On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) stated that Democrats did not prioritize the removal of violent offenders who are in the country illegally and that if the Trump administration focuses on criminals and those who have deportation orders, “I think you’ll see Democrats maybe not leaning into it, but we won’t fight him on it.”
Host Chris Cuomo asked, “This is what Trump campaigned on. There are people in the country who aren’t supposed to be here, and they are doing violent things and the Democrats have not made their collection and removal a priority. He said he would, and now he’s doing it. Do you agree?”
Bera responded, “Yeah, he won the election. If we focus on folks with convictions, folks with deportation orders, I don’t think you’re going to see us fight him on that. Again, that’s what the public wants to see. So, go ahead and focus there. On the other hand, if it’s DREAMers, if we see folks that have been here for decades, they’re responsible citizens, members of our community that are getting rounded up, that might be different. So, again, focus on the criminals, focus on folks that already have deportation orders, and, again, I think you’ll see Democrats maybe not leaning into it, but we won’t fight him on it.”
Cuomo then asked, “Well, then why didn’t you do it?”
Bera answered, “There [are] already a lot of folks that have deportation orders. So, I think those are folks that they’ll go after. I think where you know folks are criminals or have a criminal conviction or commit a crime and are guilty of that crime, then go ahead and do it. The Laken Riley Act, I think a lot of us agreed with 90% of that act. We just, again, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, so, just an accusation to go into detention is a little bit worrisome, especially for folks like the DACA kids, the DREAMers, others that are here with some legal protections. That’s why I think you saw some Democrats vote against it. But, again, the basic premise of, if you’re a criminal, if you’re here illegally, if you have deportation orders, okay, that’s what the public voted for. We should support that.”
Cuomo followed up, “[M]y question to you was, if this is so obvious that Democrats won’t push back on it, why didn’t they do it during the Biden administration instead of promoting catch and release and sanctuary cities that are really anathema, the opposite of what’s being done?”
Bera answered, “Well, we lost the election. So, again, I think Trump tapped into something that the public wants to see. So, I think we should learn from that. I think we should think, clearly, the public talked about border security. I’ve been down to the border multiple times. You talk to the Border Patrol, a decade, two decades ago, it was folks coming up from Mexico going back and forth, largely working, they’d see the same folks. I think we turned a blind eye to that. These were folks that were helping our economy. And it’s changed, though, right? So, you have folks from Central America, you have Venezuelan refugees, migrants. I think the public has said, this is a different side of folks that are showing up on the border. And that’s — you see Indians, you see Chinese, you see others from all around the world. I get it, they’re human beings, and, legitimately, they want a better life, but if we pay attention to the election, the public said, well, wait a minute, this is different.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
