CLAY: We’re joined now by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt to talk about the chaos at the border that is looming as Title 42 will be repealed and removed as law by May the 23rd, I believe it is. Attorney General Schmitt, appreciate you making the time. What is going to happen come the repeal of Title 42, and what legally can be done to fight the decision of the Biden administration? Take us into that story, if you would.
SCHMITT: Yeah, I think, Clay, you’ve seen waves and waves of illegal immigration since Joe Biden’s taken office. We have an open and porous southern border, and we’ve had a lot of challenges there, and you see the coverage — not on mainstream media, but you’ll see certain outlets where it is covered. But the repeal of Title 42 which was a Trump-era policy, which allowed…
Essentially, because of covid, the Trump administration put this in place to turn away illegal immigration, in many estimates about 50% of all those turned away are because of Title 42 and Border Patrol agents are able to apprehend folks. That’s going away. You know, if he filed a lawsuit, but that currently is going away next month, at a time when you’re gonna see a seasonal increase anyway and the settlements are that it will double the numbers of people coming in here illegally.
You’ve seen the waves and waves. This will be a tsunami of illegal immigration. Exaggeration aside, what we’re about to see a month from now, we’ve not seen this before. Now, Missouri and Texas filed a lawsuit on the Remain in Mexico policy last year. We took that to the Supreme Court and won. We’re fighting to the Biden administration to get that reimplemented.
BUCK: Attorney General Schmitt, it’s Buck. I was hearing early on that even after the Biden administration had to give way to the sanity of the Remain in Mexico protocol, that their whole plan was essentially to just slow roll it, and in the early stages they were putting — I think the number that I heard, this was some months ago, but it was — dozens of people through it. Do we know, has that continued on? Has that been their plan, or have they actually been using that program in a way that shows that they will at least obey a judicial decision on it?
SCHMITT: No, they slow walked it. You’re right, Buck, and in fact the Border Patrol agents expressed a lot of frustration when I was down there. You talk to them one on one, and a lot of the tools that they’ve had at their disposal have been taken away the other thing they did was slow walked they claimed that they had to, you know, renegotiate with the Mexican government.
This is the United States of America. President Trump was able to do this pretty quickly. They could have too. So they’ve slow walked it at every turn and in fact later this month, guys, we’ll be back at the Supreme Court I think it’s April 24th. It’s that Tuesday, the last Tuesday in April. We’ll be back in front of the Supreme Court, Missouri and Texas will, because we got a TRO in the preliminary injunction, but this is now for the whole shooting match.
They’re bringing that back now to the Supreme Court so we’ve had those wins. We expect — well, we’re hopeful — that we’ll be able to, you know, have that be a final order and force them to implement it more effectively. But this Title 42 is the newest piece, right? They held back on this ’cause I think you even see Democrats, Joe Manchin and people are talking about Title 42 — revoking that or rescinding that — is gonna be a disaster.
So, you know, this is on purpose. There’s no accident about this, and there are things… You know, I’ve been down there twice. The cartels are running the show. One law enforcement official told us when we were down there, me and some other AGs, a help you million dollars a week is the value of the human trafficking. I’m not even talking about the drug trafficking that’s happening. The human trafficking.
And people ask, “Why is Missouri filing this lawsuit?” Well, every state’s a border state. Because the drugs and the crime and the human trafficking, it doesn’t stop in El Paso; it doesn’t stop in McAllen. It ends up in Nashville. It ends up in St. Louis. It ends up in Ohio. It ends up in New Jersey. So these cartels have networks throughout the country that they’re running drugs and people, and it’s very dangerous. And we don’t know who these people are, we don’t know where they’re coming from. It’s a national security problem as well.
SCHMITT: Well, I think one of the bigger issues — and I think, Clay, when I was on the show and we were talking about the OSHA mandate; Missouri was the first state to file a lawsuit we took to the Supreme Court and won on the OSHA mandate — the same issue there is the same issue here which is a runway administrative state, right, that’s not accountable to anyone and trying to — and this is a much bigger problem.
But as it relates to this I think the pressure from Democrat senators could get the Biden administration to think twice about empowering, essentially, the CDC and Homeland Security be moving forward with this the because as they seek to, you know, unravel Title 42 they could back away from that. Now, we’re going into court to say, “Look. First of all, you haven’t even done it the right way. You haven’t had a notice-and-comment period,” which is a very technical term.
“But also, you’re not weighing — it’s arbitrary and capricious, ’cause you’re not weighing — the downside with what you perceive the upside to be of this massive wave of illegal immigration.” So that’s the nature of our lawsuit. But there’s political pressure, there’s no doubt, that could be applied to get the Biden administration to reverse course. And, as I said, this is — not that there’s ever a good time to do this, this is — the worst time to do this because you’re gonna see a seasonal surge anyway.
So you’re gonna have double the numbers. If you have 7,000 a day, you’re gonna have 18,000 a day, by many estimates. So this number is gonna be… IT could be half a million more per month. This is just not what a sovereign country does. You know, we got lectured all the time by the CNN types about the sovereignty of other countries’ borders. We have a southern border right now that is completely porous and open, and that’s not good for our country.
BUCK: We’re speaking to the attorney general of the great state of Missouri, Eric Schmitt. What do you think this does to the Democrats in the midterms, Eric? It feels like… Clay and I were trying to figure out before, the political angle of kicking the border more wide open than it already is. It’s already bad. Border Patrol will tell you that last year was pretty much the worst year in memory in terms of lawlessness, illegality, cartel exploitation, all of it. They think this year is gonna be worse. What do you think the Democrat plan is here?
In El Paso, schools get shut down all the time because of the illegal immigrants streaming across and they happen to be near the border. So schools get shut. People don’t want to see it. I think there’s a reckoning coming, guys, on a whole bunch different fronts. You’ve seen this in school board elections. You’ve seen it in Virginia. I mean, San Francisco (chuckles) recalled school board members because they want to rename George Washington High.
This stuff is nuts. The American people know it’s nuts and I think that cycle they’re gonna pay the price. They should. And we’re not having traditional political debates in this country about tax rights and entitlement reform. They’re talking about adding states to the union, they’re talking about packing the Supreme Court, they’re talking about federalizing elections, they’re talking about opening up the border. They want to fundamentally change this country forever. My hope is, my prayer is that there’s enough people who understand we gotta save America in every election, in the primaries and the general in 2022.
CLAY: AG Schmitt, last question for you. You mentioned the arbitrary and capricious nature of the decision as it pertains to Title 42. While simultaneously saying that covid, it’s not safe for people to be in airports or on airplanes without masks, the same agencies are saying, “But it is safe enough to limit the rules that were put in place for covid at the border.” How do you reconcile the disparate treatment there? Does that provide any avenue of appeal for you as well?
SCHMITT: Yeah. No, it’s definitely a fact, right, to point out. But I think it also points out the just purely political nature of all of this. And so, you know, for me I think when I was on the show last time, we were talking about I’ve sued, you know, 45 plus school districts in Missouri. We sued OSHA for the vaccine mandate. The CDC in particular and Anthony Fauci have completely weaponized that agency for political purposes.
These so-called public health experts are nothing more than political operatives. And here we go again, right? We’ve got… They want to encourage illegal immigration so it’s not an issue, but you still… But Americans still have to wear masks on planes. I mean, this stuff is nonsensical, but the good news is I think people see it, but there’s no question those issues will be relevant in our lawsuit.
BUCK: Attorney general.
CLAY: Outstanding stuff as always. Yes.
BUCK: Thanks so much, sir. Appreciate it.
CLAY: Hey, enjoy it. It’s a good day with the Masters back, Tiger is on the course, Major League Baseball opening day for a lot of places as well. We got a good affiliate in St. Louis. Appreciate them and enjoy the game up there.
SCHMITT: Love what you guys do. Take care.
BUCK: Thanks so much, sir.
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