Hello everybody, welcome back to the Lila Rose Show. We are diving in with our weekly roundup. We did not do one last week our live last week because I was in Washington DC for a number of meetings, including with the administration and Secretary of HHSRFK, Robert F Kennedy. Also for the wonderful March for Life, 100,000 people marching out in the cold in DC for life. It was so beautiful and amazing. Today we're going to be tackling, yes, what happened.
I'm going to share some behind the scenes of what happened in DC. We're also going to be talking about ICE. Our ICE deportation is humane. And what is my take right now and what's happening in Minnesota and Minneapolis? What is the Christian perspective on all of this? What is fact versus fiction? There's a lot of media narratives spinning everywhere. It is out of control. You open social media and there is somebody shouting about this issue.
I hope to bring some facts that I think are really important for us all to look at and a perspective that I believe is rooted in our faith. And then finally, Meghan Trainer, celebrity Meghan Trainer has a beautiful family. Congratulations to her. There's a new beautiful baby in her family via surrogacy. So I'm going to unpack that and why I think it matters because this is a new trend among the elites today is to use surrogacy to build their families. Welcome back to the Lila Rose show.
All right, so I also will be keeping my eye on the chat, so please feel free to weigh in. I love hearing from you guys. We will do some questions and comments from the chat towards the end of the episode, so please include them. All right, everybody. So what is happening right now with Minnesota? What is happening in Minneapolis? I'm sure unless you've been living under a rock, you have seen news stories about this and maybe you already feel passionately about this.
And I think it's good to feel passionately about this because it matters. It matters how we secure our borders. It matters how we treat immigrants. It matters how our law enforcement and our federal agents are treated. It's matters how those federal agents and law enforcement treat people. All of these things matter, which why people are so hotly debating it and feel so strongly about it. So what I want to do first is something maybe a little bit different.
I want to paint some of the factual background that this issue that underlies this issue. I think these facts help put into perspective what is happening in the midst of all of the inflamed emotions and again, understandably inflamed. So let's take a step back and look at just kind of globally
immigration for just a moment. Immigration with regards to illegal entry, people that enter countries illegally, immigration with regards to, of course, our country in the history of illegal immigration and the the treatment of the past few administrations of illegal immigration and of our border. So first of all, I think it's important to note that here's a map out here that's so interesting.
It's important to note that it is the case for most nations today to have punishment for illegally entering their country. So this is exceedingly normal that countries have rule of law around their borders, they have borders that they secure and they have punishments for people who enter their country illegally.
If you've been to a country in Europe and you needed permission to be there, there as an example, that country has laws that govern who can enter the nation, right, Their nation. There are countries that these are countries that deport. These are countries that also many of them detain those that are under deportation, potential proceedings. And there's other punishments too for illegal entry that
include fines. So if you look at this map right here as an example, most nations in the world do have punishment for illegal entry, including deportation, detainment, which is what happens often in the United States too, as well as fines and other punishments. Most of Europe has this, certainly in the United States has this. Most countries, many countries in Africa has this.
So this is exceedingly normal. And the United States of course, has it. And that's what's under under the debate right now, is the debate right now. Are these just, are these proceedings just secondly, what is the state of immigration in the United States? Well, as of just 2023, it was estimated that there was up to 14,000,000 undocumented immigrants in the United States. Some people are saying now it's 20 million.
So in the last, under the Biden administration, the borders were, you know, left largely unsecured. Many people accused the Biden administration of that. We had a huge influx of undocumented immigration, of illegal immigration into the country. Another thing that's really important to note is that America is one of the top nations that has illegal
immigration. So when you look at the kind of swath of nations globally and you look at which nations have illegal immigration into their country, America is only second to one other nation. So I'm going to pull up this map here, Harris, if you've got this. So if you click on, if you click on illegal immigration rate, the second tab, here we go at the top of the document, you got it. It says that Russia, according to this 2025 data, Russia has an 8% illegal immigration rate, very high.
I don't know if this is the case actually as of today. This is in I think in the last two or three years, it's saying this is 2026 data. But I'm going to give a little nuance. It might be actually immediate to January of 2026. the United States has 3%, a 3% illegal immigration rate. Malaysia is at 2%, France is at less than 2%, South Africa is at 1.5.
All right, so then you look at the estimated maximum illegal immigration population and according to this data, and again, this is not perfect data, but you can see roughly the, the, the, the ranges here. Russia, it's saying, has 12 million illegal immigrants, America 11.4. Again, that might be as high as 20 million, depending on what statistics you're looking at. India is saying 10 million,
France 1.2, Bangladesh 1.2. I bring this up because I want people to understand this is a uniquely intense problem in the United States, that we have issues with our border and issues with undocumented immigration in our country. Now, you might not have to, you know, you'd have to be living under a rock and have no sensibility of what's happening globally to know why that might be. At least one reason why that is, is because America is an extremely attractive place to go to.
And this should be everyone living in the United States right now, everyone who is blessed to be an American citizen who is able to live in this beautiful country for all of our problems. We are so privileged. And I want to just take a moment as we're talking about this issue that has so many important angles and there's so much to, you know, explore about, you know, how do we protect human
dignity and also rule of law? Just to be grateful to thank God that you have the opportunities you have in America. And may we all, and I'm going to just say this almost as a prayer here, may we all use the freedoms and the security that we enjoy in America for the good of other people. That's, I mean, our responsibility as certainly for
us who are Christians right now. And certainly I think the good responsibility of any citizen is to use our freedoms for the good of other people, to use the gifts we've been given, including the security, the economic opportunities for the good of other people. And for as hard and as bad as it can get for people individually and collectively in the United States, we are doing so well. When you compare us at large to other nations globally, we have so many freedoms, so many
blessings. So let's see all of this through the lens of, I hope, magnanimity or generosity. When we're considering other people who want a piece of America, I want a piece of what we have have because we are so blessed, we are so privileged. And we should treat that with special consideration when we think about how we use our lives. And also to respect rule of law, because we want to respect our nation's laws and to be grateful for the freedoms that we've been given.
So the reality is illegal immigration is a real problem. There's real challenges beyond just the fact of more undocumented people here. There is the problem of illegal immigrants, immigrants who are committing crime. You've heard the horror stories of some of the violent crimes that have been committed from people who have come across the border illegally. You may have also heard some of the horror stories of human trafficking that occurs at our
border. When there is porous, A porous border, you have the coyotes or you have the, you know, gangs who are doing the cartels, who are doing drug trafficking, who are doing human trafficking. So there is real human cost to undocumented immigration to a porous border. And this is one of the many reasons why so many people support enforcing our immigration policy. There is majority support, including among Democrats and Republicans, for the deportation of illegal immigrants who are
violent offenders. That is something that most people agree on. So where does the controversy come in? The controversy comes in when you're dealing with this mass influx of illegal immigration like we had under Biden because of a porous border. Trump is in office now, and he is now doing mass deportations.
I want to take a minute to look at what those deportations look like and compare them for just a moment to Obama, because Obama was the last Democrat president who also did mass deportations. He was criticized for it. By the way, some people say, oh, nobody criticized Obama for this. Yes, he was criticized for it. I know people personally that were doing advocacy, see, against Obama at the time for
his deportation policies. And there was certainly outcry, not as much as there is against Trump now, but there was outcry about Obama's mass deportation policies. Biden didn't have these same policies, so he adjusted deportation policies, but it was pretty strong. You know, the deportation numbers were very high under hundreds of thousands annually under Obama, as they are now under Trump. So let's just take a look at what does deportation look like both under Obama and Trump.
Again, this context I think is really important. 5% Let's talk about Trump first, according to the Cato Institute, which is a pretty bipartisan, nonpartisan institute, pretty libertarian. 5%, Let's pull up the statistic if you can. Harris, 5% of people detained by ICE have violent convictions. 73% have no convictions. So this is from November 2025. So this is the current look at how we're deporting people.
So most of the people, the large majority of the people who are being deported right now do not have violent convictions. Now, if you look at Obama, let's just just for context, go back to the, you know, eight years of Obama and his administration. You can pull up this article here at the New York Times. So this is from the New York Times, the source, and I'll just
say what it says. It says that since 2008, so this is under Obama, 2/3 of the immigrants deported from the United States committed only minor traffic violations or had no criminal record at all. So Obama was deporting 2/3 of immigrants with no violent record and another 20%. So this was his, you know, the cohort of people that had a criminal record, 20% had a criminal record or faced drug
charges. So it has been a typical policy of both the Trump administration, now even more under Trump, but it was the same case under Biden to deport nonviolent, sometimes people with no criminal record, not even a drivers driving infraction under those immigration policies. Now, how can we, how do we, how should we look at this as Christians, as Christians that we know, we know that the rule of law does matter. We have a responsibility to live by the rule of law.
We also know that we've been told again and again, Scripture tells us again and again to welcome the stranger, to treat the foreigner with justice and mercy, to be hospitable. So we have these two things that we are weighing. And I want to actually read some of what you all know, that I'm Catholic. I think the Catholic Church has done some beautiful work in developing a a better understanding of how to see immigration and how to look at
immigration policy. And I want to read some quotes from an encyclical called Brotherly Love that that was published, I think just a few years ago. It's fairly recent, Fratelli Tutti, as well as some language from the Catechism about immigration law and the treatment of immigrants and also respect for for for law. So I'm going to start with this quote from Fratelli Tutti. This is 2253. This was an encyclical, one that came out when Pope Francis was our Pope.
He says this is about how we should think about immigration enforcement in part. And I'm going to tie this in more later, but listen to what? Listen to what Pope Francis says here. He says when injustices haven't have occurred on both sides, we're going to get into it. I haven't even mentioned the name of, of of what's happening specifically in Minneapolis, of Alex Jeffrey Petty. I haven't even talked about this specifically. We're going to get to that. But I think this context is
really important. When injustices have occurred on both sides, it is important to take into clear account whether they are equally grave or in any way comparable. Violence perpetrated by the state using its structures and power is not on the same level as that perpetrated by
particular groups. Now, this is, I think, a very important point and a lens for us to understand the violence that's happening in the streets of Minneapolis where we see violent altercations between protesters, some of them behaving very improperly. And then we see violence by ICE officers, some of them even using guns to shoot protesters because, you know, in their case, they will say, well, I was
fighting back in self-defense. And here Fratelli Tutti is telling us, and I think this is something that any conservative could agree with, violence perpetrated by the state using its structures and power is not on the same level as that perpetrated by particular groups.
So while I think it is very important to urge respect for law enforcement, to urge the peaceableness of communities to cooperate with law enforcement, to cooperate with federal agents, there's also, of course, a right to protest, to peaceful protest. And the government has a responsibility even when there is unruly protest, even when there are criminals. And this isn't just for the issue of illegal immigration. This is for the issue of any
issue, right? Anytime when there is violent crime in your city, the government has the responsibility to hold itself to a high standard where, yes, if there's a violent criminal doing terrible things terrorizing a city, the government still has to hold itself to the high standard of, of enacting justice. It can't just go out vigilante justice just shooting the criminals because we're mad at the criminals. Of course not. That's not how our law
enforcement works. Good law enforcement officers every day doing the brave work that they do. They're out there holding themselves to the high standard of we're going to give due process even to this criminal, even this criminal who is a maybe a raving lunatic or this person that is doing total crime and chaos in my city, they still deserve due process. And that is of course, our
American system of governance. And This is why one of the many reasons you and me should be so grateful to live in this country, because our government is held to the standard and holds itself to the standard. So let's go now zoom back to immigration. This is a a very important, another very important quote, I think from Fratelli 2D that I wanted to read. Complex challenges arise when our neighbor happens to be an immigrant.
So now it's talking specifically about the issue of immigration. Complex challenges arise when our neighbor happens to be an immigrant. Ideally, unnecessary migration ought to be avoided. So they're saying ideally unnecessary migration ought to be avoided. What the Pope is saying here is that you shouldn't be just immigrating for the sake of immigrating. People who immigrate should be doing it because of a serious
reason. So people that just say, well, I have a right to just show up in every other country and just show up and let me in, that is actually not the right of any person to do so. You don't have the right to just enter another country because you want to. And this note is being made here very clearly. It goes on to say this entails creating in countries of origin the conditions needed for a dignified life and integral
development. Yet, until substantial progress is made in achieving this goal, we are obliged to respect the right of all individuals to find a place that meets their basic needs and those of their families and where they can find personal fulfillment. Our response to the arrival of migrating persons can be summarized by 4 words. Welcome, protect, promote, and integrate.
Now, this is challenging and this is also, there's so much scriptural basis for this about welcoming the stranger, opening your arms to welcome the person that is the the foreigner. There's a challenge here. It's not just welcome them when it's convenient, it's welcomed them regardless of the challenges that it may pose. If they are in need, if they're destitute, if they need, you know, they're fleeing something, you know, war or poverty, they need help.
Do your best to help them is really the underlying principle here, scripturally and biblically and and as Christians. So what does that mean for immigration policy? Well, it's messy, of course. What does that look like? Many of the people entering this country are not entering this country on a lark.
That is true. They're not entering this country because they're like they woke up one day and like it would be fun to live in America. I'm going to peace out and go live in America. Many people who enter this country, including illegally and legally, because you can come both ways, are entering this country because they are really fearing the conditions that they're leaving, whether it's the poverty, it's the economic uncertainty, it's violent gangs
in their nation of origin. It's, you know, a government that's chaotic. There's no security where they're come from. They're seeking better freedom and opportunities. And I think people addressing this issue on both sides need to acknowledge that. We need to acknowledge that this isn't like they're showing up and coming on a lark. There's often desperation and and destitution that can drive it. Not in every case, but in many cases. Can you come here legally? Yes.
Should that be the pathway that we celebrate and promote the most? Yes. But when there are more spots, there are more people who want spots and spots available. This is where you see the temptation, of course, for many now millions of migrants to come here illegally. What is the Christian response? What is the response of of people that we should, that we should have? Ultimately, it should be a posture of welcoming, protecting, promoting and
integration. Now, some people have said, well, the Catholic Church is getting political here. They're criticizing President Trump and they don't criticize the Democrats. It's not fair. This looks political, etcetera, etcetera. And I do want to point out that even under Obama, Catholic Bishops were criticizing Obama. Pope Francis, when he came to the United States, when Obama was the president, he actually was criticizing our deportation policy and saying calling it
inhumane. So, you know, well, it may seem because of media reports that, oh, Catholics bishops or Catholic leaders are more hard on Trump versus others, there's been a fair amount of consistency from the Catholic Bishops about immigration deportation policy and the criticism that they've had of immigration deportation policy. I want to read one more quote here for context, though, from the Catechism, the Catholic Catechism about the treatment of
immigrants. And this is about affirming that governments have the right and they should regulate immigration for the sake of common good, public order and safety. So everything that I said, you know, people are listening to me like, well, yeah, welcome to stranger, you know, integrate immigrants. Be understanding all of this. But Lila, what about rule of law?
And what about the importance of a strong border and national sovereignty because of all the harm that illegal immigration can pop, can cause, especially if you're bringing in drugs, human trafficking and violent offenders. And this is from the Catechism, and it says 2241. It says political authorities for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible. Keep that in mind. President Trump, he's responsible for the common good.
Your government is responsible for the common good. You can agree or disagree with how they're living that out. You might hate, you know, policies or like policies, but that is their job. The common good they may exercise. They may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants duties towards their
country of adoption. So this is very important because it's saying that yes, the government has a right to regulate and it should regulate immigration, especially with regard to the immigrants duties towards their country of adoption. When an immigrant comes to the United States, they have a duty to follow the law of that country. They have a duty to assimilate. They have a duty to live by the laws and the customs, the good
laws and customs. You know, again, if the custom is we abort our children, the immigrant is adopting that. I would say that that is immoral and wrong. They should be here to actually bring as much justice and, and goodness as they can bring. But if there's good, if there's law, if there is good customs, then the immigrant should be working on integrating and adopting that. That is also part of the responsibility of the immigrant, just as the government has a responsibility to act with
justice. So I'm going to lay that. Thank you for for letting me lay that groundwork. I think that groundwork really matters. And I think it also helps us understand what's now taking place in Minnesota. Now, before Alex Pretty was shot in Minnesota on the streets of Minneapolis, there was a tweet by Bishop Baron who spoke out about what was happening and unfolding in in Minneapolis. And this was also after Alex Good had been shot on the streets.
And so he he what he said, I felt was very on point. And I remember retweeting it. And I think there was some Flack that he got from some folks. I may have gotten some too. But I felt that. And I believe that what Bishop Baron has to say about what's happening in Minnesota is spot on. And it appears that now the Trump administration seems to be aligning more with the recommendations of, at the time, Bishop Baron.
Now, not because of Bishop Baron necessarily, but I think because of the fallout and the backlash of what has happened in Minneapolis. So let's pull up this tweet from Bishop Baron. He says as a resident of Minnesota. So he, in the last few years, was moved to Minnesota. Before that, he was in California, he says. As a resident of Minnesota and a Bishop and as Bishop of the Diocese of Winona Rochester, my heart is breaking over the situation in my home state.
Violence, retribution, threats, protests, deep suspicion of one another, political unrest, fear, all of it swirling around all the time. May I make a modest proposal for exiting this unbearable state of affairs. The Trump administration and ICE should limit themselves, at least for the time being, to rounding up undocumented people who have committed serious crimes. Political leaders should stop stirring up resentment against officers who are endeavoring to enforce the laws of the country.
And protesters should cease interfering with the work of ICE. And everyone on all sides must stop shouting at one another and demonizing their opponents. Where we are now at is untenable. There is a way out now. I believe it was just a few days later that Alex Pretty was shot, and things have just become even more inflamed since. But I think this modest proposal from Bishop Baron still stands. And I think there's some
direction moving. There's a direction now towards more of a acceptance of such a proposal. And we'll get to that in a minute. All right, so let's take a look now at what just happened. I don't want to get I mean, I have we spent a lot of time at the show building up a a play by play about what happened with Alex Pretty what has been the response on the left and the right? What have been as I see at the excesses, what are what do I think, you know, what is the
solution? We're going to run through some of this. There's a lot more I wanted to get to today. So I think it took a lot of time ground, you know, laying the ground as I just did. And I think that is really important, laying that ground of where we're at and what is the Christian teaching on how we should see rule of flawed immigration. But let's just run through this quickly. You may have heard a lot of this, but I think there's some
important things to point out. So first of all, the day that Alex Pretty was shot and you probably have seen this footage, it's just, it's totally tragic. It's devastating. And if you're somebody in Minnesota who's already upset about ICE, who already feels that ice is there and shouldn't be there, who's already upset about, you know, a friend that feels terrified, terrified because of ice, because of the
color of their skin. And maybe they are an actual citizen or they are documented, but they're they're asking for their papers to be checked. And it's they feel terrified. They're like, where are we? What's going on in my hometown now or in my city? You can understand how much fury and pain there was when this viral video went around of Alex Freddie getting shot to death. Anytime you see anybody shot to death on video, it should break your heart.
It's a horrible thing. Alex Pretty should be alive right now. It's devastating. So let's walk through what happened and also what is the the reported understanding or experience of ICE who was part of this altercation? Of course, it was the one that pulled the trigger. So the day that Alex Pretty was shot, there were a there was a mission by ICE agents to go after an illegal immigrant who had an extensive criminal history, including domestic assault, disorderly conduct,
driving without a license. So they were going after somebody who did have that criminal history. And as they were working to do this, there was a protest, a counter protest ultimately that sprung up against ICE and Jeffrey Petty was there. Now, Jeffrey Petty, apparently, as of I think just today or yesterday, there's another story going around about Alex, Jeffrey Petty, not Jeffrey, Alex, Jeffrey Petty, about how he has been basically showing up at
these protests now for weeks. And there is a video now of him clashing with ice. I think it was 11 days before his death. Let's take a look at this one. This is another clip that's just going out about Alex where he is having a tussle with ice. I think he's spinning in their direction. Let's take a quick look at that. Can you play that video, Harris? This morning, two of the agents involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Preti are on administrative leave, according to DHS officials.
The move comes as a new videos have emerged of Preti from an incident 11 days before he was killed. Here you can see Preti approaching the area where a crowd was already interacting with federal agents. And in this angle captured by online media outlet The News Movement, Pretty kicks their car. The agents respond by tackling him to the ground. At one point, you can see what appears to be a gun.
It tucked in Pretty's pants. Local officials say Pretty was legally allowed to carry a handgun. Pretty's family says they were aware of the previous altercation, writing a week before Alex was gunned down in the street. Despite posing no threat to anyone, he was violently assaulted overnight.
President Trump sharing the video and another user's post calling Preti a domestic terrorist, despite his previous efforts to back away from that language used by administration officials after Preti's death, which has come under fire from both Democrats and Republicans. OK, so the. Trump administration has now acknowledged mistake. So this report here, we can pause it. So this report here is it's, it's interesting on a number of
levels. So first of all, it notes that as of now, DHS has put the agents on administrative leave who, who shot Alex Preti. So that happened that has happened just recently. It also talks about the this altercation that Alex pretty had that was captured on camera. He's kicking the tires of the ice vehicle. He's spitting in their direction. He was tackled to the ground after that.
According to some reports, he broke a rib after that and then he's back out on the streets within 10 days later to do another ultimately altercation with ice. Now I'm already looking at the chat. So thank you guys. The chat is already engaging here. I promised I would get to it. And I I think there's some comments here that I want to just read one chat. One person says Emily says shame he wasn't arrested in that earlier altercation. Letting him go emboldened him. It is a good question.
If Alex had been arrested then when he got in a tussle with Ice and literally was fighting with them, would he be dead today? You know, would it, would he, would he be with us today if he had been arrested at that time? I don't know the answer to that because he could have been arrested and let go. I'm not sure. But the point is there was already hostility happening and Alex getting involved in this, these tussles even before the altercation that took his life.
Now, the fact is, Alex Pretty, and I think everybody agrees with this, including the left and the right, Alex Pretty was in fact, impeding law enforcement. So they were federal agents. People are saying there's a distinction. Obviously there are federal agents enforcing federal law. They are federal law enforcement. He was trying to stop their missions. That's what he was trying to do. And he had the right to conceal carry.
He did have that permit. That is a constitutional right to carry a gun, to be a gun owner. And so the fact that he had a gun on him and the fact that he was protesting is within his rights. It now is no longer within his rights if you get into the area of he's actually actively impeding an operation because ICE has the right to arrest someone who is actively impeding an operation. Sounds like there's an operation
happening off camera right now. By the way, there's, I don't know if you guys can hear the, the sirens, but I bring this up because what, what, what Alex pretty did could have, could have led to his arrest. Instead, it led to his death. And that's what of course people are outraged about. They're outraged that ICE was there in the 1st place. Many people oppose the ICE operation to begin with. And then second of all, they're outraged because he was shot and
how he was shot. He was shot where he was prone on the ground in the scuffle. You know, those that defend ICE said, well, the ICE was, wasn't sure it was going on. They saw a gun, they knew there was a gun. They didn't know if Alex was going to be able to grab that
gun. That is all going to be lit again and I'm not going to litigate that right now because I that is not my pay grade and that is requires a level of expertise to understand exactly what was the intent of the ice officers, what was the experience of the ice officers? What are all the different camera angles? What is the time sequencing of all of those actions. I can say confidently that it is a horrible tragedy that he is not with us that Alex was killed.
I would say confidently that it appears to most people, and I can say this for the left and the right, because I've seen, you know, the the coverage, the wall to wall coverage on this. It appears to most people that he didn't need to get shot because he was largely shot in the back. He was on the ground already and most people are saying, why did you do that? Doesn't look like you had the you needed to do that. There could be a case made for
the ICE officer. And I'm sure they'll make the case that they thought that they were under threat of their life and they felt they had to do that. So that's going to be their case. That's going to get litigated. But I think the bottom line is we're seeing the inflamed. We're seeing the inflaming of factions now on both sides, certainly in Minnesota. And we're seeing the responses from the right saying that DHS, you know, is doing their job. They're trying to enforce the
law. They're just being attacked by protesters. You saw the response from the right. And this was the administration specifically, when this first took place a week ago, the administration called Predi a domestic terrorist, saying that he was on a mission to potentially massacre law enforcement. So they had already begun to paint him in the narrative as this violent offender against ICE. Is there evidence to bear that out? I don't think so, even with this
previous clip. So that was a very intense stand that they took. Obviously on the left, the left is saying that ICE is like the Gestapo, that ICE is, you know, literally Hitler. I mean, that's really the argument that they are on this, you know, this, this, this tour of just terrorizing communities, attacking people. Is that really the case for every ICE officer?
Of course not. You know, I know people in law enforcement and Border Patrol and involved with ICE who are truly trying to restore peace in communities, doing doing the best that they can. And they believe that they're doing what's right. They're trying to respect human dignity, trying to do the right thing thing is that every ICE officer. No, of course not. But is that many of them? I would say yes.
So you're seeing this you know, polar hyper polarization on each side calling each other these names domestic terrorist Hitler, the Gestapo, modern day Gestapo. I think the the truth, the truth
is somewhere in the middle. And some people who hear me say this, if you are very much conservative, which I am myself, but if you are very much involved in these, you know, aware of these political narratives, you want maybe to take a strong firm stand in one camp or the other and say, well, nuance here is not really good because we need to take a strong stand one way or another. ICE, all bad. ICE all good. Immigration, all bad. Immigration, all, all good. Administration, all bad.
Administration, all good, I don't think. And, and I've heard some conservatives reference the issue of abortion as a reason as, as almost like a justification for why we need to take a strong stand on these other issues. Meaning abortion is black and white. It's always wrong. One side is always wrong on it, which is the side that supports it and the side that rejects it is right. And use abortion as an example to compare immigration to saying, well, immigration is black and white too.
And this issue is also black and white. They are different. These issues are different. Abortion is black and white. The baby's killed or not killed, and when you kill a baby, it's the direct and intentional killing via an abortion that's always wrong. In the issue of immigration enforcement, there's a lot more complexity and nuance, and that's where good people on both sides will have disagreements and have some things that they're right about. And people on the other side
will have some good points. And I would urge the posture of understanding and listening to each other instead of going to war to say you're all bad, you're all wrong, I'm all right, I'm all good. Because. And back to our, our, our view of this as Christians and back to what many of the many Christian leaders, Catholic
Bishops have been recommending. When you're doing mass deportations of nonviolent offenders of people who came here illegally, maybe when they were very young and you're we're tearing apart families. You're basically trying to put a Band-Aid on the bleeding wound that was the US border. And the Band-Aid is let's just RIP people out of their communities and deport them, including against 70 to 95% of them who are not violent offenders.
It does open the door to tremendous chaos in communities, to the potential for human rights violations in communities, to many of the issues that we're seeing right now. And I think to pretend like, well, that's not going to happen. You're not going to have any human rights issues, you're not going to have any disturbance, and any chaos is not reality.
The reality is, especially if someone's brought here as a younger person, as a young child, and they start to build a life here, they're brought here as a young teen and now they're in college and they've assimilated largely, but they're not documented. Deporting them is going to create chaos. And you're seeing the chaos in many of the stories of fear and consternation coming out of our
communities. Now, some people say, well, Lila, that's just the left wing media constantly trying to attack Trump, attack, you know, the right. They're constantly making these sob stories to try to undermine rule of law. Yeah, the left wing media does do that. The left wing media is often dishonest. They're certainly very dishonest on abortion. I've seen them be dishonest on a lot of things. I've seen some right wing media
be dishonest at times. I think overall it's less dishonest, but I've seen it be dishonest at times. But we're not like, Oh well, the left wing media is dishonest. Therefore I think we should do mass deportations. I don't think that should necessarily be your conclusion of, well, the right wing or the the left wing is dishonest and
left wing media is dishonest. What I'm trying to say here is just because the person criticizing your party, your side is sometimes dishonest or is dishonest on other things or otherwise you don't respect them, that doesn't mean they're 100% wrong all the time. A broken clock is right, you
know, twice a day. So the fact that somebody, this is what this is my caution, this is my caution to conservatives right now, to Christians, to Catholics, My caution certainly to people who are more on the right like myself, who's a conservative, Leave a put tribalism aside, put US versus them, left versus right, left wing media, right wing media, put it aside. Look at it from a perspective of what is our posture that we're called to have as Christians?
What it what are the facts of the situation? And step inside and step out of this warring narratives game. Because as a Christian, your concern should not be narratives. Your concern should not be, well, I need to fight their narrative with my narrative. Your concern should be the truth, the truth of what it means to be a Christian and the truth of what is actually happening in any given situation.
And sometimes your political opponents will be telling the truth about some things, and we should be listening to both sides, to our side and to our opponents. Sometimes we may, we may have something to learn from the people who politically oppose us. Your political party should not be your first guiding star for how to think about politics. Your political media should not be your first guiding star for how to think about what's happening in the political realm or in our culture.
Your guiding star should be seeking out the facts as best you can and navigating how they might be represented differently from different sides. And your guiding star should be Scripture should be your faith. As a Catholic, my guiding star is the tradition of the Catholic Church and the and the wealth of knowledge of 2000 years of its teachings on faith and morals, which is all scripturally based. That should be your guiding
star. So where do we leave it with this, you know, tragedy unfolding in Minnesota? The good news is after the horrific controversies and by the way ICE has been hit, you know, ICE agent hasn't died in Minneapolis. But there was an ICE agent who had his finger chomped off by a protester. He is in a tussle with another protester. She bit his finger cut off. She literally chomped off part of his finger. So ICE agents are also experiencing bodily threat and harm.
It's not just protesters. Now, back to that original principle. The government has a special responsibility to do justice. And even when the protesters aren't doing justice, the government still has to do justice. That's a very important point. But where are we going to leave it? OK. The good news is it sounds like there is some lessening of tension. I want to credit. Let's see what this pull up. The quote from President Trump. He had a statement here.
Do we have it to Tim Walz? He had a conversation with Governor Walz. Tim Walz has been in the news quite a lot lately. I am glad for one, that he is not our vice president right now. I, I will say that. But let's pull up, Governor, this tweet from Governor Walls. I, I don't know if I have it on my computer. Do we have it? Pull it up here. OK, Governor. Tim Walz, can you zoom into Tadmore Harris?
Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call and we actually seem to be on a similar wavelength. So this is very conciliatory from President Trump, which I applaud him for. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tim Holman call him and that what we were looking for are any and all criminals that have in their position, any, all criminals that they have in their possession.
And I will be speaking to him. The governor respectfully understood that and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tim Homan was going to Minnesota and so am I. We've had such tremendous success in Washington, DC, Memphis, TN and New Orleans, LA and virtually every other place that we have touched. And even in Minnesota, crime is way down. You can Scroll down a little bit, Harris.
That's all that we have. So this is and Tim Homan, who is an American law enforcement officer. He was designated as the czar for Trump's second presidency. Tim Homan or excuse me, Tom Homan served during the Obama administration. So this is a really important because Tom Homan in that sense is a nonpartisan figure. He served under Obama. Now, some people on the left
just hate this guy. So, again, I'm not pretending like the left loves him, but the point is he served under Obama and he was given, I believe, a presidential rank award. He was given an award in 2015 by President Barack Obama. So leave your partisanship behind for a moment, left versus right. This is somebody that Obama liked a lot and actually celebrated, you know, gave him
an award. And now President Trump is saying, OK, I'm going to send this guy because it sounds like the left can handle him or as liked him in the past. So I think that's progress. And I like that President Trump is indicating we're going to pull the criminals. I think he's referencing, you know, criminals with a criminal
record beyond illegal entry. And those are the people that we're going to be targeting now, focusing more on in Minnesota and allowing tensions hopefully to be less inflamed. And I think this is the right direction for President Trump to take. All right, you guys, so much more on this topic to talk about and I'm sure we'll be covering it in the future. I appreciate everybody for your comments here. We're going to get to some of
them soon. I want to briefly touch, though, on Meghan Trainer and my trip to DC. So before that, though, I have to thank our sponsors, our amazing sponsors and their support of the show. Nothing beats a great cup of coffee except a great cup of coffee that goes towards saving lives. Seven weeks. Coffee.com is what we drink at my house and it's organic, pesticide free, mold free, and
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And right now, just for my listeners, you can try Brave Plus free for seven days. Go to braveplus.com/lila. That's braveplus.com/lila for a free seven day trial. All right, so let's move to this other news story that caught my eye recently. Meghan trainer, a singer, and she actually has this very beautiful family. She recently announced that she had given. She had not given birth. Excuse me.
She had welcomed a new child into her family that she had, yes, not given birth to, but it is her biological child. Let's pull up this picture here of Meghan Trainer's announcement of the birth of this beautiful baby. Congratulations on this baby. They named her Mikey Moon Trainer January 18th, born just last week or a little over a week ago. You can see in this picture Megan is doing skin contact, cuddling with this newborn baby. But here's the thing, this baby was born via surrogacy.
Now I'm bringing this up because of course I'm excited about any new baby. Every new baby is a gift from God. This is a gift to Megan and her husband Daryl. What a blessing. But the the choice of surrogacy is what I want to talk about because this is an increasing trend. You might have remember, you might remember when Kim Kardashian, this was several years ago now, was one of the first big actors slash models, slash celebrity types to use
surrogacy. She had given birth herself to her first few children and then she chose a surrogate. This is what happened in the case of Megan. Megan emphasized that surrogacy wasn't our first choice. This is Megan Trainer, she says, but she decided it was the safest choice after extensive conversations with doctors because of gestational diabetes and because of traumatic birth experiences. So she had a body birth experience and she experienced gestational diabetes in one of
her pregnancies. So then she said I'm not carrying my future kids. I think this is absolutely tragic. I, I do not think surrogacy should be permitted. It should be allowed. The human rights abuses that open that the doors have opened to with surrogacy are devastating. There is basically no checks and balances for people who have babies via surrogacy. Today.
You can be a single man with even a criminal record and you can go buy ultimately a baby via surrogacy, get hire a woman even in another country to be a surrogate for you and have a baby. This is something that is
happening across the country. It's being used as elites, though, to sidestep the risks or challenges of pregnancy and instead have pay someone else to take those risks and challenges on. Here's the reality According to surveys and data that has been collected, surrogacy is actually dangerous for surrogates. So there was a a study done recently, this is from the Guardian 2024. Surrogates face higher risk of pregnancy complications.
Women who act as pregnancy surrogates appear to have a higher risk of pregnancy complications than those who carry their own babies. The use of surrogates or gestational karyos have boomed in recent years, but the risks are increased, including severe postpartum hemorrhage and severe preeclampsia than women who conceive naturally. So the reality is, of course, pregnancy comes with risk. Birth experiences can be beautiful or not so beautiful.
I know many first time moms have a really rough first birth experience. It's really tough. My second birth was much easier than my first. I'm not trying to downplay Meghan Trainer's maybe fear of birth or maybe gestational diabetes. That is not, you know, not not something that shouldn't be, that should be ignored. Of course, if you have gestational diabetes, you need to work better on monitoring that pregnancy and and your health.
But these are the reasons now we are buying another person's body temporarily to literally gestate our own children. And I think about Megan's other kids. I think about the fact that they were safely nestled and bonding with their mother in so many beautiful ways as unborn babies. And now this third child didn't get that opportunity.
And that is a tragedy. And so I think along with all of the abuses that surrogacy opens the door for, there's also the tragedy of the lack of that bond that is immediately formed because that little baby spends its entire first nine months of life nestled inside the body of his or her mother and hearing literally the heartbeat and the voice of his or her mother. Keep that in mind. Like this baby that was handed over to Megan has never heard her heartbeat before, has never
heard her voice before. She's a completely foreign entity to this baby, almost like she's an adoptive mother or someone that's a complete stranger as opposed to getting the welcome of the voice and the the warm embrace of the mother that had carried carried her. So I don't want us to normalize surrogacy. I don't want us to celebrate it. I don't think it should be permitted. And as wonderful as it is that this baby is welcomed now safely, praise God, it is not a practice that we should be
celebrating. The practice is the problem. The baby's never the problem. The practice, the method of the carrying or even the conception can be the problem. All right, I promised you guys I would talk to you about DC. So I just got back from Washington, DCA few days ago. It was an amazing trip. I was really moved by the they're estimating 100,000 people. I don't know if we have a marked picture.
I know we're going to show the picture with Secretary Kennedy, but there were an estimated, if you go to my Instagram, you'll, you can pull some of the images. There were an estimated 100,000 people marching the streets of DC. Now I've had some people tell me, Lila, why are we still marching for life? Roe V Wade is overturned. The reason we marched for life in January was because of Roe V Wade back in 1973 being decided in January.
And so people say, you know, it's overturned now because of Dobsy Jackson and so and you know, in June 2022. So why are we still marching for life in DC in just in January? And my response is this, I see truly how life changing this event has been now for decades for millions, ultimately of young people who do brave the snow and the sleet and the cold
to stand up for life. And we are living in a post Roe America. But the impact of Roe V. Wade continues to live on because it didn't just change our law when abortion was legalized on demand in 1973. It changed the country's culture. It changed our society dramatically because now the law, being a teacher, the law is a teacher, the law was now teaching people that abortion was totally OK and it was a woman's right and all the rhetoric and the politics that
came with that. And so I think marching, you know, do I wish the March was a different month? In one sense, yes. Would I like to see a March in June to March about, you know, to celebrate the good parts of Dobsy Jackson and call for complete abolition of abortion, make it completely eradicated federally? Yes. And and we do have events around the time of the Dobsy Jackson case in June.
But I think there's a legacy here that's valuable and there's a habit that's been formed that's valuable because I know for a fact that when young people March for life, I've seen it myself, it inspires them in a special way to be out there with 10s of thousands of other people marching also for life. It leaves an indelible mark that they remember and it helps with their own journey of pro-life advocacy and activism. So also being out there for the March for Life, I gave a ton of
talks I was doing. I was very busy and I was blessed to go out there with my kids. So we were able to have some wonderful play dates with friends that I have out there as well. And then I just tried to cram work and just get a bunch of work done. And what I was able to do was a debate at Georgetown University that was great. You can see that on the live action YouTube. We did a press conference on Capitol Hill calling for the abortion pill to be taken off the market.
We had meetings with the administration and Secretary Kennedy. One of the the facts that many people don't realize on the pro-life issue is that the majority of abortions today are done via the chemical abortion pill. This is the reason abortions have increased in the last three years. Some people are saying, well, pro-life laws don't work. Pro-life laws work if the federal government isn't allowing the abortion pill to be illegally sold across state lines. And that's what's happening.
Tragically, the reality is the abortion pill is being sold across state lines. And you can order the abortion pill to your home by literally pressing a button. You can do a very brief Zoom call effectively with a medical provider who's not even necessarily a medical provider, who will ship the mail, the pills to your doorstep or your mailbox. And This is why over 60% now of abortions are the abortion pill. Now what does this mean?
And not only means that we have over 1,000,000 abortions a year now, with over 600,000 of them being the abortion pill. It means that it's the Wild West for unregulated and very dangerous abortions. Not just lethal for the baby, but dangerous for the mom. There was a study by the ethics public, the Ethics and Public Policy Center that came out last year that surveyed insurance data of women who had abortion.
So it was anonymized data. It wasn't like telling any people's personal medical records. But it found from Acesta, a sample of hundreds of thousands of women that the women that took the abortion pill, one out of every 22 of them landed in the emergency room and one out of every ten of them had serious adverse side effects from the abortion pill. So the abortion pill almost 100% of the time kills the baby. Sometimes actually the baby survives. It's very rare.
And sometimes the baby can be saved via the abortion pill reversal method that women may opt to take. Thank praise God, 7000 babies have been saved that way. But in virtually every case, the the large majority of the babies killed and then in one out every 10 cases, the woman has serious adverse side effects. One out of every 22 cases she lands in the emergency room. To put this in perspective, and this was even shared with me in the meeting I'm about to tell
you about. To put this in perspective, if the FDA, the FDA knows of any drug that is causing one out of every 10 people who take it to have serious adverse side effects, they have the policy to pull that drug from the market. You take that drug off the market should not be on the market because that is a dangerous drug. Well friends, the abortion pill is on the market right now and not only is it on the market, it was illegally put on the market under President Clinton way back when.
In 2000. The Food and Drug Administration bypassed their own protocols and illegally authorized its use without any really studies or regulations being followed. Protocols being followed and they put the abortion pill on the market RU 486. They were required at the time 3 doctors visits to confirm that the baby was in the womb instead of in the fallopian tubes. To confirm it wasn't an ectopic
pregnancy. To check gestational age of the baby because these pills are supposed to be taken in the first trimester when the baby is little, not when the baby is older. And also to check on the woman after the abortion pill has been taken to confirm that there's no baby parts left inside of her and the babies actually had been killed. I mean, it's horrific, right? But that was the original policy under Clinton, who was a raging
pro abort. Remember, President Clinton refused to sign the Partial Birth abortion ban act. He wanted partial birth abortion to be legal. That's how pro abortion Clinton was. But he even said there should be 3 doctors visits. Obama removed one of the doctor's visits or actually two of the doctor's visits. And then President Biden during COVID removed the last doctor's visit. So now you can order these lethal drugs directly to your door. No doctor to be seen.
What does this mean? It means that if you're a woman with an ectopic pregnancy, that's one to 2% of all women who get pregnant have an ectopic pregnancy. The baby is not in the womb. She's he or she is not in the uterus. They're in the fallopian tube or elsewhere. You take it. You take an abortion pill with that situation, the baby can still be killed, but the baby can't be expelled in the same way because they're in the fallopian tube.
It can kill the mother. There could be an internal hemorrhaging, bleeding and death for the mother. It's extremely dangerous. Also, these babies could be a lot older and the mother's taking the abortion pill. There's no way to ascertain the gestational age because there's no ultrasound right now. So the mother and this this has happened. These are horrible cases. Live Action News reports us all the time.
The baby could be 20 weeks old. The baby could be 8 months old and a mother can take the abortion pill and it can cause profound horrific suffering for that baby. It can cause a late term abortion. Sometimes the baby can be born alive. This has happened by the way. And again, it's the Wild West. So let me just share briefly my meeting, what I can share with you. We were able to meet with Secretary Kennedy. Here's a picture of from that meeting. I was able to talk with him.
I was surprised. I was impressed that Secretary Kennedy knew as much as he knew. I went in there not sure about the posture because Secretary Kennedy has said before he supports abortion. This is not some pro-life person saying I love being a pro-life and I wanted to protect babies. He said some comments that seemed to indicate pro-life support. So it's been a bit mixed. But overall he's said as when he campaigned for president that he supported abortion. He seemed well aware of some of
the risks of the abortion pill. And I can say that the administration is, is indicating publicly and and privately that they are looking into the abortion pill. They're doing their own research to ascertain whether it's safe or not. Now, none of that is acceptable when you consider it is definitely not safe. Forget for the mother for a minute, it's lethal for the baby. There's no way for the abortion
pill to be made safe, safe. It's designed to kill a baby, starve to death and forcibly expel a baby. So in that sense, there is no grounds whatsoever under which the abortion pill should be legal and on our market, because the FDA is supposed to protect the American people, that includes unborn people, from lethal drugs that are designed to harm and not heal. And the abortion pill is designed to kill. That's its whole job is to kill.
And I'm talking about mythopristone used as an abortifacion because some people are listening and say, well, Lila, it's also used to complete a miscarriage after the baby has passed. That's totally fine. Sell that all you want. If the baby has already passed and you're trying to complete a miscarriage, it's totally acceptable. The baby is living and you're trying to kill the baby. It is completely unacceptable. So where I'll leave it as this. We were able to have a
conversation. I do think the administration cares about what the base is saying, what the pro-life people care about and say the pro family base. We need to raise our voices very loudly right now and say, President Trump, pull the pill for the market. It's deadly for babies, it's dangerous for women. And they are hearing. They are hearing it and it does impact what they do. So that is my bottom line here after my meetings, after my advocacy and activism in DC, we
have to speak louder. Live Action will be doing more investigative reporting. So go check out what we're doing over at Live Action and support what we're doing. And we're going to continue to raise the alarm about these deadly drugs. And I believe that if enough people speak out, we will see action. So pray for the abortion pill to be taken off the market and call on Congress. We have a petition over at liveaction.org. We are doing a lot of activism
around this and work. Call on Congress, call on the FDA. Congress does have a role to play, but I'll, I'll, I'll explain what their role is in a minute. Call on the FDA, call on the administration to pull the abortion pill. What are we calling in Congress to do? And ultimately it will include Trump. Complete defund of Planned Parenthood.
That's the other big objective this year for the public movement politically pull the abortion pill and we need complete defunding of Planned Parenthood. They have been defunded for one year and it is time, you know, and this is not even all of their funding. It's most of their funding federally, but not all. We need to make that funding complete and permanent. So please, if you're not already following live action, please do that because we need the whole movement to be engaged right
now. And these are the political fights that we are fighting. All right, I'm going to take a minute to look at the chat here. Thank you everybody for tuning in today. So First off here, this is from Silver Bear saying I truly do hope this administration does something about the prevalence of these pills.
I totally agree, Wandervy says. Ali Beth Stuckey says that adoption fixes a broken situation and that surrogacy creates 1. Yes, this is the messaging also of our the great Katie Faust. I'm very proud to be part of a campaign she's running about how children deserve a mother and a father. And she says this as well, that adoption fixes a broken situation.
This is why we celebrate adoption as pro lifers, but we don't celebrate surrogacy because surrogacy is designed to bring a new life into the world, often to break those core bonds that that they deserve to have with their mother and their father. But adoption is when their mother and their father isn't able to care for them. And so there's somebody else that can help heal that broken relationship. Another comment here, this is from K Fine. He says, or I think she says.
I remember when our when my sister, a nurse in the Philippines back then, tried to visit the US to see our relatives but was asked to turn back around because she was seen as a potential illegal immigrant. And this was during the Obama administration. So, you know, again, nations have the right to do this. They have the right to regulate their borders.
This is where I think people accuse the left of being inconsistent because some people on the left, when you really push them, they're like, yeah, open borders. I support no border. And that's not tenable. No, virtually no country has that. But borders matter. And this is, again, where rule
of law matters. But then how do we humanely enforce rule of law and also recognize if someone's been here illegally for many decades, brought here illegally as a child, is it worth the chaos and the potential inhumane treatment? Is it the right thing to do, to do a mass deportation policy? And that's why a lot of Catholic Bishops are saying, no, actually, that's not the right move, Secure the border. But mass deportations, indiscriminate deportations is not the solution.
Chicago says whatever you did for the least of my brethren, you did it for me. The Lord allows us to see you in the most marginalized. Lord allow us to see you in the most marginalized of society. Allowed us to remember that undocumented immigrants are still human beings. It's not about Democrats or Republicans. It's about 1 nation. We are in this together and Christ wants unity, not division. I love that sentiment. I think that's that is that is true God. That is what Christ wants
ultimately. But we also need to unify with what is true. And I think what is true is both protecting human dignity, not creating chaos in communities, being realistic, and then also having a secure border and recognizing that there are agents of chaos in politics who are trying to just create chaos and not have a secure border and not have any rule of law. A few more a few more comments
here. This is from Illani says you can support secure borders and rule of law, but also insist on treating all human beings with dignity. And I do think that that take is what a lot of people are saying right now. And that's not to say, oh, you're becoming a leftist or oh, you're just hating on the right or Trump. I think that's what most people are saying. We don't want to see violent
altercations in our communities. Yeah, the protesters have a responsibility to not show up and do violent protest 100%. But also law enforcement has the federal law enforcement has a responsibility to to be as thoughtful and strategic as possible with how to carry out missions that make sense, that are as much in line with those communities will.
I mean, some people have even said, well, if Minneapolis doesn't want them want, you know, federal law enforcement there, why is federal law enforcement showing up? Well, they'd have a responsibility to enforce federal law. But at the same time, you know, maybe go to communities that and, and this is, you know, Bishop Baron to some degree saying let's deport the violent criminals. But maybe we should have a, a, a
softening period here. And it looks like President Trump is moving in alignment with that, which is, I think, great progress. All right, everyone, thank you. Thanks for joining and letting me talk through my thoughts here on immigration. And I very much welcome your comments and your notes in in the comment section. Please leave them. And thank you so much for your
support of live action. People have been so supportive of our our mission right now to take the abortion pill off the market, as well as to ensure that we completely defund the abortion industry. And the most important part of our mission is to change culture. Politics must change, but we got to change culture too, and that's one heart and one mind at a time. So thank you so much for your amazing support of live action. Thanks everybody and we will see you next time.