On Monday night, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro appeared on Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle” with host Laura Ingraham to discuss the uproar that has arisen regarding the children of illegal immigrants who have been separated from their parents at the southern border of the United States.
Asked about his home town of Los Angeles, Shapiro responded that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was less interested in solving the homeless problem in the city than he was in virtue-signaling on the immigration issue, and that the language that the Trump administration used regarding illegal immigration, which has been criticized by the Left, was the same as that used by the Obama administration.
Ingraham started by asking what the truth was about how illegal immigration has affected California and Los Angeles.
Shapiro responded, “The costs to this state are just enormous. When you’re talking billions of dollars, it’s certainly affected the city itself, it’s affected the criminality of this city; it’s affected the budget of this city and it’s affected pretty much every aspect of the city, including how the city itself is run. So while Eric Garcetti, who is the mayor of this city and now wants to run for president on the Democratic ticket, ignores the 55,000 homeless people—“
Ingraham pointed out, “11,000 homeless veterans in this state.”
Shapiro: “— and 55,000 homeless people (who fill Dodger Stadium) just in this city alone, and he wants to run for president, but meanwhile he’s going to virtue signal about illegal immigration because it’s a political winner in this particular state.”
Ingraham stated, “And for Democrats to run down to the border… and they’re like, ‘this is an inhumane series of actions by Donald Trump.’ You pointed out during the break how President Obama viewed the deportation issue.”
Shapiro recalled, “In 2014, Jeh Johnson, who was then Homeland Security Secretary, he explicitly said that we are taking the measures we are taking to deport entire families of people as a ‘deterrent.’ That was his language, ‘deterrent’ language. Now, when the Trump administration uses similar language with regard to separating families, (I don’t think they should necessarily use that language), but that language is not unprecedented and the fact is, that basically what the Left is saying now is that President Trump has a choice: Either he should release everyone into mainstream society or they’re going to yell and scream because the law itself says, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has made this very clear, that if you arrest the parents you have to release the kids. And that means that you have to separate the kids from the parents. There is no option to keep the parents in custody with the children. This is just not an option under the law, as written by leftists on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ingraham said, “When kids are put into ‘sponsorships’ across the country, when they come in unaccompanied, sometimes they were brought in by traffickers, they are sent to sponsors and do you realize, and I’m sure our viewers — some of them don’t know this — some of those sponsors themselves are illegal immigrants. The HHS regulations do not discount the possibility of illegal immigrants being sponsors because it’s only one factor. So it’s more your financial ability to care for the people. So now, illegal immigrants are sponsoring illegal immigrants in the United States of America.” With little time left in the show, she said, “Close it out.”
Shapiro: “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has actually suggested that perhaps the best policy would be to take one of the parents and release them alongside the children so we can actually start releasing more people into society. It’s pretty clear what the Left wants here, and for all the talk about the delays in how long kids should be in custody, the fact is that unless Trump released everyone, the Left would be deeply unhappy.”