While in the Lone Star state, President John Pudner traveled north from McAllen, right on the edge of the southern border, to Dallas, Texas last Thursday to not only discuss the shadow showdown of competing visits between President Trump and Biden amidst the crisis, but also to analyze the broad yet tangible effects it is having across our Republic. From nearly ten million known illegal border crossings in the last four years, to record levels of seized illicit drugs, including and especially fentanyl and opioids, to new news stories of attacks by illegal migrant gangs or murders by known gottaways, the Biden Administration's failure on this issue continues to hit home across our Republic.
One of many examples of this can be found throughout "sanctuary cities", a term used by localities that have vowed to not comply with, and oftentimes stand against, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, essentially acting as a safe harbor for illegal immigrants. When this current border crisis began in 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott began to bus illegal immigrants, unable to be deported by the state or ICE due to the current, lax Biden Administration policy, to these sanctuary cities in a move to not only preserve state interests and safety, but also to showcase the fool-hearty nature of this stance - to give them a taste of their medicine.
Many noteworthy images of this have been witnessed throughout our nation's top airports, witnessed firsthand by Punder at Chicago-O'Hare Airport which, for well over a year, has been transformed as a quasi-migrant shelter, with it's bus shuttle center, utilized by tens of millions of travelers year-round, so overcrowded that, as seen by these photos taken last October, it's evident for all to see despite the makeshift attempted use of a black curtain. Similar images have been found in airports across our Republic as well, with Boston's Logan Airport, with it's Seaport lobby, once a luxury area for big-name travelers, transformed just this last week as the second "migrant facility" to open in the airport this year alone, and San Diego International is currently flooded with over 1,500 illegal migrants after recent mass-releases by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
President John Pudner and host Ernie Brown discuss how these localities have not only been overrun like Texas, producing some of the notable and universal images that have come to define the crisis, but how doing so has led to a mass awakening on this issue in even the most hyper-progressive localities and could lead to this current crisis finally being resolved once and for all.
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The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sanctuary city, border, illegal immigrants, Trump, Biden, blame, Chicago-O'hare airport.
SPEAKERS
Ernie Brown and TBOR Action President John Pudner.
Ernie Brown 00:00
We're joined by John Pudner, he's the president of Take Back Our Republic, also worked as a Bush 2000 aide. John, thank you so much for your time today.
John Pudner 00:08
No, thanks for having me. Glad you got two presidential candidates down your way.
Ernie Brown 00:12
Yeah, you know, this is interesting. They just happen to be there on the same day. Now, I have to give Donald Trump the heads-up on this, he's going to Eagle Pass, the heart of where the action really is, whereas President Biden is going to Brownsville, where there's not a whole lot happening.
John Pudner 00:29
That was my assumption. I was going to rely on you as the expert for that, but it looks to me like there's a little more chance of people crossing the border near where Trump is, that the visual for Biden.
Ernie Brown 00:39
We actually jokingly said yesterday that President Biden's going down to South Padre Island for spring break, and then swinging down to Brownsville. He's in the neighborhood, why wouldn't he go do that? So, let me ask you this, then, John. Do you think we're gonna have two completely different messages from each candidate?
John Pudner 00:56
Well, I think so. They're obviously hoping cameras are there with one calmer background and one more active one in the area, but Biden has no way around this - it's immigration and inflation. Those of us who poll, or we have tens of thousands who knock on doors for various things, I mean, immigration is the issue that's brought up, and you don't have to be in Texas. This happens a long way from the border, it's top of mind for everybody right now, and been forced down there. There's no way around this issue for him.
Ernie Brown 01:26
Well, it's top of mind now. Thank you, Governor Abbott for that.
John Pudner 01:31
Yes, correct, and one thing of note. A lot of conservatives think that the wall was always popular, and it's really never been a 50% issue until now. For the first time, you've got more than 50% saying they want the wall built nationally and that's compared to 31% who don't. Trump was really ahead of the game on this in 2016, but it wasn't that widely expected, and now it is. That's the big turning point right now, that just building the wall, just that statement, is very popular for the first time.
Ernie Brown 02:07
What's interesting to me is it has moved up to the top of the list, suddenly, it's in everybody's backyard, but there still doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment from the (Biden) Administration that there's a problem. We still have the Department of Homeland Security Secretary telling us that the border is closed, that the border is under control.
John Pudner 02:25
That's right, and the reason you can't believe, again, obviously, in Texas, you see it firsthand, but now, if you walk through Chicago-O'Hare Airport, where they're having to house illegal immigrants, and it's almost like a movie set. You walk through - these are passengers from all over the world - and there's like plexiglass with just hundreds and hundreds of illegal immigrants being housed there. The same visual in New York that has the mayor saying they can't handle this. This is even a long way from the border, these used to just be border-state issues, and now it's the whole country.
Ernie Brown 02:58
We basically have a situation where we've been busing illegals to these sanctuary cities for a couple of years now. Initially, when we first started doing this, we were asking on this program if this have any impact? Certainly seems like it has had a pretty big impact nationwide in this issue, has it not?
John Pudner 03:16
It has. People have to see the problem and that has had a big impact. The other thing is this poor University of Georgia student who was killed by an illegal immigrant. It has to seem like an issue to people at home, and people go, "Wait, I go out jogging. This student was out jogging and got killed by illegal immigrant", you have people calling for the Mayor to resign for hvae it be a sanctuary city, even though, in Georgia, you technically can't, but they would not work with ICE. It's things like this, and people in the streets in New York, it's just hitting home, and that's what made it a big issue. And yes, he called them out as hypocrites. He wanted to be a sanctuary city? Great, here you go, take care of them!
Ernie Brown 03:57
Democrats now trying to blame Republicans for this situation. Are they getting any traction with that?
John Pudner 04:05
I think that's the best hand they have to play, let's just say, since Congress is always in gridlock, let's blame them. But obviously, it was an executive order that took away Title 42. Biden took proactive steps to make this happen, so their best case scenario is to lay the blame on Congress, but I think it's fairly weak.
Ernie Brown 04:24
Well, Republicans need to point that out, though, because once you start getting the water muddied up, nobody really knows who's to blame and people start saying they're all to blame. No, not in this case. The man in the White House did this on the first day when he was in office.
John Pudner 04:40
That's right. Title 42, stop saying you can take people right back across the border, stopping the wall being built, I mean, those are all on Biden, and he's stuck there. It, luckily, ties into the theme that he's out of touch, he doesn't get it, and he's not up for the job.
Ernie Brown 04:59
John Pudner, president of Take Back Our Republic. John, always a pleasure, thanks for coming on.