White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller criticized CNN anchor Boris Sanchez’s question on Monday about whether President Donald Trump’s administration was racially “profiling” in its immigration enforcement.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of targeting individuals based on their “brown or black” skin color. Sanchez repeatedly asked Miller on “CNN News Central” to respond to Pritzker’s claim, prompting Miller to call the query “dumb” and rejected the allegation outright.
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“Is it the case that as Pritzker frames it, you are profiling brown people, that this immigration crackdown is designed to go after people of color?” Sanchez asked.
Miller laughed before answering.
“Oh, what a dumb question. The illegal aliens who are here are taking jobs away from blacks. They’re taking jobs away from whites. They’re taking jobs away from Latinos. They’re taking their health benefits away,” Miller said. “They’re taking their school slots away. And of course, in many cases, they’re committing heinous crimes. We cannot have a system of law in this country that privileges illegal aliens over American citizens. And that’s what they’re doing. You know it and I know it.”
Sanchez claimed Miller’s answer did not directly refute Pritzker’s allegation.
“I thought when I said it was a dumb question, it meant no,” Miller retorted. Sanchez asserted his question was “fair” before Miller clarified his response even further.
“My full answer is no, that is a lie and it’s a dumb question,” Miller said.
The Supreme Court on Sept. 8 granted the Trump administration’s request to lift restrictions surrounding Los Angeles immigration raids. The administration had asked the justices in August to block a district court judge’s order barring reliance on race, location, type of work or speaking Spanish when conducting immigration enforcement.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
The White House also refuted allegations of “racial profiling” in a Sept. 9 article.
The ability of federal officers “to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States” is NOT “racial profiling,” the article states.
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