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--:-- Host (John Bickley): The Biden administration announces it's wiping out an additional $1.2 billion in student loans. Basically, it's going to incentivize colleges to keep hiking their prices and cause what student loan crisis we have to continue to exist and get even worse.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): How did Biden circumvent the Supreme Court's decision against his previous plan? And will it be enough to win over young voters? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, February 22nd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Amid reports that Biden is considering a border crackdown, new estimates put the number of illegal crossings at 7 million since the president took office. The demographics of this group has changed. It used to be kids and family members. Now it's adult males. And assaults on New York police officers are increasing at an alarming rate. What's behind the anti-cop attacks?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. If you need a better way to simplify your business finances, then you need to check out Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Businesses that use Ramp save an average of 5% in the first year. And now you get $250 when you join Ramp. Just go to ramp.com slash wire. That's ramp.com slash wire, R-A-M-P dot com slash wire. Cards issued by Sutton Bank and Celtic Bank, member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The White House announced Wednesday that President Biden has ordered the canceling of more than $1.2 billion in student loan debt. Here with the details on the controversial plan is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So President Biden made student loan forgiveness a major plank of his campaign, promising to wipe out virtually all debt for those in the middle and lower class. And while that's yet to come to fruition, Wednesday marked a significant step in that direction. The White House announced that they would forgive $1.2 billion worth of student loan debt for 153,000 borrowers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The measure will apply specifically to those who've been enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education Repayment Plan and have also been making payments for at least 10 years. It'll also only apply to those who originally borrowed less than $12,000 for college, though borrowers with more debt can eventually qualify down the road.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As Biden's Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, put it, quote, if you've been paying for a decade, you've done your part and you deserve relief. Now, the president's first attempt wasn't totally successful. How is this attempt going to be different?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, since taking office, Biden has canceled $138 billion worth of student loan debt for nearly 4 million borrowers. Importantly, he's done so without the approval of Congress, which has angered Republicans, as we'll get to in a bit. And he's relied instead on two dozen separate executive actions.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And he said he's just getting started. Remember, back in June, he attempted to unilaterally wipe out $430 billion worth of student loans through the COVID-era HEROES Act. While the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that action was unconstitutional and blocked it, Biden essentially found a workaround to that ruling and is now operating through the more broad Higher Education Act.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And while those overall numbers are certainly eye-popping, it's worth noting it's still only making a minor dent in the grand scheme of things. At the moment, about 44 million Americans have outstanding student loan debt totaling, get this, $1 trillion. So despite Biden's actions, there's still just an unfathomable amount of student loan debt in America.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now this issue has been extremely polarizing. What are we hearing from each side? Well, many Democrats have called for Congress and the White House to simply erase all student loans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Supporters say student loans are weighing down the economy because those in debt are less likely to start businesses or spend money altogether. They also argued that most borrowers are victims of what they call a predatory system that essentially forced people into debt.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Critics, who are mostly on the right, say that students make a financial calculation about future earnings when they sign on the dotted line, and the taxpayer money should not go towards bailing them out of an obligation they agreed to.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They argued that student loan forgiveness ultimately amounts to a wealth transfer from the lower to the upper and middle class, as poorer Americans are less likely to go to college, let alone medical or law school, which is where a lot of this debt comes from.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We've also heard critics say that if you're going to start paying off student loan debt, why stop there? Why not start using taxpayer dollars to wipe out credit card debt or auto loan debt? You get the idea.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there are also those who say this is all politically motivated. Right. So let's discuss the political angle. This was a campaign promise, and now we're finding ourselves in an election year. Right. So Republicans argue that President Biden is using taxpayer dollars to essentially buy votes from young people ahead of the election.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, millennial and Gen Z voters who are most likely to have loans have become a crucial voting bloc for Democrats. But Biden right now is deeply unpopular with those voters. The latest Pew polling found that his approval rating among 18 to 29-year-olds is just 30%. That is the lowest of any age demographic.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Other polls have actually shown President Trump ahead of Biden in a head-to-head race among young voters, which is a shocking turn given the young people went for Biden by 25-point margin last election.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, look, it's not exactly outrageous to think that this new focus on forgiving student loans could have political motives with Election Day just nine months away. Right. November is rapidly approaching.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Anytime. We'll see you next time. That's netsuite.com slash morningwire.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): A new analysis estimates the number of illegal aliens that have entered the U.S. since President Biden took office. That number is more than the population of 36 U.S. states. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the immigration crisis and reports of a possible crackdown at the border by President Biden.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, Tim. So the immigration crisis has been going on for several years now, but we're really just now getting more clarity on how many people have crossed illegally into the U.S. What have we learned?
--:-- Tim Pierce: So Fox News looked at Border Patrol data and tallied up the number of immigrants who illegally crossed the southern border since Biden took office. That number came out to nearly 7.3 million illegal crossings. That's bigger than the populations of most states.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And it doesn't even take into account the 1.8 million gotaways that were never apprehended. And that's a conservative estimate. The 1.8 million gotaways that Fox News reported only take into account those who are caught crossing on camera.
--:-- Tim Pierce: There could be hundreds of thousands more who were never seen. So in total, migrants have crossed the border illegally over 10 million times since Biden took office.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Fiscal year 2023 to 2024 set a record for the total number of illegal crossings at about 2 million. Since this fiscal year began on October 1st, already nearly a million people have crossed. If that pace continues, then we're due to see another all-time high by the end of the year.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Critics of the administration's border policy say the only way to explain how the numbers have jumped in recent years is that it's intentional.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri on Fox News on Monday. I've had Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's Homeland Security Secretary, say to me directly multiple times that the Biden border policies are working. And that's them telling the truth. They are working because they want the border open. This is their policy. So this is all because of Joe Biden. It's 100 percent on him.
--:-- Tim Pierce: With these record numbers, we've seen record amounts of immigrants from places far outside the Americas as well, such as China, Syria, and India. And a large portion of them are young men.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. And in addition to illegal crossings, we've seen some reports that the administration has slashed the price of immigrant bonds to appear in court. What's going on there?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. That's according to new data obtained by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC for short.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Through an open records request, TRAC obtained data that showed that the price of immigration bonds has dropped substantially under Biden.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Those bonds are supposed to ensure immigrants show up at their court dates after they're released into the country. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, bonds need to be around $10,000.
--:-- Tim Pierce: At that price, whoever puts up the money for an immigrant's release has good incentive to make sure they are back in court when they need to be. Recently, though, the bond price has fallen to around $4,000.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And not only that, the number of bonds posted has also dropped significantly, which suggests that the administration has started to lean on other means to release migrants into the U.S.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, we've seen a number of reports suggesting that Biden may actually use executive authority to crack down on illegal immigration in the coming months. What's going on there?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Sure. According to those reports, the Biden administration has a couple options under consideration.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It could raise the standard to pass what's called a credible fear interview that every immigrant that applies for asylum has to take.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The administration may also use deportation more for recent arrivals, though it would leave those immigrants already in the country alone insofar as they are involved in the immigration process already.
--:-- Tim Pierce: All right, so a lot of tough talk there on potential action. What's driving this?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, what's been clear for a while now is the immigration issue is a top concern of voters. If the White House wants to blunt the message on the campaign trail, this could be a way of doing it, though it would have some risks.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Biden has so far refused to use executive authority because he said he needs Congress to act first and pass more funding for homeland security.
--:-- Tim Pierce: If Biden cracks down on the border before Congress acts, that's kind of a tacit admission that what Republicans have said for years now, that Biden can take action on the border unilaterally, was basically correct.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. Sort of a no win for Biden at this point.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for joining us.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Good to be on.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Assaults on police officers in New York City are increasing at an alarming rate with a record 5,363 injuries in 2023. That's nearly a 14% increase over 2022 levels, which themselves were a 20% increase over 2021.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Here to discuss the New York Police Department's latest data is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: So Ash, what can you tell us about the increase in attacks?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, we saw yet another sharp increase over the past year, and it's part of a larger trend. In the years leading up to the pandemic, assaults on NYPD were holding steady at about 4,000 per year, with a peak of about 4 in 2019.
--:-- Ash Short: That number actually dropped in 2020 to around 3, but continued increasing at an alarming rate year over year until finally jumping to an all high of over 5 in 2023.
--:-- Ash Short: 5,363 officers were injured just in New York City. Yeah. Now, any indication about why these numbers are going up?
--:-- Ash Short: Insiders say it's a combination of anti-cop sentiment and general lawlessness brought on by soft on crime policies such as bail reform.
--:-- Ash Short: Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, recently told the New York Post that the dangerous environment has been building for years and it would not get better until those who attack police officers are consistently prosecuted and kept in jail.
--:-- Ash Short: Hendry also said that even simple calls are turning into, quote, all-out brawls with perpetrators emboldened to fight police without fear of serious consequence.
--:-- Ash Short: So when you say lack of consequences, what specific policies are creating that perception?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, bail reform is a big one. In January, two police officers were viciously beaten in Times Square by as many as 14 illegal immigrants.
--:-- Ash Short: Only one person involved in the fights was jailed, and five more were charged but released without bail. A similar incident, less than a month later, was caught on video at a shelter on February 15th.
--:-- Ash Short: Five officers were called to detain a suspect who was acting in a disorderly fashion. Shelter residents surrounded the officers and began throwing bottles and other items at them and yelling epithets at them in Spanish.
--:-- Ash Short: Take a listen. Shelter security attempted to stand between the belligerent shelter residents and the police as they struggled to apprehend the suspect.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, as for anti-cop sentiment, there are many instances where that was clearly a factor. For example, in January, a Brooklyn woman was caught on camera running down a police officer with her vehicle.
--:-- Ash Short: She reportedly told the authorities after the incident that she did it intentionally as a lesson.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, I imagine this trend is not good for NYPD morale. Are they having retention issues?
--:-- Ash Short: Yes, it's causing many cops to retire or think about retiring. And this issue has been growing for several years.
--:-- Ash Short: More than 2,500 police officers retired in 2023, leaving the NYPD with the smallest number of cops it's had in decades.
--:-- Ash Short: Just to give a quick reference, 1,750 cops retired in 2018. That was before the pandemic, before George Floyd, before the crime spikes, and before Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took office in 2022, at which time many of these soft policies were enacted.
--:-- Ash Short: Dr. Darren Porcher, a retired NYPD officer who is now a professor, said recently that these issues will also cause people to not want to be cops in the first place.
--:-- Ash Short: It really begs the question as to what is being done within a criminal justice system to not only keep officers safe, but keep us as a community safe.
--:-- Ash Short: Well, it seems like an unsafe time to be a cop in New York City.
--:-- Ash Short: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): You're welcome. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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