Donald Trump has stood by the growing violence of ICE raids across the country—and said that only “liberal judges” are standing in the way of them getting even worse.
The president spoke with host Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes Sunday, five years after he walked out of his 2020 interview and canceled his planned 2024 appearance.
“Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?”
Without pause, Trump replied: “No, I think they haven’t gone far enough, because we’ve been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.”
O’Donnell exampled cases of extreme violence and fear tactics used by ICE against members of the public. Footage showing a man bleeding from his head after being pushed to the ground this summer, sparking outrage, was played.
Faced with concern that his ICE mob—whom Stephen Miller recently claimed have legal immunity for their actions—may be going too far, Trump stood firm in his support.
“You’re okay with those tactics?” O’Donnell pushed.
“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 out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals,” Trump said.
“Well, you promised in your campaign that you were going to deport the worst of the worst,” O’Donnell noted, claiming that many targets and deportees have been “landscapers, nannies, construction workers, farm workers, family of US service members” in place of “violent criminals and rapists.”
Interrupting to say that his policy was still targeting “the worst,” Trump countered: “Oh no, no, landscapers who are criminals, yeah.”
He added: “Now look, look. I need landscapers and I need farmers more than anybody, okay?”
“Is it your intent to deport people who do not have a criminal record?” O’Donnell asked.
“Uh, we have to start off with a policy, and the policy has to be ‘You came into the country illegally, you’re going to go out,’” Trump said.
In contrast to both his prior words that he would deport “the worst,” and his recent suggestion that some key undocumented workers could stay, the president reasoned: “However, you’ve also seen, ‘You’re going to go out, we’re going to work with you, and you’re going to come back into our country legally.’”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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