Another DSA win and immigration arrests surge | Hour 2

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the Pete calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All right, so last hour we talked about the South Carolina runoff. Darlene Graham wins by about four, four and a half, five points, whatever it was, over Ralph Norman. And just full disclosure, I was not monitoring the election outcome last night. I had something far more fun to do, which was to sit through the budget workshop for my HOA for five hours. So that's what I got to do last night rather than watch the returns come in. Now, I did see this this morning from NBC News that a nurse named Nikila Nikila Nikila Nikila Jasmine Thomas although her campaign signs just say Jasmine Thomas, no hyphen there. So you'd almost get the idea that her name is Jasmine Thomas, but it's actually Nick. Okay, it's an N apostrophe capital K-I-Y-L-A. Nikila Jasmine Thomas. Well, she won the primary runoff in Oklahoma, where the wind, as I understand it, go sweeping through the Plains. So she secured yet another win for the party's Democratic Socialist wing. We got another one. She's a 31-year-old member of the Chickasaw Nation. She defeated attorney and minister, that's an odd combo, Jim Priest. Again with these Dickensian names. Really? The guy's name is Jim Priest and he's an attorney and a minister? but not a priest, oddly enough. But it's in the name. Anyway, he's 70 years old. And he drastically outspent Nikila Jasmine Thomas. The two advanced to a runoff that, after neither of them were able to get a majority of the vote in the initial June primary. So this was their runoff in the Democrat primary in Oklahoma. She will now face Republican Representative Kevin Hearn. who will be heavily favored this fall to win the open seat to replace former Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, who is now the Secretary of Homeland Security. Oklahoma is a solidly Republican state that Trump won by about 34 points last time. Thomas is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, is what she told NBC News. She described uh, democratic socialists as quote, the next generation that is looking to change the system. Thomas said that she does not support every plank of the DSA platform. However, she's a military spouse. Okay. Red flags, military folks, DOD may want to just check into this, this woman anyway. Um, She's a military spouse, so she does not support defunding the Defense Department because that would personally benefit her. So that's where, like, my husband, he's in the military, so we're drawing our paycheck from the DOD, so I don't want to defund that. I mean, classic Marxism here, right? It's communism for the privilege for me. She did voice support, though, for a whole bunch of the DSA policies, including Medicare for All, which is totally affordable, universal child care and parental leave, and also, quote, making sure that everyone pays their fair share. Thomas said she also favors abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. So abolishing ICE. So she is, yes, DSA. Okay. Asked if she considered herself a capitalist or a socialist. She said, quote, capitalism is what's destroying our country right now. These people are so stupid. Capitalism is not destroying the country. Marxism is. Cronyism is. Spending is. They're There are a lot of other culprits here. Capitalism is not it. She later, though, described capitalism as inevitable, saying she supports the concept of people owning their own businesses and property. So this is a very, very well thought out philosophy, obviously. Right, so she does believe that you can own your own business and property without I guess you just won't be able to keep any of your money, which I'm not really sure then how you would own the businesses and property if they're going to take everything from you, all of your money is the fair share. I'm not really clear on all of this. So a couple of things. I'm going to circle back, Jen Pisacki style, to the DSA thing in a moment. But... There was also some data here about, she also said she wants to abolish ICE. And we talked yesterday about Greg Bovino's visit to Manolo's Bakery and the interaction that occurred there. And we played the audio and all of that. And Bovino, I was trying to get him on the show yesterday. And he said he could not come on the show because he had another appearance that booked, um, on Tucker Carlson show. And I, I know anyway, um, he's making the argument that the current leadership, um, in the department of Homeland security and border patrol and ice that like they have, uh, they have abandoned deportations and enforcement and all of that. And So he's been hammering away at the current leadership and the administration basically saying that they've reversed course on this. And so when I saw this story yesterday, I thought this is important information to bring to you. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people in July. So in one month, 50,000 people. That is the highest single monthly arrest total in Trump's term, in his second term so far. That spike in immigration arrests shows the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from high-profile operations in large American cities that sparked a public outcry and And this is from the Associated Press. So we have this spike in arrests. We have more arrests than ever before in Trump's term, but it's getting way less attention. The July arrest tally of 49,571 is a 15% increase from the previous month in June when there were 43,000, a little bit more. in June. And it's a 70% increase from the 29,000 back in February. In the aftermath of the Trump administration's enforcement surge in Minnesota, that according to government data that was provided by ICE to the deportation data project based at UC Berkeley and UCLA that was analyzed by the Associated Press. As part of the surging arrest numbers over recent weeks and bolstered by a hiring surge, ICE has made arrests at traffic stops. The agency has increasingly relied on state and local law enforcement partners who are assuming immigration enforcement duties. And ICE officers have started to arrest people from Haiti who have seen their protections from deportation stripped away. This is the removal of the temporary protected status, the TPS, right, that Trump did away with. He ended TPS for Haiti, which had been in effect for like a decade plus or something, right? It's like 15 years or something. I'm trying to remember the other country that had, I think... Did Venezuela have TPS? There were a couple of countries that had TPS and they've had TPS for a very, very, very long time, which kind of flies in the face of the whole term temporary, right? The new arrest numbers show the administration did not stop the enforcement, according to Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for more immigration restrictions. Krikorian said, quote, they changed the tactics and are, if anything, being more effective. So I bring you this data, and I simply would point out here once again, for people who believe there's no difference in the two parties, there's no difference if Democrats are in charge or Republicans are in charge, I would submit that's not true. There is, in fact, a difference. This would not be happening under a Democrat president. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Create-A-Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7870, extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie, katie at grouptravelvideos.com. Group travel videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. All right. Associated Press reporting immigration arrests the month before Donald Trump returned to office was at about 8,000. Okay. Okay. So before Trump comes back into office, we're seeing about 8,000 arrests, immigration arrests per month. A figure largely made up of immigrants that were transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove them from the country. So this is the 287G program, right? So when you had these cities that were refusing to cooperate with ICE and were scrapping their cooperation with 287 G like our sheriff did in Mecklenburg County made that his campaign promise and then celebrated by cutting into a sheet cake with the 287 G logo on the cake. Ha ha ha. We're no longer cooperating to help deport criminal illegal aliens from our jails. Right. That was basically the only, you had some jurisdictions that, you know, basically Republican controlled jurisdictions that were still cooperating. That was the reason for the 8,000 number. By December, the number of arrests had gone up to 40,000, according to the data. In the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January, which sparked all the protests and uproar from Democrats and media, but I repeat myself, arrests began to fall then in February. And then it was kind of stagnant for a couple months. And then the numbers went back up in June. And now they're at a record high for Trump's second term in July. The number of arrests made by state and local police departments who partner with ICE has dramatically increased over the last year. These partnerships with which ICE has grown with the help of generous financial incentives for participating agencies have accounted for 6,500 arrests in July, or about 13% of the total. You look back a year prior, and these ICE transfers only accounted for about 5% of all of the monthly arrests. Okay? And, by the way, we heard this. I want to say it was Gaston County we were talking to a couple years ago. They were saying that the... Well, maybe it was Henderson County. I forget. It's been a few years. But they were contemplating getting rid of the 287G program because the feds, Congress, had rescinded the payments to house the inmates. And so now the locals are bearing the cost. And even if you have local jails that want to cooperate, it becomes financially problematic for them to do so. So if you pay for those federal inmates, basically, you're paying– for the cooperation, then you get more of it. Texas and Florida accounted for about half of the July arrests. Both states have leaned heavily into those cooperation deals, the 287G agreements. In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen pledged to keep ICE out of the headlines, suggesting that the administration's immigration crackdown might take a softer approach. And so that's what apparently has been occurring, which we should be thankful because if you can get more arrests without the headlines, doesn't that make better politics? From the text line, Susie says, I credit Tom Holman getting more and more sheriffs to agree to use ICE detainers for those arrested. uh, for the increase in deportation figures. This is what Trump had said he would do go after criminals versus the mass operations that Bovino handled under Kristi Noem. You'll recall. And I think handled very unfairly in many cases. Um, see above text. There's another text. All right. Um, All right. Well, OK, so this is a pretty big text. All right. So I'll just leave it there because under Mullen's predecessor, Kristi Noem, the AP reports immigration enforcement was often characterized by high profile operations that targeted specific Democratic cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Operations often led by former Border Patrol agent Greg Bovino were blasted out on social media videos showing officers attacking bursting out of moving vans to chase people or rappelling from helicopters onto apartment rooftops and such. There was a lot of PR about the operations. And some people really, really liked it. And some people really, really did not. And it animated the Marxists, the Antifa crowd, the activists, the Democrats, the media, but I repeat myself, they all got very, very, very. By those videos and by the public relations campaign that was being waged. And that was intentional. The PR campaign was intentional by Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino. And the backlash... then started affecting you could see it in the polling the trends were going down people were not supportive of what they were seeing it's like we wanted the deportations we just didn't want to see it right that was the we don't want to see these things happening we just want to we just want it to happen but without us seeing it because you know we're americans we don't we don't want to we Millions of people who flooded across the border because of Joe Biden and his open border policies, right? There's a quote. Oh, sorry. Yeah. So this is from Mark Krikorian from the Center for Immigration Studies. He said those tactics. under Kristi Noem and, you know, that Bovina was running, provoked a lot of ordinary people turning them off, even if they liked the idea of the immigration law being enforced. And I heard this. I heard this from people who wanted the border closed, who wanted people deported, but they didn't like what they were seeing. I was getting text messages and emails and phone calls about it during Operation Charlotte's Web here back in November. So I know that to be true because I had people telling me that, okay? So when Holman took over, and remember, Holman was recognized for his work that he did on immigration enforcement by Barack Obama, who gave him a medal to do for his work doing so. And Holman basically came in with this idea that we are going to Do more, but you're not going to see it like you're seeing it. And I think this is what we are now learning, is that this is exactly what Homan has been doing. Sure, I'll jump over here and talk to Rob. Hello, Rob. Welcome to the show. Hey, thank you so very much for giving me a spot on your program. I enjoy it whenever I can. Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Typical. Oh, yeah. You got it. The typical American... You know, I'm a military combat veteran, and they don't like it when we have to do what we have to do. And I've had to do some things. Yeah. Okay. I've had to do some things, and I've seen some things, okay, for love of my country. And I don't regret it at all. But most Americans, because less than 1% of Americans ever put on the damn uniform, that's a national disgrace. Okay. They don't want to see it out of sight, out of mind. But they do want to be freed. They do want to enjoy the blanket of freedom that I and so many others, OK, in this country provide for them. But they don't want to know how you got that blanket. I was going to make that compare or that analogy that you just made. I was going to because it is that you're exactly right. Like people don't want they don't want to see the war, but they want they want to win the war. Right. They want the outcome, the best outcome, but they don't want to be alerted or informed about what it would actually take and what it does take to win a war. Absolutely. And for all those white liberal women out there in your audience that, yeah, I'm not talking directly to them. You need to go with some of these youngsters out there. Let me tell you, if you've never seen what a. 50 cal bullet does to an insurgent, an enemy of this country, if you've never seen what it does to them, okay, then you need to go on overseas and stay on the post because I've seen it. Now, a lot of other people in this audience My brothers and sisters have seen it. And we don't enjoy it, but we do it for each other. Well, it says Rush Limbaugh used to say all the time that the world is governed by the aggressive use of force. Absolutely. When people live in a free and largely peaceful society, they forget that. And they want to think that, oh, well, we can just pass legislation and we can just enter into diplomatic treaties and then everybody will play nice. And that only works... if your opponent agrees, if they don't agree to play nice, then force becomes the thing that governs. And you're the man. And my last comment is going to be this stepped up immigration. That's what I voted for. I like it. I love it. I want more. Rob, I appreciate it. All right, buddy. You too. Thanks for your service as well, man. Welcome home. Appreciate it. All right. That's a Rob. Yeah, it's true. Americans want the benefits, but don't want to have to see it happening. And we may not like that, but that's the reality. And as a resident of Realville, I recognize that. So that's why I bring you the data. More from the Associated Press article on the record. Surge in arrests, in ICE arrests in July, nearly 50,000, marking the highest monthly total under Trump's second term. Patricia Quinones, a journalist at Utah Zolanos. Utah Zolanos. Utah Zolanos. It's all one word. Utah Zolanos. Okay, they cover the Venezuelan immigrant community in Utah. And she is quoted in this piece. She said immigration arrests during traffic stops have increased sharply in recent months. Quote, they stop you for whatever reason. For example, you don't have a driver's license. Your vehicle tags are expired. Your windows are more tinted than what is allowed. From there, they take advantage of the situation and ask about immigration. Okay, so you're saying that they're pulling you over for legitimate reasons, right? You don't have a driver's license. You don't have registration. Your tags are expired. Your windows are overly tinted or something. You're violating the law somehow. And then when they start speaking with you, they find out that you are an illegal alien. And so now you've got jurisdictions that are, in fact, enforcing immigration law or they're arresting you and bringing you in for these types of offenses, which, remember, this was one of the things that Democrats shut down, right? We heard it all the time. CMPD, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, right? Local police departments in Democrat-controlled areas, they were always pointing out that we are not arresting anybody at traffic stops for immigration reasons, right? If you have any interaction with law enforcement, like, you know, if you're calling in a 911 call, you're the victim of a crime or something, like, we're not checking any of that, right? They always made it very clear that they are not federal immigration enforcement. They don't do it. They don't cooperate. They do nothing. But in Republican-controlled areas, it seems like they are. By the way, the. Charlotte Ledger, well, they're quoting WFAE, that pulled data that shows federal immigration arrests in Charlotte more than doubled this year, reaching 1,580, so almost 1,600, immigration arrests through August 6th. That compares with 752 during the same period in 2025. So it's a doubling, more than a doubling, of the arrests in Charlotte since last year. Nearly four in 10 people arrested had no pending criminal charge or prior conviction. So this is the left making the argument without actually articulating the argument, which is what? Amnesty. That's their argument. Right. Because everybody keeps saying we're going after like on the on the pro deportation side, the immigration enforcement side. You know, Donald Trump has said this. Republicans have been saying this, that the targeting is of criminal illegal aliens. Right. In other words, people who, yes, came into the country illegally, but then did something else while they're here or they had a criminal record from their home country. Right. And so when somebody gets arrested for something and they go to the jail. The process used to be under 287G that the local law enforcement in the jail would run their names through the databases. They would identify them and then say, oh, you are wanted back in your home country, so now you're going to be deported. Or you get arrested for doing something in America, and that criminal charge is enough to warrant your deportation. So that was always the language that Republicans were using was, We're going after the criminal illegal aliens. And Democrats then would say, as we heard Manolo the baker in his interaction yesterday with Greg Bovino in Charlotte, and he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, go after the criminals. Yeah, go after the criminals. Of course, go after the criminals. Of course. But what's the unspoken argument that he's not making? He's not articulating. He's saying... but don't go after ones who came in illegally and have not committed any crimes. I mean, aside from coming in illegally. And this is what, this is why WFAE also points this out that four in 10 had no pending criminal charge or prior conviction. So in other words, 60% did right. actually more than 60% because they say nearly four in 10, which means not quite 40%, which means over 60% did have a criminal charge pending or a prior conviction. Funny though, the way you frame it, right? And they frame it like that in order to let you know that like, Oh, look at this. We're, we're deporting and arresting, um, You know, people with no criminal background. These are peaceful people. They're just here illegally. They're just undocumented. See, all of the language is always constructed in order to make the amnesty argument without having to actually make the argument. And when Bovino was arguing with Manolo, Manolo said that, but not not really said, said it like they've been paying taxes. Like he would say all of these different talking points to lead you to the amnesty argument. Oh, I want comprehensive immigration reform and we haven't had any reforms and it's very difficult to come here legally. And, And people are paying taxes. Yeah, they're paying taxes like with stolen IDs and such. So you make all of these arguments in order to promote the concept and to sort of soften the ground for amnesty. But that ship has sailed, folks. The amnesty ship has sailed. You can thank Joe Biden for that. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.