Leavitt says Trump will not ‘waver’ on illegal immigration crackdown despite Democratic backlash
President Trump has no plans to soften his illegal immigration crackdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Sunday, as the administration defends ICE and Border Patrol against escalating political attacks.
"President Trump is never going to waver in the commitment that he made to the nearly 80 million Americans who voted for him to deport illegal alien criminals who broke our nation's laws to get here and then have committed further crimes of violence against American citizens," Leavitt told "Sunday Morning Futures."
"That's why ICE and Border Patrol are true patriots. They need to be respected. The Democrats need to agree to stop demonizing them."
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Leavitt blasted "egregious" rhetoric comparing federal agents to the Nazi Gestapo, telling Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that such language has prompted an uptick in violence and threats against men and women in uniform.
"The Trump administration is always going to be on the side of law and order, and we want to remove these illegal alien rapists, murderers, pedophiles, despicable individuals from our country to protect the homeland, and the president has done a phenomenal job at doing that," she added.
Leavitt’s comments come as tensions mount in Minneapolis, where federal immigration enforcement operations have drawn sharp scrutiny after at least two civilians were killed in separate shootings involving federal agents, including the Jan. 7 killing of 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good by an ICE agent and the later fatal shooting of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent.
Such incidents have prompted Democratic lawmakers to demand changes in federal immigration enforcement, including calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing, which the Trump administration has rejected.