The Texas Public Policy Foundation and serves as their chief National Initiatives officer. And here to talk about issues of immigration and Border Security, thank you for your time. Guest thank you for having me. And what approach does it take with integration related matters . Guest the Texas Public Policy Foundation is americas largest right of center state based policy think tank. We have about 100 employees mostly in texas but people all over the country including in washington, d. C. Do a lot of rea lot of papers. We testify before the texas legislatur the congress in washington, d. C. And insofar as immigration we are concerned about Border Security. We think it is a National Security threat and threat and health of texasness. The bord is not under control. Host how is it primarily funded . Guest we are funded through private contributions. Our■ bylaws prohibit any government funding which is unusual. A lot of think tanks take Government Funds but we have literally thousands and thousands of people mostly in texas who fund our operations. Host when it comes to texas and its approach to immigration, a lot of viewers would probably know operation lone star. Could you describe what it is and what led to its implementation . Guest operation lone star is an initiative of the governor of texas and the texas legislature, especially Lieutenant Governor dan patrick and leaders. For the cost of about 2 billion a year it places Additional Resources on the bother, department of■i■■ Public Safety texas state troopers as well as the Texas National guard. I know a bit about the National Guard. I served in the National Guard in california for some 20 years and retired as the deputy j1. The other thing they are doing is erecting some additional barrier along the border language private property where the Property Owners are generally favorable to installing additional barriers to entry trying to encourage people to go over of entry rather than in between the ports of entry. So the effort was rd a number of years ago as the border began to as control on the border began to what you see is a lot of cooperation with Border Patrol and immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Essentially augmen Border Security in texas. Lastly, i would say it has been working because what you are seeing now is especially as Governor Abbott has ramped up enforcement you are seeing the traffic controlled by the mexican drug and human cartels shifting to the west it states like california especially where the governor has a very different attitude toward illegal immigration. Host would it be fair to say operation len star was a direct response to criticisms of President Bidens handling of immigration matters . Guest not necessarily to the crisps but to the reality on the ground. You may recall a couple of years ago i was at this Border Crossing in delroy where there were some 20,000 haitian nationals under a bridge for shelter from the hot sun. With expectation if they got into america illegally there was very little chance they would ever be deported. Host tupreme court rolled back portions of it if i i understand. What portions did they do . Guest are you talking about texass efforts to control the border . Host yes. Guest theres a number of legal fronts where texas has been contending with the federal government. One in particular you are project probably referring to the ability of Border Control to cut barrier wire laid by the National Guard as part of operation lone star on the border. What the Supreme Court ruled was that the Border Patrol could the wire. They didnt rule that texas couldnt put down more wire. Interestingly enough, since that ruling has been made about a month, im not aware of any reports where Border Patrol has removed the wire even though they are allowed to do it. Theres another lieutenant with the buoy system in the rio grande river. The Biden Administration didnt assert their right to supremacy with regard to immigration and the did is made a claim under environmental law and under the rivers acthat this was and i will heal impediment to commercial traffic, which of course is ridiculous because there hasnt going back 1078100 years on that stretch of river. You can texas has had to pull ein. But that is still in litigation. Then senate bill 4, this was the bill that authorizes texas Law Enforcement if they have reasonable suspicion, probable cause to believe someone has come across the border illegally, to arrest that individual and bring them to a port of entry whereupon they have the choice, you can you ca arrested for being in texas illegally. That is still being litigated. We expect it to end up going up it the Supreme Court and we believe that it is substantially different than arizona vus which decided in 2012 and we believe texas has a pretty good chance to prevail. Host it was in the lower courts that■ the judge said ifllowed to proceed sp4 could open the door of each passing its own version of many segregation and it with force the federal gernment to navigate a patch work of inconsistent regulatio■ns threatening the notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice. What did you think of that opinion . Guwrongly decided and i think w will see it quickly reversed at the fifth Circuit Court of appeals. The reason being is that texas is not enforcing Immigration Law. They are just going back to long standing powers that the states had the 2012 ruling in arizona v u. S. They are not enforcing immigration. When you see somody crossing the border between ports of entry which is a criminal act what texas is doing is 10 empowering its Law Enforcement to secure that individual, to bring them to an official port of entry and give the individual a choice. Income walk back across the border from which at the came or be arrested and tried in the texas criminal system for a crime. So, in neither case did you have texas enforcing Immigration Law at all. Because if the iividual walks back across the border that is not deportation. That is the individual deciding they would rather not be arrested. Host if you want to ask questions you can do so on the lines. Democrats is 2027488000, republicans are 2027488001 and independents are 2027488002. If you are a texas resident and want to give perspective on what is going on not only in your state but washington with immigration and Border Security call 2027488003. Our conversation is with chuck devore. I dont know if you had a chance to listen but during the state of the union last week issues of immigration and Border Security came up. I want to play a little bit of what the president has to say and response. Those watching shved of playing politics join me in telling the congress to pass it. Book do it together but that is apparently what they will not do. I will not demonize immigrants saying there are poisoning the blood of our country. I will families. I will not ban people because of their faith unlike my predecessor my first day i introduced a bill to fix immigration. A pathway to citizen for dreamers and so much more. Unlike my predecessor, i know who we are as americans. We are the only nation with a heart and soul that draws from old and new. Host that is President Biden from the state of the union drawing crasses with former contrasts. Guest i was quite disappointed with it. The lack of security on the borders is the number one issue among American People and that makes sense. We have had some 200 people on the terror watch list come across. There was evidence presented yesterday before a Senate Committee that some of the criminal drug and Human Trafficking cartels are working wilements of isis to get some individuals across our border. That is pretty significant news given that less than 30 People Killed almost 3,000 americans on 9 11. He spent about five minutes on the number one issue in the country, that was about 40 machines into his speech that lasted about an hour and six minute he didnt really address any of the significant issues at all. In fact some of the things he said were down right inconsistent or as we might say in washington, d. C. , he was doing some prevarication. Claiming trump had a ban on people coming in based on their religion. That is false. What trump did is he had higher barriers of entry for individuals coming in from nations known to be terror hot spots. Had nothing to do with religion. If tt the case why was new york on the list . Here is the issue. The issue is t joe biden on the very first day of his presidency reversed Donald Trumps executive orders regarding securing the border. What you saw in terms of illegal immigration was the very day of the election out of the anticipation that biden would follow through on his promises to open up the border, you began it see this very large ramp up of illegal immigration that has continued unabated since then. No law has been changed, all the change was the administrations executive orders and the will to enforce our border. This problem is entirely the making of President Joe Biden and his administration. Host our first call is from a texan, amin in temple, texas, democrat lane. You are on with chuck devore. Caller thank you. Sir, im a little confused. When trump became president he was supposed to build there big old wall it keep everybody out and hasnt been completed yet. But a month ago inaudible. You are doing and it does not make sense because we have been having people come here ever since america separated from mexico. So, this is what i say. Host that is amin from texas. Guest amin referenced the wall. Of course there was a huge amount of legal activity aimed at preventing President Trump from erecting that wall. It slowed down progress to be sure. As a retired u. S. Army officer, when you erect any sort of barrier at all it does assist the additional labor that you have in maintaining security. That is why the rich and famous have walls around their houses and for example during the president s state of the union they erected fencing around the capitol because walls doity of Border Control and immigration and kufrls enforcement and Texas Department of safety troopers and National Guard. It enhances their ability to secure the border. So i would arc we need to complete the barrier system. You ironically see even President Biden reluctantly beginning to complete some of the of the trump border wall. If the wall is so bad why is the Biden Administration continuing work on the same wall. Host there is dave republican from i were agree with the prefer caller. I have seen in texas we are suffering from this from people from all over the world and many of them are very sick individuals, mentally speaking, and some criminally involved. We are just supposed happened because of trump . When trump was president we hardly had anybody crossing the bourded a now we have an invasion. We trump was president we are paying less than 2 a gallon of goon and now we are paying were more. We texans are experiencing the pain. Seems like our gas is cheaper than everybody elses. Everything is worse under this Biden Administration. The friend called and told me New Hampshire supposedly supposed to be conservative but is getting corrupt. They are trying to prevent people from having prayer meetings in their home. Host mr. Devore if youi8 want focus on the immigration matters. Guest some of the concerns i believe dave expressed are correct. Look at e su chinese nationals of military age coming across the border. This was also mentioned i believe yesterday in the testimony of the various intelligence chiefs to the u. S. Senate. I think they are coming back today to the house of representatives. 14 months there were not much in e way of chinese immigrants coming across and they were generally older family units. Then as if a light switch turned on in early 2023, you see a significant ramp up of the number of chinese Illegal Immigrants crossing the border and you see their average age narrowed down to being that of military aged individuals, primarily males. Maybe they are coming across because the unemployment situation in the peoples republican of china is said to be pretty bad for young adults. Or maybe some of those individuals are coming here for negative reasons, for reasons that could be hostile to u. S. National security interests. The point is we dont really know and we dont really know because President Joe Biden and his administration have lost operational control of the border. And in the past we Border Patrol or immigrations and Customs Enforcement would have the opportunity to interview people coming two the country, today those interviews rarelyls withi the department of Homeland Security are too busy babysitting these large numbers of people coming aoss our border and moving them quickly into the interior of the United States. This is a National Security im very fearful we will pay the penalty as a nation potentially before the end of joe bidens administration. Host a caller used the word invasion. What goes through your mind when you hear it characterized that way . Guest invasion can mean a few different things. Some people who want to define in narrowly by the way the invasion clause is a portion of the constitution that gives states the power to defend themselves in the event the federal government is slow to react, something that was a big concern more than 200 years ago when communications were much slower. But when you lo invasion and you say are the mexican drug and Human Trafficking cartels a hostile forc yes. Are at the well armed . Yes. Have they completely corrupted the government of mexico . Yes. In some cases are they acting in the place of the government of mocks . Yes. Do they have placeal control of the on border. Yes. Are they moving people across ourder who might mean us ill intent . We believe they are. I mentioned the tens of thousands of chinese nationals. What about the report yesterday of the cartels cooperating with elements of isis. I so, at least you have a violent criminal actors comes across and probably state actors and terror groups coming across the border. So, if that is not an invasion in the sense of the word that the constitution means it, 10 i dont know what is. Host this is from jonathan in iowa, independt line. Caller good morning, pedro. Host you are on the air. Caller i just will a question. I was wondering, i was going through the f. B. I. Statistics and realized that a lot of the fentanyl coming from those trucks are [inaudible]. Isnt that crazy. One more thing. I believe th if we really want to have an up segregation system that works i think we need to open the border [inaudible] because are able to process more people and have a more organized view of the world. Host mr. Devore, is there a place to improve the Current System it alleviate what is going on on the legal side. Guest i think the number one thing is President Biden to readopt the executive orders put in place by President Trump. The fact that he lifted the executive orders and the border immediately spiraled out of control indicates that it would be readily within his ability to regain control of the border if he had the political had to do so. Allowing this surge at the border, this border crisis, wasg through on one of his promises he made during his president ial campaign in 2020 when he said that he was going to open up the border and by golly he opened up the border. Host theres a viewer who texted us i want you to respond to the first part because he asked you to explain what you mean when you say controlling the border. Guest controlling t that is a great question we have legal ports of entry that stretch from the west coast all the way down to the gulf coast. And when you want to come into the country and you want to come across the land border you are supposed to do t a legal port of entry. As you do, you are generally interviewed by an immigrations and Customs Enforcement di in america, do you have the permission to come in. If you are claiming asylum, what is the nature and they make a determination to let you in our not. If you come in between the ports of entry that is the responsibility of the board you come across and under up absorbing Border Patrol resources so significantly b