Ted Cruz lays out the shameful facts behind illegal immigration to Director of ICE

The progressive line claims that a lot of illegal immigrants are hard working people who are just here to help their families and do the jobs Americans don't want to do. Their only crime is entering into this country. When the Director of ICE, Sarah Saldana, tried to spin these talking points to Sen. Ted Cruz, he wasn't having it. Cruz schooled her on the facts behind illegal immigration, and how the Obama administration's actions have endangered the American people.

Listen to the beginning of today's podcast for more:

Below is a rush transcript, it may contain errors:

PAT: Meanwhile, Ted Cruz had sitting in front of him yesterday the director of ICE, Sarah Saldana. And he was talked to her about -- the criminal illegal aliens. Okay. Not the people coming in. Just the good, hard-working, decent human beings trying to support their family. Not to say that the criminal illegals aren't good decent hard-working people trying to support their family. They just happen to do it while they break the law.

STU: Technically, all illegal immigrants whether they're good or not are breaking the law as they're trying to feed their families.

PAT: But that's they didn't have a Post-It note when they should have. Their mom didn't give them the Post-It note that said, my son may cross the border. They didn't have that.

STU: That's the issue. That's the undocumented part of that. But Cruz is specifically talking about something else though. He's talking about people with real criminal activity, not just violations of laws that we don't enforce.

PAT: Right.

TED: In the year 2013, how many criminal illegal aliens did the Obama administration release?

SARAH: In '14, it was a little over 30,000.

PAT: That wasn't the question though. He said 2013. And then she goes, well, in '14, it was 30,000. Keep going.

TED: How many murderers?

SARAH: In that year, sir, I can't remember the number right now, but I know that we had -- the statistic that was said earlier, the four-year period from 2010 to 2014, that there were 121 persons who committed crimes afterwards. But I can't provide you the exact number.

TED: How many rapists?

SARAH: I am not sure right now. I'd have to pull that number.

PAT: Keep in mind, this is important information, Ted Cruz, being a lawyer, knows that you never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. This much he already knows, so just bear that in mind.

TED: How many drunk drivers?

SARAH: Same answer. I can certainly bring that down for you. And, in fact, I think we're working on that right now. It's been requested before.

TED: Yesterday, how many murderers did the Obama administration release?

SARAH: Now, Senator, I don't know the answer to that question, but I want the American people to understand our job and our mission, if I may.

TED: Ms. Saldana, I want to note that your testimony here when I asked you how many criminals ICE released in 2013, you were off by a factor of three. You said 30,000. The correct answer is 104,000. There were 68,000 criminals, criminal illegal alien that ICE declined to begin deportation proceedings against, despite the fact as Senator Sessions observed the federal law that you're holding up there says they shall be deported. The Obama administration refused to deport them. That's 68,000.

In addition to that, there were 36,000 in deportation proceedings with criminal convictions that the Obama administration released, and I would note that among those were 193 murderers with homicide convictions, were 426 people with sexual assault convictions, were over 16,000 criminal illegal aliens with drunk driving convictions released by this administration because this administration refuses to follow the law.

Ms. Saldana, I will note in your opening statement here, you said after listening to the victim's family that you were so sorry for their losses.

And yet the Obama administration keeps doing it. When I asked you how many murderers were released yesterday, you don't know. There is a reason the American people are upset. If President Obama had the courage of his convictions, he would come and look in the eyes of these men and women who have lost their sons, their daughters, their mothers, their sisters, their brothers, and the administration would stop releasing murderers and rapists.

PAT: That's why I love this guy. It's just great. Great.

STU: It's a topic we talked about quite a bit lately. What an interesting way to handle it. What a really, really competent way to handle a difficult issue by Ted Cruz.

PAT: Yeah, there are others that don't handle it that way. I won't name any. But there are others who do not handle it like he did.

STU: What a great way to handle it though.

PAT: It's great. He got an admission by her. I didn't include the whole thing because it's like eight minutes long. But at one point to the 104,000 figure of criminal illegal aliens released by the Obama administration, she said that's absolutely right. That's absolutely right. Fully aware with it.

JEFFY: And yet earlier, we have to break out those numbers.

PAT: Yeah, I don't know what those numbers are. Other people have asked about that. I was going to look at those numbers, and then I didn't. It's 193 murderers. How do you release murderers? How do you do that?

STU: Yeah, we've seen that happen a few times. Dukakis. Huckabee. These things destroyed campaigns when you did one of them that went out and did something. But this administration does it constantly. It's actually policy. And the interesting thing about this -- about Saldana is it's not her fault. I mean, she's the one up there answering for a terrible policy.

PAT: Yeah, but she agrees with the policy. She testified to that.

STU: I think she probably does. But, again, it's the Obama administration responsible for this. If the Obama administration said, hey, look, we need to not release murderers. Zero murderers needs to be the number. She would have to go along with that policy. That's her job or she would quit. One of the two.

PAT: When you ask the question, how many criminal illegal alien murderers did the Obama administration release yesterday? The answer should be zero. None. We didn't release anybody like that. It's a ridiculous question, senator. Zero.

STU: If you can't clear that hurdle. Think of how low that hurdle is. We didn't release any murderers yesterday. If you can't say that, I'm going to go ahead and say your policy isn't working.

PAT: Yes.

STU: Let me ask you this, Pat, personally. How many murderers did you release yesterday?

PAT: Altogether? Are we talking about citizens as well as noncitizens?

STU: Yeah. I'll open it up to that. Citizens and noncitizens, how many murderers did you open up to the public to murder more? Just yesterday.

PAT: Just carry the one.

STU: Don't forget. Remember, this includes brunch.

PAT: Oh. Okay. I'll figure that in. Bring the two. Add the brunch.

None. Yeah, zero.

STU: None? You can say that confidently?

PAT: It's an usual day, but none yesterday.

STU: These are not tough questions.

PAT: They're really not. And somehow we make them really difficult because we have the dumbest immigration policy on the planet. I don't think there's any question that we're the only ones on earth who act this way. Who have these policies. Who allow ourselves to ignore our laws. And just keep going down that same path, even though it's hurt us time and time again. Even though it's causing tragedy after tragedy for our citizenry and costing you see billions and billions of dollars every year. We keep going down the same path. Then what do they say? Well, we need comprehensive immigration reform. No, we don't. Because that's a code phrase for amnesty. And that's not what we need. What we need is to follow the existing laws. If we just did that, we'd be a lot further ahead.

STU: Yeah, that solves 90 percent of the issues. Yes, there will still be some issues you have to deal with. But that gets you 90 percent of the way there.

PAT: It really does. And close the border. Secure it as best you can.

STU: That's part of the law, right?

PAT: We don't follow the law.

STU: When you talk about comprehensive immigration reform, the reason why people say it is because we all -- if you take those words as to the words they actually mean. Like, comprehensive immigration reform. You know what, pretty much everyone on the planet would agree, even people trying to immigrate here. Even people trying to close the border down. Even people who just look at what we're doing now, not enforcing our laws, would agree that we need massive reform of our immigration system. I would completely agree with that general sentiment. But you're right, Pat. That has become code -- comprehensive immigration reform is a phrase that tests well because of what I just talked about.

PAT: Yeah. And it shouldn't.

STU: And it means something different. It means that you're going to give amnesty. It means you'll have all these other crazy policies. New policies. Kind of jammed in there. That's not what we're talked about. You're right. 90 percent of the problem probably goes away if you are just enforce the law.

PAT: Remove incentives, enforce the law, secure the border. It's a fairly simple three-step process. And the comprehensive immigration reform phrase has been around since George W. Bush, by the way. We knew what it meant at that time because they explained. He would talk about comprehensive -- we need comprehensive immigration reform when I come back from Europe, we'll get that done. We need a comprehensive plans. Which means a plan that you can comprehend.

(laughter)

Of course, that's not what it meant. It meant that they were going to grant a pathway to citizenship for 11 to 20 million illegals that are here. They'll go to the front of the line. They're not going to pay -- people talk all the time. Well, they need to pay a penalty. They need to go to the back of the line. That doesn't happen. And we've been down that road with Ronald Reagan in 1986. How is it that we don't learn anything from our mistakes?

STU: Right. And those are typically policies that are, you know, proposed by Republicans. The beginning negotiating point is they'll pay a fine. Which of course, when you start a negotiation with we're going to pay a fine, what basically happens is either that fine will be nonexistent or much, much less. And it's funny because people who deride the way we handle immigration, like myself, would say, hey, we don't treat this as an actual offense. We treat it as a kind of speeding ticket. Well, if you show up and you're not supposed to be here. We'll let you go. Try to show up in court in a couple of months. You don't have to. If you don't do it and we catch you away --

PAT: Wink, wink, nobody does. We don't expect you to come back.

STU: And honestly, of course, it's actually less serious, for that reason, you are expected to show up for your speeding ticket. But the final thing when they get tough on immigration and John McCain and Lindsey Graham tell us how tough they are on immigration, it's pay a fine, which is again like a speeding ticket.

PAT: Yeah.

STU: It really is so minimal as to what we expect out of people who are coming to our country looked for a better life. We have leverage here. We have the awesome country. We have the ones they're trying to get to from the crap heap they're trying to get from. That's what we have on the table. In a negotiation, we're the guys that have all the chips.

PAT: And I'm sorry, what is it that Mexico does according to the former president of that nation when they have illegals there?

VOICE: Of course, if somebody sneaks in from Nicaragua or some other country in Central America through the southern border of Mexico. They wind up in Mexico. They can go get a job. They can work.

VOICE: No, no. If somebody do that without permissions, we send back them.

PAT: If they do that without permissions, we send back them.

JEFFY: How quick he was too. No, no.

PAT: No, no. What are you, nuts? We're not crazy like you morons. More of the Glenn Beck Program coming up with Pat and Stu.

STU: 877-727-BECK is our phone number.

There is no doubt about it—we are entering dark times.

The November presidential election is only a few months away, and following the chaos of the 2020 election, the American people are bracing for what is likely to be another tumultuous election year. The left's anti-Trump rhetoric is reaching an all-time high with the most recent "Bloodbath" debacle proving how far the media will go to smear the former president. That's not to mention the Democrats' nearly four-year-long authoritarian attempt to jail President Trump or stop his re-election by any means necessary, even if it flies in the face of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Biden is doing worse than ever. He reportedly threw a tantrum recently after being informed that his polls have reached an all-time low. After Special Counsel Robert Hur's report expressed concerns over Biden's obviously failing mental agility, it's getting harder for the Democrats to defend him. Yet he is still the Democratic nominee for November, promising another 4 years of catastrophic policies, from the border to heavy-handed taxation, should he be reelected.

The rest of the world isn't doing much better. The war in Ukraine has no clear end in sight, drawing NATO and Russia closer and closer to conflict. The war in Gaza is showing no sign of slowing down, and as Glenn revealed recently, its continuation may be a sign that the end times are near.

One thing is clear: we are living in uncertain times. If you and your family haven't prepared for the worst, now is the time. You can start by downloading "Glenn's Ultimate Guide to Getting Prepared." Be sure to print off a copy or two. If the recent cell outage proved anything, it's that technology is unreliable in survival situations. You can check your list of supplies against our "Ultimate Prepper Checklist for Beginners," which you can find below:

Food

  • Canned food/non-perishable foods
  • Food preparation tools
  • Go to the next level: garden/livestock/food production

Water

  • Non-perishable water store
  • Water purification
  • Independent water source

Shelter

  • Fireplace with a wood supply
  • Tent
  • Generator with fuel supply
  • Go to the next level: fallout shelter

Money

  • Emergency cash savings
  • Precious metals

Medicine

  • Extra blankets
  • Basic first aid
  • Extra prescriptions
  • Extra glasses
  • Toiletries store
  • Trauma kit
  • Antibiotics
  • Basic surgery supplies
  • Potassium Iodate tablets

Transportation

  • Bicycle
  • Car
  • Extra fuel

Information

  • Birth certificates
  • Insurance cards
  • Marriage license
  • Immunization records
  • Mortgage paperwork
  • Car title and registration
  • House keys, car keys
  • Passports
  • Family emergency plan
  • Prepping/survival/repair manuals
  • Go to the next level: copy of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and other important books/sources

Skills

  • Cooking
  • Gardening
  • Sewing
  • First Aid
  • Basic maintenance skills
  • Go to the next level: farming/ranching
  • Self-defense training

Communication

  • Family contact information and addresses
  • HAM radio

Miscellaneous

  • Flashlights and batteries
  • Lamps and fuel
  • Hardware (tools, nails, lumber, etc)
  • Extra clothes
  • Extreme weather clothes and gear
  • Gas masks and filters
  • Spare parts for any machinery/equipment

Is Trump's prosecution NORMAL?  This COMPLETE list of ALL Western leaders who served jail time proves otherwise.

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Mainstream media is on a crusade to normalize Donald Trump's indictments as if it's on par with the electoral course. Glenn asked his team to research every instance of a Western leader who was jailed during their political career over the past 200 years—except extreme political turmoil like the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Irish Revolution, etc.—and what we discovered was quite the opposite.

Imprisoning a leader or major political opponent is not normal, neither in the U.S. nor in the Western world. Within the last 200 years, there are only a handful of examples of leaders in the West serving jail time, and these men were not imprisoned under normal conditions. All of these men were jailed under extreme circumstances during times of great peril such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War.

What does this mean for America? Are Trump's indictments evidence that we are re-entering times of great peril? Below is a list of Western leaders who were imprisoned within the last 200 years. Take a look and decide for yourself:

Late 1800s

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Jefferson Davis: The nearest occurrence to a U.S. President to serve jail time was in the case of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson was captured in Georgia by Northern Soldiers in 1865 and locked up in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was offered a presidential pardon but refused out of his loyalty to the confederacy.

Early 1900s

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Eugene V. Debs: Debbs, a Midwestern socialist leader, became the first person to run for president in prison. He was locked up at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta having been convicted under the federal Sedition Act for giving an antiwar speech a few months before Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Many of his supporters believed his imprisonment to be unjust. Debs received 897,704 votes and was a distant third-part candidate behind Warren G. Harding, the Republican winner, and James M. Cox, the second-place Democrat. Harding ordered Debs’s release from prison toward the end of 1921.

Nazi sympathizers and collaborators: After the end of World War II in 1945, several European leaders who had "led" their countries during the Nazi occupation faced trial and imprisonment for treason. This list included Chief of the French State Philippe Pétain, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and Minister-President of Norway Vidkun Quisling. The latter two were also executed after their imprisonment. President of Finland Risto Ryti and Prime Minister of Finland Johan Wilhelm Rangell were also tried and jailed for collaborating with the Nazis against the Allied Powers.

Late 1900s

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The end of the Cold War: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one of the pivotal moments that brought the Cold War to a close and marked the end of Communist East Germany. With the fall of the wall and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the former leaders were brought to trial to answer for the crimes committed by the GDR. General Secretary Erich Honecker and General Secretary Egon Krenz were both put on trial for abuse of power and the deaths of those who were shot trying to flee into West Germany. Honecker was charged with jail time but was released from custody due to severe illness and lived out the rest of his life as an exile in Chile. Krenz served 4 years in jail before his release in 2001. He is one of the last surviving leaders of the Eastern Bloc.

Lyndon LaRouche: Larouche was a Trotsky evangelist, public antisemite, and founder of a nationwide Marxist political movement, became the second person in U.S. history to run for President in a prison cell. Granted, he ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a long-shot third-party candidate. When he tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, he received 5 percent of the total nationwide vote. Even though in 2000 he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in a few states, the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.

TOP 5 issues that have gotten WORSE since the last State of the Union

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If you saw Biden's State of the Union last week, or Glenn's firey reaction to it, you know that Biden hardly spoke a word that wasn't a flat-out lie.

If you spent the last 12 months in a fallout shelter and Biden's speech was the only media interaction you had since the last State of the Union, you might be tempted to believe that the country has improved in some way over the past year. But the rest of us, who have been living above ground, going to the grocery store, and paying some attention to current events, had only to look around to see that Biden's speech was nothing but hot air.

Here are the TOP 5 issues that have gotten worse since the last State of the Union.

Economy

Biden spent a significant amount of time during the State of the Union boasting about the strength of his economy, but anyone who has checked their bank account lately was left wondering if he was holding his speech upside down. It's not just the cobwebs in your wallet; the numbers show the devastation wrought by "Bidenomics" too. In 2022, American grocery bills increased by 11.4 percent and restaurant bills by 7.7 percent. In 2023 prices only continued to rise, with an additional 1.2 percent increase in food-at-home prices and a 5.1 percent increase in away-from-home prices.

Debt crisis and inflation

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The national debt continues to grow, and Biden managed to add almost 3 trillion dollars in just one year. As of December 2022, the national debt was $31.42 trillion. As of January 2024, the national debt has risen to $34.19 trillion.

Inflation didn't fare much better. While the 2023 annual inflation rate did drop from the horror of 2022, from 6.5 to 3.4 percent, that is still significantly higher than anything we saw before 2021. You also have to remember that it CARRIES year to year, as Glenn explained in his response to Biden's State of the Union: "Yes, it's not as bad as it was, but it's still what it was PLUS what it is now."

Border

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Biden's mismanagement of the southern border has inflamed the border crisis to all-time highs. In 2022 there were a staggering 2.2 million illegal border crossings, but that wasn't enough for Biden apparently, as an additional 2.5 million illegally crossed in 2023. An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Biden took office, and the effects are being felt. There has been a surge in crime across the country that is impacting millions of Americans, including the tragic murder of Laken Riley.

Fentanyl

The fentanyl crisis has only continued to worsen as more and more synthetic opioids flood our streets. Between the fiscal year 2021 and 2022, there was a shocking 54 percent increase in fentanyl trafficking offenses as more and more of the narcotic is smuggled across the southern border. We also saw an increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. In 2022 there were approximately 73,654 deaths, which is a significant increase from 70,601 in 2021.

Education and mental health

While the pandemic is long over, the lingering effects of the lockdowns are still being felt. Unsurprisingly, missing years of school has a major impact on the educational development of children. Kids across America are STILL struggling from pandemic-related setbacks, reading scores are still falling, and parents are reporting that their kids are struggling in their studies. The mental health crisis, another symptom of the COVID lockdowns, has also continued to worsen. Tragically, suicides increased by 2.6 percent between 2021 and 2022, marking the continued decline of mental health in America.

TOP FIVE takeaways from Super Tuesday

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The 2024 Presidential Election is taking shape.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, the single biggest day in the presidential primary season. More than one-third of all delegates needed for a candidate to become the Presidential nominee of their party was up for grabs along with a plethora of state and local elections. In short, yesterday's results will shape the rest of the election season. It was a big deal.

Here are the top 5 takeaways from yesterday's elections:

Haley drops out

Nikki Haley drops out of the 2024 Presidential election.

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After the mass exodus of Republican candidates in January, most commentators agreed that it was only a matter of time before Haley stepped out as well. Haley put up a valiant effort and held out almost two months longer than the other Republican candidates, but after a disappointing turnout on Super Tuesday, she made the call to step back from the race. There was a small victory for Haley fans, however, in that she won Vermont, her first state primary victory following her win in Washington, D.C.

Trump sweeps the board

Trump wins over 1,000 delegates during Super Tuesday.

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While Haley had a disappointing day yesterday, Trump and his team celebrated a huge win. Aside from Vermont, Trump won every state that had a primary. At the time this was written, Trump had picked up a whopping 731 delegates, bringing his total to 1,004, out of the required 1,215 to win the presidential nomination.

Democrats are not committed to Biden

Biden wins big on Super Tuesday, but he is struggling to maintain his Democrat base.

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On paper, Biden had an excellent Super Tuesday, winning every state primary except American Samoa. However, a closer look reveals cracks in his supporter base. Yesterday, a shocking 19 percent of Minnesota Democrats voted for "uncommitted" instead of Biden. While that wasn't enough to change the outcome of the primary, it shows that Biden is walking on shaky ground, even among Democrats.

This phenomenon wasn't limited to Minnesota either. Eight percent of Colorado and Tennessee Democrats voted "uncommitted," and 10 percent of Massachusetts Democrats and 10 percent of North Carolina Democrats voted "no preference." Is this more evidence of a third-quarter bait-and-switch that Glenn has hypothesized?

The search to replace Feinstein continues

Adam Schiff and Steve Harvey compete for Diane Feinstein's Senate seat.

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California is having two Senate elections to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. There is a special election to fill out the remainder of her term and a regular election to fill her seat for the next six years. The results of the Tuesday primaries put Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Steve Garvey and Democrat Adam Schiff as the front runners, and the two of them will be going head-to-head in November. Surprisingly, even in deep blue California, Garvey won more votes than Schiff in the special primary. Does Garvey have a chance?

Ted Cruz is back up for election in Texas

Ted Cruz is up for re-election in 2024

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The Texas senate primaries were also on Tuesday, and Ted Cruz is back up for election in November. Cruz comfortably won the Republican Primaries with 88 percent of Texas Republicans backing him. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas-area congressman won the Democratic primary with a narrower margin of 58 percent. While it's easy for Texans to take their state's red status for granted, it is vital Texans stay vigilant and cast their vote this November.