Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Trump vet rebukes ICE racial targeting as admin breaks arrest record

Transcript

Trump vet rebukes ICE racial targeting as admin breaks arrest record · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Stories, information, updates about what Donald Trump's ICE program has
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: been doing seem to ebb and flow. But one problem
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: we're finding, according to investigative accounts, is that while the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: administration did back off under criticism and after some bad
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and lethal incidents and under political pressure, a lot of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that was messaging. The crackdown continues in what might be
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: called a quieter format, the Times noting that the summer
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of 26 actually was a record high Time for ICE arrests, 50,000
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a month in August. It's a surge that they're calling
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a quieter project. It's very different from those initial high
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: profile raids, which seem to be designed as partly programming,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: which is, of course, similar to a lot of what
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Trump does, but also brought with it thousands of protesters
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: in Chicago, Los Angeles and memorably Minneapolis, the Times notes.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: But ICE continues to infiltrate all corners of American life,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: many without any criminal records. They're laundromats, people arriving home
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: from getting groceries. Reports are that the agency will hire
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: another 5,000 personnel this year alone, after, of course, ramping
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: up under Trump. Latino voters, though, seem to be well
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: done with it. Trump did increase his support there in
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the last election, but that's over. MSNOW has documented that,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: for example, in Texas.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: This is just... A horrible time in history.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: And I hope it, I hope once things change, I hope,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: you know, whoever's at fault pays for what they've done.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Who's at fault? I think it's the MAGA Republicans. How
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: are your Republican friends going to vote this time?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I think they're either not voting or they're just voting third.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Party or Democrat. Some of them are voting Democrat?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Probably, just despite the other... Yeah, in spite, probably.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: We're joined now by Veronica Cardenas. She was ICE Assistant
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Chief Counsel, working all the way until 2023. She also
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: litigates for immigrants. Welcome, Veronica. You've served under both parties
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: looking at what are supposed to be the legal lines
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: at ICE and during a time of tremendous intensity and change.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Start by explaining to us what the Times article finds,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: that even if we're hearing less about at least those
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: high profile raids, the arrests are actually still going up.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: And it is true. It's the silent approach to arresting.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Like you saw in that video for the laundromat, ICE
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: officers are just coming in. Nobody does anything. Everybody's just
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: scared to do something. And so we're seeing a lot
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: of that. The Times article also stated that they were
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: they're calling it ICE is calling it a targeted approach, right,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: a targeted investigation. But when you look at who's being arrested,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: there's there's nothing except racial profiling, which the Kavanaugh stops saying.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And the Supreme Court stated you view this as racial profile.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: You're saying the evidence supports this as racial profile. And
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to be clear, just because there's so many people to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: keep track of. You did serve in the first Trump administration,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: but you think that's what the evidence shows?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, because targeted investigation used to mean that they would
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: investigate a certain person and they would look for that
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: certain person at home or at home. you know, a
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: workplace and they would arrest that person. What they're doing
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: now is that they're arresting people in groups. So let's
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: say they stop a car because they see the license
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: plate is registered to someone who doesn't have status. Everybody
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: in that car is going to get questioned whether or
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: not they're the target. And everybody in that car is
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: going to get arrested if they cannot produce a lawful
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: permanent resident card or U.S. citizen status.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of words to get thrown around. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Trump campaigned on going after the criminals, people with criminal records.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: as you know, that's something that Obama and Biden also
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: said you should do, starting, in their view, with violent criminals.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: That's not what's happening. This account says agents appear during
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: everyday routines, as you just mentioned, at soccer, at church, nightclubs,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: outside even polling locations sometimes. And if you look at
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the bottom, what I'm reading there, those arrested were accused
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of violating civil immigration laws. Most had not been charged with,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: let alone convicted, quote, of a crime. What does that
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: tell you about who they're going after and whether they
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: may have run out of the people that Trump said
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: were the focus?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And they definitely have run out and they ran out
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: long time ago. Like we've seen the statistics, the majority
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: of people have no crimes. Today, I was sitting in
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a mega master of children. I represented a child at five.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: That is the first time in my career that I've
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: had to sit there with a five-year-old. So yes, they're
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: running out of people.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: And their position is where the five-year-old came into this country.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Unlawfully.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And so they want to detain them. Yeah.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Detain and deport. And that's what their goal is. And
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter... who it is, it's a stat.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Here's Secretary Mullen. As I mentioned, you've been inside,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you've done the legal work here in these type of agencies.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: They say they're already using this controversial database. Take a listen.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: We're going through every single one of these names. We
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: have partnerships with other agencies where we're cross-referencing each one.
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: And we're looking at a pattern or a history of
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: of individuals that may have voted illegally, may have frauded
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: the system. Because of our great partnership with Todd Blanch
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: and DOJ, we're working cohesively as a group.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Are they hyping this, or you think it's really true
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: that their DHS is focused on what would typically be
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a very small number of voting infractions?
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Right. I think it goes two ways. I think that
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: the systems that we have, like we saw in New Jersey,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: people sign up for licenses and they get automatically registered
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: to vote. They're not physically trying to vote. They just
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: get registered. We have seen an uptick in prosecutions for
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: that registration alone that will affect their status. So it's
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: whether the intent is there for immigration law doesn't really matter.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: So I don't think that this is actually true. I
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: think it's just to get more eyes on the election
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and the results to perhaps later use that for their advantage.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I've got just about a minute left. You did the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: first term. Doesn't seem like you're interested in working in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the second term. Why is that?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Because. of the dehumanizing policies. I went to law school
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: to follow the law, and I never viewed my job
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: to deport. It was to enforce immigration laws. And so
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: if I were to be seated across the table from
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: a five-year-old and have to prosecute that five-year-old, that is
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: something that I cannot morally do and justify. And so
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I have no interest in returning or doing any of
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: that work.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Hey, it's Rachel. I am so glad to see you
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: at the end of that clip because this is where
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I get to tell you about a new way to
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: watch all our clips and all of our shows and
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: everything on MS Now on your phone or your tablet
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: or your laptop. You can watch things live or recorded. Plus,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: you can ask me and all the other hosts and
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: reporters questions in our weekly live chats. You can go
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: to ms.now slash membership or just click below.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Thanks.