On Tuesday’s edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press NOW,” Democratic Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed responded to a question on how he would handle deportations if ICE is abolished like he wants by saying that “I think we need to be invested in making sure that we secure our southern border, rather than this farce of making a show out of detentions with the idea that, somehow, this is about immigration enforcement. This is not about immigration enforcement. This is about criminalizing immigration on its own terms and making a show of immigration enforcement.” And we don’t need ICE for the border.
Guest host Kelly O’Donnell asked, “[Y]ou have called for abolishing ICE and while you are also advocating for a secure southern border. So, how would you address illegal entry into the United States and do you believe that is an offense that would be subject to deportation and how would you do that if ICE is no longer functioning as we know it?”
El-Sayed answered, “Well, as you well know, that is not enforced by ICE. That’s enforced by Customs and Border Protection. I’m not calling for the abolition of Customs and Border Protection. I actually think that they need to operate according to the law. But I think we need to be invested in making sure that we secure our southern border, rather than this farce of making a show out of detentions with the idea that, somehow, this is about immigration enforcement. This is not about immigration enforcement. This is about criminalizing immigration on its own terms and making a show of immigration enforcement. I’ll be clear, I went to Minneapolis at the height of project Metro Surge, I saw for myself what that looked like. But Minneapolis is not the southern border. So, if we think that ICE has anything to do with the southern border, let’s just be clear that the principal actions that they’ve taken have been in Chicago and Minneapolis, which are nowhere near the southern border. So, we can have a safe and secure southern border and we don’t need ICE to do it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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