bragg has said the case should not be dismissed but the potential of a sentencing put off until after the president's second term, which is in 2029. now waiting for the motions to be filed with judge merchan to see what he will do. we're now waiting for that. >> martha: eric, thank you very much. john, jonathan turley wrote it is like putting something on lay away having it over the president's head. not a good situation for him or the country. >> john: i can't imagine that bragg will let this go. he is up for re-election next year. merchan is appointed. maybe he might be more inclined. great to share the screen with you, martha. >> martha: i'll see everybody at 3:00 for "the story." "the faulkner focus" is next. >> harris: as we come in with this fox news alert president-elect trump now has a growing number of blue state

leaders, democrats, who say they oppose any of his plans for mass deportations. remember, millions, tens of millions of people, democrats, independents and republicans voted for this current president elect and one of the top two issues. the economy and the other. other democrat-led cities are looking to cement we used to call them sanctuary cities. now they want to make it official on the books. it is an effort to block the incoming trump administration's border crisis efforts. they want to fix the problem under trump and i guess these democrats want to stop the fix. wow. i'm harris faulkner. arizona governor katie hobbs has joined the list and the latest in the list of democratic governors that get longer by the hour. >> what i won't do is tolerate attacks on arizona families. i will not allow everyday

arizonians to suffer from misguided policies that will only divert resources from the important work happening here and across our border. >> if the trump administration requests it, would the massachusetts state police assist in mass deportations? >> no, absolutely not. >> there has been some talk about using other states' national guard, red state national guards to somehow come into a blue state and try and force these new stephen miller inspired rules and it is not something we'll accept. >> harris: are you noticing a trend? you don't hear the leaders talking about the amount of fentanyl that continues to come across the border, much of it into arizona crossing over nogales and into the rest of the country. they don't talk about that. you know what the attack is? it's on every state.

every state is a border state now. particularly because of that illicit dangerous drug that the cartels have pushed. republican governor greg abbott of texas has seen the worst of the biden administration's border crisis in his state. when biden put kamala harris in charge, i mean, it became an even more epic disaster. now the governor is hitting back against those democratic counterparts. >> what the americans demanded were for one -- to stop the illegal immigration into our country especially those who pose great dangers. whether in arizona, massachusetts or other places across the country where they are not going to be cooperating with ice, with the border czar, with any effort to remove very dangerous criminals. they'll see more crimes in their cities and more losses at the ballot box because americans are angry about this. >> harris: in los angeles, the city council voted to adopt a

sanctuary city ordinance to black any cooperation with the deportation plan. mayor will o'neill of newport beach, california is really angry at california governor newsom. he joined me here on the "focus" yesterday hot over the sanctuary cities and states. let's watch. >> no way to vet them. people have forgotten even nancy pelosi's husband was attacked by someone in the country illegally. one of the problems in california when they use the word sanctuary state. the truth is illegal immigration means we don't know who is coming in, we don't know whether or what they're doing. not just illegal it is dangerous. not peaceful, it is destructive. voters in california have shown their disgust with feeling unsafe and getting altitude sickness from the ivory tower they sit in up there. one of the biggest problems we have, we have to bring it back

down and grounded, good sense public policy in our cities. california sanctuary state policy is the exact opposite of that. >> harris: he is in cobalt blue california, imagine that. when you hear that mayor calling for common sense, i mean, you know that trump has the mandate on this issue, jeff. >> absolutely. california has been a sanctuary state since 2017 and los angeles has essentially followed the law in practice. this shouldn't change too much. however, the city council's unanimous vote to make l.a. an official sanctuary city sends a message. the law was proposed early last year. it wasn't a direct response to trump eva's election win but signals support for the city's large migrant population as the incoming trump administration promises to carry out mass deportations. however, having all city council members agree to forbid city employees and resources from being used in federal

immigration enforcement certainly shows strong resistance to trump and his proposed policies. >> if we know anything about the person who just won the election, we know that their bark is their bark and their bark matches their bite. >> given the re-election of donald trump and consistent ate speech toward undocumented people and families i can't think of a more pressing issue than this one today. >> the law doesn't stop the federal government from coming into cities like l.a. to carry out deportations but it does make the jobs of federal agents more difficult. city employees and police can't detain people for immigration enforcement. tom homan says the idea is ridiculous and will only further endanger communities. >> if they won't help us get the hell out of the way. if i send twice as many resource

to the city that's what they'll do. if they give us access to the jail less agents in the community. for them not letting us in the jail more agents in the community. they're hurting themselves. >> the l.a. school board passed similar resolutions declaring itself a sanctuary for immigrants and the lgbtq plus community. newsom has called a special legislative session to trump-proof california laws. harris. >> harris: wow. i hope they can figure out thousand protect their citizens. jeff paul, thank you. we have additional alarming information now that has come out about the surge of unaccompanied and missing migrant children. these are children who have come in under the biden-harris administration and the number continues to grow. a new report from a senior senate republican found top administration officials knew about the dramatic increase in

child labor and prioritized speed over safety when releasing unaccompanied children to sponsors due to their failed immigration policies and the crisis at the southern border. so now what that means is perhaps we don't know who the kids were given to in the first place. not only could we not vet those little ones because they don't have a digital footprint. tom homan told us that on this very program days ago. but then now it comes out that well, they were just putting them in the hands of anybody here? that is corrupt. earlier this year a dhs report found the administration lost track of more than 300,000 children. that was a big focus during a house hearing yesterday. republicans asking tough questions. >> biden-harris administration's border policies have allowed

dangerous cartels, criminals and human traffickers to prey upon the world's most vulnerable people, unaccompanied children that come to our country. >> the biden-harris administration placed political aims above the welfare of unaccompanied migrant children who crossed or trafficked across the southern border. >> harris: republican congressman james comer of kentucky. this subject is so tough. what i just said if all of what is coming into focus right now is true, it would be corrupt what these administration officials were doing, not fully vetting who they were putting the children in the hands of even if it ever got that far. some of these kids could have been floating and picked up. >> it is corruption, inhumane and doesn't seem there is a democrat on capitol hill concerned about the children. this was a huge election and the

issue in the election. an epic failure of the biden-harris administration. blue state governors know that and democrat members of congress know that but want to continue to push forward with their open border policies. they have no remorse for these children. there is no oversight or accountability with respect to the biden-harris team and what they've done on the border and how they have not kept track of these kids or the fentanyl pouring in. the democrats don't care. their mission is to get as many people into this country as possible and i don't understand why. the american people spoke loud and clear. they are totally against this and hopefully trump will fix this on day one. >> harris: is dhs too big? we have one man in charge, secretary alejandro mayorkas. he has been impeached. the senate wouldn't go through to remove him from his job. that ageown 16 heads.

is it just too big? do you need to break it up? >> yes, yes, that is common sense. the department of homeland security is essentially 19 agencies that include the secret service, all the way down to fema, border patrol and all of that. when you look at the biggest failures in the biden administration, they all fall under mayorkas. mayorkas has been a failure. but maybe the bright side of this is congress sees that the whole department of homeland security business model is a failure and you are going to have to go in and reform it. i think some of these agencies can be consolidated. i think with what elon musk and ramaswamy are wanting to do that the department of homeland security is the perfect place to start. every agency is failing in its mission to the taxpayers. it is not just because of mayorkas. he is a big reason but the agency is just too big and needs to be broken up. >> harris: the minute you

started talking about just how woefully inept it has been in terms of keeping track of those children, it is apparent. if that was not the top priority, then yeah, it's too big. it can't function. then you mentioned fema. right on time. let's get into that. also under the umbrella of mayorkas. did he ever end up dealing with the post hurricane stuff? i don't know. fema's director deanne criswell faced republicans at a hearing yesterday wanting to know about potential politization of that agent. it comes after allegations fema urged employees to -- following the deadly hurricane hell ian and milton. fema's director testified about an' ledgeed text message to aide workers to ignore homes that had trump signs or flags.

>> i just went into wal-mart and smell trump supporters. this distan. this mindset that's in the government where everyone is deplorable, everyone is garbage, everyone is smelly people at wal-mart and oh, be mindful of those people in western north carolina. that's what it sound like. fema appears to be plagued by poor decision making and a serious lack of communication. >> the same employee alleged on t fricke it was not an isolated event. and that fema essentially treats the homes of president trump supporters as if they were homes of people with vicious dogs. this is unacceptable. >> harris: a little more to this. fema's director has doubled down that there is no evidence of widespread discrimination at fema. said she would request an investigation into the allegation. chairman comer. what needs to happen here? >> well, this investigation needs to be taken seriously. at the beginning of the hearing the fema director wasn't sear

offers about it. she admitted to jim jordan that she hasn't even spoken to anyone involved in that whole text stream with respect to the employees involved and the superiors that she has turned it over to the inspector general. this is a serious accusation. we believe there is a pattern here. since the hearing, we have had numerous people come forward and reach out to the oversight committee as well as various members of congress and say similar stories in similar states where fema employees told them if you want help from our agency you better get rid of that trump flag on your house or that trump sign in the yard. this is a pattern. we shouldn't be surprised, harris. we've seen it in the department of justice and i.r.s. where the weaponized government of the biden-harris administration discriminates against conservatives. >> harris: quick, i have to let you go. i imagine somebody has to have a little cell phone video. as that one woman spoke up and now you have other whistleblower

protection is what i want to ask about quickly. when and how does that kick into gear? >> we're taking whistleblowers ser seriously trying to protect them. the i.r.s. whistleblowers were retaliated against. i hope president trump fires everybody that retaliates against whistleblowers. we want whistleblowers to be protected. we will protect you, come forward. we're trying to reform this government. that's what the american people expect and what a house republican majority will do. >> harris: i tell you, fema, wow, you have to take another look at that, too all under the dhs. we'll watch what happens. chairman, a pleasure to have you in "focus." thank you. >> thank you. >> harris: we have this breaking news. closing arguments just ended in the trial for jose ibarra, the illegal immigrant accused of murdering 22-year-old georgia nursing student laken riley in

february. he waived his right to a jury. the trial is now in recess. it is unclear at this moment as the news breaks how long it will take the judge to reach a verdict. it is all on that judge. we are going to monitor this. as soon as we know, we'll get up our reporter and handle it and bring it to you immediately. president-elect donald trump's attorneys filed a request for judge juan merchan to toss out the new york criminals case after the manhattan district attorney says it wants to pause the case until trump finishes his second term. they want this thing to cook in excess of four years. critics such as jonathan turley have a warning. >> this is an unprecedented and dangerous type of condition. it is creating a type of layaway presidency. >> harris: ben domenech in "focus" next. a little bit later the coach of the san jose state university's

women's volleyball team just got suspended after filing a title ix complaint over a transgender player on the team. another player also spoke right here on "focus" when this whole thing was starting. watch this. >> we come to college with a dream of playing collegiate sports and pursuing the dream we've had since we were little girls. the difference being here is that we've had to put up with so much more difficulties. if you've the deployments and you've been the wife at home, or you've been the spouse at home, you understand what i'm talking about. your spouse has earned the right to apply for a va home loan. the newday 100 loan allows you to borrow up to 100% of your home's value. so if you're in a situation where you need some help financially, give us a call.

>> harris: we're on verdict watch now. jose ibarra, the illegal alien accused of killing georgia nursing student laken riley is about to find out his fate. it's in the hands of a judge

now. he waived his right to a jury and so it's in the hands of a judge. as soon as that judge emerges, we expect to hear the verdict. we know there will be some impact statements and things coming up so it could take a little bit of time. but we'll bring you the news as soon as it happens. this is also coming together and breaking this hour, attorneys for president-elect trump just sent a letter urging judge juan merchan to throw out the entire case against former president trump in the new york city criminal case quote immediately. we're still waiting for the judge's decision on the fate of that 34-count conviction. things are happening behind the scenes. manhattan district attorney weighed in yesterday. alvin bragg's office says he opposes dismissing the case but is open to delaying sentencing until after trump's second term in 2029. they all want to run on this

including alvin bragg. they want to keep talking about trump and how they will get him. wow. i don't know if that serves the american people but it certainly serves those democratic politicians. constitutional law attorney jonathan turley fired back with this piece. bragg tries to control president trump by delaying the case. throw it out. he added this. >> the worst possible scenario in my view is to keep this matter pending during the four years of the administration. you cannot have a local district attorney treat a sitting president like a freak on a leash where he just is able to say that i will finish this work once you are out of office. >> harris: we'll let jonathan turley have the last word for now. jose ibarra, accused of killing laken riley hearing the verdict now. >> count one, malice murder, i find the defendant guilty. count two, felony murder, i find

the defendant guilty. count three, felony murder, i find the defendant guilty. count four felony murder i find the defendant guilty. count five kidnapping with bodily injury i find the defendant guilty. count six aggravated assault with intent to rape i find the defendant guilty. count seven, aggravated battery i find the defendant guilty. count eight, obstructing or hindering a 911 call, i find the defendant guilty. count nine, tampering with evidence, i find the defendant guilty. count ten, peeping tom, i find the defendant guilty. i certainly will allow both sides to look at this if you want to do it.

the next step is sentencing. i am prepared to go forward with that now or if either side suggests that you need a few minutes, an hour break or something to do that, then i will certainly do that as well, consider that. sure. i understand. i understand. we will recess until 12:30. recess until 12:30. will that work? >> yes. >> okay, thank you.

>> harris: there you heard it. ten counts, guilty from felony murder to peeping tom. jose ibarra, who took the life rick guilty, convicted of killing laken riley. guilty on kidnapping. guilty. an illegal alien in this country should never have been here. crossed our border, broke our first law of sovereignty. and eventually reached this victim, laken riley. a georgia university nursing student. we have seen her family grieve, we took parts of that on friday when the officer who found her and tried to resuscitate her to no end. we saw 27 family members. we knew they were in the courtroom. the mom couldn't stay. the dad and stepdad stayed. they were weeping as they learned more details about what

happened to young laken riley by a monster who sat and listened to what was being said the entire time at the short trial through a translation device that you see him wearing there on the left of your screen. phil holloway, former assistant district attorney and former police officer and legal advisor to georgia's sheriff's department. this case went by quickly. >> harris, it sure did. and that's not surprising considering the they waived the jury that streamlines the prosecutor's in all aspect of the case. the judge made a decision in 15 minutes and came back. the evidence was overwhelming of guilt. it is not surprising to me that the judge made his decision so very quickly. what is surprising to me is that we have a case like this in my home state where if anybody richly deserved the death

penalty it would be jose ibarra, but the current elected district attorney, she is out of office at the end of the year, debra gonzalez, however, is a so-called soros d.a. and made the decision some time ago her office was not going to seek the death penalty. her office has very little to no success at all prosecuting successfully any kind of felony trial so they brought in an outside prosecutor from the prosecuting attorney's counsel of georgia. a woman very well capable of trying a murder case, any case certainly one like this one. and did a very good job. and now the judge is left with really one task left to do, which is to sentence ibarra to life without parole. >> harris: life without parole. you have given us debra gonzalez's role in all this. that sentencing will come from what you are saying before she leaves elected d.a. office.

you mentioned she is a soros disciple if she follows him, paid for, so on and so forth. we have done a lot of research on george soro's big hand in our legal system. there were several counts of felony murder. with one death. can you break that down a little bit? how different was each one? >> well when -- felony murder is a death that occurs during the commission of some underlying felony. by law, harris, those will merge, if you will, into the broader malice murder conviction. he will only be sentenced once for murder. those other counts will merge except the kidnapping and others

don't. the murders will merge and get life without parole. the sentencing will come back as soon as they come back at 12:30 in the eastern time zone. he will be off today. he is ready to pronounce sentence. he said that before they took a break. i think the reason for the break is because family members and others have a right to be heard. they get to do what is called a victims right of allocution and get to address the defendant and the court and i think the prosecutor has to take some time with them to decide who might want to speak and who is able to do it. a lot of people can't really handle it. they don't want to speak but others do want to speak. i imagine we will hear some people speak on behalf of laken riley. the judge's sentence is a foregone conclusion. under the crime victims bill of rights they have that right and the judge will afford them that

opportunity to address the convicted killer. >> harris: i want to know the greater implications of this. we have a lot of conversation going on now as we've seen an uptick in illegal aliens being involved in violent crimes. so we know there has been a huge to the tune of more than 10 million of people flowing across our border and a high percentage are here crawling across not going to checkpoints and breaking our first law of sovereignty. does this case -- does this verdict guilty on all charges have implications for any of those dem-led cities which now have put out new welcome signs to people coming across the border and wanting to officially call themselves sanctuary states and cities? does this send a message to people who flow there and have already committed crimes entering the country previously and their countries, we don't vet them or know anything about them. what does it say to the democratic leaders who want to do that now against trump?

>> they had better heed this. if you watch the evidence in this case, you know this is an individual who was at the roosevelt hotel in new york city. he and his acquaintances, colleague whatever they obtained a humanitarian flight that brought them from that area in new york to the migrant shelter all the way -- humanitarian flight paid for taxpayers that landed in the atlanta, georgia area where he went there and he according to the evidence in this case, harris, he essentially went out hunting for someone to sexually assault and eventually to kill and to me it doesn't sound like it is his first time ever doing this because of the way it was sort of planned and deliberate. so these sanctuary cities who think that they are going to be able to get away with harboring individuals like this. i'm sure the incoming administration will not permit it.

they can bluster and threaten things. at the end of the day they must cooperate with -- not stand in the way of federal immigration authorities who are going to do their job and start cleaning out some of these folks that came here with ill intent on their mind when they came here allegedly seeking sanctuary. >> harris: i can only imagine what the family is going through right now. that mom, dad, stepdad and all the rest of the 27 loved ones, close friends, roommates, some of whom testified in this case before the judge who reached every single count of guilt against the man at the bottom of the screen. i pay for them and those surviving family members. but they found some justice at least. the injustice was that he was here to begin with. madison scarpino is outside the courtroom and she has been inside the courtroom during parts of this trial. it was a tough place to be, madison, i know you are joining me now.

>> harris, yeah, it wasn't easy and especially for the family that you've been talking about. every single day it was hard to find an empty seat in this small athens courtroom. the site where the prosecutor was on again filled with family members. we're learning from our producer in court that since the verdict was reached they have just been sobbing uncontrollably. they've been emotional throughout the entire trial. this most reaction we've gotten out of them so far. understandably so. when it comes to jose ibarra now convicted of killing 22-year-old laken riley, he didn't show much emotion at all throughout the whole trial and even when the judge announced this verdict he was looking down when he walked out of the room. but as phil holloway was talking about, we are expected for him -- expecting for him to be sentenced today. this is a very quick process potentially we'll hear victim impact statements from the

families or friends but overall a very emotional trial with a lot of shocking moments throughout, harris. >> harris: what was -- i don't know if you were in the courtroom at the time -- but what was the reaction when we first learned okay, there is a verdict. i had prepared the audience watching "the faulkner focus" now look, this could take time before a verdict comes in. phil holloway pointed out it was 15 minutes. it was quick. did you see at all, madison, any sort of reaction or awaiting to now hear the sentencing from those family members? >> so i was not in the courtroom during that but we have a lot of fox colleagues in there right now. multimedia report elliott and producer samantha daig el to name a few and they were ssur priced the verdict would come

that quickly. the evidence was overwhelming. this is something we don't see every day. who knows how long it would have taken for a verdict to be reached if it was a jury trial? >> harris: a good point. i'll ask everybody to kind of stay with us and i don't have any reason to think that the recess would end early but we had no idea how quickly this verdict would come, either. i want to keep everybody assembled and bring more voices in now. phil holloway standing by, the first to join me, madison scarpino outside the courthouse and want to bring in kerri urbahn. this is terrorizing this country and arguably -- we've talked about things that change people's focus. maybe not their minds but they become attuned to something happening. the entire country could see that the border crisis was a problem. time after time we hear such and such came across the border illegally and committed this

crime, committed that crime. this one, the one of jocelyn nungaray, there have been a few that have so captivated the nation because it is so far from the border where these people are coming through. >> i think that may be the most horrifying aspect of this entire situation, that is the the complicity of our government in facilitating all of this. this individual crossed the border illegally because of our ridiculous border policies. he then was put up via taxpayer money in a hotel in new york city. we the taxpayer put him up. he then was put on a taxpayer-funded government flight to georgia. we the taxpayer, via the government, paid for that. and then he also as we know, is a member of a terrifying venezuelan gang that has popped up all over the country, again because of our border policies

or lack thereof. when we talk about the system failing this young woman, these are the reasons why. this didn't have to happen. and the reason it happened was because of this administration's policies and lack of law enforcement. it is unbelievable, harris. >> harris: and we first learned from this trial that his brother was a gang member and that's when we started -- the defense was going to put up a case that said the dna was too close to the brother and we started to learn more about their -- both of these brothers and where they had come from and everything started to become clear, at least to the judge and to the the rest of the country who has been tuning in as we show parts of that trial. on the phone now paul mauro, attorney and retired nypd inspector. you have been there, you've been watching this case unfold up close. your initial reaction to guilty all counts, the monster that

attacked laken riley as she ran on a morning at a seven minute mile clip, he grabbed her on the campus of the university of georgia. >> well, first of all of course, you know, the evidence was just a mile high and it feels like justice but there is this, harris. in addition to everything that kerri said, had the original district attorney, who was a very woke d.a. down there in athens, taken the case and gone for the death penalty in light of the mountain of evidence, might he have pled to life without parole, which is the best we're going to do now? might he have taken a plea deal? the family would not have had to have gone through this. and so, you know, the cascading series of events that just put a spotlight on what a ludicrous

place relative to dei, our border, policies of the outgoing administration. they were all on display here in this event. unfortunately, you get these crimes that are sometimes become iconic, they represent something larger than themselves. that's not to diminish the importance of laken riley's life and her death. this is something that woke the country up and just became undeniable. i don't think it is going too far to say it played into the election. prior to laken you didn't hear this sort of stuff. >> harris: it definitely became an issue. nungaray and others, young women who have become household names and the suspects and then in

this case adjudication proving the built of illegal aliens coming across our border. taxpayers now are going to have to pay for him to get life without parole. where do they put him? are you familiar with that? >> he will go to a state charges so he will go to a state prison down there in georgia. it will be no picnic and there for life. there will be appeals, of course, those are automatic. and the defense objected plenty of times. so he preserved his right to the appeal on various issues. my assessment is none of it will go anywhere because how convincing the evidence was. but again, you know, one of the other things we should recognize is as we speak, we are not only continuing to do the sort of thing that kerri was talking about, flying these characters around the country, remember that the chmb program that

includes venezuela we're flying people like this unvetted migrants into the country. we fly them in. we fly them around inside the country and give them dental, medical, stuff our own citizens don't have the benefit of. >> harris: i'm asking all guests at this point who are in "focus" on this breaking news with me to stand by. i want to bring in ben domenech. fox news contributor at large from the spectator. as we face this and my other guests have been pointing this out, legal experts, that there was a mountain of evidence but it didn't need to happen. one dropped the name of debra gonzalez. phil holloway said, a known soros type of d.a. paul mauro caught up in d.e.i. instead of keeping someone alive or adjudicating the case where the family wouldn't have gone through a struggle had she said

it with as a death penalty case. politically it is illuminating what voters were angry about voting against democrats. we understand a little more of independents and democrats. they are living in some of these areas where this is playing out. >> it is a nightmare that i think democrats spent so long denying was happening, pretending it wasn't happening even as americans across the country were seeing it happen in their own communities. this case took over the conversation in the way others haven't because of the mountain of evidence and everything that could have been avoiding this tragedy but indictment of the soros campaign has done. soft approach they've taken to crime in the cities. harris, one of the odd things about this case which i learned during it was as it happens i was in the new york city to cover a conversation with greg abbott about his approach to

migrants and policy, very controversial at the time speaking to the manhattan institute and covering it for the spectator. i gained access to the roosevelt hotel just to look at the state of things that were there. horrible smells, stale food. that was the last day ibarra was there. he flew out the next day. you don't think about that when you see the circumstances playing out across the country. how many criminals are in these different places that have been chosen by this administration and allowed to happen under alejandro mayorkas and led to the political wave we saw in november. >> harris: we had chairman comer on to begin the show today and i asked him and he said resoundingly etchings is it time and how fast can we break up dhs. so much in that one agency. most of it is failing. one guy in charge of the border

and alejandro mayorkas. impeached but the senate didn't fire him. this is an exclamation point how they aren't getting it done at dhs. can you break it up? >> i believe you absolutely have to, harris. it is proven to be an agency that is together in ways that make no sense whatsoever. mayorkas did deserve to be removed. his refusal to enforce the law has had negative consequences for everyone across the country and particularly murderous consequences in certain cases. we have to break up dhs and get it to focus on what matters most in all these separate agencies. >> harris: come january 3rd republicans will be in charge of the house and senate, potentially with a bigger majority in the senate than they thought they might get. we'll see what happens. i will ask everybody to stand by. ben, thank you for joining me. we'll be right back.

>> harris: we have a lot of breaking news this hour and i want to bring you some information now on susan smith's parole hearing. do you remember her? 30 years ago she was a name synonymous with killing children. she took the lives of her two

young sons. she pushed their vehicle, their car into a lake and today she is up for parole. little michael and little alexander. michael was three and alexander was 14 months old. she got out of the car and pushed the car on a boat ramp into the water. they are doing it by zoom. the man who prosecuted her and her former husband are expected to attend this hearing. we know they are and argue against releasing susan smith. we could hear about this at any moment if the parole board decides that 30 years is enough for susan smith, she gets out. if the parole board decides it is not enough, she stays in prison. we'll keep you posted on what is happening there. that's playing out in columbia,

south carolina. she is imprisoned in that state in greenwood, south carolina. we're on it. we're also on this because now we're inching toward the time that we could see the judge come back. he said they were going to take a recess in the trial of the illegal alien who murdered laken riley. he is guilty. and we are awaiting sentencing for that monster that you see in the bottom right side of your screen. phil holloway is with me now and phil, former assistant attorney -- former police officer and legal advisor to the georgia sheriff's department. these are important titles that you hold and experience because you can the tell us what is coming next. my question is had you ever come across the judge in this case? this is quick? >> i don't know him personally but have many colleagues who do and let's just say this was not unexpected. even though i don't know him, i

know with a bench trial and evidence this overwhelming a judge does not really need to go through all the things a jury would have to do to sort it all out. i knew it would be a quick verdict. what's coming up next when the judge comes back on the bench will be the victims' right of allocution and victim impact evidence as madison mentioned before the break. you probably will see at least if i had to guess a member of the family, maybe more than one, speak on behalf of the family. they get to directly address the now-convicted killer of laken riley. it won't affect what the judge does but something they have a right to under the law. >> harris: i appreciate you being with me this hour. kerri, chime in, fox news legal editor. >> i can't imagine what the foam family is feeling. a great sense of relief to see justice being brought for their

daughter, for their friend, but again i know we keep repeating this. it can't be repeated enough. it's enormous how our system failed this girl and the fact the biden administration facilitated all of this in every step of the way from the time he controlsed the -- crossed the border and hunted this woman down. it is a fact. >> harris: i'll bring in paul mauro. paul. >> ask yourself this. have any of us read the following headline at any point over the last few years? d.o.j. takes down 15 members of tren de aragua in massive conspiracy case? >> harris: wow. that says it all. that's a battle on our u.s. soil against some of these people who come across the border illegally and now are committing crimes against us. "outnumbered" after the break.