16 posts from Monday, July 20, 2026

Joining us now for tonight's big close-up is the one and only, Borders R, Tom Hellman. All right, Mr. Hellman, we've known each other for a long time. And you know, I'm a big fan of your work, right? So I fired off a couple of tweets this week because I was a little upset, right? And I think the president was also, you know, and I don't know the discussions that happen internally. But this notion of stopping traffic stops, and then now we're hearing that perhaps they're going to resume, but that one of the agents has to have a body cam. We know not all agents have body cams, which leads me to believe that perhaps some traffic stops will be paused for that reason. I want to give you a chance to set that record straight so the American people know what's going on in terms of these traffic stops and why there was maybe this miscommunication with the White House and Secretary Mullen on what happened there. Well, look, I, uh, traffic stops are back on. And that is true. We've got to have a body camera during a traffic stop, which I like, which I want all agents have body cameras, could body cameras exonerate agents 90% of the time. Right? Tells the truth. And, uh, why hasn't everybody have a body camera? Because the Democrats shut down the government. In that budget, there's $120 million more to buy body cameras. They said we've had money before, but we didn't have money to do the storage, right? We didn't have money to hire people to do the thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests we won't get. So we didn't have the money. So they held it up. If they were to not shut down the government, first of all, we have a lot more arrests and removals. They shut us down for months. And second of all, everybody have a camera. So I think it makes sense to have cameras. And I think, you know, I talked to Mark Wayne Mullen. I think his biggest concern when he made that decision was the safety of officers, because with, with, with, with the threats with vehicles up nearly 2000%, at what point will we not be quick enough? Then we're going to bury a nice agent, right? So he wanted, I think he wanted to make sure I think you'd have the train, they're not, they don't have everything they want. First person Trump came in, he made a decision. So traffic stops your back on and the camera deployment, there's a, I saw the plane the other day. There's a plan for deployment right now. We're training the trainers. So when the cameras get to the field offices, they'll immediately be deployed. And I love the idea of having the body cams because you're exactly right. It gives the public an opportunity to see what's going on. So the left can't run away with the narrative. Here's my concern. And then I'm going to turn it over to my friends here on the panel. I have a lot of questions for him. I'm going to try to keep it brief though. I'm really somebody who voted on mass deportations. I want them to happen. I don't want just arrests. I want deportations, right? And I think a lot of mega voters agree with me and they're going to be voting in November. And I think that with all the holdups that the Democrats give us in terms of everything on this president's agenda, including save America act, it feels like the one thing that we could possibly carry out beyond just closing down the border, which the president has done and you have done has been fantastic, is the promise of these mass deportations. Now there's been rumblings that perhaps now it's just targeted. Now it's just, we're going to go after the worst of the worst, which I want them out to, but that perhaps this goal of mass deportations is not the mission anymore under this secretary. So I want to give you a chance to explain to the American people where we are in that process. Mass deportations is still the plan, but prioritization of the worst of the worst of the criminals doesn't mean we forget about everybody else. And let me give you a clear example where we're at. So 60% of everybody we're arresting right now is a criminal, 40% are non-criminals. We are arresting a lot of non-criminals. I think 60% criminal, 40% non-criminal is actually better than 40% non-criminal, 60% non-criminal. I just think it's better. But the numbers are what they are. Now a few months ago, people were screaming and yelling. The numbers were down. Well, the government was shut down, DHS was shut down. But what happens when we got the reconciliation bill passed? Right now, we're up 40% over the last year. So everybody says last year was a good year. It's a historic year last year. We arrested, deported more people than any present history last year. Right now, we're on a track of beating that by 40% right now. In June, ICE arrested more illegal aliens in June than any month in history. I looked at the number this morning, July, looks like it's tracking to beat June. So look, we're hitting on all cylinders right now and we're doing a great job. But when the country removals, we had record number removals last year. So here's what people don't understand, they say we want more, we want more, we want more. It's not a simple case of arresting, deporting, arresting, deporting. There's a process to find them and there's a whole process between the arrests and deportations. What people don't understand, despite all the pushback we're getting right now, there's over 100 nationwide injunctions against us who are arrests, detention removals. Over 100. That's more nationwide injunctions than every president in the history of this nation combined. So it's an all out assault on the Trump administration. So we've got over 100 nationwide injunctions with the government shut down for months. We have a record number of habeas cases filed by radical judges where I was told yesterday the numbers were on 65,000 people that we arrested that we had to release because of habeas cases out of radical judges. So there's a lot we're fighting against more than any other president. But even though we have all those struggles with the courts and the open borders agenda, we're still breaking records. And we're glad to hear that. My concern is I just don't want to see capitulation to the left. I don't want to see them crying bloody murder to CNN and then suddenly the mission changes and it felt like that this week. It certainly did. I want to open it up. I don't want to filibuster my panelists. I know I'm very fired up about this. We all got so many questions. Yeah. So, you know, we've all seen the video now of Greg Bivino who's standing there in front of the agents. They're about to go do an operation of some sort and he kind of with a lot of bravado says something like, Hey, don't do anything illegal, but go get it done. If they, you know, if they hit you, you, you take, you know, do what you need to with them. I don't want to paraphrase, but I don't remember the words. It seemed like the underlying messaging with the current DHS secretary and your role being brought back into the forefront, at least in front of the cameras was that, Hey, we're going to do just as much work, but we're going to be quieter about it. In other words, this operation Midway Bliss or operation, what have you. It's not the headline we're looking for. It's the numbers with that. But there come any change in tactics, not strategy, but tactics on the ground. We talk about traffic stops. We talk about going after folks did, did the department or any of the agencies change their, their tactics and what they were telling agents to do with the change in DHS secretary and kind of posture. Well, let me start by this. You want to compare this year to last year, one secretary to another secretary. We got 40% more aggressive last. So people will say that, well, targeting targeting operations don't work. Well, the numbers tell me different core, the rest of more people. You know, it's, it's, it's like a lot will happen in Minnesota, Joey. You know, a lot of people question Minnesota. You surrendered in Minnesota. No, we didn't. We went to Minnesota. President Trump sent me to Minnesota. I didn't ask for the Minnesota. I was asked. I was told to call Minnesota and fix this mess, right? We left Minnesota in a lot better shape than we found it. And why do I say that? Cause when I went to Minnesota, it was chaos, right? So let's say we're looking for one bad guy. We had a team of six or seven few jobs team to go in after this guy violence was so high that now you've got to sit, spend a quick response force. Another team of six guys to back them up. So we're resting one illegal alien. We got 15 people out there, which again causes community concern, right? So when I went up there, what I did, I talked to the sheriffs. I talked to the chiefs of police, I talked to the governor, the attorney general and the mayor. Now I'm not going to agree with the mayor or the attorney general or the governor on anything, some of those sheriffs though. What do we walk away with? We walk away with just about every sheriff in that state willing to help us one way or the other. So what does that mean? That means one agent arrest one bad guy, not 15. So what we did, we made that state less, less of a sanctuary state. So when that one agent now can arrest that one bad guy, what happens to the other fit 14 people or they're out on the street. Guess what? They get to rest more aliens. They get to go back to their home office and rest aliens. Is it working? Yeah. Numbers up over 40%. It does work. The operation operation doesn't mean everybody's off the table, but it's a smart way in doing business. The number proves it's working. Tom, remind us too. I mean, our ice agents are doing such great work in this country and they have been under physical assault, vehicle ramming is increased. They have been the target of verbal attacks from the left as well. You'd mentioned Minneapolis in one of the surges there, they had arrested individuals with deportation orders from both Democrat and Republican presidents and also individuals who had sodomized children. So remind us of the work that our ice agents are doing and some of these individuals that they're removing dangerous individuals from the country. You know, that's one of the reasons I'm talking about a lot of numbers right now because every day when I read people saying ice isn't doing enough, that's an assault and insult of every ice agent without their bust in their ass, right? These men and women are working six to seven days a week and the threats against them are, you know, 9,000% increase with actual 15% increase in actual assaults. They're working their butts off, they're really doing a good job. It's a difficult job. Like I just said, with 60% of them being criminals and you think about, you know, man removal since Trump's been in office, that's hundreds of thousands of public safety threats taken out of our neighborhoods and making this country safe again. These men and women are patriots. I was a board patrol agent. I was an ice agent. I know what it's like. I can't go buy a gallon of milk at a grocery store without a security detail because of, you know, what we're doing right now. And it's, I've never seen anything like this before in my life. I tell every board patrol agent, ice agent that I meet, I thank them for their service. I wore that uniform, I was an ice agent and people need to understand out there that you read the radical left, you know, call them Nazis and racism, which is reason why the threats up so high. You got members of Congress want to call them racist and secret police when they're simply enforcing laws. They enacted and if they're Nazis and police for enforcing the law, they enacted, what's that make them? They wrote the law. So because that hateful rhetoric is why these are attacks. That's what we have, you know, necessary to wear masks. That's why the violence, that's why the shootings, I'm putting the blame back on the Democrats because they have messaged for a year now, ice isn't a real law enforcement agency. You need to resist, right? I see resist at every protest. So now the population out there says it's okay to take ice on. So if the open borders, people and the Democrats on the Hill will stop the hateful rhetoric against us and the recognizer, a legitimate law enforcement agency that's keeping this country safe and they're working for the greatest president in my lifetime, who's done more for border security than anybody, most secure border in history of this nation because of president Trump. We even beat Trump 45 record numbers deportation because of president Trump's leadership. So I wish that the Hill, the Congressman on Hill, you know what strap up, put a gun in your hip, put a Kevlar vest on, what we always say, just now bad mountain when you see what they're dealing with every day because you're hateful rhetoric. It's not going to happen. Tom, I want to get your take on another story. DHS is looking to deport the Canadian illegal alien who allegedly attacked a teen for wearing pro Trump clothes. Caitlin Tracy is facing several charges, including assault is currently being held at the Delaney Hall of Facility ahead of her August 4th court date. What's the situation there? It was a shame that someone who took advantage of a right, a privilege to come to this nation that wants to attack somebody that supports the president of the United States who made that program possible, who oversees that program. Look, if you don't like the president of the United States, then stay home. We got the greatest president in my lifetime in office right now and the majority of American people put him there because of what he said he was going to do and what he's doing and he's born and wants to come in and attack somebody because they support the president, they need to go home. And I hope they never come back. Do you think that this is a representation of sort of the extension of what has happened to your agents now shifting to people just because by supporting the president, they are now lumped in with that same resist rhetoric? Absolutely. I mean, I run into it all the time, right? And like I said, you know, the men and women of the board show on ice, what breaks my heart is just they can, you know, you're tough people, they can take the rhetoric and stuff. It's your spouses or wives and children who get bullied at schools and churches. The rhetoric is worse than I've ever seen. And so, yeah, it goes beyond the politicians on the Hill. Now it's in the media. You know, every morning I wake up, Ben, every morning I wake up, I read through the news articles 95 percent of them are against the president of the United States. So they turn they're trying to turn this country against them. But I think the people that put them in office are going to keep us in power because they see the success this president has. I also just worry, Tom, and I don't know if you're finding this as well. I remember after Ferguson, even a mayor Rahm Emanuel or former mayor Rahm Emanuel when he was mayor of Chicago at the time said his police officers were in the fetal position because they were so afraid to become an officer, Darren Wilson. And are our ICE agents facing that same fear? And is that fear impacting even their safety if they're having to change their calculus in the way they do their jobs? Yes, their job is more dangerous than ever been. And that's why when the government did shut down, the president asked me to go up on Capitol Hill along with other cabinet, I mean, other administration officials to try to get the government back open. And one of the first things the Democrats called the table wanted was to lose a mask. So that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. Because tonight, you're going to go on CNN or MSNBC, whatever, and you're going to start attacking ICE agents again. I said, "The threats are real." And I said, "So, no, we're not taking the mask off." So no, the men and women of ICE, again, the numbers are great. Do I want more? I absolutely want more. I can't wait to get the other couple thousand agents online. We need to do more. But the men and women of ICE, I talk to them every day. Again, I was one of them. And when I retired second time, first time, no, second time, I told them that even though I was going to retire, I would have their sixth of the day I died because I don't know what it's like to wear that badge. I know it's like to be on the streets looking for bad guys. I know the danger's involved. But I can tell you right now, I go out quite a bit. It's more dangerous now than it ever has been because of the false stories, the rhetoric. ICE has never arrested anybody in the hospital. Women's got a case to give it to me because it's not happened. ICE has never arrested anybody in elementary school. You got a case, contact me because it's never happened. ICE has never arrested anybody in the church. The only people to violate the sanctuary of church was Don Lemon and that group. But you hear all the time, "People don't want to go to church. People don't want to go to the schools. People don't want to go to the hospital because they're afraid of ICE." That is fear put in the immigrant community by the Democrats who wants to turn the public against ICE. Again, you can't name one example we did that. Another discussion happened with the Democrats on him that kept saying, "We want central location policy." I said, "Why?" "Are we doing something wrong? Give me one case. Any of you. I hear you all talking about it on the news. Give me the specifics." Not one. So, men and women, ICE are doing a great job. They're moms and dads, too, and they care about their country. But I pray every day, and I said it the other day, "If the hatred keeps going, the blood sheds not over." And my worst nightmare, which I never want to do again in my career, is hand another folded flag to a spouse or a child or a fallen officer because representatives on the Hill and governors and mayor want to keep vilifying ICE, which turns at small percentage of nuts on the left, gives them an excuse to do something stupid. No, it certainly does. We saw it in New Jersey. We saw it in Chicago. We saw it in Minneapolis. We saw it in Los Angeles. I mean, we see it really everywhere there's an attention facility or anywhere that there is an operation. Do you think, to this point about these left-wing crazies who feel emboldened many times by their own lawmakers, do you think if they see a change in policy after their behavior, do you think that that encourages them to continue that behavior? Like Delaney Hall, for example, they were saying it was about the food, right? You went and you said the food's great, right? But then there was perhaps a shift, and correct me if I'm wrong, but okay, we're going to let the pregnant mothers out then. Does that kind of change or shift, which I think is well-intentioned, does that let the left know that what they're doing is effective? Look, they're not going anywhere. I really mean that. I mean, I think the right thing to do is, you know, we have about 70,000 people in detention. It's our responsibility to care and feed these people, make sure they get proper medical care. And we are. We have the highest detention standards in the industry. So I'm all for it, you know, come look, come look, you got nothing to hide. But regardless what you do for them or, you know, give them access or answer their questions like I did on the Hill for several weeks trying to get the government back open up, they're not going away. Just they think they got some leverage now, and they think they're going to affect the midterms and they think they can beat President Trump by continuing their hateful rhetoric. I'm begging right now for them to stop it before more bloodshed, but they're not. Just real quick, you you've been around and working in this field for long enough to remember a point when Democrats were proud of supporting strong borders where they were proud. They would tout it to their base as a symbol, he voted for all of these things. What do you say to the people who you have interacted with over the course of your career who have shifted completely in the opposite direction on this, where they are totally beholden to the radicals on their left flank, where they're refusing to even suggest that having a border is a good thing for America? Do your homework. Look at the data. The people who don't like ice, go to ice.gov and see what the men and women of ice are doing every day. It's just about, it's just not civil immigration enforcement. It's about stopping dope from getting into this country. Ice sees more fentanyl. This year they could kill every American twice. Weapons smuggling. Technology that's being smuggled out of the country being sold to our enemies to use against our war fighters. Ice does a lot of important work. Do some research. I've got a couple of family members, I refuse to any longer go into these arguments with them because until they research it and look at the data, I don't want to hear it anymore. For those who question President Trump again, I say it all the time because I believe the greatest president in my lifetime and the data proves it. You can hate him all you want, but you can't argue with his success. I mean I've worked for six presidents starting around Ronald Reagan. I respected every president I worked for because they were the president. I disagreed with a lot of them, but no one's done it better than Trump. It's unprecedented success. Promises made, promises kept. If you want the next president to be a perfect man, you better wait for the second coming to Jesus because I've never met a perfect man in my life. I think President Trump is keeping his promises. I think when it comes to immigration enforcement, border security, it's unprecedented success. I think it's going to get better now that we have a budget. We get those additional agents on the line. We continue the strategy that the president's pushing down. I see nothing but success in the future. You're doing a great job too. We appreciate you Tom. I won't take credit. I won't give you the credit. The men and women are in that green uniform who are standing on a dirt trail at three o'clock in the morning while we're all sleeping. There's a border trail agent standing on the line because the sun just went off. Is it just an illegal alien looking for a better life or it's a heavily armed drug smuggler? They don't know but they're going to take it on. I give credit to men and women of ICE where I was one of them that are out there at four o'clock in the morning sitting in surveillance on a child predator or someone they know has a weapons conviction and they don't know what's going to happen. They're going to take it on. Some of these men and women, if the rhetoric doesn't stop, my biggest nightmare is they don't go home to their families at the end of the shift. That's why the open borders agenda and the hateful rhetoric needs to stop. Shut your mouth. Members of Congress, if you don't like what ICE is doing, then change the damn law because they're enforcing laws you enact and I'm tired of listening to them beat up on the men and women of ICE and board. Yeah. Fortunately Tom, I think they do want to change the law. They do. We're trying to prevent that with everything we possibly can and that's why November is so important. I think Trump won in '16 on immigration. I think he won in '24 on immigration. Now we've got '26 and '28. Let's see what happens. We appreciate you and everybody that works beneath you and everybody that does the work every single day. They're American patriots and we all support them and I hope you'll bring that message to them as well. I absolutely will. They need it and I absolutely will share that, Tommy. Thank you, Tom. As always, it's great to see you. Always good to see you, Tom. Thanks for coming in. You got it.

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>> A total disgrace, but so let me get back, should we get back to post office stuff now? >> Absolutely. >> That's a good. >> The US Postal Service is now part of this bigger story of this president desperate to federalize our elections. He has tried every which way to say that if he and his party don't win in these November elections they were rigged, he said it in the State of the Union. You are being used as part of a much bigger story that this president is trying to play out where he does not believe elections that he loses are valid elections. He's willing to do just about anything to show that he's actually a big winner no matter what he does. And I just ask you as a professional, as someone who's done serious things in your life, please push back on being a pawn in this authoritarian playbook. The Postal Service is one of the most important institutions in our country. Don't taint it with the obsession of this one man. Please push back. >> You know, one of the things about politics that's different in the business is there's a lot of people who love to talk, talk, talk here. When I came in, it was interesting, I had this, my team put together this very fancy binder, it was about post office reform. But the hearing has turned into a mail-in balloting conversation and principles of the Constitution, which is very, very heartwarming to somebody who swore an oath to the Constitution when I became a U.S. citizen when I was 18. So are you familiar by any chance, don't expect you to, but just in case, there was a bill that the Democrats brought up during the Biden administration. And as you know, bills are numbered. So bill number one is the first one they do. And then I think we're now in bill number 5,000. But it's called HR1. And then there was also S1. So meaning it was the number one priority of Democrats in the House and Democrats in the Senate. Do you remember what that bill is about? >> I don't. >> You wouldn't. No, I wouldn't expect you to. I was like, you're a business guy that pays attention to all this stuff. It was called the For the People Act. The Democrats have phenomenal false advertising. So what the For the People did is it basically nationalized our elections. So this bill that they had that was their number one priority was about nationalizing the elections. So I know that we live in a world where there's supreme hypocrisy, but the idea that Democrat witness after Democrat witness, instead of talking about how to fix the post office, we're talking about the scandalous idea that somehow states' rights were being violated. And yet three years ago, they wanted to take over the entire election system for the United States of America, not to give it more voter integrity, but to diminish voter integrity, universal mail out ballots, unsolicited ballots that would go out, automatic voter registration, regardless of whether there's a test to see that person is a citizen. And then, and Mr. Chairman, you were here, you'll remember, they couldn't get it passed because of course here you have to get 60 votes, right? We have to get 60 votes. So what did the Democrats advocate for? What did they fight for to get this passed? They want to get rid of the filibuster. They want to get rid of the filibuster so that they could pass the nationalized elections. Three years later, all of them are testifying to say, it's outrageous. President Trump's trying to nationalize our election. He's not. He's trying to get rid of voter fraud. How dare you guys talk about getting rid of the filibuster? If it wasn't for Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, that would have happened. They would have made DC and Puerto Rico a state. They would have packed our Supreme Court, but now all of a sudden they dug up from their bottom desk drawer, the United States constitution, and they're appalled as they're here talking to you. It's a total disgrace. But somebody get back, should we get back to post office stuff now? Absolutely. That's a good idea. Let's talk about the post office. If the post office inspector were to look at unsolicited mail and mail out ballots where you go to an apartment complex and one unit is receiving six ballots, that's a problem, right? If there's only one human being that lives in that apartment and that one human being is receiving six ballots, none of which are in their name because they've been turned over movement. You wouldn't just suggest, and my Democrat colleagues have left Elvis has left the building here, but you would not suggest that that one person receive ballots that they didn't ask for that aren't even in their name. You would then go, wow, this is a problem, correct? That's what our postal inspection service is there for, is to look for those type of situations. And, you know, we don't open mail. We don't stop the delivery of mail, but we can certainly go to other agencies from a law enforcement point of view. Yeah, and say, hey, this is a problem. We're seeing this potentially illegal activity. Yeah. No, I totally understand. You know, I just want to give a quick anecdote. I was asked by the government to go down to where I was born, Columbia, South America, and monitor the election down there. They don't allow mail-in balloting. And I asked the registrar, I said, well, why don't you allow people to vote by mail? There's some people who can't get to the polling locations, et cetera. And obviously we're in Columbia, so we're speaking Spanish. He turned to his aide and said, I don't think the senator is saying the right words. I'm not understanding his question. So I repeated it and he looked at me quizzically and he said, well, if you just mailed somebody a ballot without knowing who they were or who's receiving it, that would open the door to massive fraud. You'd have to be totally and completely insane to run an election that way. This is a country with the GDP of the size of L.A., lecturing the United States of America on why our elections should be run better, and I think we should look at that as a moment of opportunity.

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