MS NOW host Rachel Maddow suggested Monday that President Donald Trump could eventually use immigration detention centers to imprison people beyond those targeted by immigration enforcement. She made the remarks during an appearance on “The Daily Show.”
Maddow and host Jon Stewart discussed the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to drop plans for a facility that could hold 10,000 people in a commercial warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia. The proposal had drawn opposition from local residents.
“Social Circle stood up for itself,” Maddow said, adding that communities around the country had pushed back against proposals for large detention centers. She described the planned sites as warehouses where thousands of people could be held indefinitely without trial.
Stewart said many people detained over immigration violations were being held for what would generally be treated as civil matters, not serious crimes. He cited examples such as overstaying a student visa or having a green card and receiving a minor parking ticket.
Maddow said she worried the centers could be used for more than detaining immigrants. “With a president like this, if you give him seven to ten prisons around the country that hold 10,000 people each, where he can hold people without trial, without access to lawyers, indefinitely, you think he’s only going to leave immigrants in there?” she asked.
“I just don’t,” she said. “I think that what they first do to immigrants, they want to do to the rest of us.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle responded with a personal attack on Stewart, calling him a “talentless hack” and accusing him of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Ingle also said the condition had “rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
Elizabeth Pipko, a former Republican National Committee spokesperson, said some people on the left were blurring the distinction between immigrants and undocumented immigrants.
“Immigrants came to this country legally, built lives here, and became proud American citizens,” Pipko said. “They are not targets for deportation or arrest by immigration officers. Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart both know that.”
Pipko accused Maddow of pushing a political narrative against Trump in an effort to attract attention, adding that she believed Maddow knew the harm it could cause.
