat the numbers you said about how many illegals are in the u.s right now who have criminal convictions

00:12:31.780 and to be clear these are convictions for crimes other than crossing illegal into the country

00:12:35.560 every illegal has committed that crime but but but how many have convictions for murder for rape

00:12:41.140 for other crimes other than crossing the border illegally just under 700 000 i mean that is a stunning

00:12:49.140 number and and and and what you're saying and i agree with you is is that joe biden deliberately

00:12:55.280 chose we're going to leave murderers here we're going to leave rapists in america we're going to leave

00:13:01.180 child molesters in america we're not going to send ice to arrest them we're not going to pick them up 0.85

00:13:05.980 we're not going to deport them that that they put partisan politics above protecting uh american

00:13:12.320 families about protecting our kids and that's why i woke up every four years pissed off every morning

00:13:18.300 president trump when he called me asked me to come back and he said to me we've been you've been

00:13:22.180 bitching about for four years want to come back and fix it and i did because i knew every morning i wake

00:13:26.880 up in center you know this just as well as i do i knew every morning when i woke up how many children

00:13:31.680 died crossing the border last night yeah how many women got sexually assaulted how many people on 0.94

00:13:36.660 terrorist watches got across the border how many women and children were sex trafficking this country

00:13:40.880 how many billions of dollars in the cartels make how many americans died in the last 24 hours from

00:13:46.160 fentanyl coming across the open border for four years i was pissed off president trump came back

00:13:50.760 like i said in seven weeks we had a border down 90 percent seven weeks so you know just like you

00:13:57.200 said it was a matter of president a matter of enforcement law you know i'll tell you senator

00:14:01.480 cruising and you know every time i see you in a meeting every every time i see you in a meeting i

00:14:05.980 call you out i call you out because you've been the tip of the spear on this thing i appreciate

00:14:10.300 your work in this you're from texas you know and god bless governor abbott and governor abbott did

00:14:15.240 he was more of a secretary of homeland security mark has ever been or ever thought of being

00:14:18.920 so god bless state of texas they took the they took the first rail on this and again i i can't

00:14:24.220 thank you enough every time i see i call you out thank you for being being the tip of the spear

00:14:27.980 i see you everywhere wanting to secure border and you're fighting hard for me and you're fighting

00:14:32.420 hard for the men and women of the border so you're fighting hard hard for the men and women of ice i

00:14:36.680 love each and every one of those men to put their lives on the line for this country every day men and

00:14:40.860 women and i appreciate your fight for them you've had their six from day one and i love you for it i

00:14:46.020 appreciate it well tom let me thank you for that i i appreciate that and i appreciate your passion

00:14:51.040 and commitment you were you're showing up and you said something that i think is really important for

00:14:55.860 our listeners to understand you and president trump right now are quite literally saving lives you are

00:15:02.960 saving lives there are americans and there are significant number of americans who are alive today

00:15:08.400 because a violent criminal did not cross the border was not released and didn't murder them there are

00:15:17.120 women who have not been raped because you've stopped the biden practice of releasing rapists there are

00:15:23.080 children and and the number of children who haven't been physically and sexually assaulted by human

00:15:28.760 traffickers it is already i think well into the thousands and i want you to think about that

00:15:35.320 thousands of little girls thousands of little boys have not been violently repeatedly raped by human

00:15:42.960 traffickers why because president trump came in and because you've been the borders are implementing it

00:15:49.420 and secured the border and those kids are no longer being trafficked that is a profound legacy

00:15:55.220 in in just four or five months and let me go one step further uh trump asked me to do three things

00:16:02.300 secure the border one of the largest deportation officers ever seen and find these children

00:16:06.680 the biden administration over half a million children were uh... were smuggled in this country

00:16:11.940 separated from their families smuggled in this country and put in the hands of sponsors

00:16:16.260 many unvetted sponsors the last administration lost track of 300,000 of them

00:16:21.040 president trump's committed to finding as many as he can

00:16:23.840 we've already found over 7,500 of them

00:16:26.340 some of them were perfectly safe with families some were perfectly safe and some weren't

00:16:30.780 example just there for yesterday a 14 year old little girl

00:16:33.720 already into sex traffic was pregnant living with two men who were trafficking there 0.94

00:16:38.400 well they're going to prison and we're helping that little girl so

00:16:41.340 we're going to rescue every one of these little girls and

00:16:43.680 and and and make sure that they're safe because many of them are going to be okay with family members

00:16:48.100 they just didn't respond to call-ins or so forth

00:16:50.400 but many of them i guarantee i've been doing this for over 40 years

00:16:53.520 many of them are in sex trafficking many of them are in forced labor

00:16:56.680 living a life of hell every day

00:16:58.960 we're committed to find every one of these little children and making sure they're safe

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00:17:32.880 tom you mentioned finding them all let's talk about sanctuary cities for a second

00:17:39.000 it's very clear democrats are not backing off of that

00:17:42.360 how dangerous is the policy and and and who is being harbored

00:17:47.340 in these cities that are refusing to work with you guys

00:17:50.800 will there be accountability are they harboring uh ms 13 gang members and and domestic terrorists

00:17:56.860 foreign terrorists uh those that are putting the fentanyl out in society how dangerous are these cities 0.77

00:18:02.880 well they're dangerous they're dangerous for everybody because in a sanctuary city means i don't have access to jail

00:18:09.200 arrest a bad guy public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail

00:18:13.260 were the aliens safe the officers safe on the public safe

00:18:16.680 when sanctuary cities knowingly release a public safety uh a threat back in the street it certainly

00:18:21.980 puts the community at risk it even puts the alien at risk because anything can happen during a street arrest

00:18:26.960 and a great it puts the officers at great risk because now we got arrested a criminal alien public safety

00:18:31.740 threat on his turf we have access to who knows what weapons it's very dangerous and yes we'll hold

00:18:36.960 sanctuary cities accountable it's pan bonnie's already filed lawsuits against several uh we're uh we're

00:18:42.720 we're working with doj now again we we want we want where's that bright where's that where's that line

00:18:48.060 when do you cross that line you can sit there and watch ice do your job because here's what irritates

00:18:53.940 me the most i don't care what party you're in if you're an elected mayor elected city council person

00:19:00.580 or elected governor your number one responsibility is the safety and security of your neighborhoods your

00:19:07.600 communities ice has been clear from the beginning with president trump we're going to prioritize

00:19:12.540 public safety threats and national security threats why will you not help us make your

00:19:18.520 community safer there's no downside on that and sanctuary cities want to argue well we're a

00:19:23.740 sanctuary city because we want victims and witnesses of crime if they're illegally in the united states

00:19:28.540 to feel comfortable coming to the law enforcement without fear of working with us that is a bunch of 0.85

00:19:33.620 crap victims and witnesses of crime don't want the bad guy in the neighborhood either and as far as 0.93

00:19:40.180 illegal alien community i'll say this despite being here illegally many of them are god-fearing 1.00

00:19:46.440 family people they don't want a predator made neighborhood either they don't want someone

00:19:50.500 convicted doi 10 times driving to their neighborhood either so you know if you go to the immigrant 1.00

00:19:55.600 community and ask one simple question would you rather have ice operating in the jail or in your

00:20:00.420 community what do you think they're going to say they're going to say the jail so sanctuary cities

00:20:04.260 will be held accountable matter of fact we're reissuing the ice detainer we just changed the new ice detainer

00:20:08.780 we're letting them black and white let them know this person is a designated terrorist this person is a

00:20:13.920 designated return felon we're going to let them know exactly who they're detaining based on biographic

00:20:19.340 and biometric information and see what they do are they going to violate lake or lake and riley act

00:20:24.620 then then we'll go out to prosecution are they going to know any release of terrorists then we're

00:20:29.220 going to go out to prosecution so it's about to get a lot tougher and it's the right thing to do

00:20:33.500 well and let me ask you how worried are you that there are terrorists who came across the southern

00:20:40.060 border in the last four years that that are out there and that are planning acts of terror in the

00:20:44.880 united states right now i'm convinced we got over two million known gotaways why did two million people

00:20:51.920 pay more to get away they you pay the cartels a lot more money to escape apprehension and get to

00:20:57.620 new york and chicago weber why didn't they pay less why would you pay more to get away because you

00:21:04.080 don't want to be vetted you don't want to be fingerprinted this just scared the hell out of

00:21:08.080 every american scares the hell out of me somebody's going to be you know child traffickers some of

00:21:12.200 these are carrying fentanyl and some of these are going to be people from a terrorist sponsored

00:21:15.940 country under joe biden we wrestle over 400 people on terrorist watches coming to southwest border

00:21:21.100 if you don't think a single one of the two million gotaways didn't come from a country sponsoring terror 1.00

00:21:25.620 didn't come here to do us harm then you're just crazy as you know it was uh what was it just a 0.64

00:21:31.460 few months ago we arrested eight that were planning a terrorist attack a russian-type terrorist attack

00:21:37.200 in the united states luckily they tell us the community call them on some chat and we are able to

00:21:41.440 arrest them but we're not perfect the intelligence community isn't perfect they weren't perfect in

00:21:46.560 afghanistan they weren't perfect on a lot of things so god help us i think they're here i just

00:21:51.980 intelligence reports saying they're here we know where some are and being monitored but we don't

00:21:56.220 know where others are so that scares the hell out of me well and as you know chris ray the former

00:22:00.720 director of the fbi every few months would come to congress and and he would do everything but set

00:22:06.500 off an alarm and bang a drum to say we are at major risk of a terrorist attack from the open borders

00:22:12.540 hamas and hezbollah have declared jihads on america as you know as you know the border patrol under joe

00:22:18.000 biden advised was advised beyond on the lookout for hamas hezbollah and palestinian islamic jihad

00:22:23.440 terrorists coming across the southern border and and one of the things tom you said that was really

00:22:28.300 important of the 12 million illegal immigrants that came under joe biden roughly two million of those

00:22:33.240 were gotaways that's by far the most troubling of all those folks the other 10 million are people

00:22:38.440 who are apprehended and and apprehended in many instances is the wrong term because as you know and

00:22:44.000 i've spent a lot of time down on the southern border i i almost always go out on midnight patrol

00:22:49.680 with the border patrol agents when i'm there apprehended doesn't even characterize what they

00:22:54.300 were doing most nights people would cross the border and they'd go look for a border patrol agent and

00:22:59.160 actively turn themselves in because the result would be that that joe biden would say where do you want

00:23:05.020 to go and would fly them to wherever they wanted to be literally the biden administration was the last

00:23:10.100 mile of the human trafficking network but tom what you said is exactly right those two million gotaways

00:23:15.360 are much more likely to be violent criminals much more likely to be murderers or rapists or child

00:23:22.500 molesters much more likely to be ms-13 gang members much more likely to be terrorists and that's the

00:23:29.060 population that is is most worrisome and and speaking of ms-13 gang members just when i thought

00:23:35.660 politics could not get weirder the democrats have decided to go all in making their central party

00:23:42.480 platform be that we should admit more illegal aliens and in particular we want more venezuelan

00:23:49.200 gang members ms-13 gang members here and and they've decided that kilmar abrego garcia is their poster

00:23:55.980 child for the democrat party tom how confident tell us about abrego garcia how confident are you that

00:24:02.720 that that he's a gang member that he's a criminal i'm very confident and uh i've talked to the head

00:24:09.360 of vice numerous times people understand so he got no due process yes he did he got due process from

00:24:14.700 two different uh federal judges who said he's a legal united states a citizen of salvador and he gave

00:24:21.040 an order of deportation he had a great due process a great taxpayer expense on top of that men and women

00:24:26.460 of ice and they sent those two plane loads of tda and ms-13 hundreds and hundreds of hours were spent

00:24:31.960 on every case they went through the criminal history the immigration history they went to

00:24:35.860 intelligence report they went to confidential informant statements they went to wiretaps

00:24:40.420 they went they went to a bunch of stuff to to to certify these people were members of tda and ms-13

00:24:47.480 so they got due process several times bro brego garcia's home he's a citizen of salvador and for

00:24:53.680 though the democrats say well they made a mistake i still say it was a mistake it was an oversight a

00:24:58.760 temporary oversight here's the problem he had a withholding order he'd not be returned to el

00:25:02.980 salvador because he feared death from the gang two things have changed since that uh order was given

00:25:07.680 number one he's a designated terror so that withholding order has been set aside number two the gang he

00:25:13.400 feared it no longer exists in el salvador because the great work president bukele did there so the

00:25:18.660 circumstances around that withholding order are no longer valid and here's what would happen if

00:25:24.180 somebody was a make this guy return to the united states he would be detained and removed the next day

00:25:29.700 if not to el salvador to another country he's not here but as president bukele said he's a certified

00:25:36.220 national of el salvador he is home he is home he is a certified ms-13 member not just

00:25:43.380 by ice by local police departments intelligence reports immigration judges in the country of al

00:25:48.640 salvador says he's a ms-13 member he's home he's exactly where he should be this country his wife

00:25:54.640 his neighborhood is a lot safer because he's locked up i want to go back to accountability for a second

00:26:00.400 time i want to ask you there are a lot of people that believe that there were laws that were broken

00:26:05.220 deliberately in the last administration they knew they were breaking the law one of those would be

00:26:10.260 former homeland security secretary mayorkas that you mentioned a moment ago should he be criminally

00:26:16.200 prosecuted for his role in the border crisis if it was as deliberate as it now seems

00:26:21.000 look i think what he did was borderline treasonous i'm not an attorney i'm not a prosecutor

00:26:26.860 but what he did he did more damage to this country him in the by the administration what they did to this

00:26:32.720 country i can tell you when they opened that border up sex trafficking women should increase 1.00

00:26:39.260 tenfold uh a record number of migrants died making that journey over 4 000 a record number of americans

00:26:46.820 died from fat and all that come across that open border and then and it's just what he what he calls this

00:26:52.740 country and from a national security perspective because here's what his orders were

00:26:56.820 process quick release quick they didn't care about the crisis they cared about the optics of the

00:27:03.420 crisis if there's no overcrowding there's nothing to see here so border trades were processing as

00:27:09.220 quick as they could and releasing as quick as they could and there's been several instances where they

00:27:14.240 released so quickly the fbi scan didn't come back and and it came back hot after they already been

00:27:20.220 released they came back hot as a known inspector terrorist so yeah he what he did was unconscionable

00:27:26.580 what he did is by my opinion borderline treasonous he should be held accountable because a lot of

00:27:33.160 deaths occurred under his watch and like it like like senator cruz said a few minutes ago right now

00:27:38.220 96 percent decline in illegal immigration when 96 percent less people are coming how many women 0.98

00:27:44.200 aren't being raped how many children aren't dying crossing that border how many no inspector terrorists

00:27:48.900 aren't getting in the country how many pounds of fentanyl is not getting in the country what you're

00:27:52.200 going to see on the president trump's administration fentanyl deaths will decrease sex trafficking

00:27:56.560 would decrease smuggling would decrease and no inspector terrorists they got no open net anymore

00:28:02.380 now that we got the board secure every single border agent is on the line on patrol doing his

00:28:08.760 national security duty under joe biden it was an average most days an average 70 percent seven zero

00:28:16.140 70 percent of agents were no longer on patrol they were changing diapers making baby formula making

00:28:21.420 hospital runs the last time i went down there before the election i talked to hundreds of board

00:28:26.020 stations told me hang on hang on change is coming i really think president trump's gonna win

00:28:30.000 but they told me no we're sick of being tourist stations we're sick of being uber drivers we

00:28:34.980 process and deliver these people to the very same people who pay for their smuggling they couldn't

00:28:41.080 recruit they couldn't people were quitting they were quitting before they even eligible for

00:28:45.040 retirement they couldn't read the recruiting numbers you know last month ice i'm excuse me

00:28:49.640 board patrol had the highest recruiting numbers and the history of that agency just last month

00:28:56.140 that's fantastic and and look i i will say tom is not exaggerating at all like when i would visit

00:29:03.400 with border patrol agents the frustration look the men and women who sign up for the border patrol they do

00:29:08.720 do so because they're patriots they do so because they love america they do so because they want to

00:29:13.120 keep our our communities and our families and our kids safe and and they want to be out on patrol look

00:29:18.280 these that's what you sign up in the job and they were sitting there just shuffling paperwork they were

00:29:24.140 processing and and just running a revolving door to try to release as many illegal immigrants as fast as

00:29:32.060 possible that's what mayorkas looked viewed his job is accelerate illegal immigration not stop it

00:29:38.140 but but make it go more quickly let me ask you tom you mentioned fentanyl what do we know about the

00:29:43.860 numbers of of fentanyl traffic over the first four months of the trump administration there's been a

00:29:50.780 decrease in and i've got from three or four different sources the percentage decrease is different from

00:29:55.700 every source the problem is the cdc doesn't have good metrics on fentanyl but look across the country you

00:30:02.200 see the decrease in fentanyl fentanyl is being seized on the southern border uh and it's the metrics and

00:30:09.620 that's maybe something we y'all can work on up there in the senate uh cdc needs to track this more

00:30:16.540 more more more accurately like i said you got you got a number of deaths reported by states you got a

00:30:22.460 number of deaths reported by cdc none of them match so uh but we do know there's been a reduction you

00:30:27.840 we don't see you know 300 people dying every day from fentanyl like we did that did see right we

00:30:34.580 know we don't have two you know 9-11s a week happening from kids dying from fentanyl so i don't

00:30:40.240 have the exact numbers but we already see the effects of a secure border and tom let me ask you also so

00:30:45.160 one of the things we've talked about on this podcast in in 2018 the mexican drug cartels made

00:30:51.960 roughly 500 million dollars from human trafficking last year the drug cartels made over 13 billion

00:31:00.160 dollars from human trafficking that's a 2600 percent increase do we have any data yet do you

00:31:06.660 have any visibility on what has happened uh to the drug cartels revenue because one of the worst

00:31:12.460 consequences of what biden's open border did is is it turned these vicious murderous transnational 1.00

00:31:20.020 criminal organizations into incredibly wealthy powerhouses and it put huge resources in their

00:31:27.080 pockets did you have any data on what's happened to their revenues well one of the first best thing

00:31:31.820 president trump did was designated terrorist organization because these cartels have killed

00:31:35.760 more americans yeah every terrorist organization in the world combined we knew that that's why there's

00:31:41.500 so much violence in mexico the last four years cartels were fighting each other for control of the

00:31:46.600 plazas why because they're making record amounts of money smuggling people record amount of money in

00:31:51.740 trafficking women and children and a record amount of money moving dope across that border now with 0.99

00:31:56.580 the border secure we're hitting them where it hurts smuggling's down both drugs and people trafficking

00:32:02.220 down so we're hitting where it hurts that's why the latest intelligence force i see they're trying to

00:32:08.380 produce and push more fentanyl into asian european nations because their market here in united states 0.98

00:32:14.500 have been so brutally attacked um i wish what would happen is that mexico would agree with president

00:32:21.680 trump to let us help them take the cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth because right now

00:32:26.460 they're like the the legal cartel they're in 44 countries around the globe they're like a fortune 500

00:32:32.520 company it's going to take the united states to take them out mexico's failed for decades to do it 0.98

00:32:36.960 and a lot of mexico you know that military police and government officials are corrupt i'll say this a lot of

00:32:41.960 corruption is forced corruption because you're a police officer in mexico you're making you know

00:32:47.040 four hundred dollars a month but a mexican cartel comes up and obviously 10 000 look the other way

00:32:52.120 and you're going to take it or they're going to kill you and your family i think mexico will be a much 0.94

00:32:55.960 safer a much prosperous more prosperous country if you let president trump help them wipe the cartels 0.91

00:33:01.320 off the face of the earth look that that is absolutely right let me underscore that point

00:33:05.500 a lot of people don't realize particularly those on the left that that what what joe biden the

00:33:10.700 democrats did it wasn't just horribly cruel to the american people it was horribly cruel to to mexican

00:33:17.900 nationals in mexico turning these vicious criminals into the most powerful economic force in mexico

00:33:26.920 has increased the murder rate the crime rate the kidnapping rape rate i i visited with with a mexican 0.99

00:33:34.960 mayor of a town on the other side of the border and i'm not going to say which mayor because he told me

00:33:39.380 in confidence because he was afraid but but he said in his town they had had over three

00:33:46.220 thousand disappearances just people mexican nationals living in mexico who just ran afoul of

00:33:53.960 the cartel and they just disappear and they find mass graves and and the suffering and murder and

00:33:59.520 kidnapping that that that that has happened in mexico because of the democrats political decision i think

00:34:06.440 was cruel and and horrible and and and tom you're exactly right that that the u.s military can take

00:34:14.580 out the cartels and we've done it before in colombia president uribe asked the military to come in and

00:34:20.160 take out the cartels in colombia and we came in and did that and we could do it again and and and i do

00:34:25.720 think it would be much better if the mexican government invited us in it it would have transformational

00:34:32.100 impact within mexico yeah let's save a lot of lives like say mexican cartels have killed thousands

00:34:38.560 of judges and prosecutors and journalists yeah and citizens so um you know i i wish they i wish

00:34:46.520 they'd join with president trump because that would be a game changer uh for mexico and the united states

00:34:51.520 all right final question uh we saw just this week that that new jersey democrat congresswoman 1.00

00:34:58.060 lamonica mckiver uh was charged for assaulting law enforcement at an ice facility uh tell me tell

00:35:05.900 us how important that is and and what do you think about about the fact that that charges were brought

00:35:10.340 for assault we saw during the biden administration repeatedly uh law enforcement customs border patrol

00:35:17.580 ice agents were subject to physical assault no charges were brought uh how important is it that

00:35:23.120 these charges were brought the sons of strong matches is very important it also proves i don't

00:35:28.820 bluff i'd said from the day of inauguration if you want to not support ice we'll shame on you but

00:35:34.480 you have that right if you want to protest against ice and to protest against trump's policies that's

00:35:38.720 fine if you want to watch ice come in and clean your city up because your sanctuary city don't want

00:35:43.140 to help you can do that too but i said from day one you can't cross that line you can't cross the

00:35:48.500 line on impediment that's a felony you can't cross the line on noiling and harboring concealing of

00:35:53.500 able to go and as much that's a felony you certainly can't commit criminal trespasses at our at our

00:35:58.460 facilities and for god's sakes you can't put hands on our officers and this happened during the same

00:36:04.740 time frame the same week i went to blue mass in washington dc in remembrance of the men and women

00:36:10.540 of law enforcement put their lives on the line for this country every day so we spent a week don't know

00:36:16.060 just just just praising these men and women talking to their families who also paid the

00:36:20.500 ultimate sacrifice for they lost a loved one forever children lost their fathers and mothers

00:36:24.220 and mothers fathers lost their sons and daughters and the same week we're supposed to be honoring

00:36:28.420 law enforcement you got you got some of the member congress put their hands and shoving an ice

00:36:32.400 officer which makes that facility very unsafe and i'm sick and tired of hearing well we have

00:36:37.560 congressional oversight responsibilities there is a right way and wrong way to do it

00:36:41.280 you don't force your way in the facility you don't put hands on an officer

00:36:44.900 there's we do oversight all the time and what are they finding out as people are getting tours

00:36:50.340 that facility that they have the highest detention standards in the industry and it puts every every

00:36:56.500 other a uh uh uh detention center in jail in the state of new jersey whether it's a county or state

00:37:03.220 it puts them to shame because our detention standards are so high so when you go and cause that kind of

00:37:09.080 practice well we're trying to maintain a facility with very dangerous people inside yeah we got

00:37:14.880 to protect not only the criminals we got to protect the employees and the citizens on the outside

00:37:18.880 what she did was just horrendous i she she put hands on an officer like they said for four years 1.00

00:37:25.400 no one's above the law you're damn right they're not above the law even members of congress the

00:37:29.620 president is above the law but these are members of congress look amen and i will say tom i've visited

00:37:35.800 dozens of ice facilities and cvp facilities i've never found it difficult to refrain from physical

00:37:41.820 assault on an officer somehow that temptation was never there for me and and in fact for the opposite

00:37:47.980 it is my job to have their backs that's a job i take incredibly seriously and i just want to say tom

00:37:54.160 you are a patriot you are a great american we have roughly a million unique listeners who listen to

00:38:00.120 verdict and i want to say on on behalf of of all of them and on behalf of 31 million texans thank you

00:38:06.540 for what you are doing you are keeping my children safer and tom i am grateful you are on that front

00:38:13.020 line for us and you and president trump are making a massive difference for the entire country

00:38:18.100 well i appreciate that but i'm not going to take credit please give the thanks for your listeners

00:38:23.280 you see a board association yes yes just say thank you because i cannot believe they hate their

00:38:30.120 we knew they're going to take hate as soon as president trump got back in but say thank you

00:38:34.700 because these men and women they're mothers and fathers too they don't hang their heart on a hook

00:38:38.920 at home when they go to work they see a lot of terrible things they put the life on the line

00:38:42.860 two at three o'clock this morning when everybody is sleeping me and sender is sleeping at 3 a.m this

00:38:48.260 morning there's board station standing on a dirt trail someplace going to take something on they

00:38:52.640 don't know if it's just an illegal alien or heavily armed drug smoker they're going to take it on

00:38:56.740 and their nearest back was miles away god bless the men and women of the board show god bless the

00:39:01.680 women of the boys and god bless this great nation we're taking amen amen don't forget we do this

00:39:07.160 show monday wednesday and friday hit that subscriber auto download button on those in between days grab

00:39:13.960 my podcast the ben ferguson podcast i'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news there as well

00:39:18.880 and the senator and i will see you back here on friday morning this is an i heart podcast guaranteed human

Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 21, 2025

Border Czar Tom Homan - Exclusive One on One

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