‘A Travesty and a Disgrace!’ Charles Barkley Condemns the Treatment of Immigrants in Trump’s America Ahead of CBS March Madness Telecast

Charles Barkley slammed President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration on Sunday, with the basketball legend saying the Trump administration’s approach to immigration has been a “travesty and a disgrace.”

The outspoken Hall-of-Famer shared his opinion on the March Madness pregame show on CBS. The network had just aired a feature on UCONN star Alex Karaban, a first-generation American who is the son of Belarusian immigrants, when Barkley sounded off.

“I want to be very careful with my words right now, because this is a really touchy subject for me,” Barkley started off by saying. “I love that kid and his family, but the way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace.”

He continued:

I think there’s a difference between amazing immigrants and criminal immigrants, and I think what’s going on in our country — what we’re doing to some of these amazing immigrants, is really unfortunate and it’s really sad.

And that’s a great immigrant story — we have a lot of great immigrant stories out there, whose stories need to be told. But some of the stuff that’s happening to immigrants in our country right now is really unfortunate and is really unfair. But immigrants built this country and we should admire them and respect them.

Host Nate Burleson said “Chuck, I love you, bro,” before wrapping the segment up.

Barkley’s take comes after deporting illegal immigrants and defending the border have been two of the top priorities for Trump since he returned to the White House last year.

The administration has launched multiple operations in cities across the country to deport illegal immigrants since then, but many critics have said the ICE and Border Patrol raids have gone too far. That was especially the case earlier this year, following the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Based on his comments on Sunday, Barkley clearly does not support how the Trump administration has handled the matter.

Watch above via CBS.

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