Dem senator blasts Fox host to her face on ICE: 'It is disappearing legal residents!'
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) shut down a Fox News host Sunday after being asked whether the Trump administration’s proposed changes to its immigration enforcement operations were “reasonable,” arguing instead that mass deportations had turned the United States into a “dystopia.”
“Does that sound like a reasonable step to you?” asked Fox News’ Shannon Bream, referencing Border Czar Tom Homan’s proposal to ramp down immigration enforcement operations in exchange for state and local governments’ cooperation.
“People who are in jail [that] are going to be released by a state or locality, ICE has said we’ve got a detainer on this person, we think they’re removable, let one agent go into the jail versus what we’re seeing on the streets of Minneapolis?”
Visibly taken aback, Murphy scoffed at Bream’s use of the word "reasonable," and argued the Trump administration immigration enforcement operations to be anything but.
“C’mon, are we still pretending that ICE is going after dangerous people? They aren’t! Right now, 70% of the people that they’re detaining have absolutely no criminal record,” Murphy fired back.
Over 73% of the more than 328,000 migrants arrested under the second Trump administration had no criminal record, though Bream interjected to repeat the Department of Homeland Security claim that in actuality, 70% of migrants arrested by federal immigration officers had criminal records. That claim, made by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, has been thoroughly debunked by independent analyses.
Murphy went on to condemn the Trump administration outright for its mass deportation operations, declaring them to be an “emergency” that he and his Democratic colleague intended on addressing immediately.
“What is happening in Minnesota right now is a dystopia; ICE is teargassing elementary schools, it is disappearing legal residents into cars, it is murdering American citizens,” Murphy said.
“ICE is making this country less safe, not more safe, today. That is an emergency, that’s why, today, 60% of the American people vehemently disagree with what ICE is doing and we have to address that emergency right now.”