Allen Jackson NOW

Allen Jackson: Well, good evening, and welcome to Nashville. I’m Allen Jackson. Under President Trump, the country is approaching 16 months with no illegal aliens released into the United States.

The significance of that is not just that the border is secure, but that President Trump used authorities that were already available to the executive branch to defend American sovereignty. And he put the safety of American citizens first. President Biden had the same tools, but he chose a very different course.

During the last administration, Americans were repeatedly told that the system was broken, and that Congress had to act before the President could regain control. Yet when the President changed, the results changed. You see, elections, they really do have consequences.

Perhaps the larger question is not why the Biden administration couldn’t secure the border. It’s why the Biden White House chose not to. Americans paid for that decision in ways that went well beyond the border. There are estimates that put the fraud and improper taxpayer spending connected to illegal immigration in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

There’s also the effect of affordability. The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the illegal immigration surge increased housing demand and put upward pressure on rents and home prices by up to 30% across the country. That means an unsecured border can eventually show up in the monthly budget of a family, even if they live hundreds of miles away from those borders.

If President Biden had the authority to stop much of this, why didn’t he? And should federal funding be cut off from sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement? What must Congress do now to permanently secure the border and to protect our taxpayers?

Our nation is a unique experiment in human civilization. There’s never really been anything quite like it, but that experiment came under attack during the Biden administration, where we witnessed an intentional dismantling of both boundaries and borders. It was all wrapped up in a great deal of language that suggests compassion, that an open border is the ultimate expression of compassion. Then unfortunately, too many churches picked up that mantra.

I don’t think what we witnessed was compassion at all. We can’t live in complete defiance of the law and imagine that will bring anything good to us. Anything that begins with illegal doesn't typically lead to a good outcome.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the surge in illegal immigration beginning in 2021 increased demand for housing, made the housing shortage worse, and helped drive up rents and home prices. Many estimates place the total taxpayer burden during the Biden years for illegal immigration near $300 billion annually.

The Biden administration coined a word for illegal immigrants: they called them newcomers. Well, this little word game suggests those persons who have come to our country illegally, they have equal standing with citizens. It was deceptive, and it had profound consequences.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, she spent billions in taxpayer dollars on luxury hotel rooms, prepaid debit cards, and cell phones for illegal immigrants, while hardworking New Yorkers struggled to cover rent and groceries.

New York City’s own comptroller found that the city was spending enormous amounts of taxpayer money to shelter illegal migrants. The annual budget in New York contained $4.75 billion for illegal migrant-related cost.

One example of waste in 2023, the New York Times reported the following: New York City was paying for meals that were to feed illegal migrants, many of whom were staying at taxpayer-funded hotels. The shocking twist was that the food went uneaten and was thrown away.

The meals were provided by DocGo, a medical services company that received a $432 million no-bid contract from New York City. They were to provide services for illegal migrants, even though the company had no experience in doing so.

During a 20-day period in 2023, more than 70,000 meals were recorded by DocGo as being wasted. Well, at $11 a meal, the maximum rate allowed by the contract, the wasted food for that 20-day period cost taxpayers about $776,000, or about $39,000 a day. The bill for the tossed food exceeded another million dollars a month.

And why were the meals thrown away? Well, the report said many illegal migrants rejected the free sandwiches, bagels, and other meals they were given. They didn’t like the taste. Instead, they cooked their own food on hot plates inside hotel rooms, which was against fire safety rules. Well, how’d they get the groceries for the meals? They purchased them with the city-issued gift cards. It was free for them, but not for the taxpayer.

Well, I’m thankful for the Trump administration’s efforts to correct some wrongs. But all progress can be undone in just a couple of elections. What happens if the Democratic Socialists of America propel the Democrats to win control of Congress and then ultimately help a Democrat win the White House in 2028?

The DSA has formally endorsed open borders, the free movement of people across national boundaries. The DSA has called for abolishing ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The DSA supports amnesty for illegal immigrants and supports expansive, government-funded housing, healthcare, and social services for these illegal individuals. Guess who will pay for all of this? We the taxpayers.

Well, as the church, I don’t believe we can sit quiet in this season. We must have a faith that is living and vital, a faith that requires situational awareness of the world we’re living in. As Christ followers, lasting change begins with us. We cannot abandon the places we live in to destructive influences. As Christ followers, we can’t be silent and stay out of the public square.

In a moment, we’ll be joined by a member from the US House of Representatives, Beth Van Duyne from Texas. I’ll be right back.

Allen Jackson: Be not afraid, be not discouraged. It’s a biblical phrase you may be familiar with. It’s also the title for our new devotional and prayer book, a 30-day tool to help you overcome fear and discouragement in your life.

Look, we can walk through some uncertain times, whether it’s in what’s happening in the world around us or in our own personal life. But God’s word and the spirit of God will give us the courage to face every challenge with the assurance that we can be triumphant in Christ. You’ll enjoy the book.

Guest (Female): Fear and discouragement can leave us feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. That’s why Pastor Allen created Be Not Afraid, Be Not Discouraged, a practical devotional filled with scripture, encouraging insights, and prayers to help strengthen your faith throughout the day. This resource will help you find renewed courage, hope, and confidence in God’s faithful care. Request your copy today with your gift of $15 or more at AllenJackson.com or call 800-880-5102.

Allen Jackson: Tonight, we’re joined by Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne from Texas. Welcome to the show, Congresswoman.

Beth Van Duyne: Thank you for having me. It’s great to be here.

Allen Jackson: The cost associated with illegal immigration and how it impacts Americans is a topic that you have been vocal about. In fact, you introduced legislation titled the Getting Terrorist Fanatics Out Act. Can you tell us about the legislation, where it’s at?

Beth Van Duyne: Yes. Well, right now we’re trying to get more folks to support it so that we can get it on the floor and get it voted out of the House and then onto the Senate and hopefully onto the President’s desk.

What this does is it makes it a requirement that if a naturalized citizen, so someone who is from a foreign country who has been given the benefit of coming to America and being made a naturalized citizen, is committing acts of terrorism or supporting financially acts of terrorism, it makes a requirement that if they are convicted of that, that they are actually denaturalized and deported.

Because what we’re finding is you’ve got, whether or not it was Old Dominion or the Michigan synagogue attack, there was an Austin bar attack, these were terrorist attacks that had all been committed by naturalized citizens, and too often than not, you’ve got judges who just don’t want to charge them with those things, or activist judges, and these people are eventually let back in our society to continue to commit these terrorist activities.

Allen Jackson: Well, it seems like common sense. Are you finding support for it in Congress?

Beth Van Duyne: We’re finding support, not so much support from the Democrats. But you would think if they were interested in protecting their citizens, protecting the America that we’ve all grown up with, that they would do it, but many of them are rejecting that.

As you can see, even in the time that Biden was in office, what they’ve been more focused on is giving excuse after excuse for illegal immigration, for illegal aliens committing crimes, and they have actually been more on the side of those people who are committing crimes than on their own citizens. So yes, I would hope that we’d get a lot more support, but unfortunately, this seems to be a partisan, not a non-partisan effort.

Allen Jackson: It’s unfortunate the American citizen should come first. I’ve got a video clip from Senator Markwayne Mullin on the topic. Listen to what he said, and then I’ve got a question.

Markwayne Mullin: I was in Brownsville, Texas, on the border just a few days ago. And they said they release 100% of the individuals that came across the border illegally. They release 100% into the United States with zero vetting. Literally just wrote down their names and let them in. Every single day, we arrest the worst of the worst that was brought into this country or let into this country under the Biden administration.

Allen Jackson: You know, it seems to me that the current expression of that open border policy is our sanctuary cities. So how do we find the will to address that problem? Because it still seems like it’s flourishing in our midst.

Beth Van Duyne: No, you’re absolutely right. And look, as a former mayor who worked with federal law enforcement on immigration issues, we actually created the first-ever criminal alien program 24/7. CAP program is what we called it. We at one point in Irving had more criminal illegal immigrants deported from our city than any other city per capita in the country.

There was an effort. How do we control it now? Is we actually take away, and we have introduced legislation, we’ve signed onto legislation that would actually take away federal dollars that are going to these cities that are not protecting their citizens. It doesn’t seem like it’s enough to have them do the right thing; they’re going to have to be forced into it financially.

So again, we’ve got bills to be able to address this. If you cannot have your police officers work with federal law enforcement to actually get rid of people who are committing crimes in your city who are illegally here, then you shouldn’t be getting a lot of federal funding.

And, you know, I have personally in my district, we have seen people who have been the victim of some of these folks who are here illegally. We had a woman who was just about to enter one of our service academies, our Air Force Service Academy. I’ve met with her parents a number of times. She was brutally run down and left for dead in Grapevine Lake, and she died as a result.

And, you know, these people who are fighting this really need to start talking to the parents of victims. They need to start talking to victims who have actually survived some of these attacks and listen to why they should be sticking up for their rights as opposed to folks who are in our country illegally and committing crimes.

Allen Jackson: Well, you know, we’re just a few weeks away from the midterm elections and the Save America Act is still languishing in the Senate. Election integrity is important, it seems, to the US citizens, but not so important to our Senators. What can we do?

Beth Van Duyne: That’s a great question. I wish I knew. The House, we’ve been working on this for a while now. We have literally passed out of the House the Save America Act attached to other must-pass bills on its own. We have passed it out of the House four times.

It continues to be dead on arrival in the Senate. And again, not sure why. Literally, 80% of the American public supports the efforts to have legitimate elections. They don’t want people who are here illegally or who shouldn’t be voting having an opportunity to vote. We have to show our ID to buy a beer, to get a plane, to get a library book. Why is it such an effort to show it to do one of the things that makes America so great is having the engagement of American citizens in the election process?

People want to have fair elections. And the idea that, "Oh well, we’re going to somehow force people not to vote that would normally vote because they don’t know how to get an ID," is just nobody’s buying that.

And I think it’s offensive to those groups that they’re claiming that they can’t get IDs. And it is normal, common sense that, again, 80% of the people support. And you keep hearing these stories over and over again of folks who shouldn’t be allowed to vote, who it’s illegal for them to vote, who are still able to vote. How many more of these stories do we have to hear before Democrats will support simply showing an ID to prove that you’re legal to vote?

Allen Jackson: Amen. Well, we hear repeatedly that we’re dealing with an affordability crisis in America. What does Congress need to do to help alleviate that?

Beth Van Duyne: Well, I know, look, we have passed that Working Families Tax Cut bill, putting more money in people’s pockets, giving more rebates, incentivizing more manufacturing jobs to be brought here. We are seeing massive amounts of jobs.

And look, I’m from Texas. I really appreciate the job that the state has done to have low regulations, low taxes, no state income tax. And as a result, we now have more Fortune 500 companies in Texas than both California and New York. And that says something.

In my district alone, one of the things that we do every year, as a result, we believe that jobs are really important to people’s success and being able to be self-reliant, to be able to leave generational wealth. So one of the things that we have done now five years is have a job fair. And our job fair has turned into the largest job fair in the country.

This past couple of weeks ago in August, we held a job fair over at Globe Life Field. We had more than 670 businesses representing over 68,000 job opportunities in North Texas. And we had over 50,000 people. Okay, I’m going to repeat that. We had 50,000 people who came out.

So we are urging our Republican colleagues across the country, really any congressional district can do this. Help people get connected with jobs. Help the businesses, your job creators that are paying property taxes, paying sales tax, investing in their employees, investing in your communities, give them a way to be able to connect with employees that they can hire. So you’ve got your bills that you can pass in DC, but then you also have the things that you can do close to home.

Allen Jackson: Congresswoman Van Duyne, thank you for your time today and especially for the leadership you bring.

Beth Van Duyne: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Have a great day.

Allen Jackson: I’ve learned as a pastor there’s a tremendous difference in a crowd and a community of faith. When people decide to step out of the crowd and invest their time and their resources, they become a part of a community and it changes their lives. Well, I want to give you that invitation.

I’m grateful you’re a part of the crowd who watch the ministry. I want to ask you to consider becoming a monthly ministry partner. I believe if you’ll make that regular commitment to what God is doing through this ministry, it’ll bring momentum to your spiritual life, and it will help us reach more people than we’ve ever reached with the Gospel before.

America is turning 250 years old. That’s something that should unify us. We have so much to celebrate. There is no place like America. Our freedoms and liberties, they are unmatched in this world. Everything that’s good about America, our laws, our opportunities, the prosperity we’ve enjoyed, well, they’ve come to us because of our faith. Well, we’ve created a series of emails celebrating 250 years of our country.

Find out how Christianity has played a role in this nation from its founding until now. You’ll receive a new email each week throughout the series. Each one is designed to help you see our blessings and our heritage in a new way. How faith has played a powerful role all the way through. It’s one way we’re celebrating America’s 250th. We hope you’ll join us. You can sign up now at AllenJackson.com/250.

We’re back now with Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne. Following the election of Eric Adams as the mayor of New York City, this primary season has been filled with DSA candidates. Now they’re populating the midterms this fall. Do you think they’re going to continue to succeed, or are the Republicans going to be able to turn back this socialist threat to our way of life?

Beth Van Duyne: Well, I think really the Democrats are going to have to own their own party and recognize the fact that we’re beyond communism and socialism on the Democrat side. And what they’re fighting for now is just this radical overtake of American production to the government. They want to totally revamp our Constitution, and they are electing dangerous radical Islamists in places that you may win the vote, but they are claiming to be Democrats.

And I think the Democrats really are going to have to look inside and say, "Is this the radical way that we want our party to move?" Because they have taken over the energy in the Democrat Party. And I think it’s common sense. You’ve got Republicans now who are saying we have more energy production now than we ever have. We are fighting to bring manufacturing jobs, and you’re seeing jobs increase. You’re seeing increases in wages that are over that of inflation. You are seeing foreign investments in our communities.

We are winning so many places. We see a secure border. We see decreases in crime. And you’ve got Democrats now that, again, the energy in the Democrats want to fight all of that. They want to get rid of borders. They want to get rid of prisons. They want to defund police. They want to get rid of immigration and customs enforcement that’s doing such a great job of decreasing crime in our communities.

Not to mention the waste, fraud, and abuse that Democrats seem to deny or either are taking part in that don’t want to be uncovered. So I think what’s happening in the Democrat Party is really a crime that needs to be investigated, but the only people who are going to be able to do that, again, are the Democrats that are somehow opening up their tent to these crazy radicals.

Allen Jackson: You know, Americans seem to have short memories. We forget September 11th. We forget October the 7th. And we are seriously considering candidates who embrace Sharia law and giving them positions of authority in our federal government. That seems absurd to me, but it looks like a possibility.

Beth Van Duyne: Well, you see them defending it. Again, these are, I don’t know how many they have in their midst, but these DSA candidates and these DSA candidate supporters are doing exactly that. They are in denial that October 7th, that September 11th ever happened.

And what are they doing? They are fighting basically for terrorist acts and for terrorist activities and the complete turnover of our way of government, of our culture. And you would never imagine this would happen in America. There was a time when this would be considered traitorous behavior, but Democrats are embracing it.

Allen Jackson: Well, one of the most watched Senate races in the country right now is in your own state, with your Attorney General Ken Paxton running against a rather progressive Talarico. How do you see that playing out? It looks like Talarico has a lead at the moment.

Beth Van Duyne: Yeah, I like your giggle at the end. Yeah, progressive is one way to state it. I mean, this is a guy who claims to be a Christian and yet hates Christianity. His focus, when asked what he cares about, is trans kids, not about his citizens, not about the economy, not about jobs.

Texas has got a certain spirit and this guy does not represent that at all. He’s a very dangerous candidate. He is, again, open to the idea of production being taken over by the government. He is fine with Medicare for all, which means they’re not recognizing the fact that people have different healthcare needs. They want one size fits all.

And again, it’s all about the government taking more of your money, taking more of your freedoms, and taking more responsibility over your life and taking away less choices. This is not what Texans are all about. And at the end of the day, I very much believe strongly that Paxton is going to pull this out. But this is still a fight for our country, fight for our culture, fight for our state. And I’m out there every day campaigning, and what I’m hearing is they are not for the Talarico way of life.

Allen Jackson: Well, Texas and Tennessee have stood together for a long time. But I recently read that by 2050, Texas is slated to pass California in population. You’ve also got a corresponding economic boom; you’re going to pass them in economic productivity. But there really is a battle for the heart and soul of Texas. How does that feel like on the ground in real time?

Beth Van Duyne: I’ll tell you, I mean, you’ve got a lot of people who are out who understand what’s going on. But there’s so much foreign money, so much outside of Texas money that are being spent on these crazy Democrat candidates that are being raised by Talarico. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent in Texas to basically share lies.

Whether or not it’s talking about our future of AI, whether or not it’s talking about women in men’s sports, or the threat of abortion laws, they are all meant to scare people to take away people’s rights, to take away people’s freedoms. And look, we’re from Texas. We value freedom. We celebrate success.

And we actually have a respect and an appreciation for job creators that are helping move our economy forward, that are employing the best of the best. And there’s a reason why you’re seeing so many Fortune 500 companies move here. There’s a reason why we have twice as many JP Morgan employees now in Texas than we do in New York. There’s a reason why all of these people are voting with their feet to leave communist states and come and call Texas home.

We want to make sure that in the Texas state legislature, we hold onto that. And in our congressional representation and in our Senate representation, that we maintain that. And I think that’s going to happen, but it’s not going to go without a fight.

Allen Jackson: Congresswoman Van Duyne, thank you for your time today and especially for the leadership you bring.

Beth Van Duyne: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Have a great day.

Allen Jackson: I want to give you a personal invitation to join my podcast, Culture and Christianity. You don’t compromise the truth, but you say it where the people know that you care about them. We’re trying to understand how to take our faith outside the walls of the church and live it out in the marketplace. I just never understood the double standard because they punished me while my peers were allowed to talk about how devastated they were that Roe v. Wade was overturned.

I brought in some friends, people that are trying to do this on a regular basis. They’re never going to stop me because the truth is the truth. I’d rather be on God’s side than to be a coward. Now we’ve been living in a season of unprecedented deception, propaganda, manipulation. Our best option was to run. We were timing ourselves. I was trying to think, "How can I protect my kids?" Well, I want to be a part of seeing culture and Christianity intersect. I hope you’ll join the podcast soon.

Thank you for taking the time for your emails; they’re always a highlight for us. Christopher from New York wrote: "It seems to me that the best way for Republicans to campaign their message and to show that the socialist ideas of DSA are a bad idea for America is to have former citizens from communist countries who are now Americans testify regarding their experiences."

Christopher, I think you are exactly correct. Communism is not a mystery. It has a track record for more than 100 years. Millions, hundreds of millions of people have died, given their lives, been murdered by communist regimes. It wasn't a good idea then; it’s certainly not a good idea now. Let’s listen to the people that have the experience.

Thank you for spending a few moments of your day with us, folks. God is moving in the earth. Let’s join him; it’ll lead to a good outcome. God bless, and good night.