‘Citizens Are Different’: Scott Jennings Shuts Down Dem Rep’s Fearmongering About Deportations

Republican strategist Scott Jennings told a CNN panel that Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York was “conflating” U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants Monday night during a debate over the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act Saturday to speed up deportations of foreign gangbangers from the United States. Espaillat claimed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could accidentally deport an American citizen after Jennings and “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip clashed over the flights removing Tren de Aragua (TdA) members, a notorious Venezuelan gang, from the U.S.

“I don‘t think anybody disagrees about their ability to deport people who are — who are murderers and rapists or whatever. But don‘t they have to actually prove that those people are who they say they are and that they‘ve carried out those acts of those criminal acts?” Phillip asked, with Jennings responding, “Well, we know they‘re violent people, because —”

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“How do we know?” Phillip said, interrupting Jennings, who said, “Because — well, because their records have already been pulled. I mean, these people were violent where they came from. And now they‘re here illegally. So you want to keep them here?”

Upon taking office on Jan. 20, Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, TdA and MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. Phillip and “The View” co-host Ana Navarro tried ganging up on Jennings, before Espaillat made his claim.

“The state of affairs in America is one that citizens are being stopped and questioned. I met with a U.S. citizen who was stopped at a subway station, questioned by ICE, detained for three hours,” Espaillat, whose family came to the United States on a tourist visa that they overstayed. “This is the state of affairs in America. So it‘s not necessarily about who‘s on that plane, who may have a criminal record — we don‘t know their names or first names and last name — but it is really about those that are not on the plane that could find themselves one day on a plane.”

United States District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia issued an injunction Saturday ordering the Trump administration to turn two planes carrying members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang to El Salvador around. The administration has maintained that it didn’t defy the judge’s injunction, arguing that it was too late to turn the planes around by the time the order was received.

TdA is a violent gang whose members have allegedly been involved in the takeover of apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, kidnapping and murder.

“You all are conflating different groups of people. U.S. citizens are different than non-citizens, and people here under certain status are much different than people who came here illegally, particularly if you came here illegally and you were violent where you came from,” Jennings responded. “And I think the Trump administration, frankly, has a political and maybe even a legal mandate, to exit from the country violent illegal aliens.”