Guests - Arturo Del Cueto, Laurie Moore, Kelly Walker
After Memorial Day: The Border That Isn't Locked, the Parents Who Were Set Up, and the Election Season That Just Began
Tuesday on Winn Tucson — the first show back after Memorial Day — opened with a Border Patrol veteran who knows every corridor the cartels use, moved through a patriot and a Pima County watchdog who between them covered the Texas runoff, sign theft, and the supervisors' latest agenda, and closed with a Tucson father who was handcuffed at a public meeting, convicted on charges that the very institution behind them immediately repudiated, and who has spent five years rebuilding his family while fighting for parents across the country who were targeted for speaking out.
The day's through-line: the gap between what institutions claim to be doing and what they are actually doing — on the border, in school board meetings, in the Senate, and in the Pima County government building where four supervisors vote together on things that embarrass the county and harm its residents.
Arturo Del Cueto: Gotaways, Terror Cells, Sovereign Nation Loopholes, and What Adelita Is Actually Doing for Her District
Arturo Del Cueto — former National Border Patrol Council vice president, 20-year Border Patrol veteran, and host of the YouTube show Five Strands with Art El Cueto — brought his standard bluntness to the border conversation, and his standard standard of precision.
More Manageable. Not Locked Down.
The first thing Del Cueto wanted to establish — for both sides of the argument — is what the current border situation actually is.
"It's more manageable, I like to say, and more secure. But people need to understand it's not locked down."
That two-sided framing matters. If conservatives declare it locked down, they set up a contradiction with the documented reality and give the other side ammunition. The honest picture is progress that is significant but incomplete — and incomplete specifically because of structural and jurisdictional factors that are not easily solved.
The most significant of those is the Tohono O'odham Nation, a sovereign territory inside Arizona that Border Patrol must navigate under a wholly different set of rules.
"Border Patrol has to go through hoops to get things done on the reservation. Simple things like where to put a tower, where to put sensors, what areas agents can drive through. Nothing has changed as far as that — even during different administrations — because it is a sovereign nation. There are different treaties, different laws."
And the drug smugglers know it. They have always known it.
"They're very much aware of it. So they know that is the main corridor where they can bring more drugs, more human smuggling."
The Gotaway Math
A law enforcement agency that controls cameras across the state of Arizona provided Del Cueto with a number: they are catching gotaways at twice the rate of the Biden administration. Under Biden, the catch rate on gotaways was 30 percent. Twice as good means 60 percent. That is genuine progress.
It also means there is a 40 percent delta of people entering the country who are not being caught — despite the improvement.
"There's still 40 percent delta. And you have to understand that's a problem."
For the Texas comparisons that make Arizona look bad in the averages: Texas has had a committed governor for years. California, New Mexico, and Arizona's Tohono O'odham corridor drag the regional numbers down.
Terror Cells and What the Pima County Signs Are Actually Saying
Del Cueto confirmed, without hesitation, that terror cells exist inside the United States — a direct consequence of the open border years.
When Winn raised the new signs posted on Pima County property stating the county will not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, his frustration was immediate and pointed.
"I'm seeing protesters. I'm seeing people in government that support these protesters. It's preposterous to me that out of all the problems facing Pima County, getting signs made to say that is what taxpayer money is being used for."
He had filmed a video of Tucson's mayor speaking to a crowd saying "we shall not obey and we shall not comply" — while a plain-clothes police officer stood next to her providing personal security.
"The hypocrisy is very rich here in Pima County and in Tucson. Very rich."
On the question of who actually gets arrested in immigration enforcement operations — and the common claim that ICE is going after people with no criminal records — Del Cueto was precise.
"If agents go into a targeted enforcement area to arrest somebody that's on their list, and that person happens to be in a home with 60, 50, 40, 30, whatever it may be, other individuals who are aggressive towards them and who also don't have documents to be here legally — they cannot ignore that. Those people are getting detained and arrested, too. They've broken the law when it comes to an immigration matter."
The Carla Toledo situation — the detention center protest where a DACA recipient assaulted an ICE agent, producing the public spectacle that Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva turned into a multi-day media event — fell apart within 24 hours on the facts, exactly as these things always do.
"When Adelita Grijalva said she was pepper sprayed, then the truth comes out. It's election season. I know that."
The Maine Border and Graham Platner
Del Cueto had just returned from Maine, where he went not as a tourist but as someone paying attention to the next border crisis in formation.
"You think the Tohono O'odham Nation has issues with barriers? Up there in Canada, there's nothing. There is nothing. It's walking through a park."
He was willing to give Democrats credit for denouncing Graham Platner — the Maine Senate candidate who attacked the widow of Chris Kyle over Memorial Day weekend, describing Kyle's legacy in language Del Cueto refused to dignify in detail. Del Cueto knew Chris Kyle's wife and offered Taya Kyle's response: Platner has nothing, so he uses her husband's good reputation to lift himself up. She gave him no oxygen.
"People that don't care about America. That's what it is."
Adelita Grajava's Constituency
Del Cueto knew Raúl Grijalva — Adelita's father — and worked with him despite their disagreements. The district they both served is one of the poorest congressional districts in the country. Under Adelita's tenure, it has remained one of the poorest.
"She's only visiting ICE facilities. That's all she's visiting. Taking a lot of pictures, but not with constituents. She's the best congresswoman Mexico has."
Are You Running for Sheriff?
Before signing off, Del Cueto acknowledged the question he has been asked "nonstop."
"I'll tell you that. OK. I love you, too. When you have an answer, you get to know where you can come back on."
His YouTube show, Five Strands with Art El Cueto, takes its name from the original line of demarcation at the border. Available on YouTube.
Laurie Moore: Texas Runoff Day, Sign Theft, the Gala, Two Deceptive Ballot Petitions, and Tonight's Board Meeting
Laurie Moore — retired teacher, LD-17 precinct committeeman, and the woman who has been to every Board of Supervisors meeting regardless of what time they move it — joined for the second hour with the kind of ground-level report that only comes from someone who is actually on the ground.
Texas Runoff: Paxton vs. Cornyn
The day of the show was also the day of the Texas Senate runoff — Cornyn versus Paxton. Winn and Moore had both been tracking it, and both were clear about where they stood.
"He's got results as attorney general. And if you like Trump's policies, he helped Trump the whole time they were indicting him and prosecuting the 34 crimes. He was by his side. And I think Trump values loyalty above all else."
Winn had already ordered five Ken Paxton yard signs. "I'm going to have him eventually — if he wins — autograph them."
John Thune took his ball and went home for the holiday weekend after Trump endorsed Paxton. "I just don't care anymore. I care about that race. I want Paxton in it."
Jeff Rhodes — the Republican candidate for the open Supervisor District 5 seat, formerly held by Adelita Grijalva — needs 143 write-in votes to appear on the November ballot. There are more than 17,000 Republicans in that district. Finding 150 people to commit to writing his name in is a reachable number and a critical one.
Sign Theft, Air Tags, and What Happened in Oro Valley
Signs are going up. Signs are being taken down. The taking is illegal.
During the Trump campaign, Winn purchased air tags — attached to larger, expensive yard signs in Oro Valley. Two people were caught. One was a real estate agent whose story about the sign having blown down and her planning to put it back up did not survive the discovery of said sign in the trunk of her car. She was fined $600. The other was a man who paid monthly restitution until he passed away.
"He had to go wait out in the hallway after the verdict. And so when we all left, we had to walk right past him. And I just looked him in the eye and said: Trump won."
The 2026 signs for Republican candidates are now GPS-tagged. "You will be caught. It costs money. You have a crime on your record. Think twice."
Two Ballot Petitions to Decline to Sign
Moore and Winn identified two active ballot petitions circulating in Arizona that voters should refuse to sign:
The Free, Fair and Secure Elections Act — introduced by Maritza Miranda Sainz of Phoenix, with Daisy Montoya as chairperson. This measure is designed to change the state constitution in ways that would entrench early voting mechanisms beyond what the legislature can adjust, and restrict the ability to clean up voter rolls and restore ballot security measures. The name is deliberately misleading.
"This is not fair and free elections. We have something ready to be on the ballot that actually is."
The ESA income-cap measure — already covered at length in earlier segments. Out-of-state money. Income cap at $150,000 that inflation will erode over time. Immediately kicks 25,000 children — a quarter of current participants — off a program serving over 100,000.
"From 10,000 to over 110,000. If 100,000 families want that, it can't be a bad program. Decline to sign that too."
Their Definition of Democracy
Moore offered a pointed exercise — spelling out D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y to describe what the left actually means when they use the word versus what the founders meant when they built a republic:
D — Diversity, down education, defunding police, drag queens E — Equity (not equal opportunity based on ability) M — Men trying to invade women's sports and private spaces O — Oppressing people of color, women, and children C — Castrating children R — Riots and racism A — Abortion on demand instead of personal accountability C — Crime, criminals, and cruddy cities Y — Y'all are what is wrong with this country
Tonight's Meeting: 4 p.m., Not 5
The Pima County Board of Supervisors moved tonight's meeting to 4 p.m. — not the recently established 5 p.m. start time. Moore will be there. She is on the agenda for two minutes. Winn is attending her first-ever evening supervisors meeting.
The Sparkle for Freedom Gala is coming together. Moore is handling table decorations — lanterns, candles, tri-corner hats, all patriotic. The activity she described as the highlight: pin the tail on the donkey, featuring the heads of various Democrats, available for all attendees to participate in. No blindfolds. No spinning.
Kelly Walker: The Targeted Parent, the Trump Settlement, Merrick Garland's Setup, and the Families Still Rebuilding
Kelly Walker is the founder of Freedom Talk magazine, a parent advocate, a Tucson resident who had to leave Tucson, and a man who was handcuffed and arrested publicly in 2020 — by order of the Pima County Board of Supervisors — and who had five police officers at his home door in the dead of night in 2021. He and his wife Andrea have five children. They have lost their home and their savings. They live in Tennessee now, driving a van approaching 300,000 miles.
He would do it again.
The Trump Settlement: $1.776 Billion for Victims of Weaponization
The conversation opened on one of the most underreported acts of the current administration: President Trump won a legitimate settlement from the IRS — potentially up to $10 billion — and chose to reduce it to $1.776 billion specifically so it could be directed toward families who were victims of federal government weaponization.
"President Trump was extremely generous in taking what could have been a very lucrative settlement and saying: if the IRS will apply this to restore families who were victims of weaponization, he would cut it down to — well, President Trump being President Trump — 1.776 billion."
Republican senators and congressmen have been labeling it a slush fund. Walker's response was direct: the senators themselves, as part of a government shutdown deal last fall, quietly voted themselves a special legal privilege allowing any senator whose phone was tapped under the previous administration to sue for a minimum of half a million dollars per incident, with DOJ immunity stripped away.
"So Lindsey Graham, if his phone was tapped ten times, he can get a minimum of five million dollars for that. Talk about a slush fund that none of the rest of us get."
The senators who voted themselves that privilege while calling Trump's $1.776 billion a slush fund did not lose their homes. They were not arrested in the middle of the night. They do not have public criminal records from politically motivated prosecutions.
"They told us: hold the line, hold the line. Some people did that, and they took the hits. About time they're honored for that and restored."
The Setup: Merrick Garland, the NSBA, and the Parents Who Were His Pawns
The machinery by which parents were targeted is documented in FOIA materials publicly available at realfreedomplot.com — specifically the America First Legal report titled "the smoking gun report on Merrick Garland."
What those documents show: Garland searched for a federal legal hook to prosecute parents who were showing up at school board meetings and objecting to COVID policies, mask mandates on children, and the introduction of sexually explicit content into K-12 curricula. He could not find a legitimate federal predicate.
So he engineered one.
Garland's office coordinated with the National School Board Association — helping draft the letter that the NSBA then sent to him and President Biden, formally requesting federal intervention and characterizing parents as a domestic terrorism threat.
"He actually helped draft the letter that the NSBA then turned around and sent to him. Claiming that parents were a danger to society. Fourteen state attorneys general called it a massive fraud against the American people."
The NSBA's own response came shortly after: the organization issued a public apology and stated there was no justification for the letter.
The federal prosecutions proceeded anyway.
"These parents were put on trial anyway. I was convicted, sentenced to 100 days in jail and ten thousand dollars in fines — even though the very institution that had made these claims soon after they were made said there was absolutely no justification for it."
Not one parent in the Garland-coordinated campaign was federally indicted. Not one. The cases were built through coordination with state and local authorities because there was no federal crime to charge.
"Merrick Garland's pretense on the parents was so thin that all those allegations didn't lead to one federal indictment. In other words, there was no there there."
What Walker and His Family Went Through
Walker operated Viva Coffee House in Tucson — a place that became a community gathering point and a haven for people who refused to comply with COVID mandates. People told him and Andrea that the coffee house saved lives during the isolation period.
In 2020, he was handcuffed and arrested publicly — by order of the Pima County Board of Supervisors. In 2021, five police officers arrived at his home in the dead of night. The Pima County Democrats publicly labeled him radicalized and violent. He had no criminal record and had never been violent.
"Guilty before proven innocent. But they're assaulting ICE agents — so that's not violent at all."
The family has a video of the full incident. It is demonstrably false. He has been fighting for nearly six years to get that record corrected and to have the families like his compensated for what was done to them.
He moved to Tennessee. He lives on freelance income, ad sales from the magazine, and the generosity of individuals who recognize what he sacrificed. Laura Logan has been working as a conduit between his community and the Department of Justice. Kevin Sorbo's wife Sam Sorbo has been involved. They have been in the West Wing.
A DOJ official in January told him: "We don't negotiate with terrorists. This is not a federal issue. You're not going to get my help." Walker was critical of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch for that. But Blanch has since put out a press release acknowledging that parents are victims and that an apology is coming. Walker sent him a letter the same day thanking him — and asking him to understand why those earlier words had set his community back.
"I'm willing to trust. I think Todd Blanch maybe got sick of me because I don't give up."
For the Churches: Find These People
Walker's specific call was directed not at politicians or donors but at churches.
"Go out and find these people. Go find the victims of weaponization in your community. You've got a couple of January 6 people who did nothing, who are struggling. Go find them. Take care of them. Do what the church is supposed to do."
The 250th anniversary celebration of the United States is the specific context he offered: "These are people who held the line for you. They took the hits. This is not a golden age for these people. And I hope and pray that the churches, as they're celebrating 250 years, will say: wait a minute. These people deserve to be honored and restored."
Gallego, Platner, and the Pattern of Behavior
Walker connected Ruben Gallego's decision to publicly defend Graham Platner's documented sexual deviance — specifically Gallego's characterization of Platner as "relatable" and his suggestion that the behavior was typical military culture — to a broader pattern he has been observing.
"It's normalizing the behavior that Senator Gallego has already had with his good friend Eric Swalwell. These people are creeps. And it does eventually catch up with them."
His observation about targeted parents specifically: as the list of families who came forward expanded to include parents from across the political spectrum — including a self-described progressive with a transgender child who was targeted because she objected to school decisions being made without her consent — it became clear that the attack on parents was not partisan in its targets. It was about silencing anyone who questioned the authority of institutions over children.
"Parents who started seeing online what their kids were being taught during COVID, the LGBTQ agenda coming into schools — they were severely punished for speaking out. This has to be made right. Because if it isn't, it's just going to continue."
Kelly Walker's Freedom Talk magazine: realfreedomplot.com | Subscribe free or for $50/year at realfreedomtalk.com | Donate at givesendgo.com/FreedomTalk
Election Season, Supervisor District 5, and the Ground Game Starting Now
The practical information Winn laid out at the close of the show:
Jeff Rhodes (R-H-O-D-E-S) is the Republican candidate for Pima County Supervisor District 5 — the seat Adelita Grijalva held before being elected to Congress, currently occupied by Andres Cano through appointment. Rhodes needs 143 write-in votes in the primary to appear on the November general election ballot. There are more than 17,000 Republicans in the district. Finding 150 commitments is achievable.
LD-17: Rachel Keschel and John Winchester are running uncontested on the Republican side and will advance to the general election. Winn stressed the two-for-two dynamic: LD-17 voters elect two House members, meaning a split ballot or an unchecked box hands one seat to a Democrat in a district that carries a Republican registration advantage.
Registration: The window to register for the July 21st primary is closing. The primary will decide many of the most consequential races. pimagop.org has registration information. The party office is distributing yard signs for all Republican candidates, now GPS-tagged.
Tonight: Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting at 4 p.m. — moved from 5, no explanation provided. Show up.
Winn Tucson airs Monday through Friday, 9 to 11 a.m., on KVOI 1030 The Voice.
China Watch Wednesday returns tomorrow with Ava Chen from the New Federal State of China.
Arturo Del Cueto: Five Strands with Art El Cueto on YouTube.
Jeff Rhodes for Supervisor District 5 needs 143 write-in votes. Spread the word.
Primary voter registration deadline: June 22nd. Early ballots drop approximately June 23rd. Primary: July 21st.