Speaker 1: What's going on?
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And again, thank you so much for your support. So
let me start with a story that appeared the other
day at WSOCTV.
Speaker 1: Joe Bruno, the reporter.
Speaker 2: That US Immigration and Customs Enforcement And by the way,
this story may sound a little familiar in that I
covered a little bit of it. I guess it was
last week. I want to say maybe it was Friday.
I forget because our bold and fearless and sometimes flustrated
Sheriff Gary not my fault. McFadden in the news again
regarding this story. But here's how it started. US Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agents are ramping up arrests. ICE is
now making daily arrests in Charlotte and in the surrounding area.
Channel nine government reporter Joe Bruno embedded with ICE which
sounds uncomfortable just because it's Chile.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: He embedded with ICE in Charlotte last week to learn
more about their operations in the area, and on Thursday,
Channel nine was there when ICE arrested Jose Napoleon Serrano
and here's that report.
Speaker 4: Every day in Charlotte, about three and a half weeks ago,
ICE agents are hearing up and getting their assignment.
Speaker 5: Good morning, guys, this morning we're gonna be going after
Jose Napoleon Serrano, Honda and mailed Hondora citizen.
Speaker 4: Jose Napoleon Serrana has already been deported twice. In twenty twenty,
he was removed from the United States after being arrested
in Operation Noble Guardian. That's when investigators arrested people who
crossed the border with a kid in order to be
deemed a family unit so they can avoid detention, only
to then ship the kid back after gaining entry into
the US.
Speaker 5: They felt that they would be safe if they brought
a child in, and so he was one of those
people that were targeted for that reason.
Speaker 4: The child's essentially a prop absolutely. That's Maria Summers. She's
the head of enforcement and removal operations in Charlotte for
about an hour and a half. We parked inside Napoleon
Serrano's neighborhood waiting for him to come out. A stakeout,
she says, could have been avoided.
Speaker 5: We're putting our lives in danger, obviously, the alien's life
and the people in the community.
Speaker 4: Last month, Sempity arrested Napoleon Serrano on charges of assault
with a deadly weapon, assault on a female, and domestic
viole es. Ice issued this detainer, requesting him to be
held for forty eight hours and for the Mecklenburg County
Sheriff's office to let them know before he is released.
Record show he was held for forty eight hours, but
Ice says mcso never made that phone call. As I've
been reporting. Sheriff Gary mcfatten thinks the law doesn't require
him to do so.
Speaker 5: It's frustrating because this could be a very easy transaction
at the jail if they were honoring our detainers.
Speaker 4: So that's how Ice ended up here in North Charlotte.
They spent about a week getting to know Napoleon Serrano's habits.
Speaker 1: We don't have movement right now.
Speaker 4: They are all scattered throughout the neighborhood waiting for him
to leave his home.
Speaker 5: We're keeping with the president's policy and is the worst First.
Speaker 4: This is targeted enforcement, not a raid, and Summer says,
despite what has been said, her agents aren't going into churches,
schools for other sensitive areas. She says, the focus is
on people who have committed violent.
Speaker 5: Our goal is to remove them and hopefully, you know,
get rid of one list threat, you know, and one
more one lest victim out there that gets to sleep
at night and feel safe.
Speaker 4: When Napoleon Serrano left his house, agents and unmarked cars followed,
and he instantly knew why. He pulled into a park
and ditched his car. He's up in here in the
power life. And after a short run through the woods,
Ice made the arrest. Anything you want to say, okay,
it's katus here. Napoleon Serrano didn't comment on his arrest.
He asked Ice if someone would be able to pick
up his car, and he confirmed all of his kids
are being supervised summer sets, just like they were watching him.
He was having people watched that they're doing.
Speaker 3: They know our cars. They kind of also know somewhat
the way we off.
Speaker 6: That's right.
Speaker 3: So when he saw something was you know, not normal.
He came, he parked his car and took off.
Speaker 4: After being escorted out the woods, Napoleon Serrana was cuffed.
ICE let him leave his keys, and he was allowed
to call his wife to let her know he was
arrested and that she would need to pick up the car.
Now that the suspect has been arrested, he's going to
be taken back to the ICE office in Charlotte for processing.
He will then be sent to Almance County, where he's
expected to remain in the detention center for one or
two days before he can get a hearing before judge.
At the ICE field office, he was escorted through the
back and into an elevator. Once inside, officers collected the
rest of his belongings, including more than two thousand dollars
in cash. He was then placed into a cell. Summers
says she has met with state lawmakers asking them to
make it clear sheriffs have to call ICE before a
suspect like Napoleon Serrano is released. But she is reiterating
the focus right now is on peakull accused of serious crimes.
Speaker 5: We are going after criminals, So I would say don't
commit additional crimes, right, and most likely that's not who
we're going to prioritize.
Speaker 7: I talked to Sheriff Gary mcfatten's office again after the arrest,
and they reiterated their belief that they are following this
law as written.
Speaker 2: And to hear the part about kids being used as
props and then sent back, that's just so sad, unbelievable
to hear.
Speaker 3: And Joe, you also talked to the agents about how
their directives have changed from the Biden administration to now
the Trump administration.
Speaker 7: Yeah, specifically for the ICE Charlotte office, really the focus
was on processing the large number of people who cross
the border and then resided here in Charlotte. Now the
focus is on removal and different agencies are able to
help ICE with those arrests, like.
Speaker 4: The FBI and the DEA. And so that is what
is happening now.
Speaker 8: A great look inside Joy, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Joe. All right, So that's the initial report
that was filed by Joe Bruno over WSOCT and that
prompted then the response from the Sheriff's office, and in
the online version of the story, a spokesperson for Sheriff
McFadden reiterated the sheriff's belief that a notification prior to
release is not required. Is not required. I don't have
to call, That's what he said. Mecklenberg County Sheriff's office.
According to the spokesperson Sarah mess Story, the Sheriff's office
is doing much of the legwork for Ice while complying. Okay,
were you guys on the stakeout? Did you have to
sit in the car and follow him around the neighborhood
for a week? A week while complying with an unfunded
state man date for what is ultimately a federal matter?
She said, yes, so is bank robbery too. Do you
guys help it all with those? She says, should Sheriff
McFadden now provide Ice with a two man warning as well?
I don't even know what that means. The form is
very clear, the fact remains, she says. Sheriff's office is
following the law both one sixty two, DOT sixty two
and now house built ten somers with. Ice said she
has met with state lawmakers to ask them to make
it clear sheriffs have to call Ice before a suspect
like Napoleon Serrano is released. All right, if you're listening
to this show. You know I try to keep up
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Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. Want to Welcome to the program now ap Dylan.
She writes, you can find her substack AP Dylan dot
substack dot com.
Speaker 1: That's AP obviously the.
Speaker 2: Letters D I, L L O n AP Dylan dot
substack dot com.
Speaker 1: What's going on? AP? How are you good?
Speaker 2: Pete?
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 8: So.
Speaker 2: I was reading your piece the other day or sorry
about I was reading your piece about the immigration stuff,
and then I saw the connection to the the WSOC
TV story with the undercover embedded raid and all of
the stuff that that kicked up. So let me first
start though with closer to where you are up in Raleigh,
because I just played the WSOC report on the Charlotte incident.
So what did you guys see up in Raleigh with
these targeted enforcement actions in Wake County?
Speaker 6: Well, earlier in February, ICE was on the ground here
in Raleigh and they captured a twenty four year old
suspected member of Trendre Aragua, the Venezuelan game that's been
taking over cities across the nation. Law enforcement here was involved,
as well as Border patrol, ICE, marine operations, US marshalls.
A whole bunch of folks were involved in that one,
and it happened at a residence in Raleigh. Officers when
they took him into custody. The guy's name was Ricardo
Padilla Grenadillo. They took him into custody and they found
a handgun, ammunition and ten other Venezuelan aliens were in
the house were also arrested during the operation.
Speaker 2: Now we don't and we don't know like who those
other people are at this.
Speaker 6: Time, No, we don't. We're assuming that they were possibly
additional suspected gang members, but we're not sure. It could
just be relatives or friends or somebody like that. The
ICE press release said that he was wanted in connection
with a shooting, a mass shooting in Chicago that had
left like two or three people dead and several wounded.
They didn't link to that story, but I managed to
track it down. It was something that happened on December
seconds in the South side of Chicago where eight people
were involved in a shooting and yeah, three were killed
and all of those were identified by Chicago's police chief
as being Hispanic in thescent that were the victims. So
in Chicago's got a real big problem with Trinday Aragua
in its in its apartment complexes, just like we saw
in Aurora, Colorado. So ICE has been conducting raids there
as well. They missed him there. And I mean this
kind of follows multiple Trenday Aragua west here in North Carolina.
I mean this is like the second or the third one.
I think last fall there was a guy named Mujika
Muhika Rojas, also known as La Pressa. He was arrested
in Charlotte in September one of twenty twenty four. He
was an alleged lieutenant of Trenday Aragua and was wanted
for illegally entering the United States in twenty twenty two,
but also for a number of charges like illegal and
gun ammunition trafficking, extortion, money laundering, that sort of thing.
So he was also wanted apparently in relation to the
gang's involvement and activity in various cities including murder, kidnapping,
human trafficking, drug, drug traffic, and terrorism.
Speaker 2: Well, he sounds like somebody, yeah, he he sounds like
somebody that our sheriff would have a very little problem
releasing back out onto the streets.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So let me let me go over some of the numbers,
and you report on these numbers in your piece, per
a November twenty twenty three report by c WB Chicago.
Speaker 1: Do you what is c WB Chicago?
Speaker 6: Do you know it's a news outlet?
Speaker 1: Okay, local station, gotcha.
Speaker 2: So they've been reporting the arrests of Venezuelan nationals has surged,
and I had to, like, I had to double check
this number. Eleven thousand, three hundred and thirty three percent
eleven three yep, it's crazy. So the arrests of these
Venezuelan nationals in Chicago, so it seems obvious that they're
trying to put down roots and gain a foothold for
an operation, if they haven't already done so in Cargo.
And so now you've got a couple of these, uh
these links to Trend de Ragua in UH in North
Carolina one and Charlotte one up in Raleigh. And just
to go back to that, the piece about the people
that were also arrested, you said, we don't know if
they're family members or relatives or friends or something. But
this is one of the I think the DHS Tom
Holman UH has called them collateral arrests basically, which is,
we're going in to find this criminal and if we
find other people there then and you're here illegally.
Speaker 1: Also you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Get picked up too, and and and somehow this is
supposed to be, uh, you know, a bad thing. But
like I don't know, maybe don't harbor criminal gangs, you know,
like that might be a good way to start or
to avoid this kind of, uh, this kind of interaction.
So then that takes us to Gary not my fault, McFadden.
That's what I call him our sheriff here, because nothing
is ever his fault. He's always blaming other people because
he's a narcissistics sociopath. But anyway, so he's he says
that he doesn't have to call ICE to let them
know that he's getting ready to or they're getting ready
to release one of these offenders back out into the public.
And he cites House Built ten that was recently adopted
by the General Assembly to try to force these sheriffs
like McFadden to comply with ICE, to cooperate with ICE.
And so do you think that he has found yet
another loophole that he can wiggle through?
Speaker 6: Well, hospital, and does this specifically say to call them
before and after? It just says that they're supposed to
communicate with ICE about detainees. One would think that that
would also include, you know, if you're about to release
this guy, that maybe they ought to know. Yeah, so
that's sort of where I think the WSOC reporter Joe
Bruno over there, I think was doing that story. I
think that was the bone of contention between the two
of them, where he issued this massive statement and Brunell
put it up on X about the sheriff not believing
that the phone call is required, but I says it is.
You know, the ICE fact sheet basically says that a
detainer serves quote, both a request for advanced notification of
release and a request to hold the subject for a
short period of time, enabling ICE to take custody. But
it's it also kind of talks about how they expect
to be you know, communicated with if that person is
going to be released. Now, you know, given this guy,
you know, has some serious had some serious charges against him,
wouldn't you want to contact ICE to make sure that
this guy wasn't going back out on the streets. That
just seems like common sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one would think, Yeah, one would.
Speaker 6: I've talked to several sources in the General Assembly and
they all told me that they're going to refine this
down so that there isn't any wiggle room. So I
have a feeling that we'll see that taken up at
some point. It's not in any of the bills currently,
but I can't imagine that the House Speaker, Dustin Hall
would let that go considering hospital ten with his baby. Yeah,
oh yeah, we'll see some movement on that.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: No, it's a great point. We appreciate the time. AP Dylan.
Speaker 2: You could read her work at AP Dylan dot substack
dot com. The headline on this piece is called ice
rate and Raleigh nets trendy Arragua gang member North State Journal.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: She writes for the North State Journal NSJ online dot
com as well.
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure, AP. We'll talk to you soon. Great,
Thanks Pete, all right, thanks, all right.
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Speaker 1: So, Sheriff Gary not my fault.
Speaker 2: McFadden, through his spokesperson sarahs Story, who really I think,
does capture just the arrogance and condescension of the man
when she says should Sheriff McFadden now provide ice with
a two minute warning as well, when you're releasing a
violent offender back out into the community. Maybe maybe all right,
I'll just say yes, how about that? Yes, you should
do that? About how about that? You should do that.
You should give a two minute warning or at least
any warning. How about that? Because that's what ICE is
requesting of you. Gary McFadden has made it very clear
from his first run for office almost eight years ago
now right because he's he was reelected again, he has
made it very clear in his words and his actions
that he does not want to deport anyone. In fact,
that's what the statement says. I read part of this
statement last week. I guess it was Friday, because I
got this press release from the Sheriff's office, and it
says right here, simply deporting individuals is not an effective
solution and does not make our community safer. And that
is absolute horse crap. Okay, it absolutely does make the
community safer because now you don't have a violent criminal
in the community. Why do I have to explain this
to a career law enforcement officer? Simply deporting individuals is
not an effective solution? Well then why arrest anybody? Why
arrest people? Why put them in jail?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 2: Why remove violent offenders from our society at all? No
point If that's not gonna if that's not a solution,
if that doesn't make the community safer, then why do
you do it at all? Why do you even operate
a jail? Why not just let everybody out immediately. Well
he guess he's.
Speaker 1: Kind of doing that already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so all right, I here is the here's
the actual detainer. I went and pulled it from the
ICE website, updated on February fourth. Maintain custody, it says,
it is requested that you, and then it has a
whole checklist, maintain custody of the subject for a period
not to exceed forty eight hours excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays,
beyond the time when the subject would have otherwise been
released from your custody, to allow DHS to take custody
of the subject. That's kind of important just to this story,
because in their little chronology, the breakdown of the events
in the press release from the Sheriff's office, it says
January twelfth, which was a Saturday, at five thirty five am,
this guy Serrano was arrested by CMPD. And remember this
guy was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, assault
on a female and domestic violence. That's what he was
arrested for. And then they say pat thirty five minutes later,
Sheriff's office notified ICE with no response the entire day.
They don't have to respond to you. Why are you
putting that in the press release, like, oh, they didn't
if you told call us back. They said, excluding Saturdays,
Sundays and holidays. In the form itself in the ICE
detainer request, it says, if you cannot reach a DHS
official at these numbers, because they have lines there for
the numbers, please contact the ICE Law Enforcement Support Center
in Burlington, Vermont, Okay. So they have an after hour's
number for you to call too. But that part of
their request says, as early as possible, prior to the
time you otherwise would release the subject, please notify DHS
by calling. And then there's a phone number during business
hours or another phone number after hours or in enemy emergency.
And then they give the Burlington, Vermont number. So they
gave him three numbers, and they're asking as early as possible,
prior to the time you otherwise would release the subject,
please notify us by calling, and McFadden says, I don't
have to, and so he's not going to He has
made this very clear. And all of these excuses that
he keeps putting out there, it's all just part of
the same pattern of it's not my fault, now my fault.
It's just a request, not my fault. It doesn't it
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Speaker 1: Let's go to the phones. Here is David. Welcome to
the program.
Speaker 8: David, Hey, thanks for taking my Paul. Yes, sir, this
is outrageous. I mean, first of all, they should arrest
him for obstruction of justice just for the point, and
that the voters in Charlotte need to start voting on
merit and qualifications rather than color of skin and labeled
by the political party. And finally, why wasn't his car
taken to fund the program? And the lady that was
harboring a fugitive. Why wasn't she arrested? What lady his
wife that was going to pick his car up? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, and where are the adults?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Now I assume that the charges that he had on
him were probably related to her, right, it was a
domestic violence charge.
Speaker 8: So she's still harboring a criminal.
Speaker 2: No, I well, she's not harboring a criminal because at
that point he had been arrested, charged, and then bonded out,
and she very well could have been the person that
bonded him out.
Speaker 8: He's in the country illegally. He's a quint In criminal.
Speaker 2: So right, So if that's what you're talking about, then
the harboring of an illegal alien, then yeah, I mean,
but they're not going after those people right now.
Speaker 1: Now, maybe they will.
Speaker 8: Well collect them accidentally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's what they are doing that And unless
she is a legal resident, she may be here legally,
or she may be a citizen.
Speaker 1: Hey, she may be a citizen. That's why she didn't
get picked up.
Speaker 8: If she's here legally, take her in and charge her
with harboring a criminal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I don't make it so.
Speaker 8: Difficult for these people to harbor criminals that they stop
doing it because there's no mentality right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not for her, Yeah, And I don't know if
there's an appetite for that at this point. Right now,
they're doing what is a more politically palatable operation of
targeting the worst first, you know, that's what they've.
Speaker 8: Said, Well, collect anybody that's in the flower garden with them,
Well they will.
Speaker 2: I mean they have picked up other people, they call
them collaterals, right, so they have done that. But I
just I don't know what the metric is that they're using,
you know, to make that determination.
Speaker 1: Dave, I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2: It is outrageous, and I would point out the Democrats
had a choice. Democrat voters in the primary had a
choice of somebody other than Gary McFadden, and both of them,
both of those other alternative candidates were African Americans too.
Gina Hicks ran against him, and she got more votes
than the third place guy, who I'm not even sure
what he was doing in the race, probably except the
siphon votes away from her, I don't know, but she's
you know, black females.
Speaker 1: She ran the jail and McFadden.
Speaker 2: Hired her, and then of course we saw the jail
deaths go up, and Gaston County went and hired her
up like almost immediately. So Democrat voters in Mecklinberg County
had a choice and they chose Gary McFadden. And because
of the demographics of Mecklinberg County with more Democrat voters,
they picked Gary McFadden yet again over any Republican. And
by the way, there's a very strong strain in the
Democrat party that agrees with McFadden. They don't want to
deport anybody, even the criminals. So yeah, I don't know
any other way around it except to force them to
do it, and to cut any loophole that he is
relying on and has been relying on in order to
play a little clever by half with the state legislature
and the federal government on this stuff. That's the only
way close every single loophole and drag his ass kicking
and scre you know, to law enforcement.
Speaker 1: All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you
so much for listening.
Speaker 2: I could not do the show without your support and
the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.
So if you'd like Please support them too and tell
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thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.