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President Donald Trump said he believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids “haven’t gone far enough” when asked about the federal agency’s tactics that have sparked protests and lawsuits.
Trump sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, who asked the president about videos of an ICE agent shoving a woman to the floor at an immigration courthouse, federal agents deploying tear gas in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood and smashing car windows.
“Have some of these raids gone too far?” O’Donnell asked.
“No. I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the – by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump replied.
“You’re OK with those tactics?” O’Donnell pressed.
“Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown outta their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons. Many of them are people from frankly mental institutions,” he claimed. “I feel badly about that, but they’re released from insane asylums. You know why? Because they’re killers.”
The Trump administration has carried out immigration raids on major American cities to carry out Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
The White House has repeatedly said federal agents are targeting criminal illegal migrants who are the “worst of the worst.”
Fox News previously reported on a leadership shakeup at ICE amid growing friction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have pushed for a broader and more aggressive immigration enforcement approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers.
Bovino and other DHS and ICE officials were named in a civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois in early October and accused of using unlawful force to suppress peaceful protests and press activity around the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois.
It was filed by a coalition of journalists, media organizations and individual protesters.
Trump told CBS News he believes his immigration mission will be complete once “many” of roughly 25 million people are deported.
“Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or – I believe I’m much closer to the right number,” he said. “Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.”
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