Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera on Friday called for Immigration Customs Enforcement agency to be reformed and suggested the agency’s enforcement procedures weren’t compassionate.
Mr. Rivera said on “Fox and Friends” that there is a difference between the ICE investigations and enforcement, stressing the need for “a separation of the two functions.”
“ICE investigations are the heroes in the eyes of fellow law enforcement and the people,” he said, “But the ones, the enforcement and the removal [of] people, it’s a very difficult thing. It’s not fair to them.”
Mr. Rivera said that though criminals should be deported, it is hard to watch ICE take family members from their homes at night.
The suggestion came as Mr. Rivera reviewed the president’s recent approach to immigration reform. He said the deal between Democrats and Trump trades Dreamer protections for border wall funding, but neither side is happy.
Mr. Trump recently threatened to shut down the government if the funding is blocked by Democrats.
Mr. Rivera took a nuanced approach when it came to the border wall, arguing that it would be beneficial at stopping illegal immigration generally, but not criminals.
“The transnational dopers won’t be [deterred by a wall],” Mr. Rivera said, joking that they could launch drugs over the wall with a T-shirt cannon, “Imagine if that was just 10 pounds of cocaine. You could shoot it over a wall easily.”
However, he did still back up the president’s argument that a wall is needed to secure the border.
“Psychologically we need the wall on the southern border, because we’re scared that the demographic makeup of the country is changing,” he said, “We need some enforcement.”
The Fox News star returned his critiques of immigration enforcement and argued that there needs to be a less aggressive tone from the administration.
“My problem is with the humanity, the compassion and the tone,” Mr. Rivera said.
He likened the immigration battle to Mr. Trump’s fight with the media, which Mr. Rivera denounced with stubborn Democrats, telling both to “tone it down.”
Democrats making a big mistake in adopting inflexible, implacable resistance to all things @realDonaldTrump as their default position. Likewise @POTUS doesn’t do the American people any favors by stoking ugly passions vs news media or other perceived enemies. Time to tone it down
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) August 3, 2018
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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