Walker Wildmon: American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, preborn
>> Walker Wildmon: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, preborn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the key word baby or visit preborn.com af. We inform Religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.
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>> Rick Green: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At the Core on American Family Radio.
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio. I'm Walker Wildmon. Glad to have you with us on this edition of the show. We're, broadcasting live here on American Family Radio, and the show is hosted each week by Rick Green and myself. We're your host each week on the program. Glad to have you with us. As a brief reminder, for those who, listen to American Family Radio and enjoy the content, you can fetch all of the shows in the form of a podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we're, uploading the program each day in the form of a podcast on all the major podcast platforms, whether it be Apple, Androids, Google, Google, Play Store, or the Spotify. There's just a lot of different podcast platforms out there. But, we're pushing out the program on all of those platforms each and every afternoon. So just go and type in the show name and you can click the subscribe button or the follow button, and the latest episode of At the Core will be ready to go in your podcast library.
Peter and John were arrested as they performed miracles in Acts chapter four
Well, turning our attention to the scripture, we're in Acts, chapter four this week. Acts, chapter four. Looking at the first few verses here, where Peter and Jon were arrested as they were performing. Just finished performing miracles. Healing the lame, it says in verse three. And they laid hands on them. Talking about the religious leaders, the Sadducees, the priests. They laid hands on, Peter and Jon here and put them in custody. Verse 3 says, until the next day, for it was already evening. And it says in verse four, right after that, however, many of those who heard the word believed. And the number of men came to be about 5,000. And so here we have the persecution that comes upon, the early church. And then you also have, the fact that the message, the word of God obviously did not return void because it says the number of man that believed in the teachings of Jesus delivered through, the disciples here came to be about 5,000. And so, two points can be made here amongst many, but for the sake of time. The first point is that persecution, will come in various forms, some severe, some not as severe, but persecution can be expected for the believer, for the proclaimer of the teachings of Jesus and the entirety of scripture. And then secondly, the work of God will not be hindered by, the force of man or even, the force of Satan. God's word will not return void per the scripture. That's Acts chapter four, verses three and four.
President Trump lands in China on major economic trip amid ongoing Iran conflict
Well, I want to give you a little recap on what is going on with President, Trump this week as he just, landed within the last, let's see, 12 hours in China and he's on the ground there, one of his major m, if not the major diplomatic trips this term over the last two years. This is a very, very important trip considering the interlocked economies that China and the US Share and enjoy. And so President Trump is over there. Meanwhile, you still have the Iran conflict ongoing. We have the blockade still in, but at the same time you still have the Strait of Hormuz closed per Iran. So there's a lot going on. But this is a very pivotal trip. President Trump took with him multiple fortune, 100 CEOs of multi billion dollar companies, including Tim Cook with Apple. The outgoing, CEO of Apple, Elon Musk, was on Air Force One. The Nvidia CEO, Nvidia chip CEO was on Air Force One as well. So this is a major, mostly economic trip and there's a lot that can be said about this.
Fox Report: President Trump has message for Chinese President Xi Jinping on Iran trip
But before we do, I want to play, Clip three. This is a Fox Report. Trey Yings about the China trip, what's at stake there, and the fact that we had this lingering Iran conflict that President Trump and Xi are going to have to talk about at some point during this trip. Clip 3.
>> Fox Reporter: President Trump had a message for Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of his departure to Beijing. The Chinese are the world's largest importer of Iranian crude oil. What is your message to President Xi as it relates to the Iran war?
>> Donald Trump: Well, I think, number one, we're going to have a long talk about it. I think he's been relatively good, to be honest with you. You look at the blockade, no problem. They get a lot of their oil from that area. We've had no problem. And he's been a friend of mine. He's been somebod that we get along with. And, I think you're going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip. A lot of good things are going to happen.
President Trump claims Iran has no navy and is an economic disaster
The Middle east remains on edge after the latest efforts for a diplomatic solution with Iran did not pan out. In a post on True Social Overnight, President Trump said in part, Iran had 159 ships in their navy. Every single ship is now resting at the bottom of the sea. They have no navy, their air force is gone, all technology is gone, their leaders are no longer with us, and the country is an economic disaster. Only losers, ingrates and fools are able to make a case against America. With an ongoing US Military buildup across the region. Reports indicate that Saudi Arabia conducted airstrikes against Iran during the war. Fox also reported on Tuesday, the UAE took part at the end of Operation Epic Fury. The Iranians have continued their threatening language, worried that a bombing campaign will resume.
>> Iranian Speaker: I can assure you that our armed forces are prepared for every scenario. I'm sure that anyone who dares to put their foot in Iran's territory, they would be badly regretted. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a security assessment so his forces are prepared if the war resumes.
It may bear out that China is central to getting this Iran deal finished
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's a Fox report from Trey Yingst on, the China trip by President Trump, along with, the Iran situation. And Bobby, let me know during that clip that there's about 17 CEOs of major technology, manufacturing and financial institutions all there on the trip with President Trump. They're now on the ground in China. It may bear out to be that China is central to getting this Iran deal finished. Now, once again, what the, quote, deal looks like, who knows at this point. But whatever the conclusion of this, what President Trump calls excursion, China could prove central to getting it over the finish line because China and Iran are economic partners. Whether we like it or not, they are economic and military partners. If you don't believe me, look at the amount of oil that China gets from Iran. Look at the amount of weapons and anti defense, anti air defense, anti aircraft systems that have been shipped from China to Iran now, albeit they don't work because we dominated their airspace within a matter of days. but nonetheless, the military and economic partnership with Iran and China is undeniable. You also have the Russia factor as well. But President, Trump wants to get the Iran thing behind us. But he doesn't want to do it at the sacrifice of the overarching strategy of them not having nuclear weapons. So we'll see where this goes. But it could be that China is pivotal, to wrapping this up and on the Iran front.
The overarching purpose of President Trump's China trip needs to be twofold
Well, let me finish on China before we talk Iran. The rest of this segment. China owes us. All right. China's been ripping us off for a long time on multiple fronts. We can talk intellectual property, we can talk product dumping. we could go a couple of different ways. A, lot of the. We just had a mayor of a city in California arrested on spying on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. So China has been undercutting the US For a long time. This isn't breaking news, it's not top secret, it's not controversial. China has been undercutting the US economically and otherwise for a long time. Back during, this is exhibit A here. Back during the first term of President Trump, President Trump cut an economic trade deal with China that was on paper a good deal for everyone. One of the key factors or, one of the key tenets that China agreed to in the, in the deal was to buy a certain amount of American soybeans. China can't feed itself. China has to have American agriculture to feed its population. That's a fact. That's why China wants to buy American farmland, so they can feed their population. So President Trump cut the deal. China was supposed to buy X amount billions of dollars worth of soybeans from American farmers and that was priced into the markets. American farmers were looking forward to it. And guess what happened? Well, not only did you have Covid happen, but China completely reneged on the deal. And so when Biden comes in, nobody enforces the deal. And so we, we, we held our end of the, of the, of the deal. China didn't. So they owe us. China owes us. She owes us. And President Trump has to get something out of this trip. Because if, you're the American worker, if you're the American taxpayer and we're flying over your billion and trillionaires, and Elon Musk is getting close to being a trillionaire, I think he may be the first. But nonetheless, if you're flying over your multi billionaires and Your high level CEOs of all these major corporations, which is fine, whatever, I don't like the perception of it, but nonetheless, the American people and the American taxpayer and the American worker, we better get something out of it. There's going to have to be Something populist, nationalistic, economic benefit out of this trip to China. That's what the American people want. And I think voters going to the ballot box in November, that's what they want as well. So I don't know what's going to come out of this China trip, but it just needs to be focused, laser focused on, not just making sure that Apple gets to cut a deal, not just making sure that, Q, I, E, gets, to cut a deal. that's the Chinese company I'm thinking about. Nvidia. Not just making sure Nvidia gets to cut a deal or fill in the blank or Elon Musk gets his, his, his lithium batteries from China or whatever the case. The overarching purpose of this trip and outcome needs to be twofold, in my opinion. It needs to be the end of the Iran conflict with working with China on a deal. And then secondly, it needs to be some sort of economic package, some sort of trade package that helps bolster the American middle class, bolster the manufacturing base in America, and help farmers in America finish the deal. That's what I would say. If I'm at the table with Xi, let's finish the soybean purchase because you said you were going to buy American soybeans to the tune of billions of dollars. You didn't follow through on it. So now's the time over the next six months to follow through on it. So something like that's going to have to happen. And I think that would be very positive for the President. I think it'll be very positive for the Republican Party. And it would give them not only a leaf or a feather in their hat, but would also give them something to talk about and to talk up with American voters.
Even President Trump admits this Iran negotiation is overly difficult
As we head into, to the midterm, the last, I don't have time for this clip, but I'll summarize it and maybe we'll have time later on. But this Iran negotiation, has proven very difficult, very difficult, if you can't tell. We're over 60 days into this conflict and even President Trump admitted, and we'll play the clip later, that this negotiating with Iran is overly difficult. I mean, they are the most complicated, difficult party to work with. He said in his experiences, you know, nearly 80 years or 80 years of being a, a businessman, being in business, for the last, you know, since he was a young adult, 60 plus years. He said, this is basically, this is the most challenging party I've ever dealt with. He said most deals we can, you know, yeah, we might disagree, but at the end we'll figure it out. He said we go back and forth on these, on these, tenants of this deal. And he just said we're not even close. I mean we're so far apart and they're so unreasonable. This, this goes back to prove my point and that Iran doesn't want a deal. In order to get any deal, both parties have to want a deal. Iran doesn't want a deal. We'll be back.
The Ministry of Preborn helps rescue babies from abortion through ultrasound
In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election. And there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the Ministry of PreBorn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country. By providing them with resources that they need to, to rescue babies, PreBorn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life saving machines cost $15,000 each, more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a match, your gift is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate. Just dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating
>> Jeff Chamblee: At the Core Podcasts are [email protected] now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio welcomes Louisiana State Representative Mark Wright on today's program
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with you on this edition of the program. You can watch the program wherever, you follow us on social media on all the American Family Radio handles. You can watch the live stream and [email protected], you can create a free account [email protected] to watch the live programs and past episodes as well if you prefer video. Well, introducing our next guest, Louisiana State Representative Mark Wright. He's on with us. He represents District 77. He's also running for public service commissioner there in the state, of Louisiana. Representative Wright. Glad, to have you on today's program.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Looking forward to the discussion.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, before we jump into policy talk and why you're running for public service commissioner and some of the items that would be within your purview there, tell us a little bit about your time as state representative and some of the things you've accomplished over the years.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Yeah, sure. Thanks. so, my wife and I and our five children live in Covington for about 20, 20 plus years. And sometime, almost 10 years ago there was a state rep who resigned to do run for something else. And based on some of the work I had done in the community, it just made sense to run that special election. So have represented the community since then. I come from a maritime, background, so naturally sort of focused on some of that given the M. Mississippi river, things like that. so, you know, served on the Transportation Committee and eventually chaired the committee for a few years last term. And my focus was a lot on trying to strengthen our port strategy and how we invest in those. In fact we have a committee meeting tomorrow about it. It's a commission that essentially focuses on strategy for investment. And we have 36 ports in Louisiana, so you can imagine there's a lot of there to stretch or deal with. and I also did the bill to create a state maritime academy in Louisiana. One of one of seven. it's just starting, but I was proud to be a part of that. It certainly didn't do everything on it. but.
>> Walker Wildmon: Representative Wright, we lost your, lost your connection.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: You there?
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, we got you now. Sorry we dropped you for just a minute, but we got you back.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Okay. Yeah. So you know, that is a great opportunity for our young people to find a career, especially in Louisiana, but certainly across the United States. And then just moving forward, I last two years I was chair of our Republican delegation in the House, kind of like the majority leader in the House. And that was when Governor Landry came in. And we've taken a lot of strong steps since he came in, really have passed some legislation and taken other, other policies that have sent us in the right, right direction, especially when it comes to jobs and investment. We see some projects coming in the next five years that are unbelievable. They're generational type projects, investments, and we're certainly proud to be able to put that together and get our workforce ready and give people an opportunity.
Representative Wright is running for Louisiana Public Service Commissioner
>> Walker Wildmon: Representative Wright, let me ask you about a topic under, under the purview of public Service commissioner, that's the seat you're running for, the position you're running for in Louisiana right now. energy, the topic of energy, specifically power, powering homes, powering businesses, that's one of the items that you would have some say over and some regulation over, if you will, in the state of Louisiana. the question I have is what can be done, to lower the cost of energy, specifically power for homes and businesses. I know some of this falls on the private sector, but, at the same time, these are public utilities. So what are some things that can be done to make energy more affordable in your instance in Louisiana? Right.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: well, look, first off, Louisiana is blessed to have a lot of natural gas, options opportunities. So we have been ranked as high as number two in the country, for lower rates. So we do have a good environment for it. But certainly there's times when it hasn't, you know, people haven't seen that in their bills. in Louisiana, with our Public Service Commission, we approve the rates, and those companies that provide them, you know, basically plan out the year ahead. there's long range planning to go with it. So you have two aspects of it. You have it where the companies, the utility companies provide it, but they also generate it. And so generation is, in my opinion, where you want to provide. Your focus on saving residents money. Having reliable power is certainly important with a state like Louisiana with hurricanes, and other storms. so natural gas has been our focus. But having said that, nuclear is proving to be a great option for us to dig into. And our governor has started to help our economic development, department work through that. President Trump, issued a few executive orders that essentially takes the nuclear supply chain and makes it a lot easier, easier for those things to develop. And when I say these things to develop, you know, nuclear was a great source for many years, but about 30, 40 years ago, we stopped developing things. And unfortunately, you know, I'm a skeptic, so to speak, of climate change. But when they, when you see the people who are concerned about that talking about solar and wind as better options, one, one thing that was left off is nuclear. And you know, if we have aircraft carriers and submarines that, you know, can live off a nuclear reactor, in times of war, then certainly the innovations there, you know, to develop that for our residents. And I think you're going to see that in the next, you know, 10 to 20 years. It's just very expensive to develop and test. But that's where we want to focus because it's a good balance, for, for baseline power.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Natural gas is a great baseline power. But as we see, the global market, sometimes the price spikes up for periods of time. And so if you have that baseline nuclear option, it really does, you know, kind of, that's a good two step to keep things moving and provide reliability for the, for our residents.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, the small modular nuclear reactors that are currently being developed. And I know that Secretary Wright and the Department of Energy is expediting some of these, these processes and permits, etc. you're talking about, once deployed, you're talking about very affordable energy, because of just the longevity of it and the amount of homes and businesses that can be powered for a long, long time for one of these, these stations, if you will, or substations. how much, once again you're running for public service commissioner, so you would, this would be one of many things that you ever see, but how much control or authority would a state level official such as public service commissioner have over the permitting, the approval and the processing of something like a small modular nuclear reactor, whether it be at a data center at a local municipality, et cetera? Is this something you would have a pretty large say over or is this something that you, goes into the federal realm, that you're just reliant on them for permitting and approval? How much control would you have?
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Yeah, no, that's a great question. So there's still a significant number of steps that we would take at the state level. but when you get into nuclear, clearly the feds have more of a focus on how some things are done and what's available. But as a, as a commission we have an ability to sort of dictate and encourage and vote, or allow certain steps to move forward, encouraging certain companies to develop it. so that, you know, they've, they've said, and I don't know other states well, but I mean apparently our commission is one of the stronger ones in the country. We are one of 10 states, I believe, that elect our our commissioners for public utilities. And certainly when you hear other companies from around the country talk about Louisiana, we can set a tone that really does, you know, help our, benefit our residents. One of the things I'll point out, I know we're going to get to this, but the data centers, so, the one that Louisiana developed, the first one, the META project, which is right across the river from Mississippi, my understanding is they see that as the gold standard. How we sort of Led them to what we'd like to see. And it basically led to President Trump in his State of the Union address. Talk about the direction he wanted to see these, these companies go in when they're developing data centers. So you could say that we played a role in that. now did we? Did he. He probably would have done it on his own. But my point is that we took some steps that provided an example and now it really is about us as a commission or, you know, should I win, to, to hold the companies to it? Because there's certainly an opportunity or, you know, there's a situation where some of these companies would cause, problems, you know, for the grid, for a residence, whatever the case may be.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: But as long as we hold them to it, you know, there won't be as many problems because of the model that's been set up. And you know, we'll see where it all goes. There's a lot of dentist data centers being developed around the country. it's going to be interesting to see what, what comes in 10 to 15 years because, you know, I think, you know, I mean, innovation comes quickly and in unexpected ways. So I'm kind of curious how many of these are going to exist in the long run.
I am skeptical of this mass deployment of data centers near residential areas
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. We got about two minutes left. M. My, my thoughts on this and I'll let you have this final word on the data centers. I'm not a, I'm not anti data center. I am skeptical of this mass deployment of data centers, especially near residential areas. I think it can be a major problem. I think there's some zoning issues that need to be looked at, because people ought not have in their backyard be listening to these massive fans and massive generators 24 7. It's just utterly obnoxious. That's why we have zoning to begin with. I think there needs to be heavy scrutiny on where the data centers are being placed and to your point, the energy that they're going to be consuming and how much they're expecting the local energy provider to pay up, if you will, to get the infrastructure in place. I think these multibillion dollar companies that are doing quite fine economically, they need to be willing to invest what needs to be invested so that the local taxpayer doesn't foot the bill or have one of these, for example, in their backyard. Last, word. We got about two minutes left.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Listen, you're absolutely right. We want to encourage business development, economic innovation. I, like the model we came up with, which essentially is forcing. They're more in rural areas in Louisiana, but they're going to foot the bill for the generation. And we've got guards in to keep it from, drawing on the grid to take away from residents. So I like where we're going, but we got to keep them to that. And, you know, that's half the battle, right?
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.
Mark Wright from Louisiana is running for public service commissioner
Well, we've been talking to Representative, Mark Wright from Louisiana. He's currently running for public service commissioner. real quick, tell us when your primary, is, when the election date is there in the state of Louisiana.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Sure. So Republican, primary is this Saturday. We've had early voting up to this point, which usually is about half the votes. And then a runoff would be at the end of June, and then the final general would be in the fall. So, if you're in Louisiana and you're a Republican, you vote by Saturday if you haven't already.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. All right, well, thanks, Representative Wright. best of luck in the, Saturday election and hope and maybe runoff. We'll see how that goes. But we appreciate you coming on.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Thank you. I appreciate it. Take care. God bless.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.
Mark Wright: Modular nuclear power could drive down the cost of energy
That's Louisiana State Representative Mark Wright. He, represents District 77 there in the state and he's also currently running for public service commissioner. That election is this Saturday, May 16th. And an eventual runoff possibly in June if that's necessary, and then general election in November. So we appreciate him coming on and highlighting some of the work that he has done and the work that he's doing in the future. This, these, this nuclear power, this small modular nuclear power that's being developed and currently being tested by the Department of Energy at the federal level is critical. This has to, I cannot emphasize enough how quickly this needs to move. It's a shame that we're just now getting here, that it took us a 30 to 40 year break on nuclear innovation to get to this point where we're back into it, so to speak. But once, this gets deployed, if done properly and if the feds and everybody just get out of the way, you're talking about very, very affordable energy. You're talking about a drop in energy cost for the American household and American businesses. So this is just has a potential. I can't state enough with the proper words, how much of a game changer this modular nuclear energy could be if done properly and if deployed at scale, you can run entire cities off of these modular nuclear reactors. And it just, it will absolutely drive down the, cost of energy. And for those who may be in the traditional energy sector, whether it be coal, natural gas, etc. Look, there's plenty of needs for that. There's plenty of needs out there for those traditional, energy sources such as natural gas, etc. So there should be no concern, not to mention we've got the rest of the world, still running on coal, still running on oil, still running on natural gas. So, and we can export that, which we're doing that now. We're, we're backfilling what's being missing out of the Strait of Hormuz, which is roughly 50%, production and, and shipping down there in the Strait, from Saudi Arabia, uae, Qatar, etcetera, Kuwait. So we're backfilling that now, and we can continue back filling that. We can fuel Europe. During the start of the Ukraine war, we were sending LNG tankers over to, to Europe to, to heat Europe during the winter. So, and that was coming from the Texas ports, from the Louisiana ports, etc, so there's, there's, there's room for, for all of the energy sector, there's room for all of the traditional energy and nuclear, all of it can be at the table and be happy. There's plenty of needs for the world, to be energized, to be fueled and it's a win, win, win. And at the end of the day the American consumer could have their energy costs go down drastically and we can begin exporting, some of these traditional energy sources. We'll be back in just a couple minutes.
>> Jeff Chamblee: Tune in Saturdays at 1:30 Central for the Compass with host Rick Beggs and iVoter Guide president Debbie Wuthnow. Each weekend the Compass will seek to navigate the public square with faith, truth and conviction. Rick and Debbie will keep tabs on upcoming elections and remind us of the importance of our participation in them. The Compass reminds us that God is our true north. Be listening for the Compass Saturday afternoons at 1:30 Central on American Family Radio. This is At the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
American Family Radio welcomes Ira Melman to discuss President Trump's immigration policies
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to today's program here on American Family Radio. You can always listen to afr, by downloading the American Family Radio app on your smartphone, on your tablet device. We even have the app on Roku and Apple tv. So pretty much all the major app stores, you can download the American Family Radio app and listen live and to past episodes there on the AFR app. Well, I want to move on to our next guest for this segment. Ira Mehlman is The, media director over at FAIR Federal. Immigration. Well, here I am without the. The acronym spelled out. But, Ira, you tell us. Federation for American Immigration Reform.
>> Ira Mehlman: There you go. You got it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I know. I knew I had it somewhere. I just had to dig for it. Ira is with us, obviously, to talk about President Trump's immigration policy, what the Democrats have been doing to try to stall that policy, and the implementation of what President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are doing. Ira, welcome to the program.
>> Ira Mehlman: Good to be with you. Thank you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Ira, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and give folks who aren't familiar with fair, some of the background on the work that you guys do there.
>> LA Rep Mark Wright: Yeah.
>> Ira Mehlman: You know, FAIR tries to represent the interest of the American public in immigration policy. You know, we forget sometimes it's a public policy. It is supposed to serve public interests and the good of the American public. That kind of gets lost in all the special interests that have been kind of chipping away at enforcement of our immigration policies and trying to use it to their advantage. but the policy exists to protect the interests of the American people. and we are the primary constituency, and FAIR tries to represent those interests. you know, I actually first got into this issue years ago when I worked for the governor of Colorado, a liberal Democrat who recognized the impact that it was having on the state of Colorado, on how the money was being spent, on, social services that were being provided. So, you know, this used to be a bipartisan issue, but it's become very polarized in recent years.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And to your point, once again, we're talking to Ira Mehlman with fair Federation for American Immigration Reform. To your point, about the. The traditional bipartisan nature of immigration policy and the positions they're in. I've played clips of Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, even President Obama, stating things that are current Republican Party positions on immigration. Only 12, 15, 20 years ago. Now they've completely flipped. It's almost unrecognizable where the Democrat Party is on this issue.
Democrats used funding for Homeland Security as leverage to try to stop enforcement
One thing we wanted to definitely talk to you about, and then we'll see where this goes. there's a lot of things we could talk about on immigration, but the first thing is this recent showdown that has thankfully ended with the Department of Homeland Security. The American people. I know it's hard to keep up with all the ins and outs of how D.C. works and how these agencies are funded. but nonetheless, correct me if I'm wrong, The Democrats were able to partially keep Department of Homeland Security unfunded, at least for those two months. Tell us how all that went down and what the real fight was about.
>> Ira Mehlman: Yeah, I mean, first thing to quote Yogi Berra, it ain't over till it's over. And until that reconciliation bill is passed, and signed by the president, it's not over. But we are on the right track now. the Democrats used the funding for the Department of Homeland Security as leverage, to try to get this administration to stop enforcing our immigration laws. Essentially, what they wanted to do was go back to the policies of the Biden administration, the policies that brought us 10 million people crossing the border illegally over the course of four years. the policies that let people into this country, released them here without knowing who they were and, the damage that they might cause once they were here. and look, as you pointed out, used to be a bipartisan issue. It's not anymore. The Democratic Party has become the party of open borders, probably for a variety of reasons. Ideological, political, but whatever it is, you know, I think most Americans would say it's not serving the interests of the American people. And their demands were essentially that ICE could not execute an arrest without getting a judicial warrant. You know, we have upwards of 18 million people in this country illegally. If you have to go through that process for each and every one of them, it's never going to end. We're going to be doing this forever and ever. they also wanted to limit where ICE could actually carry out its enforcement actions. They set aside so many areas that were off limits, that it became virtually. It would have become virtually impossible for ICE to do its job. So these were the key sticking points. the President and the Republicans in Congress refused to give in. now we are on the process of passing, funding for ICE and, the Border Patrol separately as part of the reconciliation bill. The, President has said he wants it on his desk by June 1st. this would fund ICE and Border Patrol through the remainder of this administration so we wouldn't have to go through this again. we're, you know, we've cleared the first major hurdle, which was the budget resolution. now they're hammering out the final details. we expect that it'll get done, but as I said, you know, until it's actually done, until the president's signature is on it, we have to wait and see.
There are various estimates on the number of illegal immigrants in the United States
>> Walker Wildmon: let me ask you this. On immigration policy in general, the numbers that, I've read all kinds of numbers on the number of illegal immigrants currently in the country. that number has been floated, north of 10 million, some say 20. President Trump and his team have said 30, all over the map. The latest, when I say latest in air quotes, the latest report that is repeatedly, reported on by the media goes back over a decade ago. We're talking President Obama's days when they're quoting this official report on the number of illegal immigrants in the country. So it's very much outdated data that the media often reports. But what are we looking at here? I heard you say 18 million. I'm not sure if that was the total number or the number that came in under Biden. But what does your organization show or what are your estimates on the number of illegal immigrants currently in the country?
>> Ira Mehlman: Well, you know, the number that I quoted was from a report that fair did. looking at Census Bureau data, variety of other data, we estimated that once that could be confirmed was about 18.6 million at the start of the Trump administration. the numbers may have actually gone down because, number one, the border is now secure, so we're not getting a lot of people coming across illegally. number two, in spite of the obstruction, ICE has been out there doing its job. you know, the administration claims that during the first year in office, 675,000 illegal aliens were formerly deployed, deported, but another 1.5 million left on their own. And that really is the key. It's gotta be a combination of enforcement coupled, with sending clear messages to people who are in the country illegally that, you know, it is time to go home. And really, this is the way we enforce most civil laws in this country. you know, when the highway patrol wants to enforce the speed limit, they don't pull over. Every person who's going above the speed limit, they pull over a few, they put some squad cars out on the side of the highway. The rest of us get the message and we take our foot off the gas. The IRS audits, enough tax returns that the rest of us file honest returns. So this is the way, you know, the damage, not just under the Biden administration, but it goes back years and years under Democratic and Republican administrations. this is the way you undo the damage. you do enough enforcement that people get the message and decide, you know what, it's not worth sticking around. So, you know, it may have gone down, but there's still a lot more work to do.
One idea that I do favor is a moratorium on illegal immigration
>> Walker Wildmon: let me ask you on, ah, about your thoughts and your organization's thoughts, on A moratorium idea. Once again, we're talking to Ira Mehlman he's media director over at fair, and we're talking immigration policy. One idea that I've thought about, and it's not original to me, this has been floated by policy folks for a long time. But, but one idea that I do tend to favor is a moratorium, obviously on illegal immigration. That's a no brainer. But even a moratorium on legal immigration for maybe, let's say two to four years because there's been so much damage, both legal and illegal, to the American economy through the immigration system, that honestly, in my opinion, we need to take some sort of a break, if you will, from this flooding, even through legal means. This flooding of, in the legal case, over a million a year we're allowing into the country through legal means, whether it be refugee programs or work programs, etc. does that idea have any traction, like in the administration or in Congress? Or is that like a far fetched idea, a moratorium, on legal immigration?
>> Ira Mehlman: It's not far fetched and I think it's less far fetched thanks to the Biden administration. You know, the American public had a taste of what it's like to have just mass immigration that never ends. and as you point out, we've had historically high levels, including illegal, including legal immigration, for many, many years. and the system does need to be overhauled. You know, going back to the idea of the policy benefiting the interests of the American people. we have had a legal immigration system since the 1960s that favors people based on who they're related to, not based on what they're likely to contribute once they are here. So what we need to do is to shut down the current, system. Congress needs to legislate, new immigration, laws, that are appropriate for the 21st century, not the mid 20th century. look at people's skills, look at their likelihood to assimilate into the cultural mainstream of the United States. we have backlogs in the legal immigration system that go, you know, some categories extend 20 years or more. So, you know, you could apply to come to the United States today based on some valid, claim to come here under the current law. But, you won't be admitted for another 20 years. So the whole system makes no sense. It doesn't serve the interests of the country. We don't get to select people based on any objective assessment of their likelihood to succeed and fit in here in the United States. And at the same Time we are making promises to people that we can't really keep. you know, if you're 30 years old and we tell you, you know, you can come to the United States in 2050, it doesn't do you much good. so we need to just have a rational system, that sets reasonable limits and reasonable criteria that serve the interests of the country. So that a moratorium would help in that respect.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes, absolutely. We've, been talking with Ira Mehlman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform form, otherwise known as Fair. Ira, tell our folks, your website where they can check out more about your work and of course, read some of your, opinions, and writings that you put out.
>> Ira Mehlman: The best places, as you point out the website fairus.org us.org that's F A I R us.org fairus.org there's tons of information, there's tons, all sorts of ways that people can get involved, and, you know, please, please come and visit the website.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. All right, Ira, thanks so much for coming on the program. We appreciate you joining us.
>> Ira Mehlman: Pleasure. Thank you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes, absolutely. That's Ira Mehlman with the, Fair Organization, a, major public policy firm organization focused primarily on America's immigration policy. Very reputable organization that they've been running. I've tracked some of their studies and the research and their policy proposals that they work with in Congress. So very, very good organization on that front.
America is experiencing a demographic crisis because we're not having enough children
Just, to wrap up this topic before we end the show, one of the problems that we have with, with a moratorium that make this, this idea more challenging and more unrealistic at this juncture is America is, is currently in the midst, if you don't already know. I've talked about this on countless occasions. But America is currently experiencing a demographic crisis. All right? We're experiencing a demographic crisis because we're not having enough children. That's putting it bluntly and just as broadly as I possibly can. And when you do that as a society, as a culture, as an economy, the only way to survive is to import, is to import individuals into the country to backfill this mass demographic loss that we're having through extremely low birth rate. Lowest birth rate in the last 100 years is impossibly the lowest, actually the lowest birth rate ever. But as far as it being tracked, we are, have been experiencing a birth rate decline since the 1950s and the 1960s. We've been under 2% since the 60s. And I tell people this almost every other week, and they look at me and Go, there's no way that's true. They go, there's no way that's true that America has been below 2% birth rate since the 1960s. And I tell them, go look it up. Go look it up. Since, the 1960s, we've been below 2%. It might have been the early 70s when this, when this kind of tipped below 2%. But, folks, this is just common sense. And this goes back to God's plan for humans to be fruitful and multiply, for man and woman to be fruitful and multiply. but as a nation, as a country, in order to thrive, in order to have human flourishing, in order to not just survive, but to thrive and exist and continue as a civilization, we have to replace ourselves with people that are our offspring, our blood, so that they can be trained and raised in our values and our culture and learn what it means to be American. And when you don't do that, and instead you import people from all around the world, most of which don't even share our values, don't even know anything about America, how America was founded, what our ancestors went through, and have any type of blood or cultural identity. When you lose that, well, the country just turns into a different country and you're not able to keep that national identity. that brings about unity and continuation of culture and ideals. so this is, this is not controversial stuff. Every civilization has to go through this. Every civilization experiences these type issues. and America is going through it right now. And this is going to have to be addressed. The demographic crisis is going to have to be addressed. We'll see you next time.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
