CNN’s Abby Phillip Challenges Scott Jennings Over Claim Deported Migrants ‘Are Violent People’: ‘How Do We Know?’
CNN anchor Abby Phillip challenged GOP analyst Scott Jennings when he said that deported migrants on a flight to Venezuela “are violent people,” asking for evidence of the claim.
President Donald Trump is embroiled in a legal battle after Federal Judge James Boasberg temporarily ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Trump administration claims the migrants being deported are all violent gang members, and continued the flights after the order.
Trump went on to call for the judge’s impeachment.
On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip asked Jennings to provide evidence for his claim that the migrants on these flights “are violent people,” a claim for which the White House has provided no direct evidence:
PHILLIP: So, maybe it will end up being that the courts might agree with the Trump administration that this is a national security exercise. But it seems like what Donte is saying and what seems self- evident is that there is a process for determining whether that’s true or not, because it’s not obvious that immigration enforcement is like carrying out a war, you know, overseas somewhere in Syria or elsewhere.
JENNINGS: Well, I think a few things. Number one, we’ve had a number of instances now on immigration and other matters where individual district court judges are trying to effectively substitute their judgment for that of what the White House believes is core function of the presidency as designated by the Constitution.
That’s a key question and probably needs to be sorted out by the Supreme Court someday. That’s number one.
Number two, on the issue of these deportations, it’s quite clear the president believes he is keeping the United States and its citizens safe from noncitizens who are in the country illegally, first of all, and, second of all, who have a long history of committing very violent acts from murder to rape to sex trafficking and so on. And —
PHILLIP: Don’t you think they have to prove that though? Because, I mean, I think that’s — I don’t think anybody disagrees about their ability to deport people who are who are murderers or rapists or whatever, but don’t they have to actually prove that those people are who they say they are and that they’ve carried out those acts of — those criminal acts?
JENNINGS: Well, we know they’re violent people because —
PHILLIP: How do we know?
JENNINGS: Well, because their records have already been pulled. I mean, these people were violent from where they came from, and now they’re here illegally. So, wouldn’t anyone keep them?
ANA NAVARRO: Wait, do we actually know who they are?
PHILLIP: Well, that’s what I’m saying.
NAVARRO: Have they even given us their identity?
PHILLIP: One of the things happened in the court today, is that the lawyers for the government couldn’t say really who these people were.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
