RUSH: We had this couple that called yesterday that said they are being asked by their church, who was asked by the Regime, to house kids in their homes!
They were told, “Do not discuss this,” and they were so outraged by it, they called here and told me and you. I’m kind of surprised that didn’t get picked up anywhere. It did not get picked up anywhere. This is Bridenstine. He’s the Republican from Oklahoma who has been just outraged that you can’t get in to see these kids. I mean, they’re hiding them. They’re trying to shelter them.
BRIDENSTINE: That’s correct. The rules are very stringent. Number one: You can’t ask questions. Number two: There can be no recording devices. Number three: You can’t talk to any of the staff. You can’t talk to the children. You can’t talk to the medical personnel. And if you have questions, you can send an e-mail. You can’t take any pictures, but after the tour, they will send pictures to you. But there can be no pictures during the tour. This is not what we expect in the United States of America, and certainly the media here needs to stand up for itself.
RUSH: See, normally when it’s “for the children,” they want you to know everything in the world they are doing so that they can benefit from the display of compassion. But in this, they’re hiding. They’re trying to keep everything that is happening with these children from public knowledge. The media’s not allowed to talk to ’em. Members of Congress are not allowed to talk to ’em. No pictures, no nothing. So it’s obviously something very clandestine going on there.
Let me set this up by reminding you, there are some things we know. These children supposedly are being sent, shortly after their arrival, to family members all across the country. And of course the obvious question is, “How do we know that they are who they say they are? What kind of ID do they have?” Secondly, how is it so easy to so quickly identify family members of 65,000 children from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala? How in the world, when we hear every day that these 11 million are in the shadows and they’re afraid to come out because they’re afraid of being deported.
Well, if they’re in the shadows, we don’t know who they are. And every immigration reform bill requires them to come forward and identify themselves with the promise that they will not be deported. They might be sent to the end of the line, but they won’t be deported. So we clearly don’t know who they are, and yet these kids are being assigned to family members. They’re not spending much time in these processing centers. I think it’s one of the reasons why the Regime doesn’t want anybody in there.
Again, the husband and wife couple that called yesterday, the husband’s a retired doctor, and I asked him a question. “How in the world can proper medical screenings be taking place when they are in these centers for such a short period of time?” He said, “That’s a good question. We can’t.” His point was that a number of these children are arriving sick, infected with some pretty bad diseases, Hepatitis, TB, lice, any number of things. They’re being processed and gotten out of these centers and put in homes.
This couple also said that their church called them and asked them to temporarily house some of these children for as much as 30 days and not to say anything about that. But they called here and said everything about it. They told the story they were told not to tell by their bishop. The Catholic Church was called by the Regime seeking help.
So these kids, they’re arriving and they’re being dispersed el quicko, folks, they’re not hanging around. And so Coburn wants to know here, okay, now the people that these unidentified children are being released to, do you verify their immigration status? In other words, are you sending these unaccompanied children, these illegal immigrant children, are you sending them to the homes of American citizens or do you know that?
COBURN: That wasn’t the question I asked you. The immigration status.
GREENBERG: We do not verify the immigration status of the individual. Our focus in the release is first identifying the least restrictive setting in the child’s best interests. As we do that, we also need to look at safety to the child, safety to the community, risk of flight. So we go through the overall process of looking at the individual placement to ensure that it is a safe and appropriate placement.
RUSH: The bottom line of that answer is, they do not know whether the sponsors, the family members, the adults to whom these children are being released are even legal residents. They don’t even know. They’re not even asking. They’re looking at other factors. “Well, yes. We’re looking at the least restrictive setting. Like, we don’t want to send ’em to a home where the husband is a brutal wife beater, for example, or where the husband is a brutal predator. We don’t want to send ’em to a home where there is a bad neighborhood, a lot of violence. The safety of the child and the safety of the community. We also don’t want to send ’em anywhere where they’re gonna feel like they have to leave and run away somewhere. But we don’t know whether they’re citizens or not.” Bingo.
So then Coburn said, “Well, isn’t it true that if you place an unaccompanied child with an illegal alien sponsor, the significant likelihood is they would not want to bring that child to a deportation hearing before an immigration judge for fear they would expose their own illegal status?” His point here is, aren’t you guys kind of playing a trick on all of us? You’re be sending these kids to people you don’t know if they’re legal or not. If you send these kids to the homes of illegal aliens, what motivation does anybody have to show up at the deportation hearing later on? If they’re illegal, why would they even show up and expose their own illegal status?
GREENBERG: We ensure that the sponsor understands they have a responsibility to make the child available for proceedings.
COBURN: If in fact they’re an illegal alien to begin with, why would they expose themselves in front of a immigration judge?
GREENBERG: So even if we had the information as to the parent or other relatives’ immigration status, we would still at that point need to look at the totality of the circumstance.
COBURN: I’m asking you why you do not ask that question.
COBURN: Is it the policy of HHS not to ask the status of those people with whom you’re placing the child?
COBURN: Is that the policy of HHS, of this country?
GREENBERG: Yes, it is the case.
RUSH: Yes. (imitating Greenberg) “So even if we had the information as to the parent or other –” No, no, no. I just want to know, are you, by policy, not asking whether the sponsors are in fact citizens? “Well, yes, that is the case.” So the guy admitted, Mark Greenberg, Health and Human Services, they admit it is policy not to know whether these kids are being sent to the homes of illegals. So what’s happening here, folks, being blunt, the Regime is attempting to see to it that these children are sent to the shadows. Because remember what this is all about. This is multifaceted, but one of the things this is about is pressuring Republicans to do an immigration bill that’s amnesty oriented before the elections. And they’re flooding the zone here.
Now, the question needs to be asked, I asked it yesterday, I’m gonna ask it again. Okay, let’s say that that’s the objective. Somebody explain to me how passing an amnesty bill is gonna affect this at all. How’s it gonna stop? There’s no way passing immigration reform is gonna stop what’s happening at the border. Why would it? In fact, it might just do the opposite. If you pass an immigration reform bill, amnesty, or something close to it, you’re gonna increase the number of people trying to get over the border. Not decrease. Why would it stop?
But, see, that’s the thing the Regime is attempting to convince the Republicans, “Look, you’re gonna have to do this, otherwise this isn’t gonna stop.” So the kids are being sent to the shadows, plain and simple, by virtue of policy admitted to by the Regime.
RUSH: So this Regime guy, this assistant secretary of Health and Human Services says to Tom Coburn, “Now, we look at the totality of the circumstances in assessing where…” No. “We look at the, uh, totality of the circumstances where.” Okay. Wouldn’t the totality of the circumstances include the sponsor’s immigration status? “Totality” means something. The level of fraud that exists day to day in this administration is incalculable. It’s hard to keep track of it.
Back to the phones. Back to. We haven’t been there yet. We’re gonna start with Greg in Seattle. Thank you for waiting. I appreciate it. Great to have you on the show. Hi.
CALLER: — and this is indeed a red letter day. Hey, this is Costco territory, and I used to be a loyal customer, but no more.
RUSH: By the way, I meant to tell you about that. Costco has done a 180.
RUSH: They have reversed themselves and they are now going to sell Dinesh D’Souza’s book.
RUSH: And do you know why.
RUSH: They’re saying, “It’s not political. We saw because of this that the D’Souza is now back to number one on Amazon so it now qualifies for being sold at Costco.” (laughing) So it’s back in the stores now. You should know that.
CALLER: Well, so, anyway, I got two points, and they’re both the response to the doctor and his wife had called yesterday. Basically you kind of stole my thunder when you played that tape recording of the congressman from Oklahoma and also McCain. To me, it’s outrageous. These are the United States of America! This is a constitutional, representative republic.
Why should John McCain, a representative of the people — us — be asking, “Well, can I carry a camera, a recorder, so on and so forth?” And then the media? The media is instructed not to tell anyone? This is a humanitarian crisis, yes. It’s — it’s a health crisis, too. All these diseases that they’re bringing in? You mentioned Ellis Island. The immigrants had to stay there, what, weeks, months or something until they were tested? So on everything about that… Of course I’m not a lawyer, but doesn’t the Freedom of Information Act cover the people’s right to know what’s going on down there?
RUSH: Yeah, but you’d have to make a request for that, and by the time you were granted permission, the issue would be pretty much over and the kids would be dispersed. Nothing to see. You’re right, though. First, Ellis Island (going in reverse). Ellis Island took in 12 million people over a long period of time. It was not massive immigration central.
The primary purpose for Ellis Island was to determine whether or not the arrivals were carrying severe infectious diseases, and if they were, they were kept from entering the country for a long period. None of that is happening here! None of that. They’re not being screened long enough to actually learn the full scope of diseases that might be being brought into the country by sick kids.
And this business that a senator has to ask the Regime for permission to take a picture? I’m telling you, folks, again, every liberal cause involving children, they open up fully. They do hashtags. They do telethons. They want you to know these kids personally. Why not in this case? What are they hiding? Why do they not want us seeing these children?
Can you imagine the excrement storm that would have erupted if Bush and Brownie at FEMA had tried that? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening here except there is no natural disaster that’s occurred unless you want to call the administration itself a disaster, which I, frankly, think it is. But that’s just me.
RUSH: So they say this is a humanitarian crisis on the border, right? We have established that there are no telethons, unusually so, that Michelle Obama nor anyone else from the Regime has offered a hashtag to engender support for what’s going on. In fact, ladies and gentlemen, if what’s happening at the border really is a humanitarian crisis, it’s gotta be the first humanitarian crisis that has not been aired live on national TV in 60 years. And the question is, why? Every humanitarian crisis, I don’t care if it’s a volcano, if it’s a tsunami, if it’s kidnaps, if it’s Amber Alerts, I don’t care what it is, if it’s Hurricane Katrina, you’re guaranteed to have Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith on site standing 10 feet away from each other reporting on it 24/7.
Where the hell are they? There’s no cable news network anywhere near this humanitarian crisis. There’s not a camera anywhere near this humanitarian crisis. There isn’t a telethon, there isn’t a hashtag, and the president is out shooting pool and complaining that the Republicans want to sue him, i.e., impeachment. He’s aloof. He’s totally unengaged or disengaged, and they say that this is a humanitarian crisis?
Name one for me that hasn’t been on television. Starving kids in Somalia. “We Are the World,” you name ’em. One right after another. Every damn one of them is on television with cable news. Missing airplane, humanitarian crisis. No pictures allowed. United States senators, US congressmen, members of the media not permitted anywhere near the humanitarian crisis. No cameras allowed. Why?