NC Democrats oppose state cooperation with ICE (06-05-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 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 thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] Just a heads up, it is now not homophobic or racist to criticize Corinne Jean-Pierre. So I think that's, I mean, that's what I'm seeing from all the Democrats now. They're criticizing her as being incompetent all those years when we were saying she was incompetent, but now it's okay to say it. All right? Because she has a book out where she's like torching Democrats because she's no longer a Democrat. She, she's now an independent, quote unquote. And that's the name of her book, coincidentally.

[00:00:58] So bad, not even the view would hire her. But that's not what I want to talk about right now. I want to get into the passage of Senate Bill 153 up in Raleigh yesterday. It was actually over in the House. It came out of the Senate, went over to the House.

[00:01:15] Charlotte Observer reporter Kyle Ingram has the story and it begins thusly. North Carolina House Republicans passed a broad immigration bill, which means we're going to be increasing immigration specifically of women.

[00:01:32] That's sorry. That's I kid. It's a it's a wide ranging. It's a and it's an expansive immigration bill seeking to mandate further state cooperation with ICE. Also prevent unauthorized immigrants from receiving state benefits and open local governments with sanctuary policies up to civil lawsuits.

[00:02:01] So, in other words, you will now be able to sue local governments if you are victimized by somebody and that somebody was, you know, supposed to have not been in your sanctuary jurisdiction. Oh, the outrage. The debate ran over an hour. Yes, almost two hours. The entire afternoon session ran about three and a half.

[00:02:27] And and I watched it. So do I bill for the overtime? Because that would be. That would be three and a half hours that I worked on just my three hour day. Do I need to bill for the overtime on that? No, I don't get overtime, so I can't. I don't know. Anyway. We have a lot of sound. I have a lot of sound bites. I listened to this to this debate actually twice. Well, that would be six hours then almost.

[00:02:55] And then I edited it down and wrote up the cut sheets. Anyway, by the way, I keep referencing this because I was accused of only working 15 hours a week. The other day. And so I just this and it was news to me. It really was. I was not aware that I was only working three hours a week. Because I just come in and I have zero prep.

[00:03:24] I've done nothing, you know, to to actually do a show for three hours. I just walk in the door and there's just and I just start talking and and then that's it. And the sound bites just miraculously appear for me like this one. Deb Butler. She of I will not yield, Mr. Speaker. Remember that? But she refused to yield the floor. Over a veto override vote.

[00:03:52] Republicans in the majority in the House, this was, I don't know, probably about five years ago. And they show up at a session and they were they had on the calendar a veto override. And they had this thing on the calendar. They're like, we're going to bring this thing up. If every Democrat doesn't show up to every single session, we are we're totally going to bring this thing up for an override. And so Democrats were told that and then they didn't show up. And it happened to be 9-11 anniversary.

[00:04:23] They were not at an 9-11 memorial event as the media and Democrats. But I repeat myself claim. No, they were across the street working on redistricting maps. So they were not in the legislative chamber. And Republicans did a quick headcount, saw that they had the votes to override the veto. And so they they called for the vote. And Democrats lost their poop.

[00:04:50] Deb Butler gets up there with the microphone and is refusing to stop shouting. I will not yield. I will not yield. And she just refused to be budged. And the great irony in all of that was that had they just walked out, then there would not have been a quorum for the votes to occur. But because they would not yield, it allowed for the votes to occur. So they ended up. Yeah, they ended up leading. Anyway, that's why I call her. I will not yield.

[00:05:19] Deb Butler, Democrat from New Hanover County. She was the first Democrat to rise and speak against this bill, this Senate Bill 153. I oppose Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act, although North Carolina doesn't share a border with any other country.

[00:05:41] What we do share is a proud legacy of decency, fairness and a belief that if you follow the rules and you work hard and you take care of your family, you belong. This bill is wrapped in the language of public safety, but its effect will be to create a culture of fear. Okay, so first off, the follow the rules bit.

[00:06:12] I'm not sure you understand. We're talking about people who literally did not follow the rules. They came into the country illegally. They are not following the rules when they come in the country illegally. So that's the first part of it. The second part of it is while we may not share a border with another country, we actually do have borders in this state. You can see them on maps. They draw them in big fat lines, like thicker lines than than like other lines. You can see them. And then, yeah.

[00:06:42] And oh, one of those borders is an ocean. And so we may not border a country on our coastline, but we kind of sort of border every country because we have an ocean on our border. So anyway, she opposes the mandate that's in this bill to have state agencies enter into 287G agreements.

[00:07:10] 287G is the policy. It's the section of the law from years and years and years ago that allows local sheriff's offices to get trained up and then get access to the federal immigration database. And so we're going to have a place. Former Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraf, a Democrat, he figured this out after talking to a sheriff out west who told him about this program.

[00:07:38] And so he came back here and he implemented it here. We were one of the first. Mecklenburg County was one of the first counties in America to implement 287G. He did it so successfully. It made such an impact that the George W. Bush administration hired him. He retired from his post as sheriff and they hired him to travel the country and help other sheriff's offices create 287G programs themselves.

[00:08:08] And he did that for, I want to say, two years or something. But living out of a suitcase, he said it got to be a bit much. So and then he retired. So this bill would force these four state agencies to enter into 287G agreements. She doesn't like that. She also doesn't like the idea that we should audit. Our public benefits programs.

[00:08:37] To identify illegal alien recipients. But here's the fact. Undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for nearly all state and federal benefit programs. The real effect here with this part, I think, will be on mixed status families where United States citizens, children often, live with undocumented parents.

[00:09:04] A study by the Urban Institute found that one in five immigrant parents avoided enrolling their children in food or health care programs because of fear. These are children who are eligible for benefits and do not get them. That's not cutting waste. That's denying children's basic needs. Okay.

[00:09:27] So by that standard, we should not check and see if anybody on public benefit programs are appropriately on the benefit rolls. Right. Because if the mere suggestion of checking to see if you are allowed to get the benefit is going to induce a fear that you won't get the benefit. So you don't then apply for the benefit. If that's the standard, then there is no standard. Right.

[00:09:57] There is no accounting for people's eligibility for these programs. So and keep in mind, this is simply an audit to see if there are ineligible recipients. They don't even want to check. That's their position. We shouldn't even check our rolls. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know, I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too.

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[00:11:19] but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. How dare you Republicans try to cooperate with the Republican administration in enforcing immigration law? How dare you? That's the general message from the Democrats in the North Carolina House yesterday who were very, very upset at the passage of Senate Bill 153 out of the House.

[00:11:47] It would require four state law enforcement agencies to participate in the 287G program, as I mentioned. Also, the agencies include North Carolina Department of Public Safety and Adult Correction, the State Highway Patrol and the State Bureau of Investigation. And these are all executive agencies and they are overseen by Democrat Governor Josh Stein. They would all be required to carry out certain ICE functions.

[00:12:19] And one of the most bizarre arguments I heard yesterday was that somehow or another this is unconstitutional. That the legislature cannot direct the executive branch to do anything, which is exactly the opposite. Exactly the opposite. Deb Butler, Democrat from New Hanover County, also upset that this would ban sanctuary policies on UNC Camp Eye.

[00:12:47] There are over 3,000 undocumented students in North Carolina colleges today, many of them DACA recipients who have known no other home in their lives than North Carolina. And telling these young people who aspire to a better future that they are unwelcome here is not security. It's cruelty. Mm, cruelty.

[00:13:14] See, maybe you guys should have listened to us when you were out there banging the drum and celebrating Obama's DACA program that he, you know, unilaterally instituted. But people like me were saying at the time, like, this is not a good idea for you Democrats to do because you're going to end up putting all of these DACA recipients in the bullseye. Right?

[00:13:42] You're having them come forward, identify themselves. Hence, you have a list now. And if a Republican gets into office and they want to remove these DACA recipients, then they're going to have a list and they'll be able to find them very easily. But no, no, no. You guys just wanted to call everybody a racist and a xenophobe and all of that. When, in fact, I was correct. People that were making this argument were correct. Also, they are illegal aliens as well.

[00:14:12] And you don't get to give them sanctuary from federal law unless you want to be in violation of federal law yourselves. The bill also waives government immunity. And it allows private citizens to sue governments. And Deb Butler, who will not yield, does not like this measure either.

[00:14:41] Cities and counties have been protected from civil lawsuits. This bill strips that protection and weaponizes litigation. What? What we are doing here is authorizing political retribution through the courts. It opens the door to frivolous lawsuits to drain local budgets. It's going to punish municipalities for having compassion. Ah, it's going to punish them for having compassion. No, it punishes them for violating the law.

[00:15:08] It punishes them for aiding and abetting lawbreaking. But I welcome the Democrats' newfound concerns about the weaponization of the law and lawfare. Oh, this is a big development here. She's worried that people might use the court system in order to intimidate or to exact retribution on political enemies or something.

[00:15:38] Man, that would be terrible if we ever saw something like that happen in America, right? Yeah, none of these arguments are persuasive to me. It's all deflection. The cities are not having compassion.

[00:15:55] It is not compassionate to prop up a broken immigration system that leads to countless deaths, sexual abuse, human trafficking, drug trafficking. That's the problem. It is the broken system. And what we have witnessed over the last four years, by the way, did you notice the fentanyl is now being cut off coming into America?

[00:16:25] That's amazing. How did that happen? Gosh, that's a brain buster. We may never know why all of a sudden the fentanyl traffickers have not been trafficking as much fentanyl into America. Hmm. So this would allow private citizens who get victimized because of the sanctuary policies of their city or county. It allows them to now sue their city or county for not protecting them.

[00:16:53] So it's waiving this government immunity that has allowed sheriffs like the one we have here in Mecklenburg County, Gary, not my fault, McFadden and others. Right. To not cooperate, to obstruct, right. To offer sanctuary, all of these different policies throughout all of these different jurisdictions. Right. They do it in order to try to obstruct federal immigration enforcement. And now you will be able to get sued for that.

[00:17:21] These weren't this isn't frivolous. These are people who get victimized by people you let out or you gave sanctuary to. And you should be held accountable for that. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain. And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal or get family and friends together for a big old reunion.

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[00:18:40] Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I got a tweet here from Eric. It's a Pete tweet. Quote, There should be zero undocumented students enrolled in American universities. People who are not here legally should not be rewarded. Now there is a, by coincidence, a related story.

[00:19:07] The DC Metro, the train system, has achieved an 82 to 85 percent reduction in subway fare evasion. Right? So these are like people who jump the turnstiles. They don't pay for their fares, you know, on the way into the subway system. How did they do it? A combination of taller fare gates. Right? So you just make the, rather than just have like one bar that you walk through,

[00:19:33] you do like the doors where it's like a whole bunch of bars and you can't go through. Because you, because it's basically a door, like a slatted bar door. So you have taller fare gates and enhanced enforcement. And that has led to an 85 percent reduction in fare jumpers. Also, crime on the system has also fallen to its lowest level in seven years. Huh.

[00:20:03] Well, how'd that happen? It's almost as if, as Charles Fain Lehman, I think he's with the Washington Exam, no, Manhattan Institute and City Journal. He says, it's cool how when you enforce against minor crime, removing antisocial people from the system and reinforcing shared norms, major crime falls too. If only there was a term for that. Which there is. It's the broken window.

[00:20:34] It's the broken window policy, right? You don't, you don't let people off the hook for the small things because then it creates a degeneracy leading to more of the larger things. So this is what the immigration debate is also about. You have one political party that has thrown its lot in with the open borders crowd and for their own personal political benefit.

[00:21:03] Now they dress it up in all sorts of, you know, nice language and they accuse their opponents of being mean. You're going to hear that. But there is a reason why they want the borders to be as open as possible and to have a social welfare system that is so rich that it creates this magnet for people to come. They have personal political benefit. They're party benefits.

[00:21:28] So by Republicans passing Senate Bill 153, they're attacking sort of the lower level things in order to get at the larger level thing. Like the D.C. Fair jumping leading to a reduction in crime. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat from Guilford, another awful affluent white female liberal. She raised concerns.

[00:21:56] About ICE arrests and how ICE agents are wearing plain clothes and wearing masks and such. These target people who are following the sentencing of local judges and the criminal legal justice system. This undermines due process, the rule of law and trust and the overall judicial system. It penalizes and discourages persons who lack legal status from attending court dates and probation appointments.

[00:22:23] These arrests make us all less safe as they fear the judicial system and public safety. So she's complaining there about ICE conducting operations outside of immigration courts or sorry, criminal courthouses. Right. That's her complaint. And she says now that means. Illegal aliens are not going to be comfortable going to their court dates, checking in with their parole officers or probation officers or whatever.

[00:22:53] What is she not saying? That these are people convicted of crimes to the point where they are now still having to attend court proceedings. They're having to check in with probation officers. Right. They have been arrested for something. And she doesn't want ICE to come and get them because they may be afraid to come to court. Because otherwise they're going to get on the straight and narrow. Right. I mean, that's the thing. They came in illegally.

[00:23:23] Yes, yes, yes. But let's let bygones be bygones. And then while here illegally they broke our laws. Then they got arrested for breaking some laws. How many other laws did they break that they did not get caught for? Don't know. But OK, now they're going to court and now they have to worry about getting apprehended by ICE and deported. So now they're not going to show up for court, which also does what? Means they have a bench warrant now out on them and now you can go pick them up and deport them.

[00:23:51] So far, I'm not seeing a downside to this strategy. Ray, welcome to the program. Hello, Ray. Hello, Pete. Hey, what's up? I was just speaking in general terms. It seems to me and you can confirm or tell me if I'm wrong.

[00:24:08] But it seems to me like since the beginning of a country, just judging by the past five years, that we've got laws that tend to be broken or overlooked and shortcuts and loopholes found around them like the sanctuary cities and all of these kind of things. So they do all that and then it gets pretty bad. And then the Republicans have to come in and kind of make new laws to clean up that mess.

[00:24:36] And then for a while, it might straighten out. And then the cycle just repeats and repeats over the last couple hundred years. Am I pretty much on the track there? Well, it will never not repeat. This will be the way forever because government is a man-made construct, man-made institution. Right. And so because it's made by man, it's not going to be perfect. And you're going to have unethical and immoral people that always search out the loopholes in order to gain an advantage.

[00:25:04] So it's a constant project. Right. I guess I'll just keep asking you once in a while about this because it just seems – I guess I'm under the false impression that it'll all be straightened out someday and it'll be perfect, but it won't. No, that is correct. Right. So that's sort of a utopian vision, right, that's usually on the left. The Marxists usually believe that utopia can be achieved. I am a realist.

[00:25:33] I don't believe that that's possible. There will always be the need for this kind of patchwork on the infrastructure of law in our society. So it's – yeah, like it never ends. That's why good, competent people need to volunteer their time and efforts to help maintain this infrastructure or we lose it to the bad and incompetent people. Right. Well, thanks for putting me back on the track. Yeah, man. All right. Happy to do it. Thanks for the call, Ray. Appreciate it. Bye-bye. All right. No, and I get it.

[00:26:01] And look, sometimes – I say this all the time. He who stops to sharpen his axe cuts more wood. And sometimes, you know, you're following this stuff, you're involved in this stuff, whatever, and you get burned out on it. And it's okay to step aside, let somebody else do the work for a little while. And maybe you don't ever come back to it. But people need to volunteer. And then when you're done, then step aside and let other people do the work at that point.

[00:26:28] But hopefully, you're able to make some fixes and you're able to build a template that others can follow that will support and maintain the benefits of this society. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You've got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime.

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[00:27:48] Phil Rubin, Democrat from Wake County. He called ICE lawless and abusive and that we should not, quote, bring that darkness into our state agencies. These are the people that we are dealing with on the other side of the political aisle. Jordan Lopez, a Democrat from right here in Mecklenburg County. He opposes the state doing really anything to help the federal government do its job.

[00:28:17] Why would we require state agencies that are already overburdened to take on additional responsibilities for an administration whose policies fly in the face of constitutional protections, as my colleague just laid out for you? Additionally, I've yet to find any information that undocumented immigrants are receiving some outsized number of state funded benefits. If you're here in this chamber, then you should know that undocumented immigrants can only receive state funded benefit a number, a limited number, excuse me, of benefits in the first place. Oh.

[00:28:45] Primarily around emergency medical services, the prevention of communicable diseases, access to food. I don't know. Just basic things that at least I believe keep people alive regardless of their legal status. Look, we have a broken system, but that is not ours to fix. It's the federal government's. Heck, Congress had the opportunity to start fixing the immigration system just last year, but chose not to because a certain someone whose name is all through this bill saw an opportunity to benefit politically from this dysfunction.

[00:29:14] Oh, my God. This this lie. Jordan Lopez, representative Mecklenburg County. This is a lie. And the lie is proven to be so by the very fact that the border has now been closed. We did not need another bill.

[00:29:33] We did not need that terrible border bill that codified a certain amount of illegal crossings every single day before there would be this trigger that would be tripped. But, oh, it wouldn't even be a trigger because it would still be up to the Department of Homeland Security secretary. So if he didn't want to trip the trigger, he didn't have to. If the president didn't want to trip the trigger, he didn't have to. And what we learned over the last four years is they did not want to trip the trigger. They wanted it open.

[00:30:03] It was a bad bill. Donald Trump was right. You didn't need the bill. You needed a different president. You needed somebody that would say these are the laws and we are going to enforce them. That's precisely what they have been doing. And that is precisely why the border has now been closed. You can look at the crossing numbers. I ran the audio from Tom Homan two weeks ago.

[00:30:31] It is an amazing drop off that we have seen. We did not need new legislation, but this freaking lie that you keep advancing that you could have done the bipartisan bill, but Trump killed it for his own political gain. It was a bad bill. That's why it got shut down. And by the way, what did he just acknowledge in those comments? That illegal aliens do actually get state taxpayer funded benefits.

[00:31:00] They do. So you got some of the Democrats up there saying they don't really get any. And then you got him up there. Oh, I mean, they get some. And he actually is now past the OK, fine. There's a little bit of it happening. He's now at the phase of, OK, a little bit of it is happening. But here's why it's a good thing. That's where he's at in that argument. It's the same trajectory in all of these arguments. Voter ID, same thing. Oh, vote fraud's not happening. Then you show them that it's happening. OK, it's just not a lot.

[00:31:28] And then you show that, OK, it actually can affect the outcome in certain races. And it's like, oh, OK, fine. But here's why it's a good thing. Everybody should be able to vote. Well, we don't want people, you know, being afraid to vote. That's the it's the same argument repackaged in order to obstruct. The actual following of law. Enforcement of law.

[00:31:53] They don't want there to be any kind of immigration controls. They want anybody that gets here to be able to stay. That's obvious. They want to give amnesty to all illegal aliens. That's the end game. And kudos to Representative John Blust. Who said it to them. We have been talking about this. The message has finally gotten through.

[00:32:21] It's now becoming more widely accepted and spoken of. Which is the census. It's the census. They need as many of these people to stay before 2030. Because when 2030 runs rolls around and the census gets underway, illegal aliens will be counted once again.

[00:32:46] And when they are counted, it will artificially inflate the population numbers for predominantly blue districts and blue states. Which means what? They keep more seats in Congress and they keep more seats in the North Carolina legislature. Democrats do. They have a personal vested interest in allowing people to break the law and stay.

[00:33:15] Their political fortunes hinge on the breaking of the law. That's why they don't want to see these people deported. Any of them. Oh, the poor person who, you know, came in illegally and then violated some criminal statutes. Got themselves arrested. And now is showing up for their court date. And ICE comes in and deports them. And how dare they? That person should be allowed to go through his due process. Actually, no. The law does not require that at all.

[00:33:44] The person is not in the country legally. You do not have all of the rights and privileges afforded to U.S. citizens. You do not. You know why? You're not a U.S. citizen. It's very clear. It's an Article II power under the president. Then there's Maria Cervagna. God, she spoke for like 10 minutes or something. It was, ugh. And it was all about public health this and public health that because she was like a nurse or is a nurse.

[00:34:13] And so she's just in opposition to any review of public benefits. We cannot even look. This is like maintaining the voter rolls. We can't even look to see if people have identifiable numbers like Social Security or driver's license numbers attached to their voter profile. We should even be looking at this, people. 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.

[00:34:40] 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 thepetecalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.