Interview from October 10, 2024 at the Allen County GOP Reagan Bean Dinner.
Recorded at the Allen County GOP Reagan Bean Dinner on October 10, 2024, Casey Hendrickson sits down with Senator John Thune (R-SD), the keynote speaker of the event. The conversation covers critical political issues, including Democrats’ statements about blocking Donald Trump from power if he wins in November, Section 230, and censorship on social media. Sen. Thune shares his thoughts on Kamala Harris’ failure on border security, the GOP’s plans for real border reform, and the role of H.R. 2 in addressing immigration challenges. They also dive into topics like the Afghanistan immigrant terrorist plot, a Chinese spy case, foreign investment in U.S. universities, and Ohio’s push to ban foreign influence from elections and ballot initiatives.
On Monday, July 29, I was tagged in several social media posts about two school buses dropping migrants off at the South Bend Social Security office. People had expressed that they couldn’t utilize the office’s services because of the number of people there.
The people dropped off at the SSA building were all young men who appeared to be Mexican, Central, or South American. Most likely they were migrants. People asked that I look into it. I did.
Rep. Jim Banks, who’s also running for Senate in Indiana also shared a post about the buses in South Bend.
That particular post he responded to was removed, but others remain.
Vice President Kamala Harris was routinely labeled as Biden’s ‘border czar’ by the news media. The Democrats and many in the media are trying to erase that historical fact.
South Bend Mayor James Mueller issued this statement to the South Bend Tribune:
“This was a group of lawful, documented residents at the social security office,” Mueller, a Democrat, said in a written statement. “Rep. Jim Banks is a shameful opportunist, spreading racist political lies instead of advancing real solutions for South Bend or our nation’s broken immigration system.”
Before he issued the statement, Mayor Mueller’s spokeswoman told the paper:
the mayor’s office learned enough about the situation to know that the people were at the Social Security office lawfully conducting business.
Given that migrants who have no legal standing to stay in the U.S. often get released into the country pending their hearing, it’s certainly a concern that these might be illegal immigrants, or asylum seekers who don’t qualify for asylum under the law. This is a common issue with the country’s border policies. Allowing migrants who crossed the border illegally to remain in the U.S. after being captured is a signature complaint about Biden’s border policy.
I contacted Mayor Mueller’s office since he didn’t answer people’s questions about the migrants at the SSA building to see if I could get more information.
Here’s what I sent him:
After talking about the issue in my first segment on my radio show, Mayor Mueller’s office decided to send this response:
Rep. Jim Banks made no such assertions in his post. It was more ad hominem attacks from the Mayor’s office and the questions weren’t answered.
Finally, I was sent the response from the SSA about the migrant buses in South Bend from someone else who was working on this issue (I erased the name of the recipient):
If the Mayor’s office hadn’t kept this all close to the vest and was just honest about what was happening, people might not have been as angry as they were. Instead, they chose to hurl false insults and attacks at people who were just trying to figure out what was going on.