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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.
Yesterday the president came out to talk to us, but...
Once again, he failed to present a logical or urgent rationale for the military campaign, or do you call it war?
I'm gonna say war in Iran.
Only 37% of Americans approve of Trump's foreign policy.
70% believe the president should consult Congress on matters of war.
Iran has already said they will not continue to negotiate with the U.S.
So have the president's unilateral decisions both here and abroad put America's power at risk.
Allison McManus is the managing director for Netanyahu.
of national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress.
AmericanProgress.org is their website.
She joins us now.
Allison, good morning.
Thanks for being with us.
We appreciate it.
Thanks so much for having me.
I wish we were to discuss something more positive, but here we are.
Well, what we found, Brian, is that the president has been...
had a penchant for using American power, and let's be honest and real here, we are the strongest military and economic power in the world, in a world of rising middle powers like China and others, but we have significant power.
What we found is that the way that Trump has been using that power has been eroding it, has been weakening it.
He is using that power unilaterally, and by unilaterally I mean without the consent of Congress.
and therefore without the consent of the American people, we've seen that.
in terms of military action, for instance, in Venezuela and this war, and I will say war with Iran is the latest, and I would say most egregious example.
We've also seen it in the way that he has pursued tariffs, which of course the Supreme Court struck down recently.
And I also say unilateral in that this is the United States often going it alone, not just going it alone, but going it in ways that antagonize our
our closest partners and allies.
That just doesn't make the United States stronger.
It actually weakens our power, weakens our ability to pursue the interests that really matter to people in Wisconsin, people all over the country in the process.
You know, Jamie, I have given up trying to theorize and make sense of the Trump administration's foreign policy, domestic policy, you know, they tend to say one thing and then do something else.
I mean, to the extent that we could say America first was meant to be focused
in, you know, this is
what Trump said on the campaign trail, focusing on issues that matter to Americans at home, focusing on affordability, not, he made a promise, not pursuing for,
and wars.
This is the absolute and complete reversal of that.
Now I don't necessarily agree with the premise of America first to begin with.
I think that the way we actually deliver for Americans, the way we ensure and protect the American way of life is by having a smart foreign policy that works with partners and allies.
It doesn't mean just
you know, retrenching, isolating, and turning inwards.
But what we're seeing here is, you know, none of the above.
We are looking at the costs right now of this military operation.
In only two days, we are seeing multi-billions of dollars being spent.
And again, you know, Congress appropriates funds for the Pentagon for defense.
for defense, not for senseless wars without the consent of Congress.
And the other
aspect here that I would know is we are looking at these energy markets that are all over the place already.
The longer that this goes on, it's not just that we're spending taxpayer dollars in ways that many taxpayers wouldn't agree with.
This is going to actually raise costs for Americans as this work continues.
And of course, you know, I also need to mention we have lost six American service members and you cannot put a price on the value of a human life on the value of our troops.
And so no, it's very hard to say this is America first in any way.
She's managing director of national security international policy for the Center for American Progress.
Alison, let's go back to where we started for a minute.
The concept of strength because this administration equates strength just with military might.
When Center for American Progress talks about strength, it's not just military might, is it?
Because we do have a great military, but that's not everything.
Absolutely, Brian.
I think when we talk about strength, when we talk about American power, we want to talk about the tools that we have in our toolbox.
And we also want to think about what is the point of having this power?
Again, having this power isn't just to exercise it on a whim or to achieve narrow interests of any particular president.
This power should be built and utilized in the best interests of the American people.
And what do the American people care about?
Well, we care about pursuit of economic opportunities, the protection of our freedoms and liberties.
And so when we look at the actions like removing the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.
brutal dictator that he was, or killing Iran's supreme leader, Khamenei.
Again, brutal dictator that he was.
We have to ask, you know, how is this necessarily delivering for the American people?
We also have to ask, what other tools
might we have in our power toolbox to be able to achieve those interests.
And so again, we could potentially agree that we do want to see a world that is more stable.
We don't necessarily want to see a world that's run by brutal dictators.
We certainly don't want to see a world in which Iran achieves a nuclear weapon.
But I think that we have seen plenty of times over the past decades where
Those ends can be achieved much more effectively and deliver much more effectively and frankly with more cost efficacy by using, for instance, diplomatic tools, economic tools or others.
Military force should only be a last resort.
Now over at AmericanProgress.org, you've written Allison about how this unpredictability actually weakens the U.S.
power.
So does launching strikes during ongoing diplomatic talks actually damage America's credibility going forward, not only in the Middle East conflict, but to other nations across the world?
Absolutely.
And I think we have to question, you know, the
the genuine interest and or the capacity of the negotiators to have actually reached a deal.
I mean, what we are seeing now really makes me question whether those negotiators were even actually interested or whether they were just going through the motions in trying to reach a deal in order to say that they tried, but really were more interested in
either just extracting total and unrealistic concessions or using military force.
So I wanted to say that upfront.
To the extent that they were actually interested in diplomacy and diplomatic means to reaching a deal, I mean, we can hardly say that they had exhausted all of those options.
And so it does, I think, leave other countries with the feeling that they are
one, not going to be able to trust the United States as a reliable partner, not even just partner, but interlocutor.
And again, I think we saw this with the tariffs, moving goalposts constantly, doing deals and then reneging on them.
And two, the other piece of this that really frightens me is that I worry that there is now a greater incentive.
We obviously have
very early in this war, we don't know where the dust is going to settle or what leadership is going to look like in Iran.
But I really worry that they have actually raised the incentive for Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon at this point because
The Iranians now can no longer trust that reaching some kind of diplomatic deal makes sense and may feel like the only option they have to, you know, for defense is a nuclear option.
And that may unlock a new nuclear arms race across the Middle East and potentially increase, you know, pension for nuclear weaponization in the world.
thought outside of just Iran the attacks were on Iran but now in the only a couple days the entire region is caught up in this the United Nations is having to weigh in in your experience with that area of the world and I know the Middle East is a quagmire so it's not easy to make any kind of predictions where do you think the region is going to start to fall as this goes into the third fourth fifth day maybe and we don't know how many weeks neither does the president so
Well, we've seen, we saw immediately, I mean, there's a couple of things here.
We saw immediately that, you know, the Gulf countries who have typically been partners, even, you know, in intercepting, blocking Iranian missiles, they have no strong love for the Islamic Republic came out and condemned the strikes initially.
And so again, this was not, you know, we would typically like to see if we are going to war, not just
of course, Consent of Congress, but also coordination with our partners.
Now that the Iranians are attacking...
energy infrastructure, tourism infrastructure, airports, etc.
in the Gulf, that may change the dynamics.
It may actually draw some of those Gulf countries and others into this war.
We're seeing the same dynamics in Europe, strong condemnation at first, but now that the Iranians have really widened the scope of their attacks to try and inflict damage on U.S.
partners,
It may draw, it may broaden this war and draw other nations in as well.
But wouldn't other countries look at this and it's almost like to go back to the strength perception, we started this.
We're the ones who hit the hornet's nest.
So yes, they can come out and Kedema ran now because they're attacking all these other infrastructure places.
But their ire has to still be pointed at the U.S.
and Israel because this was on us.
Absolutely, but I think two things could be true at once.
I do think that the Iranians, the intention of targeting this infrastructure is to try to pressure US partners to go to Trump and say, cut it out, let's dial down the temperature.
At the same time, if the United States or Israel continues with attacks, or if the Iranians continue with retaliation, they may be left, frankly, with no choice.
They can't just sit there and beg president.
Trump, please stop so that the Iranians will stop attacking us.
The direct threat that I would be most worried about, again, is twofold.
One, it's the cost to our military.
My husband is a former naval flight officer.
We have military families all over this country.
Many of them are very anxious.
And then I'd be worried about the costs to our pocketbooks as energy prices continue to increase.
Thanks so much, Brian.
Thanks,
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Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
I
The Chippewa Valley has become a
I don't want to say hotbed, but more and more ICE activity has been happening in the Chippewa Valley.
And three more counties, Dunn, Greenlake and Walworth County, their law enforcement has all signed agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or if you know them better as ICE.
I want to know what you think about this.
ICE actually coming into Wisconsin now and while
There has been little activities in Milwaukee, no big occupation.
There's activities, especially in rural communities where ICE is targeting agricultural workers.
What do you think of this when you hear local law enforcement is signing agreements saying, yes, we are going to help ICE.
The agreements are part of a program which allows law enforcement to help enforce federal immigration laws.
Your thoughts on that 8-557-56?
75 Civic, 855-752-4842.
I don't know where the six came from.
Under the, with this particular program, it's called ISIS 287G program, just for technical terms.
It's under the warrant service officer model they chose.
County deputies can actually arrest people who are already targeted by ICE through administrative immigration warrants.
a lot of discussions about the administrative versus the judicial warrants when it comes to ICE and what those actually mean and what they're able to do with said warrants.
Now, Dunn County's agreement was signed on February 10th.
The Green Lake and Walworth agreements are still pending final approval.
And with these additions, 19 out of Wisconsin 72 counties now participate in this 287G program.
Most Wisconsin counties in the program use the warrant service model.
Kenosha and Marathon
counties use the jail enforcement model that actually allows deputies to notify ICE about undocumented immigrants being held in county jails.
Then you have Kiowani, Salk, and Waukesha counties that participate in both models.
Dodge County does not formally participate in 287G.
It had a long contract to house federal immigration detainees in its jails though.
Now, if you're a supporter,
of all of these agreements.
You say that they help local law enforcement cooperate with the federal authorities and also remove individuals who are in the county unlawfully.
Of course, then you have the critics on one side who say that this is...
It basically creates fear in the immigrant communities.
The ACLU of Wisconsin has weighed in saying that these types of partnerships discourage people, even if they have a legal status from reporting crimes or even cooperating with police when they need to or are asked in certain circumstances.
And you can't really argue with that.
If you have an emergency and you're scared because you are of a certain skin color or
a certain dissent, right?
You're not going to want to call.
You're not going to want to have somebody knocking at your door because of these types of programs.
She texts in, you can too, 8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.
I would just remind local sheriffs, she says, they are easy to sue for ice bed behavior.
Feds are nearly impossible to sue.
Yeah, it goes back to if...
If the target of these raids were truly just the worst of the worst, I have no problem if you're arrested in Dodge County and the sheriff runs your identity and they find out this guy is one undocumented, two, he's wanted for murder, he's wanted for gang activity, he's wanted for drug trafficking, whatever, okay.
Then you then you call but to have an agreement where they can you have to call every time so You know if an undocumented farm worker Jay walks or gets a parking ticket or a speeding ticket or or You know comes out of a bar drunk and is walking down the street and gets stopped
It's an erosion of trust in the community.
And let's be realistic, sheriffs are elected officials.
So these agreements are essentially policy choices that shape how law enforcement operates in particular counties.
And if you are someone afraid to call because it might lead to questions about your immigration status, you're just not going to call.
possibly affecting victims, you're possibly affecting witnesses who are worried about being flagged and because they have to remain silent.
That's gonna affect entire neighborhoods, not just undocumented residents, that affects the entire community.
Local voices and statewide impact.
It's Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
I'm Brian Noonan.
Reports of ice activity in the Chippewa Valley have been increasing since the beginning of the year.
After four people in Altoona were detained, a protest was held outside the Altoona Police Department.
Lalo Licone is with us.
He is a community activist and a member of the group El Centro de Conexion de Chippewa Valley.
He's here to talk about that.
Lalo, thanks for being here this morning.
We appreciate it.
Talk about the incident in Altoona and why the Eau Claire Sheriff's account of the incident differs from the account of not only the people who were detained but everybody who witnessed this
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for having me well the There's a number of things with regard to whether Whether the you know what the homeowner
whether the homeowner was intending to shelter the people or whether they had essentially broken into the place and then the homeowner gave permission allegedly to the police to go in there and enforce them out.
There's also the whole premise for the police getting involved
And that was ICE apparently telling local police that they were looking for someone who had assaulted an officer.
And so then that gave the police, uh, Altoona Police Department.
And then the fact that they were in the town of Washington, not technically Eau Claire or, or Altoona, uh, allowed them to call and get assistance from the sheriff's Eau Claire sheriff's department.
And so yeah, the whole premise that they were there to find someone who had assaulted an officer.
You know, I think it just falls in line with what we've seen throughout the country, with ICE lying to people when they knock on their door, lying to people when they pull them over, and then lying to the press and apparently even to the police.
to get them back them up on what they're trying to get done.
We're just trying to, we just want...
the truth to be out that the story that was released in the media was released completely in line with what the police told them and So we just we just want the truth to be out there and and yeah
Well part of that part of the truth is is in question because People who witnessed the event told the press hey
You know, we're parents at the Altoone Elementary School and this was happening right down the block and we were very, very nervous about it, the whole thing.
And yet the superintendent is like, no, we didn't, there was no problems at the school.
So where is, where's the truth in that part of the story?
I mean, there's, this is, this is the issue.
And I get why you guys want the body camera because this, they said, I said, we said nobody's, nobody's getting to the truth.
Was there
any
No, no, not that I know of.
A direct incident with the school.
With that said, there doesn't have to be a direct incident with
the school.
Our community has been in fear, especially since the first week of January.
We've been very aware of ICE presence in our area.
And so people have been very nervous.
There's been too many rumors circulating all the time.
People are just in constant fear.
And we've seen this in the business owners complaining about business going down.
We've seen this in the elementary schools where there's been days when more than half the children are absent.
It's just been a very clear state of fear this year.
He is a member of the advocacy group El Centro de Conexion, de Chippewa Valley.
Now, if this body cam footage is actually released of this incident that took place in El Tuna on February 17th, and if it confirms the sheriff's version of events, what happens next?
And if it does contradict the version that has been in the press, what does your group feel like accountability should look like at that point?
Yeah, I think it'll I think it'll be in the local press just an acknowledgement of how the The account of things did not fit what was instantly released at the moment
Let's go back to what you said about rumors because there were big stories in Milwaukee a month or so ago about
fake rumors being circulated, whether it was by people in the media or not.
So, one, where are the rumors coming from that are affecting your community and what is El Centro de Conexion de Chippewa Valley doing to combat those rumors?
Yeah, part of that is just, you know, comes with the presence.
You know, it's seen the ICE vehicles in town and itself leads people to say,
ISIS in this place, ISIS in that place.
But it doesn't mean that they are actively arresting people or that they're going around pulling people over.
And so we've had to try to better organize ourselves as a community and work together with all as many interesting interested parties as possible so that we can
verify information before we continue circulating rumors so that as soon as we can debunk rumors, we start doing that.
Yeah, yeah, well...
Like I said, people at times refrain from taking their children to school.
People refrain from going to work.
People refrain from getting out of their house whenever it is not absolutely necessary.
People have had to ask for assistance with even just rides to church, rides to the grocery store, rides for their kids to school.
taking as many precautions as possible so that their kids aren't left without their parents.
Lalo, we were just talking before you joined us about three more counties in Wisconsin that are signed agreements to cooperate with ICE.
When you hear that, what do you think the people in your community and what is the organization think about this and what can you do to
Maybe change their mind because some of these agreements haven't been finalized
yet,
to
them.
You know, again, it just increases fear.
It's just people increasingly feeling like you cannot trust the police.
Instead of going to the police whenever you want to report a crime, instead people will refrain from doing that because they don't know if the police are going to help them.
or arrest them and separate them from their family instead.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it is happening in many places.
It certainly isn't just here.
But there's, I mean, there's a lot of things from
Just our are the civil rights the the bill of rights for for Americans, you know Just you know People getting Detained without due process, you know our The US fundamental rights are being violated throughout the country.
So that should matter for everyone now in Wisconsin
Latinos are have been the largest minority for a while and immigrants make up something like 70% of dairy workers in the state and we know that the dairy industry is very important to Wisconsin identity.
Well without those immigrant workers we would lose that important aspect of our identity
to the state.
Without them, either the cost of dairy and dairy products would trip or quadruple or they'd have to leave where they can be more competitive, probably abroad.
Lalo Lake, Lake Hone, he is a member of the advocacy group El Centro de Conexión de Chippewa Valley.
We appreciate you being with us this morning and sharing what's happening in the western part of the state for so many of us that aren't actually seeing some of the ice presence right now.
Again, thank you for your time.
Thank
you Lalo.
Thank you very much.
Brian, I think, you know, as Lalo basically pointed out, one of the things that we're forgetting is how important these immigrant communities are to not just the big cities, right?
Yeah, I mean, so far we've seen the ICE presence in major metropolitan areas like Minneapolis.
We've seen it in Portland.
We've seen it in Chicago.
We've seen it in LA.
But sometimes these immigrant communities are even more important to your rural communities because they own businesses.
Do the work like Lalo was pointing out.
Yes.
Yeah.
The problem is we don't hear about those actions because there's not a lot of media coverage.
If you own a farm somewhere in a small rural community, the media isn't coming to follow, you know, one or two ice vehicles to your farm.
But when all of a sudden part of your workforce is too afraid to come to work, and boy...
Can we start a list of sentences I'm tired of saying?
Everybody can agree that the immigration system needs to be fixed.
Yes, we get that.
But at this point, there are a lot of people who depend on those workers who are coming here, they're paying taxes, they're working hard, and we've made the process of...
becoming a citizen very, very difficult.
And I think when it comes to the story that Lalo was talking about in Altoona, it's going to be interesting when that body cam footage is released because there are so many contradictory versions of what happened on February 17th.
From the homeowner to the police to the actual people who were arrested.
There's a lot of different versions.
So I think it's going to be important to keep it all into context.
And here's the thing I would say.
I'm going to be of the opinion that I don't like our local sheriff's departments partnering with ICE, not especially right now.
Not especially with
right of position so these are these are people that were elected and they may be co-opting their representatives mindset or maybe they're going against what their representative usually votes for and so this is you you have enough to worry about as a local law enforcement officer that you don't let the feds do the feds
Let local do local, and never the twain shall mix.
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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.
begging all day.
We have because, listen, why stop now?
We're bringing out the big news, the heavy news, the have, have, happy news.
Thanks again to Lala Lecombe for giving us an on-street level of what's happening in the Chippewa Valley.
So that's, you know, it's important.
But it doesn't doesn't make you feel the greatest.
And that's, you know, that's all right.
Here's something boy, oh boy, oh boy.
Jamie, the bird flu, it's been detected in a poultry flock owned by Daybreak Foods, no relation to the program.
We are we don't contribute to bird flu.
We are not fans of bird flu.
This is in Jefferson County.
Third time in six months that the virus has been found in their birds.
That's according to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.
The bird flew back in a big, big way in Wisconsin, so not good news if you are a poultry
Yeah, the facility that we're talking about is located in the town of Palmyra, in between Madison and Milwaukee, and it's actually been quarantined to limit movement of poultry products, and birds on the farm will be killed to prevent the spread of the disease.
Now, the same location was released from quarantine in November after
bird flu was reported twice last fall in the company's Jefferson County flocks.
One of those flocks then had more than three million birds.
The flock with the latest detection has about 1.2 million birds.
of your
I was just gonna say.
Those are at the greatest risk are farm workers and others who
come in close contact with infected birds or other animals.
Now, but this leads to a bigger question.
I mean, if you're talking about three million birds or even in this case, 1.2 million birds that need to.
be potentially killed off, what does that do for the price of our chicken?
And, oh God, I hate to say it, but what about the price of, I'm gonna have to, I have to in this case, what about the price of eggs?
I mean, because let's be realistic.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, when Donald Trump talked about the price of eggs, it was because there was a bird flu epidemic running rampantly across the country, killing multiple flocks of millions of birds.
Because the supply trot drops so the prices are gonna change Families notice that at the grocery stores restaurants are gonna notice it small bakeries are gonna notice and It also leads the beggar question is why does this keep happening at these large-scale operations?
to come on because I want to know how this becomes a thing and especially like Jamie just said repeatedly if this farm daybreak foods has had this problem before it's You know, you don't blame a business because your animal gets sick, but how does the virus take hold?
How does it then spread so quickly?
And then the results for the farmers.
And
if we keep seeing this headline over and over, and we have to keep continually talking about the potential price of eggs, at some point I think it's fair to ask.
Are we as a country adapting fast enough?
Or are we just continually bracing for the next round?
Because that's what it feels like we're doing when we're talking about like these daybreak farms who have had, this is their second round of bird flu since November, right?
So are we adapting fast enough to actually make a dent or make a difference or do what we need to to protect our food supply chain too?
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