BONUS POD: From Corrupt Nations to U.S. Neighborhoods Biden Let Them In

Summary

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Podcast Summary: BONUS POD – "From Corrupt Nations to U.S. Neighborhoods: Biden Let Them In"

Podcast: Verdict with Ted Cruz
Hosts: Ben Ferguson (main host in this episode), Senator Ted Cruz (usual co-host)
Episode Date: February 17, 2026
Subject: U.S. immigration policy under President Biden, the importation of migrants from corrupt nations, and political reactions from both parties.

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates claims that the Biden administration has allowed tens of thousands of migrants from some of the world’s most corrupt countries to settle in U.S. communities, circumventing robust vetting processes. Drawing on a recent Center for Immigration Studies analysis, Ben Ferguson argues that inadequate documentation and widespread corruption in source countries make reliable background checks impossible, thus endangering national security. The discussion includes political responses, with reference to remarks by Trump, Clinton, Obama, and Newsom.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Contrast between Trump and Biden Administration Policies

• Donald Trump’s Approach:
  • Trump reportedly halted immigration from several corrupt nations using executive orders, citing an inability to verify identities and backgrounds due to lacking or falsified documents.
  • Quote: "Donald Trump making it clear we must secure our borders and we don't need to be allowing so many people from around the world to come into this country until we get immigration under control." (08:40)
• Biden Administration’s Policies:
  • Ferguson claims the Biden administration issued visas to tens of thousands of nationals from highly corrupt countries in FY2024, including South Sudan, Somalia, and Venezuela.
  • Statistics Mentioned:
    • ~1,800 visas issued to South Sudanese and Somali nationals
    • ~2,600 Venezuelans admitted

2. Problems With Vetting Migrants From Corrupt Countries

• Ferguson repeats findings from Ronald Mortensen (CIS):
  • It's "nearly impossible" to vet applicants from deeply corrupt countries due to nonexistent, fraudulent, or bribed documentation.
  • Quote (attributing to Mortensen):
    "For the payment of a bribe, a citizen of these countries, and in some cases even a non-citizen... can obtain the official documents necessary to apply for entry into the United States, including a fake birth certificate, doctored law enforcement records, a phony diploma, a forged passport, fictitious bank statements and all other documents..." (10:58),
    "Due to a combination of incompetence, poor or no record keeping, fraud, bribery and personal dishonesty, it's impossible to know what is real and what's not." (09:57)
• Ferguson asserts that "law-abiding citizens in corrupt countries are at a disadvantage," as they may not have access to needed documents except through bribes.

3. List of Countries and Scale of Immigration

• Partial list of most corrupt countries per Transparency International (11:52):
  • South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Burma, Haiti, Afghanistan, Congo, Chad, Iran, Mali, Laos, Sierra Leone, Niger.
• Highlights the scale:
  • Example: Of 33,000 migrants from Afghanistan, only 28 entered for employment, 1,000 via diversity lottery.

4. Political Crossfire: Reactions from Clinton, Obama, Newsom

• Hillary Clinton: (paraphrased and partially quoted, 12:41–13:20)
  • Acknowledged migration has "gone too far," called for "secure borders that don't torture and kill people," yet also criticized Trump-era enforcement as inhumane.
  • Ferguson’s Commentary: Contrasts her call for humane, secure borders with what he sees as mischaracterizations of Trump-era enforcement.
• Barack Obama: (13:07)
  • Compared rogue law enforcement with "authoritarian countries and dictatorships."
• Gavin Newsom: (13:26)
  • Recalled incidents of heavy militarization, implying Trump’s immigration crackdowns resembled historic abuses.

5. Democratic Admission of Policy Problems and Shifting Blame

• Ferguson claims top Democrats now admit their approach created chaos, but are more upset with Trump for “cleaning up their mess.” (13:58)
  • “Democrats today are admitting they created the chaos, but they're more angry at the man who's cleaning up their mess, Donald Trump…now why they're comparing ICE agents to Nazis, even while they're in Germany, in Munich at a conference attacking their own country.” (13:58–14:22)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Corruption and Documentation:
  • "When there is poor or no record keeping or incompetency or corruption at this level... it's very easy to pay off officials to fraudulently make documents." (10:38)
• On Political Hypocrisy:
  • "You listen to Hillary Clinton there, even she's telling the truth, being blunt on immigration. It needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don't torture and kill people. She went on to say, of course, accusing the Trump administration of killing and torturing people, which is not happening." (12:41–13:20)
• On Democratic Responses:
  • "So Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and you can also add Gavin Newsom to the list of politicians saying we need to have a more orderly way of doing this in America instead of having wide open borders, which they created, but slandering American law enforcement and the Trump administration at the exact same time." (13:13–13:26)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 08:40 – Trump’s stance and background on border security
• 09:57 – Ronald Mortensen's claims about impossibility of vetting
• 10:38 – How corruption enables fake documentation
• 11:52 – Listing corrupt origin countries
• 12:41 – Hillary Clinton’s remarks on migration
• 13:07 – Barack Obama critical of federal agents
• 13:26 – Gavin Newsom recalling militarized border enforcement
• 13:58 – Ferguson's summary: Democrats blame Trump for solving the crisis

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Conclusion

In this episode, Ben Ferguson lays out the argument that lax Biden-era immigration policies, combined with inherent corruption in source countries, have led to unsafe and disorderly migration to the U.S. He references analysis from CIS, highlights inability to safely vet applicants, and points to prominent Democratic politicians who, while calling for reform, continue criticizing the enforcement approaches of Trump and ICE. The tone is strongly critical of the Biden administration and broader Democratic leadership, echoing conservative viewpoints on border security and national integrity.

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Note: This summary omits all advertisements, intros, and outros, focusing solely on substantive content and discussion.

Transcript

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You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Good Tuesday. Tuesday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update. Donald Trump was right. Before Trump became president yet again. We now know that the US Annually imported massive amounts of migrants from the most corrupt countries in the world without legitimate vetting. So why did the Democrats do it? And how many came into this country? We break it all down for you, but first I want to tell you about our friends over at Patriot Mobile. Every so often, something happens that reminds us just how fragile our freedom we can? T afford to take our rights for granted. We must draw a line in the sand. And our friends at Patriot Mobile have been doing just that for more than 12 years. The truth is there is only one provider that boldly stands in the gap for Americans who believe freedom is worth fighting for. And that company is Patriot Mobile. 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And if you use the promo code Ben47, you're going to get a free month of service. That's patriotmobile.com Ben47 or 972-patriot and make the switch today. It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now. Story number one, there has been a warning and it's been coming from this administration from for a very long time. Donald Trump making it clear we must secure our borders and we don't need to be allowing so many people from around the world to come into this country until we get immigration under control. This is a major contrast to what we're now learning, that the United States regularly settled migrants from the most corrupt nations in the world across American communities. That coming from a new analysis. Last year, President Donald Trump halted much of this immigration via executive orders. The analysis, published by the center for Immigration Studies, looked at countries whose citizens Trump's executive orders have either entirely or partially banned from immigrating to the United States of America. Now, in particular, the analysis highlights corruption levels on a nation by nation basis, showing that in the fiscal year 2024 and likely prior years, the US issued visas to tens of thousands of foreign nationals literally from the most corrupt countries in the entire world. South Sudan, for example, is ranked as the most corrupt country in the world, according to a study by Transparency International. Somalia is ranked as the second most corrupt country in the world. Yet in the fiscal year 2024, nearly 1,800 nationals from South Sudan and Somalia were issued purposefully by the United States government visas to come to the United States of America. Venezuela, which has been partially banned from visa issuance, ranked as the third most corrupt country in the world. Despite this, the Biden administration in the fiscal year 2024 admitted almost 2,600 Venezuelans to the United States of America after issuing them visas. The center for Immigration Studies Ronald Mortensen writes that vetting for nationals in such corrupt countries is nearly impossible to vet for US Officials in these countries. There can be no assurance that the documents available to even vet the individuals applying for the admittance into the United States are valid or even accurate. Mortensen continues, due to a combination of incompetence, poor or no record keeping, fraud, bribery and personal dishonesty, it's impossible to know what is real and what's not. Now let's go to that list for just a second and this is the warning that Donald Trump gave. When there is poor or no record keeping or incompetency or corruption at this level in different countries, it's very easy to pay off officials to fraudulently make documents. You can bribe them. There is personal dishonesty within the government as well. Quote, for the payment of a bribe, a citizen of these countries, and in some cases even a non citizen of that country can obtain the official documents necessary to apply for entry into the United States, including a fake birth certificate, doctored law enforcement records, a phony diploma, a forged passport, fictitious bank statements and all other documents normally used by US Officials to vet individuals before they're allowed to enter the United States. Mortensen writes that Trump was left with no option other than to suspend entry from highly corrupt countries order to prevent the further importation of cultures of corruption, since effective vetting is not possible. Now, to be clear, what this study is saying is that if you want to get to the front of the line and you want to come to the United States of America from these corrupt countries, you're probably going to have to pay up and then someone's going to lie on your behalf. And if you are a law abiding citizen in one of these corrupt countries, the chances of you actually getting the documents you need to try to come to the United States of America are actually very unlikely because you would have to pay bribes to even get in line to be able to come to the United States of America. You can understand why this is such a massive problem. Now if you look at the actual list of the most corrupt countries, South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Ecuadorial, Guinea, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Burma, Haiti, Afghanistan, Republic of the Congo, Chad, Iran, Mali, Laos, Sierra Leone, Niger, and that is just a partial list of the countries that the President of the United States of America said, we just cannot trust you. When you look at how corrupt they are, they're almost all a 10 out of 10. And then you have the migrant visas. You had many of them that were categorized as special immigrants. For example, in Afghanistan, 33 000. You look at employment preference coming out of Afghanistan. For example, of the 33 000, only 28 were because of jobs, diversity, immigrants coming out of Afghanistan. Of the 33,000, only 1,000. You look at the numbers, it is truly staggering. And this is exactly who the Biden administration was letting in to the United States of America. Which also brings us to something interesting that Hillary Clinton said this week as she was speaking, of course, trashing America. She did accidentally tell the truth when she was talking at the Security Council in Munich. There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration. It went too far. It's been disruptive and destabilizing and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don't torture and kill people and how we're going to have a strong family structure because it is at the stabilization. You listen to Hillary Clinton there, even she's telling the truth, being blunt on immigration. It needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don't torture and kill people. She went on to say, of course, accusing the Trump administration of killing and torturing people, which is not happening. Yeah, she's still gonna play politics and still slander her own government and attack ICE agents, just like Barack Obama did this past week as well, implying that our agents are so evil that, well, we should hold them accountable. The rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous. The sort of behavior that in the past we've seen in authoritarian countries and we've seen in dictatorships, but we have not seen in America. So Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and you can also add Gavin Newsom to the list of politicians saying we need to have a more orderly way of doing this in America instead of having wide open borders, which they created, but slandering American law enforcement and the Trump administration at the exact same time.

[A]

But I want to remember all those images of masked men, the secret police, something familiar in Germany. Those first images came out of my state, the second largest city in the United States of America. We saw 4,000 National Guard federalized, first time. We'd never seen anything like this. And 700 active duty Marines sent not overseas, but to the second largest city in the United States of America, militarizing the streets of my city. Masked men. Masked men showing up, unaccountable. No idea. IDs.

[B]

So to be clear, Democrats today are admitting they created the chaos, but they're more angry at the man who's cleaning up their mess, Donald Trump. And what Donald Trump is clearly doing is saying not only am I cleaning up your mess in America that you created and in places like California or Minnesota, but I'm also making sure that those that are taking advantage of that are coming in on visas are being stopped as well. And this is exactly what Donald Trump promised in the campaign. And he's clearly making good on that promise. And it's driving the left crazy, which is now why they're comparing ICE agents to Nazis, even while they're in Germany, in Munich at a conference attacking their own country. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow. Well, the holidays have come and gone.

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