6-12-25 - 9am - A Defining Issue of Our Time: Immigration Enforcement

There is a defining issue of our time: Immigration enforcement. We're seeing it being played out in LA.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Michael Tom again from South Dakotas. I would like California
to mandate that. On my three acres, the neighbor's dog,
which is down the way doesn't start barking until after
nine am and stops barking at eight pm, so I
can go to bed at night.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Do you think we can get.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
California to mandate that for the rest of the country.
Thanks again, Bye.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm quite sure that you just need to find a NGO,
a non government organization, get the FEDS to you know,
Democrats to give you a couple of you know, twenty
thirty million dollars, and then go out and find the
government agency, you know, the California bark Authority or something,
and I'm sure you could probably get it done. Go

(00:46):
for it. So there are you know, there's always defining issues,
and of course, depending what happens in Middle East, that
could become a defining issue of our time. But there
is another defining issue of our time, and I think

(01:09):
it kind of goes to the soul of the country.
It kind of exemplifies what we value and on the
negative side, it shows you also what we don't value.
And overall, it's kind of an issue that shows us
what kind of society do we want to be? What's

(01:31):
that issue immigration enforcement? And I think we're seeing it
played out in the recent actions that we've been walking
or watching and talking about in LA and the hyperbole
is astounding. Bear with me. I just want to play

(01:56):
you some samples of what's being said that you're probably
not hearing because one you're listening to this. These are
all from today. This is just today. Let's go to
Simone Sanders over on in MISNBCCUS.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Now we have co hosts of MSNBC's The week Night,
Simone Sanders Townsend and professor of history at Tulane University
Walter Isaacson, the Reverend Al Sharpton back with us for
this hour as well.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Thanks. Oh, I didn't realize the Reverend Al was on here.
So well we'll get the defining answer about this defining
issue from that defining idiot, Al Sharpton.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thank you all for being here, Simone, starting with you.
In the early days of the Trump administration, there was
a lot of discussion about how we weren't seeing the
protest movement that defined the first months of his first term.
January February March of twenty seventeen. That has really changed
here and these ice raides now scheduled for other cities

(03:01):
across the country. Also major protests planned for the weekend
as well as the president's military parade. It does feel
like we're all the precipice of something.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
Yeah, I feel that way as well, Jonathan. Look, I
think it's important that it seems as though what we
are seeing is a reaction to the overreach, if you will,
of the federal government. People are protesting in places like
Missouri where a community in Missouri where folks rallied around
a Vietnamese woman from their community who had lived there

(03:34):
for decades, who was swept up by ice, and.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
She never sought or obtained citizenship.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
It's just that you just showed of CBP officers, ICE
officials chasing folks through the fields.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
How come we don't have a national debate about every
time I saw the was county sheriff recently doing a
car chase. It was on the news, and the guy finally,
you know, they throw the strips out on the street,
flattens his tires, the vehicle becomes disabled. He gets out

(04:16):
of the car and or the suv and they start
to chase him, well, white, white. Why hasn't that made
national news? Cops chase escaping criminal. Huh wow, shocker. She's
all upset because that's what we're watching and we should

(04:37):
be shocked by that.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
I'm from Omaha, Nebraska and South Omaha. Earlier this week
there were ice raids at a at a job site
where people were taken while on their lunch break at work.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Oh yeah, and we have since found out that that
guy claims he was trying to use Everify and turns
out that me the people that went through e Verify
were using falsified documents, so they weren't working legally. That's
one example. The next example comes to us from Congressman

(05:14):
Goldman from New York. He's on with What's your Name?

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Congressman. NBC News is reporting that now these tactical units
are going to be expanded into cities like Chicago, Northern Virginia,
New York, and other places in Northern Virginia. I will
note that includes that will include going into the DC
area over the next couple of days to ramp up

(05:44):
these what can only be described as snatching grabs.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Snatching grabs. We got a new We've got a new phrase.
Snatching grabs. So instead of a smashing grab like the
thugs do to retailers, now the government's got snatching grabs. Yeah.
We live in a gestapo society where at any moment,
show me your papers. May I see your papers? Please?

(06:10):
Oh you don't any papers? Snap grab gun?

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Is this legal? These nondescript individuals who we can only
assume are federal agents. But as you noted, the federal
agents in the courthouse and in the federal building you
were in where we're did not have any insignia to
say who they were with. Is this a legal thing
that is happening two folks across the country. And I

(06:34):
will note it's not just a Latino or Hispanic community.
We're talking about Haitians, literally, anyone who is not an
American citizen, and in some instances actual Americans who just
fit the profile.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Oh, women, is the profile your ethnicity? Who's the profile
whether you are a citizen or a non citizen? See?
I think the profile is that, whether you're a citizen
or a non citizen. I think she's also really upset
because some of the ICE agents are playing clothes. Where

(07:07):
are people getting up set about playing clothes? Local law
enforcement or your local you know FBI agent, or your
local you know Colorado Bureau's investigation agent. By the way,
they'll all have their credentials with them. They will all
either pull their credentials out off the lanyard around their neck,

(07:31):
or they'll have it on their belt, they'll have it
in their pockets somewhere. They'll have their credentials and they
will identify themselves as a law enforcement officer. This woman
is insane, utterly insane. But to add to the insanity,
Congressman Goldman, Yeah, I.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
Mean there are there are a lot of issues here.
There's equal protection issues, do process issues under the Constitution,
whether or not they're following the protocols of the federal government.
I will be introducing a bill that will prevent homeland
security officers from hiding or concealing their identities and wearing masks,

(08:17):
because we don't live in a country, an authoritarian country,
where we have secret police who are masked, who are intimidating,
who are scaring.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
People, intimidating and scaring people. You know, if you wouldn't
docks these ice agents, they wouldn't wear the masks around
their face. But when you start going after their families
and their homes. Yeah, they're going to hide their identities.
They'll identify themselves as a LEO, but they're not going

(08:51):
to show you their face. I don't blame and the
secret police looking secret about this whatsoever. Snatching grabs, secret police.
And I'm going to introduce a bill to really cut
their legs out from under them so that they can't
really do it any enforcement. That's the Democrat response, that's

(09:13):
what they truly believe. Let's go to let's see, let's
find oh here, this is pretty good Stephen Lynch.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
The Trump administration has tried to sweep aside the fact
that this pattern of mass deportation operation is letting dangerous
criminals roam free while it picks off peaceful, peaceful, contributing
members of our communities. Bus Boys at restaurants, day labor
is at the home depot, parents who are taking their
kids to school. In late March, Ice agents wearing masks

(09:54):
and hoodies detain rumesa os Turk and those of you
who watch that. When you compare the old films of
the Gestapo grabbing, grabbing people off the streets of Poland,
and you compare them for those nondescript thugs who grabbed

(10:14):
that that student, that graduate student. It does look like
a Gestapo operation. It does look like the Gestapo.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Why don't you just go ahead and say that it
is the Gestapo, that's what you really believe. So once
you just have the coonies to come out and actually
say it. And then going back to Dan Goldman again,
as the.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Trump administration ramps up it's deportation efforts as we're discussing,
one New York lawmaker says he witnessed it first hand.
Video shows Democratic Connresson Dan Goldman confronting ICE agents back
in May in a federal building that houses both his
office as well as an immigration court. Goldman says that
the agents wore playing clothes and masks. They arrested asylum

(11:01):
seekers who were there for routine court appearances, and Congressman
Goldman joins us, now he's a member of the House
Judiciary and Homeland Security Committy's Congressman, good to see you.
So let's start right there. First of all, the tactics,
these ICE agents using wearing masks. Even though President Trump
on a daily basis is telling protesters not to wear masks,
ICE agents say you'd be allowed to do so. Also

(11:23):
where they tried to make these arrests and therefore starting
a deportation process at immigration court. People who are trying
to do the right thing by checking in or whatever
process they have right now, and instead they're may be
afraid to do so.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Talk to us about what you saw that day.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
Well, what's going on is this new policy that Stephen
Miller has orchestrated which is designed solely to increase the
number of deportations. And while Donald Trump promised to go
after convicted criminals and the worst of the worst, he's
doing the exact opposite. What the Department of Homeland Secure
is doing is they're going into court. They're dismissing their

(12:03):
own case, a removal case against immigrants. In many of
those cases, the immigrants have done what they're legally allowed
to do, which is to file asylum claims. The asylum
is a lawful pathway to come.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Into the United States.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
The Department of Homeland Security is dismissing their own cases.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Of those who are criminals, but that's convenient to leave
out so that you can claim that, oh, they're going
into these federal buildings and they're just dismissing the removal
hearing or the asylum claim, and then they're getting arrested
and they're getting deported. I guess I don't have a

(12:44):
problem with that. I don't have a problem with that whatsoever.
So that's kind of the issue as the left season.
I think this is a it's necessary to preserve the
integrity of our immigration laws, our economy, indeed, to preserve

(13:09):
our social fabric. So I'm here to make the case
for the latter that immigration enforcement is not cruel, it's
not political theater, it's not overreach. It is actually re
establishing the rule of law and the sovereignty of this nation.

(13:29):
I have a deep belief in the principles of fairness, dignity,
and equality. That's what defines the American experiment. And as
the numbers show, us, legal immigrants in this country are
overwhelmingly in favor of what is occurring because the illegal immigrants,
the illegal aliens, are doing it the wrong way. So

(13:52):
let's focus since LA seems to be the big focus
right now. So they conduct immigration raids outplace outside places
like home depot. They target illegal aliens. They're you know,
trying to find just some work, but nonetheless they're still
illegal aliens. The fact they're trying to seek work, does

(14:13):
not negate the fact that they're here illegally. And then
the National Guard gets deployed and that sparks the outrage,
and then Newsom sues the administration. Now, I just want
to make a quick point about the lawsuit. The request
for a temporary restraining order, which has been has been

(14:34):
granted by all these other judges and all these other cases,
you know, revolving around any number of issues, was not
issued in this case. The judge said, I'm not going
to issue a tro He said, scheduling for I think
the Trump administration had to have their briefs in this morning.

(14:57):
Let's see, it's eight twenty one California time, so probably
by nine am. And I think they're actually scheduled for
arguments later this afternoon. So that case is moving along.
Newsom did not get what he was hoping. Now he
still may but he did not get the temporary restraining
order that he was hoping. Mayor Bass calls this a

(15:26):
federal invasion. And if you go online, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
any of them, you'll find all the comparisons to fascism, Nazism,
the Gestapo, everything. And then the media and the democrats
online and in the media and the cabal. They paint
the actions as they're being provocative, terrorizing vulnerable communities, deliberately

(15:47):
inciting violence. But what's the reality? Was the problem was
this provocation? Was it necessary? So what's the context? Before
you answer that question? The undeniable truth is that California,
home to forty percent forty percent of the illegal aliens

(16:11):
in this country, is indeed ground zero for this issue.
Mickey Caughton Costs, who is a Los Angeles resident, a
self described supporter of the left winging aspects of Trump,
is and whatever that is, how he put it, is
going to California's like robbing a bank. You go where
the money is. This morning, I heard this little factoid

(16:35):
about California has the largest number of illegal aliens and
is the state out of all forty nine other states,
it is the number one state in the dollar value
of benefits provided to illegal aliens. So yes, you go
where the money is. So in terms of California of

(17:00):
being ground zero for this, of course it is. And
it's not just because of the percentage of illegal aliens
most of them go to California. If forty percent go
to one state, all the other states are in the minority,
and if you're paying them more than any other state,

(17:21):
of course they're going to California. And then if the
political leadership in California then decides that, hey, we're not
going to stand for this, and you refuse to distinguish,
to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration, then you yourselves

(17:43):
make California ground zero as being a city of immigrants. Mean,
we have no immigration law. No, we have immigration law,
and right now we're trying to enforce that. That's what
I voted for. That's what I think a majority of

(18:03):
Americans voted for. The refusal to enforce federal law. That's
not a policy discage when you think about it. The
deployment of the National Guard, that they clay or eve
for that matter, even just Ice showing up. Neither is
an escalation, and neither is the proximate cause of the violence.

(18:27):
The deployment of the Guard was a response to existing unrest.
The violence was already occurring, so contrary to the stupid
narrative that somehow Trump's actually provoked the violence, the violence
in Los Angeles preceded the Guard's arrival. In fact, in
many instances, the guard's arrival preceded the LAPD's arrival. So

(18:53):
the guard and the riot teams they provided the excuse.
They were not the cause. And I want to be clear,
there are no tanks rolling through the streets, no marine
storming neighborhoods. They're federal officers protecting federal facilities, assuring that

(19:13):
the rule of law is upheld. You have marines standing
outside embassies all over the world. They're their day and night.
If a riot breaks out in front of the American
embassy in azerbra Jan, are the Are the marine guards
the cause of the riot? Nobody in the right mindments
say yes, something else was the cause. I'm sick of

(19:39):
this illogic, irrational trying to justify their violence. Now the
counter arguments, oh, the raids are inhumane, people were disappearing,
people like the Chinese Communist Party and the Trump's targeting

(19:59):
the vulnerable people for political gain. But that framing ignores
a deeper truth. The deeper truth is the Democrat Party's
absolutist stance on immigration made the showdown unavoidable because Democrats,
over decades of refusing to enforce federal law and then

(20:20):
conflating legal and illegal immigration, they back themselves into a corner.
We're any enforcement action, no matter how targeted, they will
spend as being cruel And that brings me to a
broader point. This is not about cruelty. It's about preserving

(20:40):
the kind of society that we want to live in.
America has every right to defend its national character. We
have every right to defend our workers against foreign workers,
and we have a commitment to social equality. We are
not a nation of privileges citizens over foreigners, although that's
what the left really does claim. We're a nation that

(21:02):
seeks to maintain a society where everybody, citizen or not,
has a fair shot at dignity and opportunity. And I
say citizen or not, because there is a way to
come here legally and get a green card and go
to work. The I mentioned Mickey Kaus earlier, the author

(21:30):
of the End of Equality, argues that the controlling immigration is
essential to this vision that I just outlined. You know,
when low skilled migration and immigration is restricted, you know,
wages increase, and they increase for those most vulnerable at
the bottom of the economic ladder. Their study after study

(21:52):
shows that limiting immigration boost wages for unskilled workers on average,
by ten percent, and if you're a black unskilled worker,
that figure can climb to twenty percent. If you're a
black unskilled worker without even a high school diploma, you
can reach thirty or forty percent. Real people, real families,

(22:13):
real dreams of a better life. That's what an egalitarian
society looks like, one where the people at the bottom
have enough to feel like they are part of the
whole and they can participate in our society. We have
spent decades breaking down the nuclear family, and then we
exacerbate that problem by allowing unfettered access into this country. Oh,

(22:34):
we have a legal system. Here's the turnstile for the
legal system. But if you just want to jump the
turnstile over, just go jump the turnstile. And in fact,
let's just take the turnstyle down for you, because you
might hurt yourself when you do the jumping. So let's
not forget how this happened. Because under Biden, the border

(22:58):
was effectively opened wide opened. And then Allejandro may Orcus,
the then Secretary of Homeland Security, used every trick in
the book to maximize illegal immigration. At the same time
that he would just go to Congress, go on television
and just lie about how the border was secure. I

(23:18):
think it was Biden's own insecurity, and then and his
insecurity as a human being, his insecurity politically, which led
to his deference to the Marxist wing of the Democrat Party,
and then that allowed the activists like Ron Klain and
his staff to push Biden to the far left. Now

(23:40):
we can argue day and night whether he really knew
he was being pushed or not pushed, or he went
willingly unwillingly. Who knows, because we don't know who's running things.
This is political self destruction. Biden's presidency was sacrificed on
the altar of open borders. They could care they could
not care less about Joe Biden. They were using that

(24:03):
decrepit old man the weekend of Bernie's president so that
they could flood this country. And they did it, and
we warned and mourned and warned what it would lead to,
and then we demanded that it be stopped. And so
we had an election, a free and fair election, and
the guy that said he would stop it stopped it.

(24:26):
And then, shocker of all shockers, the guy that said
he would do something. Let me rephrase that. The politician
that said he was going to do something, actually did something,
and now everybody's in a Tailsmian I only you know. I,

(24:49):
on one hand, I don't know that this is really
that Trump's strategy is really about mass deportation. I kind
of think that it is, but maybe it's not. But
here's what I do know. Oh, it is about deterrence.
You deport enough illegal aliens and every person here illegally
will think twice about staying. There was an announcement, there

(25:10):
was something posted by Caroline Levett yesterday about the border
is silent, silent? How quickly we forget all of the
video provided predominantly by Fox News and Bill Malusion about

(25:30):
the hundreds and thousands that every single day would just
cross the country, the buses stopping over here on Federal
and Alameda, or stopping in downtown Denver and asking do
you want to go somewhere else or do you want
to stay here? Oh? Well, you know, this is the
weather's really nice. I think I'll stay here. It was

(25:53):
unabated an invasion. It was a purposeful invasion. So California,
now with all this vocal opposition, is the perfect stage
for a strategy where if you make enforcement visible enough,

(26:15):
those abroad who have been thinking about coming here will
think twice about it, and on the third time they
think about it, we'll decide not to come here. And
that's why right now we can claim that the border
is silent, and public opinion is siding with Trump, and
they're siding with Trump not because we're cruel, but because

(26:38):
we understand that a nation without borders is not a
nation at all. So where do we go? So what
happens next? You know what fascinates me is I can
spend the entire hour just playing soundbites of Democrats being
complete idiots. They're not going to rethink their stamps. They're

(26:59):
not soul searching. There's not even any acknowledgment of this
inability to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration. There's no
willingness to recognize that they conflated legal and illegal immigration.
And there's absolutely no willingness whatsoever to recognize that this
is costing them politically and morally. And until they have

(27:22):
that reckoning, which I don't think they will, there's one
lone voice that is shouting the reckoning from the rooftop,
and nobody's listening. John Fetterman, Now I'm not trying to
be cruel here. But the guy that suffered severe depression,
had a stroke that affected his ability to speak and

(27:45):
to even process his thoughts is now the rational, logical, thinking,
and articulate member of the United States Senate and of
the Democrat Party who is saying, what the hell are
we doing? This does not work. I mean, I'm not

(28:08):
making fun of his his disabilities, but holy cow, stop
and think about that. The guy that oftentimes has to
use a translation device on his phone to carry on
a conversation is now the most articulate Democrat about recognizing, Hey, guys,

(28:31):
this strategy is not going to win us anything. But
let's move beyond politics for just a moment, because this
is not just about politics. It's really about what kind
of country do we want. You know, we in a
world of AI automation where low skilled jobs are some

(28:54):
are disappearing, and some are changing. Why do we import
all these unskilled workers to compete for jobs that probably
won't exist in ten or twenty years. Those job openings
right now are pretty precious, and we ought to preserve
them for the people who are here, our citizens. Immigration
enforcement is not about building walls or tearing families apart.

(29:15):
It's about building the society where every worker has dignity,
citizens feel valued, where the rule of law is more
than just a slogan. It's about ensuring that we remain
that begon of opportunity, not a free for all, not
just an open you know, just everybody come on in.
We don't give a rats ask you know where you're from,
what your criminal record is, or anything else. Also that

(29:38):
the powerful people that have all the powerful corporations can
take advantage of you know, We're not that, not that
at all. The Democrats are on a path to destruction.
So when I started the program out about I wanted
you to think about how this is a battle for

(30:01):
your brain. Remember John Fetterman, the guy that has a
damaged brain, is among all Democrats, the only articulate one
that understands what this is about. So you without a
disability that has your faculties, don't let them get to

(30:23):
your brain. Staged a stupid, dumb publicity stunt. I think
she was actually trying to protest just the very existence
of Jews. She claimed to be carrying aid to Guz
on a boat that was quickly dubbed the selfie Yacht.
The selfi yacht because all they were doing was just
taking selfies of themselves, you know, floating along the Mediterranean

(30:45):
headed to the Gaza Strip. But the only cargo that
she really cared about was well Greta Tomberg. So the
Israeli defense forces boarded the yacht arrested her and her
equally useless traveling companions, which was of course where go.
All along they knew exactly what was going to happen.
The ridiculous child then claimed to being kidnapped because human

(31:09):
is her second language. She's the real hostage, folks. I
should go tear down the posters for all the Gratituneberg posters. Now,
as a form of rehabilitation, Israel tried to make her
want to go pro footage that her Hamas comrades shot
as they massacred more than a thousand isn't innocent people

(31:31):
on that faithful seventh day of October. She refused to
watch it. Of course she did because she probably couldn't
stomach it and she can't handle the truth. She called
it propaganda. So she's just another Nazi denying the slaughter
of Jews and not fascinating. But nobody's willing to call
her that because you can't call that little kid a Nazi.

(31:53):
Well I just did. She's denying the slaughter of Jews.
She refuses to ignore he's the slaughter of Jews. So
then she gets deported, putting her on a plane back
to Sweden, London. I don't know where she went, Norway.
I don't know, pick pick one, I don't care. And

(32:14):
they put her in coach right next to the toilet.
And they did that because Jews are well, they're natural
born comedians. Her fans were outraged. Outraged, Emma Viglin posted
on x not the most important thing, but just to
underscore the depravity, it's almost certainly the case that the

(32:34):
Israelis put Greta on an airplane because they know she
doesn't fly out of principle, so they wanted to humiliate
her and get her a property and get a propaganda
image out of it. For kicks, Well, what were they
supposed to do? Put her on a box car on
a train. I suppose to her, the Israelis use ll airline,

(32:55):
So it's to her, it's probably the same thing. So
the climate's probably gonna just completely you know, I run
for the hills because well it's over with, absolutely over with.
By the way she tried to oppose walking to the
airport with her hands behind her back, as if she'd
been handcuffed. She wasn't.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
For the what all about

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Urban the gentleman Elvin, I've loved the Belder