You Have No Right to Protest American Laws If You're Here Illegally

A ruckus broke out at the Texas State Capitol building after protestors --- many of whom claimed to be illegal --- filled the rotunda on what is typically a calm and ceremonial last day of the legislative session. The protestors took exception to Senate Bill 4, legislation already signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, which requires local cities and counties to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and uphold federal law.

RELATED: Republican Lawmaker: I Called Immigration Authorities on Capitol Protesters

"If you're on American soil illegally, you're not an American. You have no right to protest American laws. Period. I don't care if what you're protesting is moral, you have no legal right to do so. This is so infuriating to me," Doc Thompson said Tuesday, filling in for Glenn on radio.

State Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) notified ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) of the hundreds of illegal protestors at the Capitol, enraging Hispanic legislators which led to an altercation that included threats and violence.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

DOC: You have no right to protest American laws on American soil if you are not here legally. If you're on American soil illegally, you're not an American. You have no right to protest American laws. Period. I don't care if what you're protesting is moral, you have no legal right to do so. This is so infuriating to me.

BRAD: But they keep getting away with it.

DOC: There was a ruckus at this Texas statehouse over the weekend. It was their final day of their session, and they passed a piece of legislation that would ban sanctuary cities in Texas and then punish any local communities who acted as a sanctuary city. And that is not only a good thing, it's -- it shouldn't even have to get to that. There should be no sanctuary cities. I don't care what you're sanctuarying against, wrong. It's not the law. If you don't agree with the law, then work to change the law. So if you want to say "Well, I don't agree with antimurder laws, you ought to be able to murder people. You don't harbor murderers. You're in violation of the law. What you do is work to make murder legal, if that's what you support.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: So what happened was a bunch of illegals pile in, and they're in the rotunda and protesting. Some of them having signs and shirts saying I am illegal and here to stay. Admitting that they're in the country illegally. Maybe some of them were wearing the shirts and that in solidarity. But I would venture with that many people piled in there, some of them were being honest.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: Hell, we had President Obama bring one into the capitol during one of his state of the union addresses.

BRANDON: Yes.

DOC: This has happened. Admitted illegals being sheltered by people. They're harboring people who are violating the law, and it's not a one-violation their very existence continues to violate the law every second. If I go out and shoot somebody and somebody harbors me, they're harboring me as an illegal being on the run.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: If -- but it was only based on one crime being on the run. They're continuing to violate the law every second that they're here.

BRANDON: Uh-huh.

DOC: Every day saying I'm here, and I know I'm doing wrong. So they have the shirts, they're wearing them, they're protesting. So what should have happened is they should have come in and rounded them all up and taken them away. Show me your papers. Prove that you're here illegally. You're admitting. You're telling law enforcement and everybody else by your shirts and signs you're legally.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: This is like saying to a cop as he walks by, I have pot on me. That's probable cause. I just beat the hell out of some dude in that alley. I just raped a woman. Whatever. That's probable cause. Cops didn't do that. So a Republican representative Matt Renaldi put on Facebook and then said to one of his Democrat colleagues that he called ICE on them.

BRANDON: Okay. Yeah, okay.

DOC: You guys aren't upset about this?

BRAD: Nope.

BRANDON: No.

DOC: Okay. Neither am I. That's what I should have done. In fact, Matt, the sad thing is that nobody else called ice.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: All of your other colleagues should have. Everybody else in the statehouse, they should have done it. Even the Democrats. This should what should happen. They're in violation of the law. Instead, he claims two Democrat colleagues, one of them physically assaulted him and the other verbally assaulted

him.

BRANDON: Really?

DOC: That one of them -- and he didn't go into detail of what the physical assault was that I know. But this is what he claimed happened, which caused a ruckus amongst the legislatures as well. So you have all of the illegals back and forth and the protesters and everything else that actually ends up causing because of this dispute between the two guys or three guys more ruckus on the floor of the house. So they get into it as well.

So then, Matt posts kind of an explanation on Facebook. He said representative Pancho Nev·rez threatened my life on the floor after I called ice on several illegal immigrants who held signs in the gallery. When I told Democrats I called ice, representative Raymond Romero physically assaulted me and other Democrats were held by colleagues.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: During the time Pancho told me he would "Get me" on the way to my car. He later approached me and reiterated that I had to leave at some point, and he would"Get me."

BRANDON: Wow. Okay.

BRAD: Welcome to Texas.

DOC: Right. In addition to the guys who assaulted him that he named, he's saying that other ones -- they had to be held back. What did he do, leftists? What did he do, Democrats? He called police.

BRANDON: He had the law enforced.

BRAD: On the dreamers. That's the problem.

DOC: How is he wrong? Even if you think that the cops strangely should not enforce the law, why was he wrong?

BRAD: Because these people are just here because they have a dream. They want to live the American dream. Why are you such a hater?

DOC: But I get the argument with that. But why did he do wrong by calling the police? If you see something, say something.

BRAD: It's mean to do that.

BRANDON: Yeah, and that's what it boils down to right there. We're dealing with the marginalized community. How dare he act against them. How dare he. It doesn't matter that what they're doing is illegal. It doesn't matter that many of the -- let's be honest, many of these people who come over here are committing crimes. They're not put back all right? They're here to stay. All right? It doesn't matter if that's who they're defending. All right? No, don't get me wrong, I don't want to say this is all who they are. But at the same time, you have to -- these people are causing major problems.

DOC: And the percentage, even if lower of illegals that come, that commit crimes versus regular populous, which there's no way to determine that. First of all, people on the left will be the first ones to tell you these people live in the shadows, and they don't like to report crimes. Well, they're not going to report crimes that happened in their community if it's committed by people like them, illegal, you would never know. But even if you can prove a tenth of the amount of crime committed by the people already here, that crime still would not exist if they were not here.

BRANDON: Enforcing the law.

DOC: And it's still irrelevant. It's a violation of the law.

BRANDON: Exactly.

DOC: So your argument is we don't like the law, so the law should not be enforced.

BRANDON: Uh-huh.

DOC: That's wrong. You should enforce the law. But even if your argument is it's so important what these people are going through to get them help that it trumps the law or whatever, let's talk about that for a moment. The argument constantly is these people just want a better way of life.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: Well, first of all, there's the hypocrisy of many of the people that support them because they lock their doors. They won't let me come in for a better way of life. How many millionaires and billionaires support illegal immigration? They don't let me take into their house. Their house is going to be a hell of a lot better than my life. I want a better life, don't you?

BRANDON: Oh, yeah.

DOC: Hey, Zuckerberg has actually built a wall around his property. It might be the property -- it's either Hawaii or the Hamptons. I can't remember which. He was in a dispute with neighbors because he wanted to build a higher, more complete wall. And he's one of the biggest supporters of illegals.

BRANDON: Steven king, beating this drum. Illegals need to be welcomed. But have you ever seen his property? It's massive. It has a huge wall around it. He doesn't let anybody in.

DOC: Right. So give away your money and tear down your wall and let me flop at your house and give free stuff and redistribute your wealth, or you're hypocrites. But that aside, what is the best way to deal with the people around the world that are poverty stricken? Can we -- would we be able to simply open our borders and say come on in. We have to help all of your people. No. America would no longer exist. It would overwhelm us. It's the drowning man thing. If somebody is drowning, you can't just jump in and drown him? Now, I'm a Christian, I believe in helping people. There's a right way and a wrong way. The right way is not support people violating the law, support us not knowing who people are, open borders we would never be able to protect America and help people in the future. Or condone illegal bad behavior. The way to help people is allow people to legally emigrate here every year, which we do a million people alone. And to help as best we can people to make their country and local communities better.

BRANDON: Which is where we should start.

DOC: Which we do.

BRANDON: I forget who said this. But it used to be easier to emigrate here. People would get off a ship. What's your name? We have to make it easier. We didn't have entitlements back then. And that's the crux of everything here. We cannot have all of these people who are primarily poor come in, get on the government goal because that's just going to skyrocket taxpayer like what we have to pay into entitlements way beyond anything that we can possibly imagine, and our economy would crumble. This is why we can't have open borders. Look, this is just -- I get the sentiment. I do. I feel bad for those people. They're living in hell holes where their lives are ruled by drug lords, you know? They live in these poverty-stricken neighborhoods, they want to come here for a better life. I understand that. And I feel for them. I really do. But if they all come here like they want to, they're going to wind up in the same exact place that they left.

BRAD: And the cynical side of me says it's not about helping them. It's another voting block. It's each -- and Democrats and Republicans, they both do it. You get this big lump of votes.

DOC: George W. Bush even did it.

BRAD: Exactly.

DOC: So you think they're disingenuous in helping people.

BRAD: Yeah, I think in a lot of cases.

DOC: But even those who truly want to help people, you can't tear apart their families, and you're willing to forget that I didn't can a us their problems. I didn't cause the possibility of their families being split up. They did when they came here illegally and brought their families or had kids, knowing that they could be split at some time. That was a choice they made. But even if you're saying we need to care for them and that matters most, then let's take this piece by piece. I have somebody who I am staunchly against illegal immigration and powerfully in favor of legal immigration, as many as we can bring to America without hurting America. If it's 10 million a year, 500 a year, whatever it is. Powerfully in favor of legal immigration, controlled. Let's stop with comprehensive immigration are he form where we throw everything together. There's three main phases. Border security, legal immigration reform, and what to do with the illegals that are here. Fix the border first. All separate bills. The only reason you want comprehensive plans is because you want to tack on the illegals being legalized somehow.

So let's take them apart. We can solve a lot of this right off. Let's fix the border. Great. Done. Let's reform the legal immigration system and what it should be is controlled so we know who people are. But the big problem with legal immigration is the expense. For about $20,000 in total is what it takes to legally emigrate here by the time you navigate the legal system. So you have people who are likely poor coming in paying $20,000 they don't have. I think I just checked recently and to file the form for your citizenship once you meet every other standard is about 1,000 bucks. That's a lot of cash for me, let alone someone coming here poor. So make that cheaper. Make it easier to understand. Not necessarily easier but easier to understand. I'm fine with all of that. Great, we can do that. If you want to fix the visas, fine. Boom, done. So we've just solved most of the issues we have with immigration, as long as we separate them. And then what do you have left? The illegals that are here, and you have two. Two types. Those that are here illegally and those who were brought here illegally. I reluctantly am willing to say the kids didn't violate the law. They didn't bring them here. Who violated the law? Although they're illegal, they didn't do it. Their parents or guardians brought them here. Okay. I'll reluctantly meet you halfway and say we can come up with something -- stop calling them dreamers. Knock that crap off.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: And I'll meet you and say fine. But I can't -- I cannot abide by legalizing pathway to citizenship people who broke the law when so many other people didn't. And if you're saying Doc or whatever, I told you I'm willing to be compassionate. But the people who came here legally who are out $20,000 like my mother-in-law and my wife, are they going to reimburse the $40,000? I could use 40 grand right now, guys, just so you know. Are you going to give that money back to us?

BRANDON: No. And they know how to gain the system. 62 percent of households headed by an illegal immigrant receive some form of welfare.

DOC: Right. They know how to game it because legally the Federal Government is not allowed to give people here legally free stuff. But they find a way to give free system and if you're a child in America, regardless of all else, you are entitled to a free education.

Who will be Kamala Harris' VP pick?

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Over the weekend, President Joe Biden officially dropped out of the 2024 presidential election and put forward his endorsement behind his Vice President Kamala Harris.

Glenn recently predicted that Biden would step down due to the mountain of pressure within his party to do so. But now that we are here we are faced with an all-new line of questions, like, who will be the candidate on the Democratic ticket? Who will be their pick for vice president?

As of now, the answer to the first question seems to be Kamala Harris, who received the support of the president and several prominent democrats. It's still too early to call for certain, and Glenn doesn't think it's likely, but assuming Kamala becomes the Democrat nominee, who will her VP pick be? There are endless possible options, but there are a 5 big names that could prove beneficial to Harris' campaign:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom

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Governor Newsom has spiked in popularity within his party since his taking office in 2019 due to his scathing criticisms of President Trump and other Republicans. Newsom has been a popular contender as a possible Biden replacement, and a future presidential bid seems likely.

His widespread recognition may be a boon to Kamala's ticket, but the California governor comes with a dark side. Newsom was famously nearly recalled as Governor in 2021, hanging on to his office by a narrow margin. He also faced criticism for his hypocrisy during the COVID lockdowns, attending large gatherings while the rest of his state was locked inside. There's also the issue that both Newsom and Kamala are from California, meaning that if they were to appear on the same ticket, that ticket would lack geographical balance and would potentially lead to a Constitutional issue that would force the duo to forfeit all 54 of the states' Electoral College votes.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro

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Another prominent Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro has also been floated as a potential VP pick. Governor Shapiro has become a viable pick due to his well-received performance as Pennslyvania's Governor. The governor has good support within the swing state due to his handling of the I-95 bridge collapse, the train derailment in East Palestine, which had effects on his state, and the assassination attempt on the former president last week. Shapiro would bring much-needed support from the swing state if he was put on the ticket.

That being said, Shapiro has little time to build nationwide name recognition before the DNC in August and the November election. This would be Shapiro's debut on the national stage, and he would find himself in the most unforgiving situation possible.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

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Former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and opponent of Biden during the 2020 Democratic primaries, "Mayor Pete's" name recognition might be what Kamala needs on her presidential ticket. Buttigieg rose to popularity during the 2020 election due to his youth and status as "openly gay." Buttigieg has served as the Secretary of Transportation during the Biden administration for the past four years and has formally endorsed Harris.

Nevertheless, Buttigieg has some dark spots on his resume. The East Palestine train derailment disaster has besmirched his reputation as Secretary of Transportation. And while his youth may work in his favor when compared to the other elderly members of our federal government, it also means Buttigieg lacks the experience and prestige that other politicians enjoy.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

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Yet another governor of a crucial swing state, Whitmer was elected in 2018, two years after President Trump was elected, helping secure the state for the Democrats. Whitmer is known for her strong opposition to Trump, both during his presidency and his reelection campaign. Whitmer serves as co-chair for the Biden-Harris campaign and as vice chairperson of the DNC, which gives her influence over the Democratic party, something that would come in handy as a Vice President. Gov. Whitmer also established the Fight Like Hell PAC, which is dedicated to helping Democrats get elected and to stopping Trump by any means.

On the other hand, in a statement following Biden's resignation from the election, Governor Whitmer stated that her role “will remain the same.” It is also worth noting that if she were to be chosen as Kamala's VP, that would make their ticket all-female, which may foster some "woke points," but is politically risky.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear

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Andy Bashear has seemingly beaten the odds twice, having been elected and reelected as the Governor of Kentucky, despite the deep-red nature of the state. Beshear, who has moderate tendencies, would be a boon to the Harris campaign as he has a track record of reaching rural, typically conservative regions where Democrats tend to struggle. He is also known for his propensity to talk about his Christian faith and willingness to work with Republicans, which are traits that might help win over moderates.

But, like Gov. Shapiro, Bashear has very little time to whip up national support and recognition. He also is unlikely to be very much help for the Harris campaign in winning over important swing states.

Five times Glenn had J.D. Vance on his show and where he stands on key issues

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We finally have an answer to the long-awaited question of who Trump will pick for his running mate, and it's none other than Ohio Senator and friend of the show, J.D. Vance. At the RNC in Milwaukee, Trump officially accepted the party's nomination as the Republican candidate and announced J.D. Vance as his running mate.

Glenn has had Senator Vance on the show several times to discuss everything from DEI to the Southern Border. If you are looking to familiarize yourself with the next potential Vice President, look no further, here are five conversations Glenn had with Trump's VP pick:

Why Biden Won't Stop "Racist" Government DEI Programs, But Trump Would

How Trump’s Trials Could HELP Him in the 2024 Election

Could THIS new Senate bill DOOM a Trump presidency?

MIDTERM UPDATE: What Republicans must do to WIN BACK the Senate

'Greatest risk of a terrorist attack in 20 years': Senator SLAMS 'atrocious' Biden move


How RFK's example can help our nation in the wake of Trump's attack

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How did you feel last Saturday when you heard the news that a former president of the United States narrowly avoided an assassin's bullet by a mere few inches? Were you angry at the media for their constant demonization of Trump and his conservative contingency? Did you blame the left for curating a political climate that fostered an assassination attempt?

In his immediate reaction to the news, Glenn pointed us back to a similar moment in American history: April 4th, 1968—the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

"The best speech I've ever heard given was by RFK Sr. on the day Martin Luther King was killed" - Glenn

Robert F. Kennedy, the father of current independent presidential candidate RFK Jr., was en route to Indianapolis when he heard the terrible news. His security team, expecting violent outrage across the country, asked RFK Sr. to turn around and head back to safety. But as Glenn said, RFK Sr. believed in the good in people and demanded to give his speech. He arrived in Indianapolis Park late in the day, and he addressed the crowd of predominantly black campaign supporters.

There were no riots in Indianapolis that night.

The message RFK Sr. gave that night wasn't one of vengeance, hatred, or hopelessness, but of calm and goodness. He appealed to the best in people. He called for people to set aside their differences, anger, fear, and confusion and instead express love and compassion towards one another. RFK Sr. asked for wisdom and the pursuit of justice so that we might be resolute in our unity as the country faces another difficult chapter.

What we need in this country is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another.

Glenn has made a similar plea to our nation—a plea for unity and not to lash out in fear and anger. Don't use this time to blame your friends and family who disagree with you politically for what happened or to tell them "I told you so!" Instead, reach out with compassion and grace. This is a turning point in American history. Let's turn it upward, away from hatred and violence and towards unison and compassion.

Fortunately, President Trump walked away from his attempted assassination with very minor injuries. The bullet that wounded Trump's ear could have just as easily ended his life, and his survival is nothing short of a miracle.

Sadly, that miracle didn't extend to everyone attending Trump's ill-fated Pennsylvania rally. Three other people were shot. David Dutch and James Copenhaver, both Pennslyavia residents, are thankfully in stable condition. Corey Comperatore, however, tragically died after being shot while protecting his wife and daughter from the hail of gunfire.

“Corey died a hero."

Camperatore, a 50-year-old loving father and husband from Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania leaves behind his daughter Allyson, his wife Helen, sister Dawn, and many other friends and family. Camperatore was a man of service, having spent 43 years as part of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company and had worked his way to becoming the fire chief when he stepped down to spend more time with his daughter.

Corey Comperatore's firefighting gear outside the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company. The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

Corey's friends and family have nothing but good things to say about him, and judging by their testimonies, Corey's final heroic act was consistent with how the volunteer firefighter lived his life.

According to many people who knew Compertore, he was a true patriot who loved his country. He was a fan of President Trump. Compertore was very excited to attend Saturday's rally, which he expressed in his last social media post.

Corey_Comper/X

During his speech addressing the shooting, President Biden expressed his condolences to the Comperatore family, stating that "He was a father. He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired.”