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--:-- Host (John Bickley): This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): New York Mayor Eric Adams issued a dire warning for his city this week about the devastating impact of illegal immigration. The city we knew we're about to lose. And we're all in this together. What's driving the left-wing mayor's hard right turn on immigration? And what action is New York taking to address the crisis? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. Georgia Howe is out today.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): It's Friday, September 8th, and this is Morning Wire. Leaked police memos about a potential 2020 voter fraud scheme have Michigan Republicans demanding answers. Why did Michigan authorities feel the need to get the FBI involved and what details have emerged so far? And a growing number of cops are turning in their badges while police departments struggle to find new recruits. Policing is indeed facing a staffing crisis that it hasn't really seen in modern history. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): This week, New York Mayor Eric Adams made headlines after offering a dire warning regarding the migrant crisis in his city, saying it will destroy the Big Apple. Here with more on what he had to say is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, on Wednesday night, Mayor Adams appeared at a town hall event in the Upper West Side where he addressed the city's migrant crisis in more dire terms than he's ever done before. The comments come at a time when the city has struggled to find room for the 100,000-plus migrants who arrived since last spring. With no end in sight, here's Adams. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an end into. I don't see an end into this. This issue will destroy New York City, destroy New York City. We're getting 10,000 migrants a month.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Adams went on to say that the financial strain of housing and feeding all those migrants is going to force the city to cut funding from other existing programs. We have a $12 billion deficit that we're going to have to cut. Every service in this city is going to be impacted. It's going to come to your neighborhoods. All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000. I'm telling you now, with 110,000, every community in this city is going to be impacted.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, remember, that stance is quite the opposite of what we heard from Adams when he was on the campaign trail and then shortly after he took office. Yeah, walk us through that, if you will. How has Adams evolved on the issue over the last year? Yeah, there has been quite the reversal.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So before taking office Adams famously promised to welcome legal immigrants with open arms. For example, he tweeted in October of 2021 that quote we should protect our immigrants period. Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration. Now, that promise came at a time when the migrant crisis was primarily impacting only cities along the border and was just a blip on the radar in New York City. But as migrants have flooded to the Big Apple, his commitment to remaining a sanctuary city has clearly wavered, as you can see in those comments.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For sure. So give us some context. Just how severe is the situation now in the city? Yeah, it's hard to overstate just how serious the problem has become there. According to Mayor Adams, over 110,000 migrants have arrived in the city since last spring, though the true number is actually likely higher as many of those who've arrived are not in any sort of government system.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: City officials say the number of homeless in the city hit an all-time high this month as existing shelters have been flooded by migrants, driving many homeless back onto the streets. That total also includes an estimated 21,000 school-age children who've put an increased burden on the already-packed New York City school district. When classes opened for the first time on Thursday, lines stretched around the block at a number of schools, some of which were forced to turn students away because they simply did not have room inside.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Other schools were forced to transport students, including local New Yorkers, to separate facilities off-site because classrooms were overflowing with migrant children who had just arrived. As you can imagine, that drew outrage from many local parents who said their children should have priority because they're paying taxes to fund the education system.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, about that. Let's get to the political reaction this is all causing. What are we seeing on that front? The comments from Adams drew criticism actually from both sides of the aisle, just for different reasons. So a number of local Democrat leaders and immigration advocate groups called the comments reckless and dangerous to the migrant community.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But Republicans, for their part, have essentially said, you made your bed, now lie in it. GOP leaders say they've been trying to sound the alarm on the migrant crisis for years, to little avail in Washington. As a result, some of those Republican lawmakers you'll remember, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, began busing migrants to cities like New York, Chicago, and L.A. in what they called an attempt to relieve their states, which had been straining under the weight of the crisis.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Adams has expressed anger at Governor Abbott throughout the summer, but went a step further this week, calling him a madman. We turned this city around in 20 months. And then what happened? Started with a madman down in Texas, decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City. And while Adams has repeatedly called on President Biden to take immediate action to relieve New York, for their part, the White House is still insisting that essentially there is no crisis and that Biden has secured the border.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here's White House Press Secretary Corintian Pierre. The president has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else. He really has. Those comments are likely not to go over well in New York.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks, Cabot. Coming up, Michigan Republicans are demanding answers about alleged voter fraud. Michigan Republicans are demanding answers after leaked police memos revealed a possible multi-state voter fraud scheme that took place during the 2020 election. Michigan authorities were concerned enough about fraudulent voter registration forms that they referred the issue to the FBI.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to discuss the alleged voter fraud scheme and what being done about it. Hi, Tim. So what do we know about this alleged scheme?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Just the news obtained police records that detailed an investigation into a voter registration firm, GBI Strategies. According to police memos, GBI submitted 8 to 10,000 voter registration forms to the Muskegon County clerk. Some turned out to be fraudulent, but it's unclear how many. Of the 37 forms that police looked at in detail, 26 had false names or addresses. 18 forms were found that, quote, appeared to be completed and signed by the same person.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Three more forms were incorrectly filled out by the person who registered. Two correct forms were completed by someone other than the person who registered. And two forms included old addresses. Importantly, none of these forms ever made it onto the voter registration rolls. But the police investigation revealed that GBI not only had operations across the state of Michigan, but in other states as well. The company is headquartered in Tennessee and has workers in Georgia, New York, and Pennsylvania.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The police didn't allege any wrongdoing or make any arrests, but they gave their findings to the FBI. All right, so concerning enough to go to the FBI. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel addressed this issue last month. What did she have to say?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Nessel confirmed that the state referred an investigation into fraudulent registration forms to the FBI. It's unclear what action the FBI may have taken or is taking. The records reviewed by Just the News stopped in 2022. Nessel said the episode should build trust in the election process since these fraudulent forms were found in cold. She called it an example of the system working as it should.
--:-- Tim Pierce: All right, so Nessel is giving a reassuring message there, but are Republicans buying that? No, and the state GOP is demanding answers. Michigan Chairwoman Christina Karamo held a press conference last week after the revelations in the police memos were made public.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, state election integrity politics were already split after Nestle charged 16 people in July with multiple felonies for allegedly registering as false electors. Those 16 Michigan residents, 15 of whom are senior citizens, are facing decades of prison time if they are found guilty of all the charges levied by the state. Republicans said those charges indicate bias, and now they're accusing Nestle of a double standard for failing to scrutinize Democrats' close relationship with GBI.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Karamo. GBI Strategies, who is supposedly a voter registration organization, has received millions from the Democrat Party. They received almost a half a million dollars from Joe Biden himself. According to records on Open Secrets, GBI received over $2 million from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, over $1 million from DNC Services Corporation, and $450,000 from the Biden for President campaign.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks, Tim. From big cities to small towns, America is facing a police officer shortage. Police departments have seen a mass exodus of officers over the last several years, and are also having difficulty hiring new officers.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Alordi is here with the details. Hey, Maraid, so how significant is this shortage? Very significant. Last year resignations among cops were up 47 percent over 2019 and retirements were up 19 percent. That among 200 police forces surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: The shortage is so severe that some small towns are having to close down their police departments altogether. For example, the town of Goodhue, Minnesota, which has about 1,300 people, closed down their department earlier this summer. Police Chief Josh Smith warned the city council that unless police pay and benefits improved, he would not be able to find new officers.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: That's according to AP. When his prediction proved right, the chief quit and the department's one full-time officer and five part-time employees followed him out the door. The city has now left all police work to the county sheriff, who says in turn that he's having a hard time finding recruits. The sheriff called it scary and said they're robbing Peter to pay Paul.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: We should note it's not new for smaller areas to disband their police departments. One study found that more than 500 towns and cities closed their departments between 1972 and 2017. Lately, though, the reason for closing the police department is often an officer shortage. Over the past two years, at least 12 small towns have closed their departments.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Another Minnesota town, two main towns, an Illinois town and a Texas town have all closed their police departments recently. All right, so a lot of small towns being hit by this. We're also seeing this in big cities where there's, of course, a lot more crime to deal with. They're also seeing officers quitting in droves, correct?
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Right. Many major cities are in crisis, too. New York's police department has seen an alarming wave of officers resigning, including the biggest exodus since 2007 in January and February, 239 officers. Also this year, the NYPD lowered its fitness standards in order to bring more women onto the force.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said in March that the NYPD staffing emergency is approaching the point of no return. In Los Angeles, the LAPD is more than 300 officers short, down to less than 9,000 officers, the fewest since the 1990s. Last year, as the city battled the officer shortage and a crime spike, Angelenos pooled their money to offer new cops up to $24,000 over two years for housing.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: The program raised at least $2.2 million. San Francisco is about 600 officers short. Democratic Mayor London Breed cut $120 million from the police and sheriff's budgets in 2020, even though police warned the cut could affect their ability to respond to emergencies. By 2021, though, Breed flipped on her decision. She made an emergency request to the Board of Supervisors for more law enforcement money to crack down on crime, including open-air drug dealing and theft from stores.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Austin, which is also battling a crime spike, is more than 500 officers short. A police union says that's resulted in 911 callers being put on hold. The Austin Police Department has lost more than 800 officers in the last six years. In 2020, Austin City Council voted to slash the department's budget by $150 million, more than a third.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Meanwhile, at least 19 Austin police officers have been indicted for their actions on the job during the riots of 2020. And in Daily Wire's hometown, Nashville, the police department is short 170 officers, which left the city's elementary school's 70 school resource officers short this summer. Overall, the pandemic years had a profound effect on police departments, and we're still feeling those effects.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks, Maria. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
