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Aug. 10, 2021 - Epoch Times

22:59

Texas Will Build Their Own Wall Along Border with Mexico, Arrest Illegal Migrants | Facts Matter

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	Good evening.
	Just yesterday, the governor of Texas announced that they will no longer be waiting for the federal government to do something about the crisis at the border.
	Instead, he said that Texas will begin arresting illegal immigrants and building their own border wall.
	Meanwhile, a newly released report from the IRS found that even before the pandemic, blue states lost almost 400,000 taxpayers who took their $26 billion worth of income over to red states.
	And lastly, Two U.S. Senators just sent this letter right here to the U.S. Marshals requesting that they hand over all documents related to trips taken by U.S. Supreme Court justices over the last 10 years.
	Why?
	Well, let's go through that together.
	This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
	Now, let's begin today's discussion over in Texas.
	But just before we do, as a quick aside, over the weekend, I will be publishing an exclusive episode detailing the looming election audit over in Fulton County.
	Now, Fulton County, as you might remember, is the same county in Georgia where during the previous election cycle, during the 2020 election cycle, There were several boxes that were pulled out from underneath tables in the middle of the night and the ballots were counted pretty much without any supervision.
	Now, of course, independent fact checkers told us that that was not suspicious.
	But regardless, that same county is looking like they will be having an election audit very soon.
	And there's a ton of developments on that front.
	However, I do not feel comfortable discussing that topic here on YouTube.
	And so, over the weekend, I'll be publishing an exclusive episode over on Epic TV, which is our brand new no-censorship video platform, where you can find all of the Epic Times programs, like The Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Life and Times, and our show, Facts Matter.
	And again, we'll be publishing that exclusive episode on there over this weekend.
	The link to it will be right there at the top of the description box for you to check out.
	And now let's head on over to Texas.
	And despite the fact that you might not hear about it too much from the corporate media outlets in this country, the situation at the U.S. southern border has continued to deteriorate.
	To start with, last month, which is May of 2021, the Customs and Border Protection Agency apprehended 180,000 people who illegally entered the United States.
	That is, by the way, the highest number in a single month over the past 21 years.
	Now, according to the agency, they said that the majority of these people who were apprehended, about 112,000 of them to be specific, they were expelled from the country immediately under the Title 42 emergency health provision.
	And in case you don't know what that is, back in March of last year, so March of 2020, President Trump implemented what is known as Title 42, which is the emergency health provision, and it essentially closed the border to all non-essential travel.
	That was, of course, when the pandemic first began, and Title 42 was what President Trump used to close the border.
	It allowed for Border Patrol agents to turn back and expel illegal border crossers almost immediately rather than have them come in, be placed in custody and go through a longer deportation process.
	However, the Biden administration, they introduced an exemption to Title 42, which allows unaccompanied children and most family units to stay in the country once they hit American soil.
	And so, right now, it's mostly family units as well as children who don't get immediately deported.
	And once they get accepted into America, these individuals are released into the interior of the United States and are given one of two things.
	They're either given a notice to report, meaning that they are obliged to report to a local ICE office once they get settled, or they're given a notice to appear, meaning that they have to appear in immigration court at a certain date.
	However, according to ICE, the reality is that they are just not able to track all of the thousands of illegal immigrants who are being released into the United States every single week.
	Now, human smugglers, the cartels, and the coyotes, they know how our system works, and they know that the way to get in is by coming in as a family unit.
	And so our reporter right now, who is on the ground down in Texas, she has heard many accounts of people renting children in order to cross the border as a family unit.
	In fact, she was once told a story by a Border Patrol officer who told her that a woman, an illegal immigrant woman, was spitting into the mouth of a baby so that the Border Patrol agent would do a DNA swab and match the results.
	That's the level that it's gotten to down there.
	And again, just to reiterate, last month, 180,000 illegal crossers were apprehended, which is the largest amount in the last 21 years.
	However, that is not the full picture, because many border crossers made it through without being apprehended.
	According to data that was released also from the Border Patrol Agency, besides the 180,000 people who were apprehended, last month there was another 51,000 illegal border crossers that they detected, but for one reason or another they were not able to capture.
	Now, at this moment, the Biden administration is actually under pressure to end Title 42 altogether, and they've actually hinted that they might be doing so.
	However, the current head of ICE, who is a man named Ty Johnson, he said that removing Title 42 is his biggest concern.
	Here's specifically what he said.
	Title 42 is absolutely critical.
	I don't think it's a situation where it's going to just be lifted electively.
	We will be mandated through some sort of court order to lift it.
	Now Kamala Harris, who was recently assigned to handle the crisis at the border, she is currently traveling to Mexico and to Guatemala in order to address what she calls the root causes of so many illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. Here's part of what she said in a speech in Guatemala.
	Do not come.
	Do not come.
	The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders.
	However, interestingly, right before she arrived there in Guatemala, the Guatemalan president, he criticized the Biden administration for unclear messaging, which he said contributed to the surge at the border.
	Here's what he said during an interview with Fox News.
	You can see that humanitarian messages were used here by the coyotes in a distorted manner.
	They said, meaning the Biden administration said, that they were going to support family reunification.
	So the coyotes came and took the children and teenagers to the United States, and the borders filled up, not only with people from Guatemala, but lots of people.
	That's why we have suggested that the messaging be clear.
	So he said that before Kamala Harris' speech.
	However, after Kamala Harris' speech, this Guatemalan president, he added this.
	The vice president yesterday sent a very clear message because she said, That's a clear message.
	But if you have a lukewarm message, it opens up the possibility that there's a bad interpretation of it.
	You can say it in good faith, but there are people who will misinterpret it.
	And there are quite a few reports to that effect.
	For instance, back in April, Reuters interviewed about two dozen migrants and about a dozen people who identified themselves as smugglers, and they found that many people believe that they are welcome to cross the border.
	For instance, here's what one Guatemalan smuggler had to say.
	There's 100 days of free passage across the border, meaning the 100 days of the Biden administration.
	Another smuggler during that interview said, supposedly the president is letting children in.
	And furthermore, we here at the Epoch Times, we did some digging of our own, and we found that these smugglers are openly advertising their illegal border crossing services on Facebook, such as this post here, which reads, want to cross to the United States?
	We pick them up in this city in Guatemala to Houston, Texas, all over Mexico by bus.
	All they ask for is $93,000.
	And as you can imagine, where all of this is being felt the strongest is in the states that actually border Mexico, such as Texas.
	Texas is feeling the full brunt force of this border crisis.
	For instance, in Laredo, Border Patrol agents just arrested over 160 illegal immigrants who were packed inside of two tractor trailers.
	Elsewhere, Texas ranchers have to fear encounters with illegal aliens and armed smugglers on a daily basis.
	And generally, human smuggling is leading to pursuits with the police, car crashes, school lockdowns, and so on.
	And by the way, take a look at that crazy photo at the top of the article.
	That was taken by our reporter, and it shows the moment that a sheriff opens up the trunk of a car and finds a Guatemalan illegal immigrant inside who was trying to get through.
	That car, by the way, was filled with seven illegal immigrants in total.
	And so, feeling like they are not getting much help from the federal government, the governor of Texas is deciding to take matters into his own hands.
	To start with, 10 days ago, Governor Greg Abbott issued a declaration of disaster at the southern border, which now allows him to allocate additional resources down there.
	Second of all, several counties in Texas have begun charging illegal aliens with trespassing, evading arrest on foot, and child endangerment.
	Thirdly, they've asked other states to deploy available police or law enforcement to the southern border in order to assist Border Patrol agents in order to deal with the surge of illegal immigrants.
	And lastly, just yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott announced a major border security plan which, among several other things, involves Texas building their own barrier along the Mexico border.
	And arresting illegal immigrants who enter the state.
	During that announcement, Governor Abbott said that he will sign new state budgets that will appropriate more than $1 billion to increase border security and that Texas will be expanding their border barrier.
	However, he did not elaborate further on that as of yet, and he said that more details will be coming next week.
	Here's what specifically Governor Abbott said in a statement.
	He then further elaborated on his main point by writing this on Twitter.
	We're going to start making arrests, sending a message to anyone thinking about coming here.
	You're not getting a free pass.
	You're getting a straight pass to a jail cell.
	Now, as to whether this new strategy will ultimately work, and more specifically whether the federal government will allow Texas to do this unabated, well, that is yet to be determined.
	Because although Texas is accusing the federal government of pretty much abdicating their duty to protect the nation, and now they're taking things into their own hands, well, technically the federal government could argue that they are overstepping their bounds.
	And we'll just have to wait and see what ultimately happens.
	Now, if you would like to read anything that we've discussed about the southern border thus far or about this new plan in Texas, all those links will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And also, if you have a Twitter account, I would highly, highly recommend that you follow our reporter Charlotte, who is right now down in Texas doing on-the-ground reporting, such as by shadowing sheriffs as they're doing their duties right there on the border.
	She has some unbelievable footage and photos coming out pretty much on a weekly basis that pretty much shows an authentic representation of what is happening down there at the U.S. southern border.
	I'll put a link in the description box as well to her Twitter account.
	And now, before we move on over and discuss how hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing blue states and taking billions of dollars of income with them, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth.
	I wanted to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which is an awesome company called AMAC, or A-M-A-C, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
	Now I do consider myself a mature American citizen, but I'm about 19 years too young to join AMAC. However, if you or someone in your family is 50 years old or over, I would consider joining because they are essentially the conservative alternative to the AARP and they offer three main benefits to their members.
	The first is the money-saving benefit because they partner with a ton of retailers across the country and offer you discounts on things like vitamins, insurance policies, and so on.
	The list is pretty long.
	I'll throw a link to it in the description box below.
	The second is that members get a subscription to their magazine.
	And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's filled with thought-provoking articles.
	Very good.
	I'd highly recommend it.
	And then the third benefit, which a lot of people say is their favorite, is that AMAC fights on Capitol Hill against what they're calling the socialist storm that's brewing in America.
	So again, I would highly recommend you check them out.
	It's not too expensive.
	It's only $16 per year, but it looks like the benefits outweigh the cost by a wide margin.
	Again, you can go over to amac.us forward slash facts matter.
	And now let's talk about mass migration within America's borders.
	Now, for the last several years, stretching back even before the pandemic and before the lockdowns, hundreds of thousands of Americans were leaving blue states and moving themselves and their families to red states.
	And with them, they took their taxable incomes.
	In fact, according to data from the IRS, which tracks state-to-state migration, it showed that blue states had an outflow of nearly 400,000 taxpayers who took with them over $26 billion in taxable gross income to red states.
	And this IRS migration data, by the way, is the most recent that we have access to, and it spans from 2017 to 2018.
	So I really want to highlight, this does not even include the pandemic and all of the lockdowns.
	However, this data, it shows that during this one-year time span between 2017 and 2018, close to 400,000 taxpayers and their dependents, which, by the way, represents about 1% of the U.S. population, they up and left blue states in favor of red states.
	And just for your reference, the definition of a blue state, at least in this context, is one in which both the statehouse and the state senate are controlled by Democrats.
	And when you comb through this data from the IRS, you find that the losers, the big losers in this migration are California, which lost about 167,000 people, New York, which lost about 153,000 people, and Illinois, which lost about 82,000 people.
	California, New York, and Illinois, with those states accounting for the bulk of people leaving, followed by New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland.
	And then, in terms of the winners, it looks like Texas was the biggest beneficiary of this outflow.
	They had a net gain of over 114,000 taxpayers, which equated to about $4 billion more in new taxable income, which I guess as we discussed in the previous story, they can now use to build their own border wall.
	Now one question that's worth considering is exactly why are people leaving blue states in such high numbers?
	Right now, a lot of people are saying that it's because of the lockdowns.
	However, this data, the one that we're reviewing from the IRS, it came from 2017 to 2018, which is two full years before the pandemic.
	And so, in order to get an idea of what's actually going on, let's do a case study of just one state, of California.
	In total, California saw the biggest loss of any single state.
	During this period, they lost over 165,000 taxpayers, which accounted for $8.8 billion in gross income that just left the state.
	And it's not just the tax revenue that they are losing, by the way.
	California has had so many people leave over the last decade that they even lost a congressional seat in the US House of Representatives.
	Now, according to Brandon Ristoff, who is an analyst with the California Policy Center, he told media that this exodus from California is driven by the state's bad policies on the economy, education, and more.
	California used to be a place where everyone wanted to live, but now California has become a place where people want to leave.
	Now, getting anecdotal data about why people are leaving California is fairly simple.
	I mean, if you just type why I left California into the YouTube search bar, you'll find a fair bit of videos with people citing the rise in homeless encampments, people doing hard drugs in plain sight, the rise in violent crime, the streets being filled with poop, taxes going through the roof, rolling blackouts, and so on.
	Likewise, if you go on Twitter, you can find many posts about why people are leaving the state, such as this one here.
	To register a 2021 Toyota 4Runner in Idaho, $32 for two years.
	To register the same vehicle in California, $627 for just one year.
	Roads in Idaho are ranked in the top three best in the country.
	Roads in California are ranked second worst in the country.
	Now, these types of posts are quite telling about the state of things over in California.
	However, outside of this anecdotal data, there are some more concrete sources of data that we can look at to see why people are leaving the state.
	For example, the Census Bureau routinely conducts surveys where they ask people who recently moved why they did so.
	And according to the results of their most recent survey, which was again prior to the pandemic, they found that the top answers were because people wanted a newer, better, or larger house or apartment, had a new job or job transfer, wanted to establish their own household, other family reasons, wanted to own their own home rather than rent, and wanted cheaper housing.
	Now again, note that was before the pandemic, and also notice that the Census Bureau does not ask specifically about taxes.
	However, according to the Cato Institute, which is a libertarian think tank, they released an analysis which made the argument that taxes do heavily influence migration, and they also further said that tax-related motivations could actually be inferred from some of the responses in that Census Bureau data that we just looked at.
	Here's what they said in their analysis.
	The Census Bureau does not ask movers about taxes, but some of the 19 choices may reflect the influence of taxes.
	For example, people moving for housing reasons may consider the level of property taxes since those taxes are a standard item listed on housing sale notices.
	Similarly, people moving for new jobs may consider the effect of income taxes if they are, for example, moving between a high-tax state, such as California, and a state with no income tax, such as Nevada.
	Now, if you would like to dive into this data for yourself, It'll all be linked down there in the description box below this video.
	And all I ask in return is that you smash that like button.
	Because videos that are like this, talking honestly, openly about what is happening in this world without following the established narrative that is propagated by the corporate media outlets in this country...
	Videos like this are routinely censored by big tech giants like YouTube.
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	Letting the truth be known far and wide.
	And now let's talk a little bit about the Supreme Court.
	However, two U.S. Senators are working to change that.
	That's because these two Senators recently asked the U.S. Marshals for all documents related to trips taken by U.S. Supreme Court Justices over the last decade.
	Now, these two senators, by the way, come from both parties.
	One is Sheldon Whitehouse, who is a Democrat from Rhode Island, while the other is John Kennedy, who is a Republican from Louisiana.
	And here's what they wrote in this joint letter that they sent over to the U.S. Marshals Service.
	It says,"...Congress is currently reevaluating financial disclosure standards for the receipts of gifts, travel, and other emoluments by senior government officials, including the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial officers." These statutes require senior government officials to disclose outside income, gifts and reimbursements on an annual basis.
	The letter then goes on to say that while the legislative and the executive branches of our government have already set up regulations around disclosing gifts, the guidelines surrounding the judicial branch are significantly less stringent.
	Here's what the letter goes on to say.
	The justices of our highest court are subject to the lowest standards of transparency of any senior officials across the federal government.
	They then go on to ask the U.S. Marshal Service for all documents from the past decade related to trips that were taken by U.S. Supreme Court justices when they left Washington, D.C. Now, according to a statement from these senators, these documents will help us assess how disclosures by members of the court accord with the judicial branch's disclosure standards and to improve the consistency of disclosure standards across the three branches.
	For a reference, by the way, when the Supreme Court justices are in Washington, D.C., they are protected by the Supreme Court police.
	However, when they travel outside of Washington, they typically request security from the U.S. Marshals, which is why this letter is addressed to them in order to get these documents.
	And furthermore, this is not actually the first time that these types of travel records have been requested.
	For example, back in February, so about four months ago, these same two senators sent a letter over to John Roberts, who is the Supreme Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and in that previous letter, much like in this new letter that we just reviewed, they asked John Roberts to...
	Following passage of the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, Congress and the executive branch implemented strong disclosure requirements for officials outside income, gifts, and reimbursements.
	The judiciary, for its part, has adopted significantly less stringent guidelines and has failed to make information on judicial branch disclosures readily available to the public.
	However, according to the senators, Justice John Roberts never responded to that earlier letter, which might be why these two senators sent this letter directly to the U.S. Marshals and circumvented the U.S. Supreme Court altogether.
	Now, one interesting thing to note here, the last thing I want to note, is that about 10 years ago, there was a similar push to get the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics.
	However, back then, Justice John Roberts, he actually came out, and he said that Congress does not have the constitutional authority to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, and he added that the court has...
	And so, we'll keep an eye out for whether the U.S. Marshals actually get back to the Senators with these documents, and if so, we'll let you know what they say.
	And until then, if you would like to read more about this letter, if you would like to actually read the full text of this letter, or all the details surrounding it, those links will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And lastly, as we already discussed in several previous episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, coincidentally, YouTube made the decision to demonetize our program.
	We can now no longer run any ads before, during, or after our episodes, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled.
	Now, luckily, we occasionally get sponsors for our episodes, but they are essentially snuffing out our ability to monetize our content.
	And that, by the way, is outside of any kind of other type of censorship or throttling that YouTube already imposes on us.
	Now, regardless, we here at the Epic Times, we decided to take action and we created something very cool.
	It's called Epic TV. It's our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epoch Times video programs, like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, Life and Times, and our show Facts Matter.
	And on there, like I mentioned earlier, you will find exclusive episodes that you will not find here on YouTube, such as our upcoming episode about the election audit that's likely going to be happening over in Fulton County.
	And all of the semi-crazy developments happening on that front.
	Again, that link will be right there, pinned at the top of the description box.
	I hope you click on it.
	I hope you subscribe.
	And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition.
	Now lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
	Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while you still can.
	Also, if you have an Instagram account, follow me on EpochTimesRoman.
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	You can check that out and we can keep more in touch besides these episodes here on YouTube.
	And now lastly, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.

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