What is Ben Cline trying to say here about a proposed Augusta County ICE facility?

Our MAGA Sixth District congressman, good ol’ Ben Cline, commented on the proposed Augusta County ICE detention facility at something called a City Elders town hall in Staunton last week.

I’d like to tell you that he weighed in with something specific.

Those of you who are already aware of our Ben Cline know – fat chance of that.

“I think that’s a question for officials here locally as to the condition of the facility. I think it’s a question for state officials, as to whether they want to make that facility available for that purpose,” Cline said, per reporting from The News Leader, which, man, I am sorry for Lyra Bordelon that she had to be there on everybody’s behalf, but, Lyra, seriously, thanks for taking one for the team.

Bordelon noted that Cline “took questions” at the City Elders town hall – more on who these “City Elders” are in a hot minute – and that Cline said he was “aware of conversations that were happening about the Augusta Correctional facility.”

Good news: he’s “aware.”

I’m not entirely convinced he has the awareness to know how to put on a pair of pants, but I digress.

Background on what Ben Cline is telling us he is “aware” of: the former Augusta Correctional Center, located just outside of the Town of Craigsville, 37 minutes west of Staunton, in a remote, and visually stunning, slice of Augusta County, was closed by the state in 2024.

The world learned last week that Glenn Youngkin, the vest-wearing MAGA, in his last full day in office as governor, tried to rush the sale of the ACC property to a Manhattan-based LLC that, it appears, is working with the Trump regime on plans to open a rash of new ICE detention centers.

Per documents obtained by the ACLU in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, our Augusta Correctional Center was at the top of the Trump regime wish list.

And there was much rejoicing.

Youngkin’s successor, Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, has put the kibosh on the sale, for now.

And the Augusta County Board of Supervisors has gone public with its opposition to the former prison being repurposed as an ICE gulag.

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ICYMI

• Augusta County, 73 percent Trump in 2024, on proposed ICE facility: NIMBY
• Youngkin tried to rush sale of Augusta Correctional Center on his final day in office
• Trumpers looking at former Augusta Correctional Center as possible ICE detention site

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Cline, meanwhile, who knows.

“I know it’s out to bid, and it’s a question for federal officials, in that we have people who have entered this country illegally, tens of millions, thanks to the last administration, and they are here, and many of them are committing crimes, heinous crimes, violent crimes, and they need to be locked up,” Cline answered, per the reporting from the Leader.

Fact-check: the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2021, when Joe Biden took office, stood at 10.5 million, down from a high of 11.4 million during Donald Trump’s first term.

Source on that: the Pew Research Center.

Trumper didn’t do much to cut that number down there, did he?

Pew then tells us that the number of undocumenteds had grown to 15.9 million by the end of the Biden term.

Five-point-four million, then; not “tens of millions.”

Five-point-four million is a lot, but, you know.

Also: according to ICE – ICE, not some liberal think tank, but friggin’ ICE – the number of undocumented immigrants with either criminal convictions or pending charges was at 650,000.

Again, a lot, but not “tens of millions.”

Doing the math, that 650,000 is 4.1 percent of the total undocumented population.

The other 95.9 percent that ICE is busy rounding up are 5-year-old kids, moms and dads working to put food on the table, similar.

Back to Cline:

“The question is, where do we lock them up?” he said, because of course that would be where his head is.

Have hammer, every problem is a nail.

“That’s a question that is done by federal, in consultation with state and consultation with local, and I’m happy to be part that conversation, if asked, but, you know, at this point, I’m going to let the process continue and follow it, as I do, through my conversations with friends with the state global level and my colleagues at the federal level.”

What in god’s name is Ben Cline trying to say here?

And why is he saying it at a town hall of something called City Elders?

From the City Elders website:

We are a national network of elders charged with the mission of governing the gates of every city in America to establish the Kingdom of God with strength, honor, and courage.

Governing the city gates is the Biblical model of City Governance.

City Elders are spiritual, political, and business leaders who have joined together in the Abrahamic Covenant within the towns, cities, and states to do accomplish the following:

1. Establish righteousness in governance spiritual, civil, and economic systems.
2. Draft civil laws which reflect and uphold Biblical values and Judeo-ecclesia ethics.
3. Protect those vulnerable, innocent, and disenfranchised.
4. Promote the principles and protocols of God’s Kingdom.
5. Glorify God through the Lordship of His Son, Jesus Christ, and our High Priest.

This is who you have representing you in Congress.