ICE Abuses and Accountability… Finally (w. Congressman Robert Garcia)

Michael and Mélissa talk about the Diddy trial, special immigration juvenile status and interview Congressman Robert Garcia.

Brief Recess is a new weekly legal podcast from Exactly Right Media. Follow Brief Recess wherever you get your podcasts, and watch full video episodes every Thursday on the Brief Recess YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/@Briefrecess

Find Michael on Instagram @dept_of_redundancy_dept or TikTok @Michael_Foote_ and Mélissa on both as @MelissaMalebranche.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to brief Ress. I'm Michael Foot, I'm Melissa Albranch.
Today we're going to be talking about the last time
I was ever seen in public and a romper, Melissa's
last time out in the state sale, the Ditty Trial,
the time Melissa had to talk to her mother about
water sports. Monica Lewinsky deep dives into cases about special immigration,
juvenile status, an interview with Congressman Robert Garcia, and all
the questions you send me in my DMS. I'm Michael Foot.

(00:29):
I'm a criminal defense lawyer and an immigration attorney here
in New York City. I am the first thing you
see in the morning and the last thing you see
before your husband disappears. Melissa, would you like to introduce herself.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I can't believe you just said that.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
My name is Melissa malbrand I am absolutely positively not
a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I stand by that.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
I had been working in the nonprofit space for about
twenty five years now, and Michael and I met, i'd
say about ten years ago. We've been really good friends
ever since.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
You called me when your cat died, and that's how
I knew we were close friends. Or cat was dying
and you called me and ste your husband.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
I did because I knew that you would understand what
I was going through, but you wouldn't be as emotional
about it as my husband.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
People often come to me when they want a direct,
emotionless answer, unless it's like a Saturday night and I've
been drinking.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
In Brooklyn and eating taco bell.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
We're going to be talking about all sorts of legal
things that come up in the headlines. I've really wanted
to start this show with my best from Melissa because
there are so many long form things I can't talk
about on social media, and people love coming to like
my feeds to learn a little something about what's happening
with immigration law, what's going on in court. But I
can't like really expand or they can't it's hard for

(01:46):
me to answer all their questions. So you'll hear a
lot on the show. We constantly are going to be
returning to this notion of like, what can we be
doing right? Like I hate the concept of doom scrolling.
I hate the notion that people aren't like supporting each other.
I hate this idea that like, oh, we're descending into
fascism and like that's it. It was like a think piece.

(02:07):
I hate that idea. I want people to feel empowered
to sort of like flex their democratic muscles to affect
some sort of change in their community, even if it's
going to a small protest, even if it's like working
and volunteering at like your food bank, and sort of
like looking at the headline, seeing what's happening and then
explaining what's going on and then exactly what you can
do about it, rather than it just being like, well

(02:28):
that sucks, onto the next article, right exactly. So I
could never do like a full romper situation.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
I feel like I've seen you in a roper, and
I don't think that's true at all. You were out
here on these streets and this morning Andrea asked me
if I was starting working at a garage.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Okay, murder on the dance floor, Jesus Christ, Andre, that is.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
No, no, no, So Andre is?

Speaker 3 (02:57):
I mean, you know, Andre, very conservative, little man like
dresses like everybody's dad y, so like anything out of
the ordinary.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
I feel like I've given him some things that don't
fit me, like they're too small, so I give him
to him.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
You have not.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I feel like I've given him a sweater over the years.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I feel like that might be your other black friend.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
That you've given things okay, immediately instantly racist.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I mean, no, not racists.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
I mean I feel like I feel like if they're
black people who know what I'm talking about. Sometimes you
are your white friend's only black friend. They have like
two Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Now I understand. I'm the only gay friend for a
lot of people, and I'm treated like a mascot. Sometimes
they're like, get the gay one.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
At the wedding, Get that who get the party started.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
No, we need someone who's looking cute at them or something.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Nice, something like a good dress.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
What's his name again? Mark? It's like you're not Mike.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Like you're not Mike.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
I am Mike to a very specific group of people.
One a graphic calls me Mike. I'm going to give
you one chance to guess.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, is this somebody from like your childhood.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's the guy fixing my dishwasher. It's like the guy
fixing the like put the plumbing in my apartment. It's
always like a man over a certain age.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
They don't know you. Yeah, the name is Michael.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
No.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
No, it's like my dad's friends. It's like people who
know me. It's men of a certain white straight man
of a certain age are like, Mike, how's it going.
It's a very long island thing.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Okay. People randomly call me Michelle for no good reason.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I've called you way worse than Michelle behind your back,
into your face. What did you do this weekend? Well,
you were working at the garage.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I was, Yeah, I changed the carburetor.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Brad will look me right in the eye and be like, oh,
professor Plum is joining us if I'm wearing like a
sweater and a time just Christ, it's actually so diabolical.
I don't catch strays in my house. I catch them
straight to the face.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
What I do this weekend? So this is wardrobe changing
time for me? So I do this by annually.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Oh, Melissa loves a good I do a good closet
cleanout special.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
But I like, I recorded something and I was going
to post the TikTok. But I'm not like you. I
am not a prolific poster.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
If you're thinking about posting something to TikTok, my number
one rule, don't be precious with it. Post it unedited,
broke in.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
I am not precious aye, Yeah, no, no, no, no,
that's not it.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's just a mess.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
But I was just like, I am actually embarrassed at
the amount of shit that I own.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
It is, But those are the videos that everyone loves.
Those are the videos of mine that blow up when
I'm like, it's hey, I had to pick up a
client and I'm wearing cooochie cutters and a crop top
that's mesh because it's Pride month and I ended up
having to go to the precinct and and it's always
so mortifying for me. But those are the videos that
usually blow up.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
I mean, I don't I actually don't care if the
video blows up or not. I mean, maybe I should,
but I don't care. But I care that I feel
like I have come victim to over consuming, right, And
to be fair, I do buy a lot of thrifted items.
You know, we know I love in the States sales,
so it's not but I do buy things.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Also, let me just be clear that.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, and no judgment here. I'm a violent consumer.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
I am judging myself, okay, right, judging my life.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
I am where disposable income goes to meet its disposal.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I don't want to be that person.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
But there's a difference between not wanting to be someone
and accepting who you are. Know thyself.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
I know myself, and I am a bitch with too
much shit.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
And not enough space. You do have storage, so that's.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
The thing, right, is that every year I pack up
twice a year and I take it to storage a
storage facility.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Okay, okay, so that is actually cry for help. Yeah,
it is a little bit of a I need someone.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
To come in and tell me what to do.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'll do it.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
No, not you, Sorry, I need somebody who knows.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
My friends don't want to.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
They're like, because I'm like, I.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Love to come up for dinner. They're like, get.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Fucked to kill you will because you will enable me?

Speaker 1 (07:13):
No? Yes, I I throw everything out. I'm like, Brad,
this has been here for a week. It is a
it's our tax return. I think we should either you know,
post it online or throw it out. Like, I'm like,
this can't be sitting.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
I feel like you would come over and we just
wouldn't get anything done.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
I feel like it would turn into a runway. I
do think that we would probably do some sort of
fashion show. I don't want that actually, comment below if
you do want to see me, go to Melissa's house,
we do a full wardrobe. I could Yeah, we.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Could do different out there.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Who wants to help me? Take a good long heard
look at my wardrobe and be like, bitch, you're never
gonna wear this.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
And if you want to enable this dysfunction, police comment
on this video that you want us to do a
little fashion montage.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
This is actually a cry for help to no.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I think we do a link and people then can
then donate to our and then we see how much
money people give us to do it.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm not asking anybody for money work, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
This is and this is this is how you get
a head life. Maybe actually speaking of I saw Alyssa
this weekends.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
We love her.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
How do we describe Alyssa? Describe Alyssa for the viewers
at home, Alyssa is our very very close mutual friend.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
She's like a really good friend if you want to
do something because Alyssa is down for whatever.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yes, she's down for whatever. Hey Alissa, let's go to
croat show. Yes?

Speaker 1 (08:33):
And I do I get the sense that like her,
her dorman like doesn't know what she looks like because
she's never home, like she's always out, like she's she's
never out in these streets.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, I have to tell you. I track Alyssa, and.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, I follow her because for her own safety, her
own for her.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Own safety, I am oftentimes worried about where she is.
Has anybody seen her?

Speaker 4 (08:57):
Where is?

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Melissa will text me in the middle of the night
and she'll be like, I can't sleep just checking have
you heard from Alyssa recently? I do feel like we
should probably keep an eye on her. Is. Alyssa taught
me how to be chaotic. That is who she is
in my life. She's sort of like, uh, like the
personification of like the Winchester Mystery Home. Like she's just
sort of like stove is on keys her out. I

(09:20):
went to her apartment once and there was like all
this broken glass in front of the building, and I
was like, ooh, rough neighborhood. It was like the West Village, right.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
I go into the apartment and she had dropped something.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
I was like, there's so much broken glass, and she
was like, oh, yeah, I dropped like a whole back
of groceries out there earlier. That was me like a
two hundred person unit and it was her. H yeah,
but I did see her. I took her to a
drag Queen's birthday party. We went to Miss Mam she again, let.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Me just one second, I was not invited.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
No, and then, and for your own protection and safety,
you would have kno, gone out at midnight on a
Friday night.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Oh for sure.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
No.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
But yeah, but but ask me no.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I don't want to be told no one more time.
Get my hopes up, get all excited about.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
You won't get your.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Hopes because you know better, right, because you know I'm
probably not coming, But I would like to be included.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Okay, okay, I'll just It was also like deep in
Brooklyn and you don't live anywhere near that, No, I don't.
You would have been like this is this is a
four hour flight for me to get there from where.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
When I first started dating my now husband, I was
living in Brooklyn and he was not. And it felt
like a long distance relationship.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
It really really did.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
And I mean it really wasn't that far.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
But it felt what did we say it'd be like that?

Speaker 2 (10:37):
It'd be like that, and it felt like behind God's back.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Brad lived in Hoboken.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh God.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
And when you have to transfer, when you have to
cross state lines in interstate commerce like that, it really does.
I was all the way in these village there was
like no like clear transit. It was it was it
was actually really of him in the.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Ass any part of how did he got in trouble?
Just cross the day.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Life for three minutes into the episode and already come
over talking about ditty trafficking. Okay, we're gonna go right
into sidebars. Okay, and I think we've got a nice
natural entree into the ditty case s beacause Melissa's mother, Magalie,
throw up a photo of Magalie c J. She is

(11:19):
an icon, she is the moment.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
She is she, she is her, She is all of
my mother is we We we often say that my
mom is the Queen of the Kingdom in her mind.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yes, a legend. She is every woman.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, it's all in her.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, it's all. And she will never listen to the
show she is.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
She might if I tell her that we give her
a shadow.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Okay, yeah, what is the department ever? Duneacy department? She calls,
I'm not going to do these, I'll get canceled.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
So my mom has always loved like a salacious legal case.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Sure right, I mean, who does it a lot of
moms do so.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Like I remember back in the day you were a child. However,
the O. J. Simpson case, my mother was living for.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
This, Oh, living for every mom in America.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Cut to Ditty and my mom is just like.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Cut for thirty years of history, were straight to did.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
She's also really into like the what's his name? Johnny
depp one like she was. Now she's got nothing but time,
so I mean, we all strive to be returning to.
So she was like, have you been watching the Ditty case?
And I was like, to be honest, not really coming
in and out or whatever. And she's like, well, he's

(12:37):
definitely going to go to jail.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
This is before this was.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
The when it was first really hitting the headline, and
it was just like, yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Not looking very good for him and her home, wasn't it.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
It wasn't.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
I mean, it didn't end well for him. I mean
it ended better than.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Those those If someone drew a sketch of me the
way those court reporters drew sketches of Diddy, just I
would be on the evening news. Michael Foot threw himself
off a building. An embarrassment that is that was so wicked, wild,
diabolical that was a crime in and of itself. Drawn

(13:12):
I mean, you read what you saw, Sean.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
What And also let me.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Let me I haven't heard someone say you reap what
you sow, and quite sometimes say that all the time.
It's very mel Gibson and signs like he's very much.
It is very much like this Bucolic imageriat of folks
like we're in the fields growing corn. You re what
your saw, you read what you said. That is such

(13:40):
a that's an American farmer subsidy. Shout out right there,
Shout out to you, all the American farmers working hard
here in these in this country, in the Midwest.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
So her whole thing was he's definitely going to jail.
And I was like, Okay, it's not looking good for him.
Why do you right?

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Agreed, And Melissa called me and told me this, and
I walked straight into the street with my dog, didn't
look either direction.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
I had the most uncomfortable conversation with my mother about
water sports. My mother was.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Convinced that this man was going to go to jail
because he had engaged in water sports.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
This was in her mind, make it clear, this was
the crime, was the crime.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
And I was trying to explain to my mom. I'm like, well,
it's not some people like that. No, Melissa, she's.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
She's rewriting the legislation she was sports as a federal.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
People don't like that. And that was just like, I mean,
they might, and she was just like, no, he's going
straight to jail for.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
I should also in process.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
This is why he should go to jail. She deserves it,
I mean. And again, back in the day, Monica Lewinsky,
I was in the car with my mom. I will
never forget this.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Listen to some NPR show or something where they were
talking about Monica Lewinsky's sexual past and Monica Lewinsky and
I around the same age, give her take a year
or two. And I think it came out that before Bill,
Monica had had like maybe two or three sexual partners beforehand.
And my mom was like a disgusting no. And so

(15:27):
I'm in the car with my mom and I'm driving
and I am not making any.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Well, you can't move no no, no, no no no
no oh no no no no no no no no no.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
And I went home and I called a friend of mine.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
I locked the door. I waited till she was My.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Mom was upset that Monica Lewinsky has had like one
or two guys, and she was like, did you keep
your mouth shut like firmly?

Speaker 1 (15:51):
So this is who? Well, first of all, I might
I think I'm gonna meet Monica Lewinsky next week?

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Can I know?

Speaker 1 (15:59):
I'm all to I'll text you the details I really want.
It's like it is like my friend anyway, it's getting
me into me with her. So I don't know if
I can like sneak someone in, but I won't bring
you to the Drag Queen's birthday. I will bring you
to meet Monica.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, like pick and choose.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, I feel like that's equally you know.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
I think if I have to choose, i'd rather meet Monica.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Well, okay, but let me explain the Drag Queen, Miss ma'am.
She she does deadpan drag to like very hilarious songs
like Ding Ding Ding Went the Trolley, but her face
is like the whole time, and we'll throw up a clip,
we'll and oh clang klang klang right right right. We
can't sing on the show because we'll get sued, but

(16:39):
she always has like a tag. We can speak lyrics.
That's copyright law. She always has like the tag on
her outfit. Still it's like, still on this so good,
it's so great. You have a couple of drinks, it's great. Anyway,
I'll bring you to meet Monica. But Diddy. The thing
about that I was just so incredulous was Melissa's mother.
Each time she brought up one of the horrific things

(17:02):
he was being charged with, right people testifying the awful testimony.
I mean it was really it was terrible. Yeah, Melissa's
mother was like, but the water sports, that was what
was really good.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
She couldn't get she could She refuses to believe that
anybody could be into that, and I was trying to
And then finally I was like.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
I'm just like acutely aware of how much water I'm
drinking right now as we're talking about. Then let's listen,
that's fun. I'm actually out. Let's take a brief recess.
We're going to take a break. Welcome back to brief Recess.
I'm Michael Foot, I'm Melissa Malbrand. This is under Earth.
We're going to take a deep dive into a case.

(17:46):
This one is actually really near and dear to me
and my heart and a lot of what my day
to day life looks like. So I pictured it. I
thought it'd be cool to kind of talk to you
about it. The name of the case is Sarmiento I.
Tel Vi, Perry et al. So it's a class action
suit that the ACLU filed against ICE, effectively submitting a
class action lawsuit of a group of miners who were

(18:06):
seeking immigration status here in the US. And we're not
being given the opportunity to be bonded out of detention centers.
So they were being held for long periods of time
in detention centers.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Okay, And when you say minors, give me an idea.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Sure, yeah, So anyone under the age of it, actually
I think it might be twenty one is for Special
Immigration Juvenile status. It's people under the age of twenty one.
We call it SiGe as a shorthand. But Special Immigration
Juvenile status is a protected status that miners can seek
in the US. It's usually you have to prove certain things.

(18:41):
So one of them is that you were neglected, abandoned,
or abused by a parent in your home country. So
that can be you never had a relationship with your
father and you don't know how that it is no
part of your life, or it can be that you
know your parents have pandoned you. Sometimes there are really
extreme cases which are a lot easier to kind of prove,
and then there are others where it's like I don't

(19:02):
know who my father is and I'm going to be
establishing custody in the US with a relative, Okay, So
it's usually just one parent that you could sort of
have to prove that there was something abnormal about the relationship.
But the interesting thing that sort of came up in
this case that I thought I could weigh in on
was how important it is that people are bonded out

(19:25):
hard stop, but especially in sedge cases. And that's because
SIDGE is one of these things where you and your
lawyer are running around the city to all sorts of
different courts to get documentation, to get judgments, to get
rulings from judges so that you can bring it back
to immigration court and show them that like you're doing

(19:46):
your due diligence. For example, you usually have to go
to family court, which is like in a different burrough
sometimes where it takes a really long time to get
that hearing date. I've worked sedge cases. It's taken years
just to even get like a date for your application
to be reviewed.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Let me ask you this, what happens if somebody because
if you said it takes years, sometimes what happens if
the person ages out while this is going on?

Speaker 1 (20:13):
That's a great question. We're often dealing with, like hard deadlines.
I made a video recently about appeals and how we
sort of the deadline is when the application is received,
not when you submit it for certain things. So deadlines
are insane in any industry, but especially in immigration law.
The stakes are so high, right, So for SIDG, it

(20:34):
is when it's filed. So even if there is a
backlog in the government agency that you're working with, as
long as it's the date that your attorney files it,
you're still below the requisite age. Okay, that is that's
like such an important question because sometimes people are not
sure about that.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
But sure, so as long as the date that it
was submitted is before you've aged out, then your should
be okay in terms of moving forward with the case exactly.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
And so in this case, the plaintiffs are suing Ice
stating that they're being held without a bond hearing and
that it violates their Fifth Amendment. Do process rates So
they're not even given the opportunity to argue whether they
should be bonded out of a detention center. It is
developing law. By the time this episode airs, the law
might have changed. So the thing about this specifically is

(21:23):
that there was a recent ruling in September where if
you were not inspected so upon arrival in the US.
So let's say you arrived undocumented, you cross the border illegally,
you don't have standing to seek bond in court if
you are detained. So that is like a new thing.

(21:43):
It's still being hammered out, it's being appealed, like it's
going to work its way up through the courts. But
right now a lot of people are trying to get
bonded out who crossed the border illegally, and this new ruling,
this new case law that came down in September, has
sort of messed with that. So I have people reaching
out to me for bond and I'm like, I honestly
couldn't even file something for you if I wanted to,

(22:05):
or if I had time to.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
So I mean, I just.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Wonder what, especially, you know, what happens to these people.
I mean, especially talking about kids. Somebody who's the idea
of somebody who's ten years old is sort of in
this purgatory.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
What happens to them.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
It's a great question, and it's something that I think
needs more attention, especially in the media. I think oftentimes
immigration law is like, ooh, that's so complicated. Even lawyers
will call me, Like this woman called me and she
was like, the lady who does my nails just got arrested.
I'm a lawyer, but I don't know how to do
this stuff. Like sure, immigration law is like one of
the most complicated areas of law, and it's because of

(22:44):
the decentralized nature of the government agencies that we're working with.
I mean, when I'm having someone fingerprinted, it get sent
to North Dakota. When I file their BIA appeals, it
goes to Church Falls, Virginia. Like it makes absolutely no sence. Yeah,
I think what sort of happens is especially in these
cases like we're talking about child welfare here, like these
are children being locked up and that they're being detained

(23:06):
for an indeterminate amount of time. I think like public perception,
public advocacy, people's people giving this any sort of energy
or attention, I think they'll sort of start to see
like how many awful things happen in attention centers, right,
Like how many lawsuits are there around sexual violence attention centers?

(23:27):
So this is happening on us soil is I'm so
glad to see that there is a lawsuit because I
have to say, as an attorney, I'm really remiss reading
the headlines that there aren't a lot of people talking
about this. There aren't a lot of law firms taking
up cases and finling lawsuits like this. There's been a
chilling effect with the Trump administration where law firms are like,

(23:49):
we are not going to be suing, we are not
going after like they are afraid that they're going to be.
And what does it come down to. It comes down
to people's wallets. It comes down to the pocketbooks of
these big firms, and they're not going after the government
agencies and really having some sort of like stand right.
And it's awful because it's like, I don't know, it
kind of gets to the heart of like being an attorney.

(24:10):
For me, it's like why the fuck did you do this? Then?
Like there's so many like faster ways to make money
than being a lawyer, and you got into this to
not help people to not do the right thing, like
we're supposed to be officers of the court, where people
who are supposed to be like ensuring justices served or
seeking out justice or accountability is held somewhere right and

(24:32):
to then be like, well, it's going to hit our
bottom line. We don't want to be for the Trump administration.
It's like, well, then who the fuck are you? If
you're not going to be doing that, then what are
you doing? I wonder I'm excited I mean to be
following this closely. I do think there's a strong chance
that there will be some sort of at least partial
relief for the plaintiffs, mostly because the child welfare protections

(24:54):
courts take that really seriously and there is sort of
a pretty big process concern in this case. People not
I'm gonna be watching this close to the deceased, mostly
because once there's a decision made, my day to day
job as an attorney who handles bond hearings will change overnight.

(25:15):
It will be one of those rulings where I get
to the courthouse and what I'm doing that day is
something different than what I thought it was going to be,
and I'd live for that ship because I am a
messy bitch and I do love a little bit of
chaos every now and then. I was born and raised
by Alisa, our most chaotic friend.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
And you're a Taurus.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
We're both tourists. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Let me ask you a question. Yeah, they're in these
detention centers with are.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
They like segregated from adults. Yeah, that's actually a great question.
Anybody like I actually don't know because it is so
impossible for attorneys to access clients who are being held
at attention. It's actually such a pain in the ass
for me to even have a call with a client
who's detained and sue. I was part of a lawsuit

(26:03):
with the ACLU a couple of years ago where we
sued because I was like bored one summer during COVID,
So I like worked with them. I'm and I basically
like I broke both my feet jogging. Yes, it's laid
up in casts just and what I would do is
I would take a group of cases in different detention
centers around the country, and I would attempt to get

(26:26):
in contact with my client and then document how difficult
it was. And all I was one of the lawyers.
All that information got fed into this lawsuit and they
sued in one. They were like, we, like lawyers cannot
access their clients, so it's really hard. And detention centers
are intentionally outside of city limits. They're really far away
from a metropolis to ensure that people cannot access legal council.

(26:51):
They're they're usually in like a wasteland. I had to
go to one in I think it was like an
Alabama and I had to fly into a different state.
I didn't want to drive, so I'm wealthy enough. I
hired a car to drive me there because I was like, God,
I'm not going to be driving in the middle of
northern Georgia, Alabama. I had someone drive me just to

(27:14):
just for one hearing. It was crazy.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, I just keep thinking the idea of a kid
being alone. It's terrifying, and you know, and somebody needs
to be the voice for these kids.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Right, absolutely. Yeah. I think that my clients who are
kids miners are the ones that I end up being
closest with as well, because they like a social worker
more than Yeah, totally, because.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
They need the help more than any I mean, obviously,
anybody who's sometimes like the.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Lawyer is like the parent has trusted the lawyer to
be there for that person.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
I don't know that there are enough people who are
going to law school who get into it because they
really have this.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Deep down desire to push the idea of like social
justice or just justice in general.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
No, it's true.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
That is I'm going to go to law school and
I am going to be a real estate lawyer because
I want to make a ton of money, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
I mean, I think it's wonderful that you're thinking about
it that way. And Michael is not alone. I know
there are a lot of it.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
I'm also not perfect, like I no, no, no, no,
It's very easy to it's very easy to like lose
your way, like I have lost my way many times
in life, like as a lawyer even after graduation, where
you know, you do sort of get dazzled by the
dollars or you don't want to take that probon of
a case because you are too busy, or like life happens,

(28:45):
like people have families, like people get dogs, like uh,
shake goes down right, And so I just feel like,
I don't know, I want other lawyers to feel like
it's cool for me to be like, hey, mykell, How
do I get involved? How did you get started? You know,
I get a lot of messages like that where people
are like, hey, like how did you get your first?

(29:06):
Like pro bone? Okay, so how do you learn how
to do this stuff?

Speaker 5 (29:08):
Like?

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I wasn't always this psychopath that I am today?

Speaker 2 (29:13):
No, I think you probably were always a psychopath, maybe
not the one that you are today, However, I think
knocks on the tour. I think that to your point.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
I think sometimes there comes a point in everybody's life
where you're like, you know what, I've done the thing
that I'm going to do, right, Like I went to
college or not or whatever, and now I have a
job and I'm just sort of like plugging away. I
think about this a lot, right, What is going to
be my other thing that I do that is helpful?
I think there comes a moment in your life where

(29:45):
you're like, oh, you know what, I'm going to sit down.
I'm going to think about how I can help. And
for you as an attorney, you have this skill, you
have this degree, and you were like, you know what,
I now have the time, and I'm now inclined.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
When we talk to Congressman Garcia later to ask him.
You should ask him like what you can do, like
what the difference is, because I think that could be
cool to hear from someone in a position of power
in the government of like what they think their constituents
or just like civically engaged democrats can be doing to help.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
What can how can we be help?

Speaker 1 (30:16):
How do you help? Now? What do you what do
you do to? I mean, I know, like you volunteer,
you go to protests, like you get involved. You are
like someone that I look to, like you've helped me
find my way many times. But I don't know. I
think you're a wealth of advice and wisdom.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
I mean I think so not speaking about sort of
like helping people who need but in terms of like
wealth of advice and wisdom.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
I'm going to tell you what I think no matter what,
whether you want to hear it or not.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Right, Like, and I am a big I told you
so person, which is not my best quality, but it
is we are who we are, right And what's really
funny is that like I don't tell people I told
them so nearly is as often as I want to,
I like, keep it, I tamp it down.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah she does it is can't help it.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
I can't help it.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
You had fucking skywriting. I told you so for me
one day. Who the fuck do you think you are
in on my show?

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Sorry because I get a tattoo.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Wait, oh, I would do that.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
I told you so.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
I've got it. Yeah, mine could just be she told
me so.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I told him so. In terms of helping, I will
say that, yes, I go to protest, and yes I will.
I'm big on like reaching out to my congress person.
I you know, I've sent letters to my governor and
my mayor. But I will tell you that I struggle
often with not knowing exactly what to do because I

(31:47):
feel like what I want to do is something that
I think will push the needle, right, Like what can
I do? Who can I help? Even if it's like
one person, right, who can I help?

Speaker 1 (31:58):
It's the thing of helplessness that I think everyone is
feeling right now, even like someone who I'm very much
in a position to do something right, but you do it. Yeah.
I was out running. I was I was traveling, and
I was out jogging in my hometown and on the
corner of like the little main street and it's like

(32:19):
this like little tiny little town on Long Island. There
were all these retirees who had like no kings posters
and they were protesting and I was talking to them,
it's the North Fork Women for Women Fund Whips, that
is their name. I am not I'm not having a

(32:39):
stoic whips, okay. And they were telling me that they
they take shifts every day. They're on that corner working
shifts protesting. I was like, this is amazing. I love
this so much, and they were how do I like
nicely described They were retired women of a certain age
and there were no like young startup retirees who retired

(33:02):
at thirty. But I feel like a lot of people
their age probably are feeling like they can't do anything
or they cannot get involved in it. It was just
like such a cool example where I was like, look
at these batties, look at these icons. Anyway, this has
been under oath. Let's take a break. So, meliss I'm

(33:23):
really excited because Congressman Garcia is joining US today.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
He's the former mayor of California. Yeah, and he's the
US representative from California's forty second district. He's been there
since twenty twenty three. He's actually immigrant himself from Peru,
so it'll be really interesting to talk to him about Ice,
what's happening there, what he's doing as a congress person
to sort of advocate for immigrant communities. Also the first
openly gay immigrant in Congress, which is very cool. He

(33:52):
I think he was undocumented at one point when he
first emigrated, So it's a very cool, interesting sort of
entree into American politics. What he's sort of working on,
I think will inform how Americans really engage with the
news cycle, right I mean, we're always talking about how
can we ensure that people are typically engaged and have

(34:14):
real next step action items. I feel like a lot
of what's happening in American democracy right now is like, well,
it's just terrible and nothing to do, just nothing. Yeah, yeah,
And I think it'll be cool to kind of talk
to him and be able to really say like.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Hey, and I love the fact that you know.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
I think it also helps when people can see themselves
in their elected officials. So the fact that he is
an immigrant, the fact that he's you know, openly gay,
like all those things I think sort of help put
the information out.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
I also love a fear Steva who's like, I'm going
to let my identity govern like how I enter the workplace,
how I enter like use my work. I'm sick of
this whole, Like my life is separate from my job.
It ain't. I'm a fair Stephen in the court room
as well as at home. I'm winning arguments in my kitchen.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Are you somebody called on the phone?

Speaker 1 (35:08):
I'm getting impeached in my phone.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
I can't read on the phone.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Oh all right, Congressman, all right, shut up. Congressman's college,
I got to stop talking. Welcome to brief resess. Congressman. Hey, guys,
are hi Congressman. Congressman, thank you for joining us. I
know that we actually just got the press release of
what you've been working on of the new legislation. So
why don't you take us in of what you've sort
of been focused on today. It sounds like, I mean, obviously.

Speaker 6 (35:30):
There's a lot going on, and I'm the horrors of
the Tarp administration never end. Today we're really focused on
and trying to really zero in just the horrific actions
by the administration. Certainly Secretary Now, I'm Stephen Miller, and
what's happening with ice across the country.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
There.

Speaker 6 (35:48):
There are two things that we're looking at right now.
One is we've all been reading the reports of the
now upwards of one hundred and seventy US citizens that
have now been detained, in many cases sent to these
facilities by ICE and by other federal agents, and who
essentially have stories of being in the centers for days

(36:10):
and days without any access to lawyers or family because
they didn't have the idea.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
And these are US.

Speaker 6 (36:15):
Citizens who are being targeted racially profile because of the
color of their skin. And we know that now if
ICES is doing this to US citizens, you can imagine
how others are being treated at these centers and facilities.
And so we have a broad investigation I'm going right
now through oversight into Christinoum into their actions across the country.

(36:37):
But we're also especially partnering with the Senate and the
Senate's oversight team and Cenator Blumenthal and US are specifically
going to do a joint bi cameral investigation into what's
happening to United States citizens across this country as well.
You know, what I've told folks is, look, what's happening
to citizens is horrific. But also reminding people that what's

(36:59):
happening to no citizens? They also have due process rights.
I mean, the Constitution is so.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
Clear correctly and so we have a lot of work
to do. But we were in LA with Mayor Bass
making that announcement today, and.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
It's interesting to bring this up. I really wanted to
talk to you about what specifically does that mean?

Speaker 3 (37:15):
Right.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
I think we oftentimes hear in the news like we're
investigating this, we're looking into this bi cameraalism. Could you
get specific about, like what does that literal to do
list look like when you get to the office? Right?
Like walk us through it? Because I think it's important
for people to hear these words have almost become pointless
to a lot of Americans. Oh, we're investigating, Oh there's

(37:36):
an oversight committee. Oh, we're going to be looking into it.
I think we've been used and abused in so many
ways as Americans that these words have sort of like
lost value. So I want people to hear, like exactly
what you're doing, because I know you, I know your team,
I know you've been working on this, and I understand
it on like a granular level from the courtroom. But

(37:57):
I think it's important for people to hear really what
that means for you.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Absolutely, No, this is great because I also I love
explaining kind of how overside.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yeah, so I think process matters, right, Like, what's the process?
I think it's so important.

Speaker 6 (38:09):
Let me so, there's two pieces of this I think
are important, and that is how and who is leading
the investigations and then what we're actually trying to accomplish
and do. So let me let me start by saying, Look,
I've been the lead Democrat on the Oversight Committite. The
Oversight Committee in the US House is the lead investigations
committee that exists under a constitution under it in the

(38:32):
US Congress, and so obviously the job of Congress is oversight,
and oversight is where most of the major investigations end up. Now,
I'm I'm a pretty newer member to the Congress. I
was mayor of lum Beach, California for eight years. I
got to Congress now a little over two years ago,
and so I was not the most senior person to

(38:53):
take on this job. And I think in my pitch
to the Democratic Caucus said, look, we have to we
have to do things differently. We got to bring rags,
we need people to be more aggressive. We need to
bring that fight that Republicans bring to these investigations, and
you know, the pitched work. I'm the first sophomore to

(39:15):
lead a committee in one hundred years in the US.
And I mentioned that because I think what you said
is really true that oftentimes we will launch an investigation
or folks will say they're going to hold folks accountable,
and then it just gets lost in kind of Washington speak.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Right, or we hear about it like two years later
that they kind of found something but they weren't really,
and it just it does get kind of lost in
the wash there.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
It does.

Speaker 6 (39:41):
And that is not me first, Like I first, I
am an imprint myself, and so this is very personal
to me, and it's something that I know.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
I've lived through the experience, I've been undocumented. I understand
what the live experiences.

Speaker 6 (39:55):
And then the second piece is I think people just
should take you know, I've been the lead lead on
investigations now for about maybe three or almost four months,
three four months in the Congress for Democrats, and I
show people what we've just done on the Epstein files,
for example, we are getting so much information out on

(40:15):
the Epstein files because we're being aggressive and we're not
waiting to be in the majority. And so the way
oversight works is when you are in the minority. So
Democrats are in the minority in Congress. We always have
limited powers. We don't have subpoena power. We don't have
powers to get new document we want or anyone from
the committee. But we still can't investigate on our own.
And so that's what we're doing now. We're not waiting

(40:37):
to be the majority to investigate. However, when we do
win the majority in twenty twenty six, you can believe
that we will be sending out subpoenis and getting information
from christinewo on, from Stephen Miller, from folks that are
from home, and just a variety of folks that we
are interested in. But the work has to start now.
So that's a little bit about kind of why we

(40:58):
have to bring new people in to the party and
at the table and leading these committees is because a
new approach is also needed. And then at the second
piece is it is still in the minority. These investigations
have enormous the enormous ability to also help in many
of the court cases that are happening.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
So we partner with folks, That's just what I was
going to say. Papering the record documentation so that court
cases can move forward with.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
That documentation is so important to put out into the
public record what's actually happening in what we know. And
so many of the successful cases that are happening right
now in the courts actually reference or use many of
the investigations or the documents that we are requesting of
agencies to build the case.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
And so it's all very important work.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
I wanted to ask you because on the show, we
really like to focus on ways that everyday Americans or
other attorneys can get involved to do something. I think
so much of the internet, so much of the news
cycle is doom scroll, it is getting lost in the weeds.
It is, you know, articles about literally how America is

(42:06):
headed towards fascism with no actual action items on what
people can do, how they can get involved, things that
they can do to flex their democratic muscles. What would
you where do you need me an immigration attorney? Right?

Speaker 5 (42:19):
Like?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
What would do your advice be to me an immigration attorney?
Or to meet Melissa who is a civically engaged democrat?

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Like not an attorney, but you know, I care very
much about what's happening in my community. I also come
from an immigrant family.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
What can I do?

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Where do you need us? Like? And I think it's
so important that people really hear from leadership right like
what can we be doing boots on the ground to
support these efforts.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
So so two things.

Speaker 6 (42:46):
So one is obviously there's some I'm gonna talk to
E dificultly about what specifically you can do to help
we're doing on the investigation side. So that's one piece
of it, broadly speaking there And I was just right
now with maybe fifty kind of immigration community activists and
leaders from different groups that are on the ground doing
this work right now in Los Angeles, and there they

(43:07):
are modeling just the behavior. We're talking about attorneys that
are working with immigration groups. We're talking about immigration advocates
that are trying to visit these detention centers. We're talking
about folks that are doing rapid response on the ground.
We're talked to folks that are just donors that are
donating to kind of these rapid response networks. I talk
to faith leaders who are bringing in parishioners who are

(43:28):
out communicating and working with families that are oftentimes even
too scared.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
To leave their home.

Speaker 6 (43:34):
And so I have found that in every community there
is a group or people that are actually doing this work.
Whether it's a local church, whether it's a local immigration organization,
whether it's a group of lawyers that are doing some
pro bono work or working within the legal space. There's
a lot of ways to get involved broadly. Specifically, our

(43:57):
Oversight Committee is doing two things where people and get
directly engaged. One is in in the next few weeks,
you're going to hear we'll put this, put this out.
We're going to be launching the a massive kind of
one stop ICE and information tracker.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
For that's great, Okay, that's so great. That is going
We need it, absolutely I need it.

Speaker 4 (44:19):
And it doesn't exist right now.

Speaker 6 (44:21):
And so we want to make sure that we are
tracking every instance of abuse and tearror that is being
right now put out and being done every day by
ICE and by.

Speaker 4 (44:32):
Critical moment folks.

Speaker 6 (44:33):
And so we're working and building that right now, and
we have some groups that are that are assisting us
with that as well, so folks will be able to
submit video information to this track or so that we
can keep all of the information also and from a
national perspective.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
In that's so important. So most as someone who gets
so many people reaching out to me for help, that
is ninety percent of the things are just info sharing.
You don't actually need an immigration attorney half the time,
but just people are just trying to figure out what's
going on. And I think that's really important exactly.

Speaker 6 (45:07):
So that's going to be a way for people to
be able to communicate with us directly and send us
information so that we have it on able to share
it into the public record. The second piece, and I
know this sounds so but you said it earlier, just
for for purposes of winning in the courtroom, we have
to not just win obviously public opinion.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
We have to win in the courtroom.

Speaker 6 (45:28):
Need and first of all in the courtroom, and we
have to document and we need to build the case.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
And it takes work, and it takes putting all.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
This It does it really does for people who don't and.

Speaker 6 (45:41):
So and for us in Congress that it's it's critical
for us to have all this information. The second piece,
which we announced today is we're going to be launching
some field hearings that will be happening in communities across
the country. Our very first one is going to be
in Los Angeles. We will be announcing the date hopefully
here in the.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Next Okay, Yeah, that'd be great. Share it with us,
we can put it out on the channel.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
It's great.

Speaker 6 (46:04):
And what the fuel hearing is going to be an
opportunity for members of Congress in the community to come
together and listen to testimony from people in the community.
And we're going to also provide ways where folks can
do it in a way that thinks that that we're
keeping their safety in mind as well.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
But it's going to be an opportunity for there to
be actual the stories and actions that are happening. Information
needs to be shared with us.

Speaker 6 (46:30):
We're going to go into the community as well, and
so the very first one will be in Los Angeles.
It'll be I think it's quite exciting and so that's
something also.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, definitely going into the communities is
so important. I mean, so much of what happens in
immigrant communities from my experience just as a guest, right
is word of mouth.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Yeah, oh for sure. That is the biggest way. I
mean is family.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
Coming from Haiti, that's how we learned about everything. You
heard it from someone's aunt, someone's cousin, a friend, church.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
Et cetera.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
So that's how you really get the word out. And
I think when it comes from your own community, you
tend to trust that information.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Right, So thank you so much for joining us. I
know you're the mayor of Long Beach. We've got a
long Beach here in Long Island. It's a little bit different,
but to say thank you and the first openly gay
immigrant congressman, is that right? Right? That's all correct? Okay,
all right? So who's your favorite drag queen in Long Beach, California.
We're gonna actually we're gonna venmo her in your honor,

(47:31):
thank you. I'm gonna vemo her one hundred dollars. What's
her name?

Speaker 4 (47:34):
Jewles, Jewels Long Beach is my favorite drag queen in
Long Beach.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Jewels, Long Beach. I got wait for Jewels Long Beach
to wake up at four pm and be like, who
the hell is this guy is sending me? Congressman Garcia,
send him under Carson Garcia's name. So Jewels Long Beach,
go find her on venmo or cat shop and send
her some money. Tip your drag queens. Thank you. Congressman

(48:01):
for joining us so much for joining us. We appreciate.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
Take you care.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Bye bye, so tails from the d M friends. Please remember,
while Michael is a lawyer.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
He is not your lawyer unless you want to hire me.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
I mean that's a difference.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
I am for Everyone has a price, and I'm actually
pretty cheap. Just got to ask any of my ex
boyfriends ask me.

Speaker 7 (48:27):
This is Maggie from O Hi, and I was wondering
if you could explain to me what's happening with banning
of birth control pills in this country from a legal perspective.
I keep reading about it, but I would love to
know in a simple way, what is actually happening and
how likely this is?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Okay, great question, this is. This is an interesting one
because it's I always feel bad when I have to
answer these because it really is it depends half the time,
Like it really does depend on the state you're in. Yeah,
so right now, birth control is not being banned in
the US. I think there is. It's always like the
threat of restricting contraceptives for women is always sort of

(49:11):
a topic that continues to come up, and it is
very much these Republicans leap on any opportunity to sort
of keep women down down right, And it always anything
we talk about, it is always poor people who experience
the worst, right, people who are experiencing poverty, who who
don't have access, who don't have access, are It's a

(49:34):
way to ensure that poor people remain poor and that
the rich poor gap grows. So federal law and Supreme
Court precedent still protect the right to get contraceptives. There
is a very famous Supreme Court president Griswold versus Connecticut.
It's from nineteen sixty five, as well as Eisenstadt fe

(49:54):
Baired it's nineteen seventy two. So these are the Supreme
Court precedents that protect a woman's right to contrast contraceptives.
I don't know why I can't say that word because
you don't have to. I guess because I've never gotten
a oneman pregnant, and never even would be in a
situation where that would happen.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Never.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
We can get into it. We'll do that in the
off we'll do that the b sides. The brief resets
after dark. We'll get into that the end scene seventeen
after eleven PM. Do you remember when VH VH one
or MTV. It was like it was like at night
it would become softcore porn. It was blue, it was

(50:34):
it was a little it was go blue. Yeah, anyway,
moving on, are you okay? We got we really got.
I love when I dag our producer where we got
the going because they have to listen to me app
all day. So you basically, if contraceptives were under fire,

(50:55):
it would get worked up through the court system and
eventually go to the Supreme Court and those precedents would
be argued against. I would hope that in a situation
like this there would be extreme public outrage, like this
really would be even right now with the ways in
which Republicans are restricting access to abortion, it's going to

(51:16):
be different. And that's right. A man went on the
record and said the word abortion. I know it doesn't
happen that often, but you know, they have to be
really creative with how they do it, right they say, oh,
like the fire code or oh it's going to be
a certain number are still within the state, even though
they're like eight hours apart, Like, they still have to
be kind of creative thinkers when they're trying to do evil.

(51:39):
So the same would sort of happen with contraceptives, and
also like the sort of expansive nature of America. We
think about this a lot with the commerce clause, right,
like interstate commerce, the transportation of contraceptives across state lines.
I know of people who after the election were like
stocking up on Plan B here in New York and

(52:01):
like mailing it to southern states. So it will be
something interesting to watch. I haven't really seen it come
up that much, but it is a very curious question,
Thank you, Maggie.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
It really is.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
I actually wonder what's going to happen, especially you know
most of the sort of now the Republican Party and
Maga Republicans, they're very much on this. You know, we're
doing this with God behind us, and there is this
theory for a lot of religion sort of across the board, right,
like make lots of babies, make lots of babies.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
The last thing, I am happily childless, And maybe we'll
add that to my next tattoo us well, that you
are childless by choice. We to talk about, Yes, exactly,
you have the choice. Yes, I have all the choices.
I'm a white man in a suit. I can get
away with pretty much anything just about you have kids,

(52:55):
You've got a family. Do you want to tell people
about your life and your choices.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
I do not any biological children. I do have a
stepdaughter who is lovely, and she and I get along
really well. And I love other people's kids. That's who
I am. I am perpetually aka Auntie Lisa. That's who
I am.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
I am the uncle. Well, my husband Brad is like
the fun uncle with the kids, but I'm the uncle
where you know, if you are beefing at school or
you need someone to help you buy beer, don't you
can't call me. I would never do that. I would
absolutely never teach you how to work.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Do not abide.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
I only roll ankles, not joints.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
He's rolled a couple of ankles, both.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Both at the same time. No, you've never seen me
wear pleasers.

Speaker 7 (53:43):
Hi, this is Daisy from Los Angelis him Daisy?

Speaker 1 (53:47):
First of all? Voiceover actress love right?

Speaker 2 (53:50):
And Daisy is a really good name, whether or not
it's your real name or not.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
I don't I imagine Daisy. What do we think Daisy
looks like?

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Immediately in my head, Daisy for me is a Latina, right,
I think, And I think she's got her Chola makeup down.
I love.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
She's from the South Bronx. Yeah, yeah, I think.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Well, she says she's from lah so I think she's
from South La.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Okay, Okay, yeah, I don't know the neighborhoods in LA
that well.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Okay, but that's who I think. I think Davy Daisy
is fierce, and I think she has got a hook.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
You're no, I think that's right. I think we could
open like a whole like booth at a state fair
of us, just like based on people's voices, guessing what
they look like. So maybe submit a question and we'll
guess what you look like.

Speaker 7 (54:37):
Anyway, I feel like there's so much in the news
about Trump trying to pardon p Diddy or Gallaine Maxwell.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
We not the ditty shout out not again.

Speaker 7 (54:50):
No.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
I also wonder why they keep on saying that Glayne Maxwell.
I feel like everybody's mispronouncing her name. My I had
an aunt who's that was, Yeah, and that's not how
you say it?

Speaker 1 (55:02):
How do you say it?

Speaker 2 (55:06):
I don't know who Gallaine is all over.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Like Gallaine Galaine Gulaine is such like a clunky flat footage.

Speaker 7 (55:15):
Right.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
We've got yeah, we've got a big flat foot stomp
in the street.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
It's gallayne, but go ahead, sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (55:26):
And I'm wondering, is there any interesting cases that previous
presidents have ever pardoned before? Are really controversial ones in
the past? Are these particularly insane?

Speaker 1 (55:37):
I mean, to try and compare American history to what's
happening right now is impossible. This is not really We
are sort of living in like, uh, the different timeline.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
None of this is real. This is a simulation.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
There have been a lot of pardons in the past
that were like, I mean, pardons are always a little
bit controversial. I remember Chelsea Manning's pardoning. People were like,
oh my god, but the arp springing like there's always
sort of like the opposition is always saying, you know,
it's usually.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
One of those things that our president does on their
way out.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yes, yeah, like Roger Stone Trump about in twenty twenty, right,
Paul Maniford, Michael Flynn was in twenty twenty. There was
a whole sort of like crop of controversial pardons.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
I mean, Biden pardoned his son like that was Dad.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
If you're watching, you better pardon my ass. If you're
ever in office, I want a pardon.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
I might send my kids to the clink. You do
just out here selling the family name.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Tell the story of when your dad on a jury.
We might not have enough time for this right enough
to wait for the next episode. We'll do it next time, Okay. Well, yes,
there are a lot of examples of this happening throughout history.
None of them are as insane as none of them
have anything to do with human trafficking of minors. So

(56:58):
that is sort of a wild thing. If Trump does
decide to pardon say her name.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Just Len Maxwell, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
Uh huh, So that would be unprecedented in such a
way that we would probably need a new word that
is a synonym for unprecedented that hasn't been invented yet. Anyway,
those are the weirdest things people sent me today. Thank
you so much, Congressman Garcia for coming on the show today.
I had a great time talking to you.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
I always have a good time.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Song. I'm glad we got we got it all on
the record about ditty trial. Maybe we'll do a whole
didty episode.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Maybe.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Thank you for watching brief Recess. I'm Michael Foot.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Now, Melissa Albranch, I'll see you're ass in Court.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
This has been an exactly right production recorded at iHeart Studios,
hosted by Me, Michael Foot and.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
Me Melissa Malbranch. Our producer is CJ.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
Ferroni. This episode was edited by Nicholas Galucci.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain and our guest booker
is Patria Kuttner.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Our theme song was composed by Tom Brifogel, with artwork
from Charlotte Delarue and Manessa Lilac, with photography by Brad Obono.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Is executive produced by Karen Kilgareth, Georgia hart Stark and
Danielle Kramer.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
You can find me on Instagram at Department of Redundancy
Department or on TikTok at Michael Foot and.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
I'm on both Instagram and TikTok as Melissa Albrant.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Got legal questions, reach out at brief Recess at exactlyrightmedia
dot com. Listen to Brief Recess on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and of
course we're a podcasts with video. Search for Brief Recess
on YouTube. This has been an exactly right production recorded

(58:37):
at iHeart Studios, hosted by Me Michael Foot.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
And me Melissa Albrant. Our producer is CJ.

Speaker 5 (58:43):
Ferroni. This episode was edited by Nicholas Galucci.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain, and our guest booker
is Patria Coottner.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Our theme song was composed by Tom Brifogel with artwork
from Charlotte Delarue Manessa Lilac, with photography by Brad Obono.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Brief Recess is executive produced by Karen Kilgar, Georgia hart Stark,
and Danielle Kramer.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
You can find me on Instagram at Department of Redundancy
Department or on TikTok at Michael foot and.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
I'm on both Instagram and TikTok as Melissa Malbranch.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
Got legal questions, reach out at brief Recess at exactlyrightmedia
dot com. Listen to Brief Recess on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and of
course we're a podcast with video.

Speaker 5 (59:22):
Search for Brief Recess on YouTube