In a wide-ranging interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcast Sunday, President Donald Trump defended his administration’s aggressive enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, dismissing concerns that recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in major cities had gone too far.
Citing his campaign promise to conduct mass deportations, Trump told correspondent Norah O’Donnell that the federal government had been constrained by liberal judges appointed under previous administrations. “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,” Trump said.
Pressed on whether he was comfortable with the tactics used in the raids, Trump responded firmly: “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 criminals.”
Under Trump, ICE ramped up operations across the country, returning hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants to their home nations. While Democrats filed numerous lawsuits and publicly criticized the raids, conservative officials argued that enforcement is necessary to protect American communities from criminal elements.
The disputes over the raids intensified after coverage of one high-profile incident involving a 5-year-old girl in Massachusetts. NBC originally ran a headline stating that ICE “held 5-year-old autistic girl in Massachusetts to pressure father to surrender, family says,” citing video from Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra. However, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials criticized the report, highlighting that the father, Edward Hip Mejia, had endangered his child and abandoned her to evade arrest.
“Noem additionally noted the father was a criminal who had endangered children in the past, and then he abandoned her in the vehicle and ran off to protect his own freedom and abandoned his daughter behind,” according to the Fox News interview. NBC later corrected its headline to read, “Video shows ICE with 5-year-old girl while agents attempt to arrest her father,” acknowledging the original story mischaracterized the agency’s actions.
Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan also pointed to a surge in threats and harassment aimed at ICE agents, asserting that political rhetoric from Democrats contributed to the rise. The Department of Homeland Security reported Thursday that doxxing and death threats against agents and their families have increased by 8,000 percent. The DOJ recently arrested and charged ten suspects involved in violent anti-ICE protests in California, highlighting the risks agents face in the line of duty.
Trump’s interview underscored a conservative argument that rigorous enforcement is critical for national security and public safety. By emphasizing that many deported individuals have criminal backgrounds, the president framed the raids not as punitive but as protective measures for American communities.
With renewed attention on immigration enforcement, Trump’s remarks signal a commitment to a hardline approach, contrasting sharply with what he described as judicial and political constraints imposed by previous administrations. “You have to get the people out,” Trump said, summarizing a policy philosophy focused on law, order, and safety.
This interview comes amid broader debates over border security, media coverage, and the appropriate scope of federal authority in enforcing immigration law, issues that continue to shape conservative priorities ahead of the 2025 election cycle.
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