Trump Defends ICE Raids, Claims They Don’t Go Far Enough
President Trump has openly backed the tactics employed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this year, expressing that he feels they “haven’t gone far enough.”
In a recent interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, aired on Sunday, she questioned him about the aggressive actions taken by ICE, especially after recordings surfaced showing agents using tear gas and breaking car windows in a Chicago neighborhood.
Trump replied, “No, I don’t think they’ve gone far enough, because we’ve been held back by the judges, the liberal judges appointed by Biden and Obama.”
When pressed about whether he condoned such aggressive tactics, he answered, “Yes, yes, because you have to remove the people.”
He elaborated, “You have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them, you know, are people who were deported because they were criminals.” He emphasized that the goal was to deport these individuals.
O’Donnell reminded him that during his campaign, he promised to deport “the worst of the worst, violent criminals and rapists,” to which he affirmed, “That’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re doing.”
However, O’Donnell countered that many those prosecuted and sent away by his administration weren’t violent offenders but, instead, included landscapers, nannies, construction workers, and even military families.
In response, Trump insisted, “Landscapers are criminals, yes.”
When O’Donnell inquired whether he intended to deport individuals without criminal backgrounds, he stated, “We have to start with policy, and that policy has to be, ‘We’re here illegally, we’re leaving.'” He also mentioned that there are options for individuals to return to the U.S. legally.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has significantly intensified immigration raids across the country, deploying masked federal agents to “sanctuary cities” to apprehend immigrants suspected of illegal entry.
Cities like Chicago and Boston reported a pronounced increase in immigration operations this past week, with Homeland Security officials asserting that ICE presence is “everywhere.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have criticized Trump’s immigration initiatives in their states.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie recently condemned the deployment of federal immigration agents to the city, arguing that it would not curb crime but rather lead to “chaos and violence.”
Lurie stated in a nine-minute video, “In cities across the nation, masked immigration officers are sent out with aggressive tactics that instill fear, making it impossible for people to go about their daily lives peacefully.”
