- 1 year ago
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) holds a press briefing with Florida AG James Uthmeier about the Census.
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00:00You know, we went when they did the Open the SoFi Center, we went to one of those events there, which is really cool what they've been able to do here.
00:07And so I want to thank President Parker for having us here.
00:11We're also joined by Mike Caruso, who's now a countywide office holder.
00:17So if you guys don't know him, Clerk of Court.
00:21And then we got the Attorney General of Florida, James Uthmeyer, is here.
00:25So we have an announcement that both the Attorney General and I will talk about.
00:34But before I get into that, I do want to make another announcement.
00:37So I think as most people know, we had a terrible thing happen in St. Lucie County where you had an illegal alien who was driving this big tractor truck
00:49and decided to try to do a U-turn where they have the official use only.
00:55These are little gaps in the highway for highway patrol and law enforcement.
01:00And that was obviously a total disaster to even try that.
01:04You had a car coming that ran into it and three Floridians were killed.
01:09This was somebody that was issued that CDL actually in two different states, Washington State and in California,
01:15and should have never obviously been behind the wheel, doesn't even speak English.
01:20You know, if you're on a drive, you've got to know the road signs and stuff, and it's just the reality.
01:26So it was a really horrible thing.
01:29He, at the time, there was not any eyewitnesses.
01:32He didn't speak English.
01:34So they got all the facts they could.
01:36But then when they got the videotape, they saw, so immediately he fled to California, obviously Sanctuary State.
01:44He was able to be detained in California.
01:47And so today I'm sending Florida's new lieutenant governor, Jay Collins, to California.
01:55And tomorrow morning he is going to take possession of this illegal alien, extradite him back to the state of Florida,
02:02and we're going to throw the book at him when he gets back here for what he did.
02:06So you can count on that.
02:13Now, we are here to discuss something that both the Attorney General and I are going to be pursuing in conjunction,
02:21hopefully, with the Trump administration, and that involves the count of Florida in the most recent census.
02:28I think most people know we were undercounted in that census.
02:33In fact, I remember when the first Trump administration was leaving office in January of 2021,
02:39you know, I spoke with people at the Commerce Department,
02:41and they said Florida is going to get two additional seats in Congress as a result of that census,
02:48which was basically the 2010 through 2020 population growth.
02:54It turns out a new administration takes office.
02:56We end up getting one seat in the state of Florida.
03:01You know, Oregon got one.
03:02I think Colorado, I mean, it's like we got the same as Oregon over that period of time.
03:06And even the Biden administration a couple years later said that there was undercount in Florida,
03:13that Florida should have gotten at least one more seat in Congress,
03:18and that some of these other states.
03:20And look, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but every state that got shortchanged was a Republican state,
03:29and every state that got more was a Democrat state.
03:32That's just the truth about how that census was applied.
03:35So, you know, you think about it, we, and I know there's different issues involving the census even apart from that,
03:43but the census that was done, and it was, it started under Trump administration,
03:47but it was processed and the results were promulgated under Biden.
03:51And just with that, if we just take that and applied it properly, Florida would have at least one more seat.
03:58That's just the truth.
03:59So the attorney general has written a letter to the Census Bureau, the Commerce Department,
04:06copying the White House, saying, you know, please fix this remuneration
04:11and award Florida what we're entitled to, an extra seat in Congress.
04:16And if we get that, that's not only an extra seat in the House of Representatives, we have 28 now,
04:21that would also mean an additional vote in the Electoral College when it comes to presidential elections.
04:27And so we should have had that in 2024, in 22 for Congress, 24 for both Congress and the Electoral College,
04:35and we want this fixed now.
04:37We think it's really something that's important.
04:39So if that relief is given, then that would obviously force us, force the Florida legislature,
04:47to have to redraw the maps that we have for U.S. House of Representatives,
04:53because we have 28 districts currently.
04:56We would presumably have 29.
04:58I've had some people tell me they think we'd have 30, but I think 29.
05:01So you would have to do that.
05:03But that would need to be done, you know, likely within the next three to six months,
05:07so that we have enough time to be able to get that done.
05:11But we are going to press this issue.
05:14Attorney General told me he's going to be willing to go up to Washington
05:16and talk to people in the Commerce Department to be able to get this right.
05:20I know President Trump has spoken about the need to fix the problems with the census.
05:26And let me also say that there's the issue, which I think is important, about, okay, you count people,
05:33and then you've got people, especially in, like, California, who are illegally in the country.
05:39Should you be rewarded for that in more seats in Congress because you're a sanctuary jurisdiction?
05:45I don't think so.
05:46I don't think it's right.
05:47So, you know, you count who's ever present, but then when you do congressional apportionment,
05:53that should be based on people who are lawfully present in the country.
05:58And then if you did that, that would also necessitate different results than what we've had in recent years.
06:05And so we're totally supportive of dealing with the issue of not having illegal aliens counted for the purpose of apportionment.
06:16That benefits California.
06:18It benefits Illinois, New York in ways that it really shouldn't.
06:22But that's how it's been done.
06:24So we're definitely supportive of that, but you don't even need to do that to give us the extra seat that we should have had starting in the 2022 election.
06:32So that's the first thing, and we're going to keep on this.
06:35We're going to work with commerce.
06:36You know, I had spoken with folks back in the day when this happened.
06:41I was like, can we sue over this?
06:43And they're like, well, we don't really, you know, how do you get in?
06:46And, like, we didn't know, like, what the basis would be.
06:48We knew we were entitled, but, you know, you've got to prove it.
06:51You've got to have the legal theory, all this stuff.
06:52And we were not going to get any help at the time, of course, from the Biden administration.
06:55Well, now, Biden administration has since had to acknowledge that there was an undercount.
07:00And I know the Trump administration is of the same mind.
07:02So we're in a position now where I think we may be able to get positive relief.
07:07The other issue that is going to be significant that's going to have a bearing on Florida's congressional districts is the idea of race-based districts.
07:17So the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a case.
07:20It's going to be argued in October, basically asking the question about whether is it appropriate to use race when you're drawing districts.
07:29So the current iteration of the Voting Rights Act has been interpreted to mean that if you have a majority-minority district, that district has to be kept into a similar configuration such that the majority can elect a candidate of their choice.
07:50Which basically, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean, you know, if you elected that district elected a Republican, they would say that that's a bad district.
07:58It basically means that district has to elect a Democrat.
08:00That's the way this has been interpreted over the years.
08:04We have at least one in our congressional map that is configured, strangely, to be able to comply with that interpretation of the Voting Rights Act.
08:15People are now bringing a challenge saying, you know what, Voting Rights Act means you show up to vote.
08:21If you're a lawful citizen, you get to vote.
08:23They can't play games with you.
08:25They can't make one person go in with nothing.
08:29And then someone, because they're a different color, have to be able to recite the Odyssey from memory.
08:33Otherwise, they fail the literacy test.
08:35All that stuff is done.
08:37Like, that is not something that's appropriate.
08:39But that's an individual's voter's right to go in and cast a vote if you're a citizen of this country.
08:46And that obviously should apply regardless of race.
08:49But are we saying that you have to draw these strange districts to be able to manufacture a certain number of folks of certain race or not race in one district?
08:59That is using race to draw the districts in ways that I think people, some people, I do, interpret the 14th Amendment to not allow.
09:08So that is going to be a huge issue in front of the Supreme Court, I think, because they're hearing it this early in the session, that they likely are going to render a decision on this perhaps by the end of the year, the beginning of next year.
09:22You know, our primary is a year away.
09:24So we have time to be able to digest those changes.
09:27But if that decision were to come down and to say that those districts are problematic, Florida would be forced with that as well, even if we didn't get the extra seat, to go in and do a new map.
09:40And as you remember, well, some may remember, you know, I had to veto the Florida Republican legislature, had to veto their map last time because they drew this 200-mile district from Tallahassee to Jacksonville,
09:55this little squiggly district across the northern tip of Florida, and it was purely to manufacture a certain racial composition.
10:03It was not a VRA district, though.
10:06This was them doing that apart from that.
10:08And I said, that's not constitutional.
10:10Like, regardless, however you think the VRA should be interpreted, if it's a VRA district, federal law, fine, you deal with that.
10:17But this was not.
10:18No one was even claiming it was.
10:20And so I said, I'm not going to sign that.
10:22And we vetoed the map.
10:25We had to fight them on other stuff, but we got a map in.
10:29And it ended up going to federal court and the Florida Supreme Court, and it's been upheld every time people have sued over it because we knew we were right.
10:39But that was a really important decision to be able to do that.
10:43So we've done that.
10:45Here, this could be something that would require us to do even more.
10:50And we're going to be ready and willing and able to do it.
10:53Now, apart from what happens with the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau,
10:58apart from what happens with the U.S. Supreme Court and how they interpret Section 2 of the VRA,
11:05we do have a situation in Florida where, based on the recent Florida Supreme Court decision,
11:12you know, there may be things in the map that we are going to have to, well, the legislature would have to address.
11:18You know, we're going through it.
11:21I know people are looking at it.
11:22But there's definitely some decisions that were made by the legislature last time, particularly in southern Florida,
11:27that may not comport with the court's recent decision upholding the northern part of Florida with a part of the map that was challenged.
11:35So that obviously is a basis to go in and do this thing fresh.
11:41And the other thing I would point out is, if you look at when this census was completed,
11:47the counting, I think, stopped in April of 2020.
11:51I mean, just think about what it was like in Palm Beach then compared to now.
11:55I mean, like you've had Florida has been the place where people have escaped to from all.
11:59And just keep in mind, I'm not recruiting people to move here.
12:03I'm not.
12:03Some governors will go around the country, please move to our state, please.
12:06I'm not doing that because, honestly, we've got a lot of people.
12:09We've got great people.
12:11You know, I figured out, like, during COVID, like, I didn't need to go on these trips to recruit, you know, businesses from New York.
12:17They were calling me, asking me to come down.
12:19You guys can come if you want.
12:20It was fine.
12:21So I'm not one of those guys that's, like, begging people, you know, to move here at all because I understand, like, look, there's some benefits to that.
12:29I mean, some of the people have moved in this area, you know, have good income.
12:33They don't really use services.
12:35They contribute and all that stuff.
12:37So I'm not saying it's bad, but there obviously is challenges with traffic.
12:41There's challenges with building new schools and all this stuff.
12:44So the bottom line is, you know, we just try to do a good job.
12:47People can vote with their feet how they want to.
12:49And the reality is, since that April of 2020, you know, Florida has been the number one state that people have sought to move to in the entire United States of America.
13:00And so when I got elected governor, I think we had about 21 million people.
13:05You know, now we're almost 23 and a half million people in the state of Florida.
13:10But our current congressional districts are reflective of that reality from 2019 to the beginning of 2020.
13:18So you have some districts that have not reflected the population change that's happened.
13:23So some districts you have a lot of votes.
13:25Some you don't have as much votes.
13:27And so that is another basis to go back in and look and say, okay, we want equal representation.
13:33You know, these districts should be the same.
13:35You know, a congressman in some parts of Florida can get elected with, like, a fraction of the votes that some others.
13:42Some of these congressmen, you know, are getting 250,000 votes.
13:45Some of the others are getting, like, less than 200,000 votes.
13:48And I'm thinking to myself, like, you know, that's odd when you have that.
13:52And it's not just there's overall way more votes in some districts than the others.
13:56So we've seen that.
13:57And part of it is because what's happened in Florida has really been unprecedented.
14:01We've had really significant growth.
14:05And migration.
14:06And our congressional map should reflect that.
14:09So this is something that we are going to have to address as a state.
14:14I've spoken with some folks in the Florida legislature.
14:19And I think that there's broad acknowledgment that this is something, you know, that is going to have to happen.
14:24We do have some things that will happen between now and the spring that will inform exactly how we're supposed to do this,
14:33particularly if we get another seat or if the Supreme Court says that the racial-based districts are unconstitutional.
14:40That we would have no choice as a state but to go in and do a new congressional map.
14:46But I really, this is something that's kind of stuck in my craw for a number of years because I remember telling everybody we were going to get two seats at the last census.
14:57And then when they came out with them, we only got one.
15:00And I was looking around.
15:01And I'm like, you know, they told me Rhode Island was going to lose a seat.
15:04And we were going to get two.
15:06And then Biden comes in.
15:08Who's the Commerce Secretary overseeing the census?
15:11Former governor of Rhode Island.
15:13Did Rhode Island lose a seat?
15:14No.
15:15Did Florida get two?
15:16No.
15:16We only got one.
15:17So there's all these questions.
15:18And so I've been frustrated with it.
15:20We were not going to get anywhere, I think, under the Biden administration.
15:24And I know the president has personally spoken about the need to get the census right.
15:28So we have an opportunity to do that and to basically give Floridians what they're entitled to, which is fair representation.
15:36So I want to thank the attorney general for taking the lead on this and working with the Trump administration.
15:43This is time sensitive, though.
15:45I mean, Florida, we have more time than most because our primary is not for about a year away.
15:51And we have filing that probably can get pushed to June for congressional if we need to, like the state offices.
15:57So we do have some time.
16:00But certainly if they're going to go back and fix the census, I mean, that would be something that they would need to act on as soon as possible.
16:06So hopefully Florida can play a role in getting this right, not just for the people of our state, but for the United States.
16:11James.
16:20It's good to be here.
16:21It's clear that there's been for a long time now a deep state effort to manipulate the census and shift electoral power to blue states, to sanctuary states.
16:33And as you see a lot of Democrat leaders engaging in hysteria over the deportation of people that are here illegally, many of these people, you know, who have committed very heinous crimes, it's clear that they are freaking out because they realize the jig is up.
16:51They had a deep-seated plan, they wanted to open the border, flood these people in, spread them into sanctuary communities, and ultimately get greater disproportionate electoral power because of it.
17:05And think about it.
17:06Somebody that is not here as a lawful citizen doesn't have the right to vote.
17:11Yet on election night, when the electoral college, the electoral votes are distributed, states like California do disproportionately well.
17:19It's estimated, and we don't know the total number of people here in this country illegally, but it's estimated that at least 20 to 30 congressional seats, electoral votes, perhaps would shift if we were truly apportioning based on lawful U.S. citizens.
17:38So we applaud President Trump and the administration for recognizing this problem, this challenge to our Constitution, this challenge to true electoral representation in this country.
17:51We're certainly going to do everything we can to help them get it right.
17:56Now, as the governor said, we in Florida, we have our own exacerbated problem, and I saw it happen firsthand.
18:02I was appointed to be a senior advisor to the Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, a local resident here, in the first administration, and the Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.
18:14So as the tabulations were beginning, as the numbers were coming in, it was always projected Florida would get two seats.
18:22That's certainly what I thought was going to happen, maybe even three, given the population growth we were seeing even before COVID and the rise of the free state.
18:32And yet, sure enough, Biden administration comes in, there are significant delays, there are problems, and it ultimately comes out Florida only gets one seat.
18:43Since then, in after-action reports, the Census Bureau has publicly admitted that they believe Florida was undercounted by an estimate of at least 700,000 people.
18:55We only needed, according to the earlier data, we only needed about 100-something thousand to get that extra seat.
19:03So the Census Bureau themselves, the very bureaucrats that, you know, caused these problems, have admitted that Florida should have had more representation.
19:12Florida citizens deserve the adequate representation in Congress.
19:17They deserve the adequate representation in the Electoral College that makes such important decisions for the leadership of our country.
19:26Florida citizens deserve the fair and adequate federal funding to come to this state and ensure that we have the resources needed to meet the needs of our population.
19:37So the Office of Attorney General will certainly be pursuing any remedy necessary to fix this problem.
19:44Obviously, we'd love to do it before the midterms next year, before voters go and vote.
19:49And we otherwise look forward to working with the Trump administration on fixing a larger midterm census to get it right for the country and our citizens.
20:01You guys deserve it.
20:03So we'll be fighting the good fight.
20:04I'll be helping the governor in this regard and look forward to hopefully seeing some good results.
20:16You know, one thing that's important to point out is Florida, you know, I vetoed the map last time.
20:24It did have racial, unconstitutional, racial gerrymandering.
20:27We did a map and, you know, people were howling about it because the reality is in this, we did it on constitutional grounds, but they didn't like the fact that that gerrymandered district would have likely been a Democrat and then that was taken away.
20:41And so they were crying foul on that.
20:44Florida's map has compact districts.
20:47It's one of the most compact maps in the country.
20:50The legislature is not allowed to draw the Illinois tile snake districts, which are a joke.
20:56They're not allowed to do that.
20:58So the map that Florida has has compact districts.
21:02It's done in a way that makes a lot of sense.
21:05And the reality is, is if you look at, like, California, you know, they're doing all this dog and pony show there now saying, oh, Texas, we've got to combat Texas.
21:16California is one of the worst gerrymandered maps there is.
21:20You know, what they did, this is how they do.
21:22They're like, no, we're going to do an independent commission.
21:23So they do a commission.
21:26The problem is, it's like, if you truly were independent, it's like you would be immune to any type of partisan pressures.
21:33But that commission is comprised of liberal Democrats, liberal independents, and very liberal Republicans.
21:40I think one of the Republicans is from Berkeley, like not exactly a hotbed of Reagan conservatism.
21:45So it's just, it is what it is.
21:47So they hotwired that independent commission to produce a map that was very much gerrymandered and was not something that was fair to Republicans even at that time.
21:58Now they're saying they want to do even more by doing whatever they're talking about doing now.
22:05So don't buy this notion that if someone has a commission, that that somehow means it is immune from this type of partisan pressures.
22:16The California one was a left-wing commission.
22:20That's just the reality.
22:21That's what they produced.
22:22That's what they were supposed to do based on who appointed those folks to that commission.
22:27And so I just think it's better to just have the legislature do it.
22:32And if you don't like it, you know, you can vote them out.
22:34You put some commission in, like California, and then stack it.
22:38If you don't like that as a voter, those people will never appear on your ballot.
22:41But that's exactly what they did there.
22:43And they've done it in other states as well.
22:45And then Illinois, if you look at Illinois, you know, so Illinois, like if Chicago wasn't in Illinois, it would be a red state.
22:53You know, there's some dots blue, but like most of it is red outside of Illinois.
22:58So if you drew compact districts, you know, you'd have probably six in the Chicago that would be like 90-10 Dem, right?
23:06But then all the other ones would probably be Republican districts, and they didn't want that.
23:10So what they do is they go into the city of Chicago, they find enough Dems, and they draw a map out to the burbs and the rural to do that so they know a Dem can win.
23:20Then they go to the next part of the city.
23:22They draw it out with the rural and all that.
23:24So just look up their map on Google Maps and Google Image, and it'll come up, and you can see it.
23:30And it's a joke.
23:32And I just find it funny that Texas, whatever they're – you know, I don't know what the status is.
23:38I know they were trying.
23:39These Democrats flee, and, you know, a lot of the media is like acting like Texas is like so out of bounds.
23:46I never heard anything about Illinois.
23:49Like it was almost like they didn't care about Illinois.
23:51You even have the governor of Illinois.
23:53He's sheltering these Texas Democrats who are fleeing – first of all, you should be there doing your job, not running and hiding – but they're fleeing to Illinois to protest gerrymandering.
24:05You're going to Illinois to protest gerrymandering?
24:10I mean, it's just ridiculous.
24:12So Florida, you know, what we did, you know, we were attacked at the time.
24:18You know, the reality is people can pull up, you know, that map and see, you know, how it was done.
24:23So this is going to be something, you know, we are going to have to address this in one form or another.
24:27We will do that.
24:29But I do think that there's going to be things that are going to happen throughout the balance of this year and the beginning of next year.
24:35Maybe get a tweak to the census, Supreme Court rule on racial gerrymandering.
24:41And then, obviously, we've got the basis that we're looking through based on the Florida Supreme Court's decision about if there are any vulnerabilities on our current map.
24:50And then just accounting for the reality that Florida has had a big population shift.
24:56And it hasn't been uniformed throughout the state.
25:00You know, Broward, I don't think they've had net population gain.
25:03You have some other places.
25:04I mean, Palm Beach has had net gain.
25:06You've had other parts of the state definitely net gain.
25:08But there's some that boomed, some that were, you know, no one did bad.
25:13But it isn't uniform the way it's happened.
25:15So the map should reflect that.
25:17We want to make sure everybody's vote counts.
25:19So stay tuned on that.
25:21But this letter has gone out.
25:25James is going to be working with Commerce and working with the Trump administration on this.
25:29And hopefully we're able to get to a positive resolution for the state of Florida.
25:33Okay, we got any questions?
25:34Yes.
25:35Yes, Governor Dave Bowman, WPTV.
25:37You had mentioned racially drawn districts.
25:40And you said at least one in our state.
25:42Is that the one represented near here by the state?
25:45Yes, so if you look at the map, there's one that has, like, almost like claws that go out.
25:51It's the most irregular-shaped district on Florida's map.
25:56It was, it's not really what the legislature is supposed to draw, pursuant to the Florida Constitution.
26:01But the reason why they were able to do it is to ensure, at least on the surface, compliance, you know, with the VRA Section 2.
26:11Like I said, the case in the Supreme Court is, well, wait a minute.
26:14You know, voting rights means you show up, you know, I think you've got to show a picture ID like we do in Florida.
26:21You've got to be a citizen, all that.
26:22But, you know, you have a right to vote if you're eligible.
26:25And that shouldn't be encumbered.
26:27That, to me, is what voting rights are.
26:29It's not to try to do these, like, somersaults on a congressional map to try to engineer, you know, something based on characteristics that I don't think really speak to people's, you know, character or ideas.
26:41But, yeah, that would be the one that was the most irregularly shaped that if the Florida, if the U.S. Supreme Court said that you can't do that, you would be forced to redraw that one 100%.
26:53One follow-up.
26:54I hear what you say about California and the independent commission.
26:57I'm not going to challenge you on that.
26:59However, purple states like Michigan and Virginia have independent commissions as well.
27:04My question is, would the people of Florida have more confidence in the legislature drawing maps and not having accusations of gerrymandering than if an independent commission appointed with a lot of input, obviously, from you in the Republican majority?
27:19Would that be a better solution than having a state legislature?
27:22It would be a much less accountable solution.
27:25You know, you have, as voters, you can hold the legislature accountable.
27:28Every two years, you get to go and hold them accountable if you don't like what they're doing.
27:33And that ultimately is the protection that you have as citizens to be able to basically, if you don't like what's going on, like they say, you can throw the bums out anytime you want.
27:41But I would also just point to the Florida legislature.
27:47And look, I had folks in my office that were, because, you know, we had a disagreement on the map.
27:52So they were drawing, look at Florida's map.
27:56Look at the compactness of the districts.
27:58It was well done.
27:59It just was.
28:00And I think you would see something similar.
28:03Florida's constitution says you've got to have compact.
28:06You've got to try to follow boundaries, geographical boundaries, municipal, the best you can to make it a sensible district.
28:15And I think the map that we have now does that.
28:17Now, the people at the time, particularly, you know, the other party, they didn't like it because we did dismantle that gerrymandered district.
28:24And it did cause a change in the partisan representation for the state in terms of our whole delegation.
28:31But that wasn't the intent of it.
28:33That was an effect of it because we were abiding by the Constitution.
28:37Hi, Rachel Williams with WPBF 25 News.
28:40My question is going back to your first point about the truck driver from last week.
28:45Can you detail how state troopers were able to determine that Singh entered the U.S. illegally?
28:50Well, it wasn't the state troopers that did it.
28:52It was in conjunction with federal authorities.
28:55So the feds were able to provide pretty much the whole dossier on this guy.
29:00Very soon as the video leaked and then we knew that there was a crime that was committed, they were able to get that information in short order.
29:06So illegally entered the country in 2018, applied for work authorization in the fall of 2020, was rejected.
29:16That was under Trump 45.
29:17Reapplied for work authorization in 2021 under Biden and was granted the work authorization.
29:25Eventually receives a CDL, a commercial driver's license from Washington State, which is a sanctuary state.
29:31And then took that license and applied for a similar license in California.
29:38And so the California license was granted at least in part on the fact that he had a CDL in Washington State.
29:44And then when he was identified after the video came out, he was detained.
29:52The feds, this happened within the last few days, they conducted a language test on him.
29:57You're supposed to be reading these signs.
30:00You're supposed to know what the hell you're doing.
30:02That's true if you're driving a little VW bug, much less a semi-trailer, a tractor trailer.
30:10And yet this guy, he abysmally failed the English test, like not even close, like not even broken English.
30:17Like this guy did not know English.
30:20And yet somehow he was given a CDL by Washington and a CDL by the state of California.
30:27And that should not have happened.
30:29That is wrong that that happened.
30:32So you have a real serious issue and a breakdown here.
30:36But I would say part of the problem, and I mentioned this yesterday, this guy came from India, right?
30:42He comes through the southern border illegally.
30:46He gets caught and he claims asylum.
30:50That is not what asylum is for.
30:52First of all, if he was really being persecuted in India,
30:55how many countries did he pass through where he could have claimed this?
30:59You don't just get to come halfway around the world and use that as a card to get it.
31:03So then he claims asylum, but we have this totally screwy system where he's then given a court date.
31:10Then it's postponed.
31:12Then this.
31:12Then this.
31:12So it's like if you come illegally and you give a bogus asylum claim under how the law has been applied,
31:19at least up until President Trump took office in January, you're basically giving yourself years in this country.
31:26That is not a disincentive to come illegally.
31:29That's not a disincentive not to overstay visa.
31:32That's not.
31:32So you had that that was going on.
31:36And I'm just, you know, thinking to myself, it's like, well, wait a minute.
31:39We all know this is a problem.
31:41You can't have a situation in which a President Biden can open the border.
31:47Millions and millions come in.
31:49And then a President Trump's trying to rectify that.
31:51And it's basically you got to jump through like 36 different bureaucratic hula hoops just to be able to return somebody to their home country.
32:01So it's kind of heads they win, tails we lose, the way it's set up right now.
32:07And so my question is, you know, we have a Republican Congress.
32:11All these guys, I've watched them for years.
32:14They all run, and when they're running for election, oh, I'm so tough on border immigration, no illegal, all that.
32:20Then they get in there, and what do they do about it?
32:23Have they passed legislation?
32:25Have they sought legislation to clean up the mess?
32:29Have they passed legislation to be able to get this done so that we don't have these problems?
32:34No.
32:35They've been in for how many months?
32:36They haven't even attempted it that I've seen.
32:40What about sanctuary states?
32:42Now, we're not a sanctuary state in Florida.
32:44We banned sanctuary cities my first year.
32:46We've got very strong policies, and it's honestly, it benefits citizens in Florida to have those strong policies.
32:53But why are they still funding sanctuary states?
32:57Why are they still funding sanctuary cities?
32:59Why doesn't Congress use the power of the purse and say your funding is contingent upon following federal law with respect to immigration?
33:10You can't be a sanctuary jurisdiction.
33:12You can't, you know, California, they've probably done a million driver's licenses to illegal aliens in the past decade.
33:22Now, Florida law, we don't recognize that license in Florida.
33:25We don't issue driver's license for people here illegally.
33:30We don't give, let local governments do ID cards.
33:32Because, you know, some of the local governments would want to get involved in that.
33:35We ban that.
33:36We don't even let the NGOs do it.
33:38Because we know they're trying to generate a system where people can get benefits, vote, whatever, when they're not entitled to it.
33:44So we've done it right.
33:45But how is it that these sanctuary jurisdictions are able to get away with it?
33:49And I think they get away with it because Congress, you know, they're basically on the sidelines.
33:55It's like they just kind of sit in the cheap seats and watch everything unfold without actually using their constitutional authority to fix these problems.
34:04So this was avoidable.
34:06This should have never happened.
34:08There were obviously major, major screw-ups by Washington State and California.
34:14I shouldn't even say that because I think that was, that's their policy to be able to do that.
34:19So those are misguided policies.
34:20But the bureaucratic morass that happens when somebody will come in and claim asylum, you know, really is a farce.
34:28So the governor, Abigail, with the Sun Sentinel, this builds off of a question that was already asked.
34:34But do you think that the boundaries of Jared Mosk with congressional districts should change?
34:38I'm not sure.
34:40I don't, I'm not, I didn't draw the current map.
34:42I don't know whose district is whose.
34:44And quite frankly, you know, even though I wasn't involved in drawing it, you know, I said I was going to veto the one and that we had to do another.
34:50The guys that do draw the maps, they don't, they don't do it based on who the incumbent is.
34:56They basically do it based on, you know, what makes sense in terms of geographic.
35:00So, you know, we had some incumbents that were complaining last time and they were like, oh, you know, you're trying to go after this.
35:06No, no one was gone after.
35:08It had no impact on anything.
35:10Now, I will say, clearly, if the VRA is found to be, the application of the VRA is found to be unconstitutional out of the race-based district, that district here will definitely change.
35:21So that will be mandated to do it.
35:23And my sense is that would probably have spillover effects for a lot of places in southern Florida.
35:28I think if you look at the map now, probably north of I-4, I think is a pretty sound map.
35:35I don't think that there's really any basis.
35:36I think as you get into central but particularly southeast Florida, there starts to become questions, voting VRA questions, but also some lingering questions from the first round of maps that the Florida Supreme Court has now been able to opine on that you could potentially look to see.
35:53And then I think if there are any changes made, one of the things that these guys are going to have to look at is because you can draw a line in this part of the town or that part of, you know, at some point you've got to make decisions.
36:06And I think those decisions should be informed by the population changes and how all that's happened so that people get as fair and as equal representation as possible.
36:15But if you have to change one, then, you know, there's going to be a lot of other districts that could potentially be implicated.
36:23But I don't know if there's a constitutional defect with Moskowitz.
36:26I don't know there.
36:27I know we have, I think, two VRA districts.
36:30Is it two?
36:31Do you know?
36:32Or is it just with the one?
36:33Okay.
36:34At least two.
36:35I think one of them is pretty compact, so I don't know that that would necessarily be a problem, per se, as long as there was a nonracial justification for it.
36:46I do think the one here in Palm Beach that has the arms that kind of go out and try to snag more voters that way, I think that's got some problems.
36:55And I think almost certainly if the VRA is interpreted to say that you can't use race that way, then that district will have to be redrawn 100%.
37:04For how long would you say it's been a problem that people who don't speak English have been able to obtain these CDL licenses?
37:10And would you say that it's something that's been on the rise?
37:13So that's a good question, you know, how endemic is this problem about not being able to speak English and then getting a CDL?
37:21I can tell you in Florida you have to speak English.
37:23So anyone that is able to obtain a CDL without doing that is getting it unlawfully.
37:30We require that.
37:31I think most states do.
37:32I think probably federal law requires them to be able to do it.
37:36So I don't know the answer to your question writ large overall.
37:40I know for us, you know, we've been very clear you have to do it.
37:44We're also making sure like, hey, you know, is there is there anything more we need to do to make sure that that's honored?
37:50My sense is it's been honored in Florida.
37:52But clearly this guy would not have passed the test in Washington or California based on the test that was just done on him by the federal immigration officials.
38:04It would not have happened.
38:05So he clearly never showed demonstrated proficiency in English.
38:09And, you know, there's a lot of stuff that goes into this when you're driving on the road.
38:15I mean, we put our own citizens through just to be able to get a normal driver's license.
38:18You've got to know what you're doing.
38:20And, you know, look, Florida, we've got enough problem with some of our drivers.
38:24I mean, you know, it's like, let's just be honest here.
38:26Do we really need to have more?
38:28And we really want people who are not eligible to be in this country, don't speak English, you know, you know, trying to maneuver a tractor trailer like this?
38:36Like, no, I don't think that that's the right thing to do.
38:39So we're going to look more deeply into what happened in Washington state, what happened in California.
38:45Because I would imagine, I don't think, well, knowing those states, you never know.
38:50But I was, I think it would be hard for them to actually put on paper, you don't have to speak English to drive these heavy vehicles in the United States.
38:58I think it would be hard for them to get away with that, and I don't know that they've actually put that on paper.
39:03If they did, that's a huge scandal.
39:05But if they say you have to do English and then just aren't enforcing it, that's another problem, too.
39:10And I think there should be accountability for it.
39:12And I said, as soon as we got, you know, the facts on this, which, you know, I know the video came out, I think, over the weekend or Friday or something.
39:19And I commented on Monday because I wanted to get as much facts as I could.
39:23I didn't want to just pop off.
39:24I wanted to know what we were dealing with.
39:26But I said, we're going to hold this guy accountable, 100% criminal charges, and he's going to be in prison for a long time.
39:33But we also got to look at the company.
39:35How is he doing?
39:36The company put him in there.
39:38Did the company not look to see whether he could speak English?
39:41I mean, how do you hire somebody?
39:43Hey, you know, how are you going to drive the new English?
39:46Like, no, you have got to speak English.
39:48And there had to be a process where you were able to say, and this guy didn't speak English.
39:53So that's a huge problem with the company.
39:56So we're looking through that and seeing.
39:58And then we're also looking at the conduct of these other states to see, you know, what recourse there is.
40:04It's harder when you're talking about other states.
40:06It just is, legally and constitutionally.
40:09But, you know, how is it fair that like Florida, we're doing the right thing?
40:13We've enacted the safe policies.
40:15We've enacted policies that discourage illegal immigration, not to encourage it.
40:20California does the opposite.
40:22Washington State, Sanctuary State, they are inviting people to come illegally to their state.
40:27And, you know, you can say, well, that's the policies they've chosen.
40:31But those policies spill over to our states.
40:34And that's the problem, I think, that you have.
40:36And that's why I think Congress, they need to get with the program here.
40:40And they need to start enacting some policies to protect states like Florida from the excesses of the sanctuary states throughout these United States.
40:49Okay, thanks, everybody. God bless.
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