CNBC host Joe Kernen confronted Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner on Monday as the senator criticized the surge in arrests of illegal immigrants made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The panelists on “Squawk Box” discussed the response to the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday, who was shot by an ICE officer while allegedly accelerating her vehicle forward during a confrontation with agents. Warner claimed that ICE agents are detaining illegal immigrants who have not committed any crimes, but rather are arresting mothers dropping off their kids at school and people heading to work.
“[Seventy-five] percent of the people, no criminal record, secure the border absolutely, have masked ICE agents picking up moms, dropping off kids or folks going to work. I don’t think that’s what the American people signed up for. And now we’ve got this split in city after city across America. That is not good for the sake of law enforcement. That is not good for the sake of actually having a rational immigration process,” Warner said.
Kernen pointed out that Democrats did not seem outraged when former President Barack Obama deported over 2.7 million people throughout his eight years in office.
“You would agree that going city to city to try to disrupt authorities from lawfully executing whatever their job is, disrupt, stop, obstruct what they’re trying to do,” Kernen said. “That’s against the law. That’s not something that Democrats or anyone should be ginning up and telling people to do. I know Trump has deported or sent back 350,000, 400,000 people. Barack Obama, your guy, as you called Trump, my guy, it was five million. It was five million over eight years. Now we’re at 350,000. What changed with Democrats? I know Biden let in 12 million. Is it about votes?”
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During Trump’s second term, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) carried out over 605,000 deportations and oversaw over 1.9 million self-deportations, the agency reported in December. Border crossings also reached their lowest levels on record in July as a result of Trump’s hawkish policies, such as declaring a national emergency at the border and prioritizing wall construction.
While maintaining that former President Joe Biden’s border policies were too lax, Warner continued arguing that agents are arresting people without criminal records to fulfill quotas.
“The border being as open it was under Biden was one of the reasons Trump got elected,” Warner said.
“So you’re glad it’s closed now,” Kernen fired back.
“Do I think we ought to not have a fully open border? Absolutely,” Warner continued. “The question I have for you is closing the border versus sending out ICE agents across the country to randomly pick up people based on quotas that have committed no crime? And the truth is, I don’t think the American people signed up for this. Where you see people who are working, there ought to be a path towards legality. We’ve worked on that. We’ve we’ve screwed that up. Immigration reform for years, both sides.”
Warner also argued that ICE agents under Trump are not receiving the necessary training that they used to.
“But the idea that we’re going to send in these ICE agents, by the way, Joe, you realize ICE used to take five to six months to get trained. They’ve now lowered the training period to 47 days. Why, 47 days? Because Donald Trump’s the 47th president. Tell me that’s a rational approach,” Warner told Kernen.
“Obviously I’m not gonna take that bait and say it’s a rational approach,” Kernen said. “Senator, at this point, there’s 12 million people that are not supposed to be here. And why did that? Why was the border open? You said, oh, it shouldn’t have been … Nothing like during the Biden administration, obviously … I don’t think obviously Democrats didn’t have a good idea what people were voting for. Or you wouldn’t have lost the presidency in seven swing states in the Senate and the House. So you don’t know what people were voting for.”
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Anti-ICE sentiments have reached new heights since Good’s death, prompting widespread protests throughout major cities. Footage released on Friday, taken from the ICE agent’s perspective, showed Good refusing to get out of her vehicle and appearing to look the officer straight in the eye as she accelerated her vehicle forward. Her wife also appeared to shout, “drive baby, drive,” from the passenger side of the car seconds before she attempted to drive away.
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