Radio host Charlamagne Tha God on Wednesday refuted journalist Morgyn Wood’s claim that President Donald Trump’s administration is arresting migrants that have not committed “crimes.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has emphasized a focus on arresting “public safety threats” and “national security threats,” but has also said that the administration would make collateral arrests of illegal immigrants who do not present such threats. When Wood, on “The Breakfast Club,” suggested this approach was leading to the arrests of innocent people, Charlamagne pushed back, noting that being in the United States illegally is itself “a crime.”
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“President Trump has reportedly ordered all ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] field offices to make at least 75 arrests per day of illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. But ICE agents say those aren’t the only people who could be taken into custody and deported … They’re rounding up anybody who is in the country illegally,” Wood said. “At first, we were thinking it was just going to be those who were committing crimes, but no. It’s just if you are in the country and your status is not up to par, or you’re not in good standing, then you are eligible for deportation … at least under this Trump administration.”
“But isn’t being in the country illegally a crime? That’s a crime under federal law,” Charlamagne responded. “So they’re rounding up people who are committing crimes and they’re rounding up people who are here illegally, because that too is a crime.”
Wood acknowledged that what Charlamagne said is “true.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt similarly told ABC News chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce Tuesday that every illegal immigrant has a “criminal record” because they violated U.S. law by entering the country.
“3,500 arrests ICE has made so far since President Trump came back into office. Can you just tell us the numbers, how many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?” Bruce asked.
“All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws and therefore they are criminals as far as this administration goes,” Leavitt said. “I know the last administration didn’t see it that way, so it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that’s what they are.”
ICE arrested 956 migrants on Sunday and 1,100 on Monday, already outpacing the average of 310 daily arrests made by the agency during the 2024 fiscal year under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
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