Biden's Absurd Border Theatre

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson – "Biden's Absurd Border Theatre"

Release Date: January 9, 2023

Hosted by Ben Ferguson, "The 47 Morning Update" delves into the pressing issue of the U.S. border crisis under President Joe Biden's administration. In the episode titled "Biden's Absurd Border Theatre," Ferguson engages in a robust discussion with Senator Ted Cruz, scrutinizing the Biden administration’s handling of illegal immigration, border security policies, and the political maneuvering surrounding these critical issues.

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1. Introduction: Setting the Stage

The episode opens with Ben Ferguson highlighting President Biden’s recent visit to Texas, where the President acknowledged the problems at the southern border—an unprecedented move according to Cruz.

Key Quote:

• Host (00:00): "So the President actually came to Texas admitting there's a problem at the southern border."

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2. Biden’s Visit to Texas: A Political Spectacle

Senator Ted Cruz criticizes Biden’s Texas visit as a mere political theater designed to create favorable optics rather than addressing the underlying issues.

Key Quotes:

• Senator Ted Cruz (00:34): "This is 100% politics. This is 100% optics. This is to get his lapdogs in the corporate media just to say, now the border's fine."
• Cruz (01:11): "He doesn't intend to fix the problem. He doesn't care."

Cruz argues that Biden’s actions are superficial, lacking genuine intent to implement solutions that address the crisis's root causes.

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3. Analysis of the White House Border Policies

The discussion shifts to the Biden administration’s proposed measures to handle illegal immigration. Cruz dismantles these policies, labeling them ineffective and misleading.

Key Quotes:

• Host (02:52): "The White House plan to curb migrant crisis… Including points like new consequences for illegal immigration and use the CBP1 app to make asylum claims."
• Cruz (03:55): "The Democrats just wrote a law saying none of these resources can be used to secure the border."

Cruz emphasizes that despite the administration’s claims, substantial funding and resources are not genuinely allocated to enhance border security, undermining the purported plans.

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4. Impact of Biden’s Policies on Illegal Immigration

Cruz highlights the direct correlation between Biden’s policies and the surge in illegal immigration, attributing the spike to administrative decisions taken since his inauguration.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (04:56): "Joe Biden won't acknowledge that. He won't intend to change anything."
• Host (13:00): "Where it was even worse. Which means you did it deliberately."

He points out that policies like halting border wall construction, reinstating catch-and-release, and ending the "remain in Mexico" policy have significantly exacerbated the situation, leading to unprecedented levels of undocumented crossings.

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5. Geographic Focus: Rio Grande Valley vs. El Paso

Ferguson and Cruz discuss the strategic importance of the Rio Grande Valley, contrasting it with El Paso to illustrate the geographical challenges and the center of the crisis.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (07:42): "The Rio Grande Valley is the epicenter of the worst of this crisis."
• Host (09:30): "That's how far away he is from the epicenter of what he says he needs to see and look at now, ironically."

Cruz explains that the Rio Grande Valley bears the brunt of illegal crossings, with towns like Del Rio overwhelmed by daily influxes, starkly differing from the less-affected El Paso, which is still experiencing significant pressures.

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6. Critique of Kamala Harris and Administration’s Leadership

The conversation turns to Vice President Kamala Harris’s role as the border czar, with Cruz condemning her inaction and symbolic gestures that fail to address real issues.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (09:37): "Kamala Harris was ostensibly named the border czar… she did absolutely nothing to address the problem."
• Host (19:22): "She has not been to the Rio Grande Valley… she made sure not to actually show any of the people suffering."

Cruz invites President Biden to visit the Rio Grande Valley and the “Biden cages,” arguing that firsthand observation of the crisis would compel the administration to take meaningful action.

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7. Democratic Party Critique: Radicalism and Policy Failure

Cruz extends his critique to the broader Democratic Party, accusing it of being controlled by radical interest groups that hinder effective governance on multiple fronts, including immigration.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (13:00): "Today's Democrat Party is a collection of extreme interest groups on any given issue."
• Cruz (14:56): "It's on every issue. There's not a middle in the Democrat Party in Washington."

He asserts that radical elements within the party have set impractical agendas, leading to policies that exacerbate crises rather than resolve them.

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8. The Cartel’s Role: Funding and Violence

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on how Biden’s policies have empowered drug cartels, transforming them into formidable criminal enterprises that control illegal immigration and trafficking.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (22:32): "Trafficking is a multibillion dollar global empire… the border is 100% secure on the southern side, which is you can’t cross the border without hiring the cartel."
• Cruz (23:35): "Joe Biden is putting foot soldiers, putting criminals, putting gang members in every city in America."

He argues that by dismantling previous immigration deterrents, the administration has inadvertently fortified cartels, leading to increased violence, human trafficking, and drug proliferation.

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9. Biden Administration’s Responsibility and Failures

Cruz holds the Biden administration accountable for the rising crisis, citing specific policy changes and their dire consequences on national security and public safety.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (15:44): "They want to release people faster. They want to put in place the most efficient logistical network ever seen where you cross illegally."
• Cruz (25:02): "Nobody who gives a damn about humanity would put a single little boy or a single little girl in the custody of these cartels."

He details the human cost of the policies, including deaths, assaults, and the enslavement of minors, portraying the administration as indifferent to the suffering caused by its immigration stance.

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10. Impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas: A Political Move

The episode concludes with a discussion on the potential impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, as a response to the administration’s border policies.

Key Quotes:

• Cruz (31:34): "I predict Alejandro Mayorkas will be impeached."
• Host (31:31): "But you do believe the House side will say this is enough to impeach?"
• Cruz (31:54): "Exactly."

Cruz anticipates that the House, controlled by Republicans, will move forward with impeachment proceedings, using the border crisis as a pivotal issue to demonstrate the administration's failures.

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11. Conclusion: A Call for Accountability

Ferguson wraps up the episode by emphasizing the need for listeners to stay informed and engaged, encouraging subscriptions and continued following of the podcast for more in-depth political analysis.

Key Quote:

• Host (32:02): "Don't forget, hit that subscribe button and the auto download button because we do three shows a week… it'll save you and your family money."

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Overall Insights:

• Political Optics vs. Substance: The Biden administration’s actions at the border are portrayed as superficial gestures lacking in genuine policy implementation.

• Policy Missteps: Immediate policy reversals from the Trump era, such as halting the border wall and ending the "remain in Mexico" policy, are criticized for contributing to the surge in illegal crossings.

• Cartel Empowerment: There is a strong emphasis on how current policies have inadvertently empowered drug cartels, leading to increased violence and human trafficking.

• Human Cost: The discussion underscores the severe humanitarian impact, including deaths and the enslavement of minors, attributing these outcomes to administrative negligence.

• Political Accountability: The potential impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas is highlighted as a means to hold the administration accountable for the border crisis.

Conclusion:

In "Biden's Absurd Border Theatre," Senator Ted Cruz, alongside Ben Ferguson, delivers a scathing critique of the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. border crisis. The episode underscores the perceived failures in policy implementation, the empowerment of criminal cartels, and the resultant humanitarian disasters. It calls for political accountability and urges listeners to stay informed and proactive in addressing what Cruz frames as a critical national security issue.

Transcript

[Host]

So the President actually came to Texas admitting there's a problem at the southern border.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Why?

[Host]

Now we're gonna discuss it. It's verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, nice to be back with you in studio. It's been a little bit since last year. Literally, it's a happy New Year.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

We haven't done a show in person since before Christmas, before New Year. So Merry Christmas, Happy New year. Welcome to 2023. It's already been so terribly dull.

[Host]

Yeah, already dull. We had this little speaker conversation that happened for several days that was quite, quite interesting.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Kind of like what's week two gonna look like?

[Host]

Yeah, exactly. Right?

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Host]

It's gonna be entertaining. Can you believe the President of the United States of America actually decided to come to Texas and admit there's a crisis at the border all at the same time?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, this is all political spin. It's about damn time. He should have been here at the outset. Kamala Harris should have been here at the outset. And this is a problem he created. The hypocrisy Joe Biden is showing. I have to say, this trip to the border is infuriating because he still doesn't intend to fix the problem. He doesn't care. This is 100% politics. This is 100% optics. This is to get his lapdogs in the corporate media just to say, now the border's fine. Magically it's fixed. It wasn't a problem yesterday, but today it's magically fixed. It's all a lie. He doesn't intend to change anything. If he cared, he wouldn't just go to El Paso, he'd come to the Rio Grande Valley. If he cared, he'd sit down with farmers and ranchers in Texas and he'd look at photograph after photograph of dead bodies that they find on their farms, on their ranches. Dead bodies. Pregnant women, elderly people, little children, two year old children. Last year, over 800 people died crossing the border illegally. When I took 19 senators down to the border, we were out on the Rio Grande River. We encountered a dead body floating in the river. He is literally creating a line of body bags. And yet Joe Biden can't be bothered to look at the people his policies are killing. If he gave a damn, he'd come to the Rio Grande Valley and he'd come to the Biden cages. Democrats in the media whined on and on and on about Trump cages, Trump cages, Trump cages created by Obama. They were built by Obama, which they never acknowledged. And then they became bigger and more full under Joe Biden. Joe Biden won't acknowledge that. He won't go and look at the children in the Joe Biden cages. This is all about optics. It's politics. It's deceptive, it's dishonest, and it's infuriating because here in the state of Texas, we face the consequences of these disastrous political decisions.

[Host]

There was real questions before we didn't gain back the Senate about getting rid of mayorkas. Impeaching Mayorkas. He went on TV this past week with a straight face and said in a press conference, the border is secure. The border is secure. The border is secure. You know that's not true. I know that's not true. And if it was true, the White House wouldn't have come out with their new. I call it flimsy list about securing the border while they're saying that the border is secure. So which one is it? And if you look at this list and I want to throw it up here, and we'll go through this for people. Senator, they're listening in the audio version only of this. But the White House plan to curb migrant crisis, which they say isn't a crisis, but now it is. Is new consequences for illegal immigration. Surging resources to help secure the border. Disrupting criminal smuggling networks. I don't know what that means. Additional support for border communities and use the CBP1 app to make asylum claims. So basically, they're saying, we're gonna fix this on a cell phone with an app.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, it's worse than that. So new consequences for illegal immigration. Their view of illegal immigration is it's a good thing that people have a right to come here illegally. That means, apparently people have a right to be physically and sexually assaulted. Children have a right to be physically sexually assaulted by the cartels. And like, for example, their second point on this, surging resources to help secure the border. Look, it's one thing when you say something that's a misstatement. It's another thing where you deliberately lie. We just saw this disastrous $1.7 trillion omnibus bill written by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. If you want to know what the Democrats want, look to that. The omnibus explicitly said the funds in this bill cannot be used to secure the border. They wrote that into the law that Joe Biden just signed. So he puts out a little pretty glossy press release saying, we're surging resources to help secure the border. Except for the fact that the Democrats just wrote a law saying none of these resources can be used to help secure the Border.

[Host]

And it was a lot of money.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's a ton of money. But what's it gonna be used to do? Well, it's bullet point five, use CB1, apt to make asylum claims. This is all about. They want to release people faster. They want to put in place the most efficient logistical network ever seen where you cross illegally. And faster than you can say Jiminy Cricket, we're going to have you located in the city of your choice across the country. That's what this is about. This is all about. We're going to get even more efficient than when these murderous cartels abandoned people in the U.S. the Joe Biden travel agent. New consequences for illegal immigration. What are they giving him? A set of steak knives and a brand new car? Like the new consequences are a Joe Biden T shirt, A membership of the dnc? What are they giving? Or maybe they're just giving him an illegal handgun. To join a drug cartel on the streets and kill people in your communities. Because a lot of these kids coming in owe thousands upon thousands of dollars to the cartels. This is all. You know, I'm trying actually not to. Not to convey just how pissed off I am at this, because this is a lie. It's a brazen lie. It's a shameless lie. Biden knows it was a lie. And by the way, look, what was it just a few weeks ago when he was asked if he was going to the border? He says, I got more important things to do.

[Host]

Yeah, like literally, he said that. He said that. He actually said, I've got more important things to do. Having the woman who's supposed to be in charge of the border issue, Kamala Harris, how many times has she called you as the senator from Texas to come down and see this state? Right. She doesn't come.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

She doesn't come. She has not been to the Rio Grande Valley. She has not seen the Joe Biden cages. She has not seen the misery and suffering. And look, can I ask you a.

[Host]

Question for people that understand the logistics of the state. He's coming to El Paso. This is realistically gonna be an El Paso airport visit. The Rio Grande Valley, you've mentioned three or four times, if you live in Texas, you understand that where it is, why it's important. Explain why the Rio Grande Valley is the center point of this, the choke point of if you wanted to stop illegal immigration. This is the most important area to the cartels. Let people understand what it is.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

All right, so Texas geographically is a massive state. Texas is larger than the entire country of France. It's huge. America's entire southern border is about 2000 miles. Of those 2000 miles, 1200 of them are the state of Texas. So more than half of our southern border is the state of Texas.

[Host]

Wow.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And that. It is the Rio Grande River. And it runs. The southern border runs from Brownsville, which is at the southern tip of Texas, right on the Gulf of Mexico, all the way up to El Paso, which is the western tip of Texas. Now, the Rio Grande Valley is down near the southern tip. It's just in from the southern tip. It has been the epicenter of the worst of this crisis. It is where you've seen thousands upon thousands of children. It's where you've seen the worst. It's where the cages are.

[Host]

Right. It's where Biden's cages are.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's where the Biden cages are. Is there in the Rio Grande Valley.

[Host]

Is that where AOC actually cried?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yes.

[Host]

Okay.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I don't know, but those were the Trump cages. Yeah, same cages. Actually, no, not sim cages. Bigger cages. AOC Won't cry. So that's the Rio Grande Valley. You've got further west. You've got Del Rio. Del Rio is where you've seen massive influx of Haitian illegal immigrants. It's where you've got a bridge where in one day you had 10 to 15,000 illegal immigrants crossing. I went there, I filmed it and put out the video of the Del Rio. And by the way, Del Rio is a town that's about 30,000 people. Yeah. So you need to understand, in a day, you've got 50% of the population of the town coming across Martha's Vineyard lost their mind when 50 illegal immigrants showed up in their lily white environments. Texas border towns are seeing unbelievable influxes. So where is El Paso? El Paso is all the way at the western end of Texas. El Paso is 800 miles away from the Rio Grande Valley. To put that in perspective, Chicago is closer to Washington, D.C. than El Paso is to the Rio Grande Valley.

[Host]

That's how far away he is from the epicenter of what he says he needs to see and look at now, ironically.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So Kamala Harris was ostensibly named the border czar, and then she proceeded to do absolutely nothing to address the problem. And really, the reason she was named border Czar is because Biden and his cronies hate Kamala Harris. And they know that this is a stinking mess. So let's blame Kamala for it. So they named her. She promptly, when she's border czar, said, I'm not gonna go to the border. I'm not gonna go to the border. I'm not gonna go to the border. Then finally she said, oh, crap, if I'm border czar, maybe I should go to the border. Where'd she go? El Paso. Why? Because of the places on the border. El Paso was the best of the major areas. And so she went there, did a photo op, made sure not to actually show any of the people suffering, any of the children being abused, any of the women being raped, any of the people being killed. Made sure not to show the drugs. Made sure not to show the disaster. But just a pretty photo op of. See? Isn't it great? What's interesting is things have gotten so bad that even El Paso was really hurting. El Paso is a wonderful city, but El Paso's mayor, who's a Democrat, has declared an emergency.

[Host]

He's begging for help and resources.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And things have changed in El Paso from when Kamala Harris was there. When Kamala came to El Paso, things were relatively better because it was the Rio Grande Valley that was getting slammed. It was Del Rio that was getting slammed. And El Paso had a significantly less volume. The volume has increased so much in El Paso that El Paso is hurting as well. Now, I'm assuming that Biden has. Biden doesn't intend to do anything to fix this.

[Host]

He would disagree. I want to play this clip for you because he would disagree with you on that. This is like the moment, right? We're going to war. Look at what the White House is saying.

[Joe Biden]

Clear that immigration is a political issue that extreme Republicans are always going to run on, but we need more resources to secure the border. Yet again, extreme Republicans have said, no, the Republicans haven't serious about this at all.

[Host]

They're blaming you. They're blaming Republicans. Same guy that says, we need more resources, that says you can't secure the border with the money that was just passed for this fiscal year in this omnibus spending bill that just went through that you tried to stop and say, have a cr. Have a new Congress vote on it. And now he's trying to look at you and say, no, no, it's your fault. Senator Ted Cruz and every other Republican down there, you guys let this happen.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Look, those are just deliberate lies, and they're brazen lies. As you noted, the Democrat bill that Pelosi and Schumer wrote explicitly prohibits funds from being spent to secure the border. Joe Biden signed it. That's what the Biden White House wants. In the last two years, I've forced vote after vote after vote. On the Senate floor of let's direct funds to secure the border, the Democrats party line have voted against them over and over and over again. You know what the Democrats did vote to do? Give millions of dollars of stimulus payments to illegal aliens. Joe Biden happily signed that Democrats party line voted to send millions of dollars of stimulus payments to illegal aliens. The dishonesty and by the way, the claim, you know Republicans, they're not serious. They don't want to secure the border. The last year of Trump's presidency, we had the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. The next year, when Joe Biden became president, it went from the lowest in 45 years to the highest in 62 years. It flipped overnight.

[Host]

And then he said, I'll one up that from 2021 to 2022.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

2022 is worse.

[Host]

Where it was even worse. Which means you did it deliberately.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, so it's a weird example. I'm not necessarily gonna say Joe Biden did it deliberately. A I'm not sure he does anything deliberately, including putting on his pants and tying his shoes. I think his mental acuity is so badly diminished. I think what happened. Today's Democrat Party is a collection of interest groups and it's a collection of radical interest groups. So on any particular issue, when Democrats nominate as Joe Biden has, not one, not two, but three of the leading advocates of abolishing the police to be senior officials at the U.S. department of Justice, a rational Democrat, if such a thing existed anymore in Washington. They exist in America, but they don't exist in Washington. Irrational Democrat would say, gosh, why are Democrats nominating some of the leading advocates of abolishing the police to senior positions? It's because the Democrat Party has handed their agenda over to the radicals. So on law and justice issues, it's the abolish the police crowd that sets the agenda. On gender issues, it's the most radical transgender. Let's have a drag show for seven year olds. That's who sets the agenda. I mean, look at Joe Biden's appointee, the dude who keeps stealing luggage.

[Host]

Stealing luggage? Yeah. He would have loved what happened with Southwest last week.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Okay. By the way, I saw the funniest thing on Twitter. On Twitter, lots of folks were criticizing Zelensky for being in his green sweatshirt when he spoke to Congress. And somebody tweeted, said, look, to be fair, don't blame Zelensky for not wearing a suit when he spoke to Congress. An official from the Biden administration stole his luggage.

[Host]

It's a pretty accurate assessment. Of exactly that entire scenario.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

But look, you think about.

[Host]

It's a quota filling thing. That's what they've done in serious positions and serious jobs.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's quota filling, but it's also on every issue. If you were James Carville of the world, who said, we gotta abandon this woke stuff, I mean, he's someone who actually wants Democrats to win elections. On every issue, the crazies in their party set the agenda. So on immigration, what happened is they have let the true open border radicals set the agenda. And so Biden caused this crisis. He caused it by three specific decisions, all made the very first week he was in office. First week in office, he immediately halted construction of the border wall. First week in office, he immediately reinstated catch and release, where now, when they apprehend you, they give you a court date sometime in the future, they let you go and you're never seen again. And you stay in court, and they.

[Host]

May even give you a cell phone.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And the third thing he did that first week in office is he ended the incredibly successful remain in Mexico policy, which had reduced illegal immigration to the lowest rate in 45 years. So when Biden says Republicans aren't serious about this, he knows he's lying. Now, I will say there have been reports that Biden is really pissed the border's all screwed up, but he's not pissed substantively. He's not pissed about the lives being destroyed. He's pissed that it's become a political issue. He's pissed that, gosh, this is kind of a mess. And even though my little lap dogs in the media are not reporting on it much, some people know how bad a mess this is. I think when he did those decisions the first week, you know, did Joe Biden affirmatively know I'm gonna create the worst illegal immigration in history? Probably not.

[Host]

It was. Trump was for it, therefore I'm against it.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And it was. Today's Democrat Party is a collection of extreme interest groups on any given issue. So on immigration, it's the open borders radicals. On law and order, it's the abolish the police radicals. On gender, it's the extreme transge. You know, go after kids radicals. It's on every issue. There's not a middle in the Democrat Party in Washington. But I think some of the people in Washington were surprised. And some of the people in the White House, they did not understand. If you talk to customs and border patrol, and I have. Look, we have had the head of the customs and border patrol union here on this podcast. You want to Stop illegal immigration. The number one thing you can do to stop illegal immigration is and catch a release. As long as Joe Biden orders the Border Patrol, when you catch someone, let them go. It will remain a crisis. And no amount of PowerPoints, no amount of press conferences will fix it. Because people behave according to incentives. And if you come here, you can stay. More people will come illegally and more people will be abused and raped and assaulted and. And killed.

[Co-host]

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[Host]

When people come across the border, I've witnessed it. Being down in the Rio Grande Valley. You've witnessed it. They're now told to seek out border patrol. They explained to them, as soon as you get over there, go to them, because then you're in.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Okay? And this is not theoretical. Look, Karine Jean Pierre a few months ago said people are not just walking across the border. It's not happening. Now. That was another brazen lie. And by the way, Joe Biden carries responsibility for that. That was done in the White House, at the White House podium with the White House seal in front of her. That means she was lying on his behalf. As I said on this podcast, immediately following you're lying to the Washington press corps of the American people. And it's an easily disprovable lie. It's not like it's a sneaky, clever one. Ooh. This is a lie you'll get away with. I invited her down. You know what? I'm gonna extend an invitation right now. President Biden, I'm glad you finally came to the border. I'm glad you finally came to Texas, Mr. President. Your press secretary lied on behalf of the White House. You've lied on behalf of the White House. Mr. President, I want to invite you come to the Rio Grande Valley. Come with me out any evening. Let's spend an hour out on midnight patrol with a border patrol who works for you and just see what's happening. Because if you go out at midnight, or if you go out at 1 in the morning, or you go out at 2 in the morning, you go out at 3 in the morning. You will not have to search for people crossing illegally.

[Host]

They'll come find you.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It is a constant stream of humanity. They will come find you. Groups of children, women who've been brutalized. They're usually carrying a baggie with some identification in it and a phone number of someone in the United States because they know that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the last mile of the human trafficking network and that they'll call that number and within days, they'll be with someone they know in the United States who's here. And they go affirmatively find the border patrol. I've been down there and had multiple groups of illegal immigrants turn themselves into me. They're just. They look for the first American they can find to turn themselves in because they know Joe Biden will get them where they want to go. He's caused this. And Mr. President, let me also invite you, come to the Biden cages. They've been named after you. You ought to at least see the children who are suffering. And by the way, Mr. President, I want to invite you to come to Brooks County. Where's Brooks County? Brooks county is just north of the border. It's not right on the border. It's just north of it. Brooks County. Year after year, they have dead body after dead body after dead body because the illegal immigrants go through the hot, brutal Texas summer and they die on those ranches. And Brooks county is not a wealthy county. They faced enormous costs, literally dealing with the disposal of human remains. I have a friend of mine who has a ranch down on the southern border who told me just last week, they found another dead body. On his ranch. This is an absolute crisis. And if the president cared at all.

[Host]

He would want to see that.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

That's what a responsible president would do. See the human misery, the suffering, the assault. You know, I'm curious and I don't think any reporters ever asked him if Joe Biden knows about the wristbands. So when you're down on the banks of the Rio Grande Valley, when I was last there, I brought a group of senators there. You look down in the grass and you see colored wristbands, just hundreds of them, thousands of them. The wristbands. Just about every illegal immigrant who comes wears one. And the color corresponds to how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels. And when they come in, they are effectively slaves to the cartels. So many of the young boys who Joe Biden flies to every city in America, many of the 15, 16, 17 year old boys become gang members working for the cartels because they owe 3, 4, $5,000 to the cartels. And if they don't pay that debt off, the cartels will kill their families. So Joe Biden is putting foot soldiers, putting criminals, putting gang members in every city in America.

[Host]

Fentanyl dealers who are killing our kids.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And the girls have it even worse. Thousands upon thousands of teenage girls because of Joe Biden, because of Kamala Harris, are finding themselves trapped in sex slavery where they're in forced prostitution because they owe thousands of dollars to the cartel, because they were wearing, I look at these yellow bracelets as the modern day leg irons of 21st century slavery. Because if you're a 15, 16 year old girl from Honduras, you've looked north, you dream of freedom in America, and six months later, you are trapped in a brothel in forced sex slavery run by brutal cartels who brutalize you. You're living in hell and that hell is Joe Biden's fault. He could stop it. He caused it number one. And he could stop it number two. I don't know if Joe Biden ever knows that. I don't think anyone around him has ever told him that. I know no one in the press has ever bothered to tell him that.

[Host]

So there are certain things in your career that you see, especially when you're an elected official and it has an impact on you. And the way that you talked about it, it's clear that it had a personal impact on you. The senators you took down there, I can't imagine any of them left not just feeling different emotionally about what these people are going through.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I've looked in the eyes of the Children who've been brutalized by these cartels. These are beautiful little kids. Nobody. The Democrats used to pitch illegal immigration as an issue of compassion. They just care more than Republicans. I gotta say. You and I are both dads. Nobody who gives a damn about humanity would put a single little boy or a single little girl in the custody of these cartels. And by the way, if you want to see how bad it is, look at what's happening right now with the cartels in Mexico.

[Host]

It's an all out civil war. A lot of people don't realize what has just happened.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, here, play some of the footage.

[Host]

Yeah, I mean, look at some of this video that's come out and so people understand what's happened down there. You had El Chapo's son who was arrested several years ago, and the cartel basically held the entire Mexican state hostage. Started an all out civil war within the country. And it was so bad, so quickly that the president of Mexico at the time said, release his son back out into society, let him go back out there to the cartel, because too many lives, innocent people's lives will be affected by this. Now they've caught him again and exactly the same thing has happened. It's an all out civil war. Take a look. You look at this as apparently some of what we're being told is the government firing machine guns from helicopters in this all out war. The Mexican army has deployed to these different areas down there where the son of this, you know, drug lord El Chapo was caught. And this is just one example. I mean, you're seeing this, you see the fires that have been set in all these different cities, Senator, they're, they're apparently attacking hotels, they have attacked hospitals. We were told last night they were taking, not just when they were going into the hospitals, they were taking the doctors and the nurses. So they couldn't treat the men and women in the police force, in the government and the military, so they couldn't do it.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

This is a city with machine gun fire coming down. And the thing to understand, you know, we're looking at footage. For those of y'all just listening to the audio, we're looking at footage from Mexico of a helicopter firing a machine gun at night into a Mexican town in a gunfight with these cartels. And look, I know these are the.

[Host]

People that are running the human beings over the border. If you think they're gonna be humane to them, you're wrong.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I know in politics it's always easy to say, oh, it's the other party's fault. But you need to understand this is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fault. Why? Because these cartels, Joe Biden has personally made billions of dollars for these cartels. What you need to understand is trafficking is a multibillion dollar global empire. These are massive corporations filled with murderers and thugs, filled with people who bury people alive, who light them on fire. So imagine the most violent criminals you can think of who have become multi billionaires because of Joe Biden. You look at the cartels. So for someone to cross illegally into the United States, every person must hire the cartel. It's interesting actually. The border is 100% secure on the southern side, which is you can't cross the border without hiring the cartel. If you're down there and you just try to get on a raft, they'll just kill you. Like, nobody does that. It's zero. Like, if you want to cross, there's only one way. You're paying the cartels. How much do you pay the cartels? The prices vary. They are typically between 3 and $12,000 a person is what it costs to cross in. Now, most of the people coming don't have three to twelve thousand dollars. So they come in debt and they work for the cartels in the United States to pay off their debt. There are some people who are coming from further away. So for example, people coming from China illegally have been paying upwards of $50,000 for the cartels to traffic them in. People on the terror watch list who have been crossing in. And the totals, the cartels make about an equal amount of money from human trafficking and drug trafficking. But the reason why you're seeing a war in Mexico between two armies is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have armed the cartels, have turned them into. They are a military operation waging war. The people of Mexico are suffering horribly. You want to talk about one of the worst things that ever happened to the people of Mexico? It was Joe Biden becoming president. Why? Because Joe Biden becoming president took evil, violent, murdering cartels and gave them billions of dollars. And they've used to commit horrific crimes. Look, in fiscal year 2022, 14,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized. In that year, 1 kg of fentanyl, just over 2 pounds, is enough to kill 500,000 people. That means in one year, enough fentanyl was seized to kill every man, every woman and every child in the United States of America. That's what's coming in. Last year we had over 100,000 people die of drug overdoses under Joe Biden. You want to talk about the Biden body bags? 100,000 people. And by the way, I talked about the terror wait list. 78 people whose names appear on the terrorist screening data set were stopped trying to cross the border just in the last fiscal year. This is a crisis. And I'm glad Biden finally came because you know what it did? It made TV cameras actually acknowledge the border exists. But this was a political photo op.

[Host]

A check the box moment. We went, we saw, we tell you we're gonna work on it.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And designed to get the reporters to say nothing to see here. Move on. Never mind the suffering, the misery, the death, the overdoses, the murders, the assaults. Not only do the Democrats not care about, they fully intend to continue the same disastrous policies and to let it get worse. I will say you asked about Mayorkas. In the next six months, I predict Alejandro Mayorkas will be impeached.

[Host]

Even with the Senate the way it is?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yes. Now, look, impeached is charged by the House. So the House will impeach him. The Senate, Senate Democrats won't care. He will not be convicted. It takes 2/3 to convict in the Senate.

[Host]

But you do believe the House side will say this is enough to impeach?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I do.

[Host]

And that will also be showing the country at the same time exactly how bad it is down there.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Exactly.

[Host]

That's probably the smartest move they could do. The Republicans in control of the House.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I have urged them vigorously to do that. I believe they will do exactly that.

[Host]

It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Nice to be back in the studio with you. Happy New Year to you and your family as well. For everybody watching and listening, don't forget, hit that subscribe button and the auto download button because we do three shows a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Two of those shows are audio only. Download them wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, iTunes, iHeartRadio app, and we'll see you back here for our next show on Wednesday. Audio only, so make sure to subscribe. Download. It is free. We'll see you back then.