On Thursday, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) released a campaign ad she taped outside the White House attacking President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, claiming she felt "betrayed" because he is targeting too many illegal immigrants without criminal records.
Needless to say, the left wing media latched on to this, and Friday on CNN's Inside Politics, Dana Bash used the ad to confront Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a nearly 22 minute long sit-down, but it was Mullin who schooled Bash on issue after issue. Here are some of the highlights.
Bash began the segment by playing part of the ad, and then went directly at the Secretary.
BASH: She's a Republican representing a district that is majority Hispanic in Florida. Sounding the alarm about the policies of the department that you run, what's your response?
MULLIN: At DHS and ICE, every single day we enforce our nation's laws. That's it. We don't pick and choose which law we enforce. We enforce the immigration policy that Congress passed and obligated Department of Homeland Security to enforce, that includes ICE.
After conceding that Trump's sealing of the border should be put "in the win column" -- and the media are allergic to ever admitting a Trump achievement -- Bash pressed on, leveling accusations against DHS, which Mullin was more than prepared for.
BASH: The President says that he wants to get criminals who are in the United States illegally out. And then there's the question of people who are in the United States who are either seeking asylum or perhaps did break an immigration law but have become upstanding members of American society. On those last two, where do you think the focus should be?
MULLIN: They chose to break our nation's laws, regardless if it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, or four years ago. You still chose to break the law....Because of the statute that Congress passed, when we make contact with an illegal, we are obligated not just simply to be able to just say, OK, you're legal. Go on your way.
Next, Bash echoed the leftist accusation of ICE arrest quotas.
BASH: Mr. Secretary, are you aggressively going after even people in the United States without criminal records because you are trying to reach a quota that is being set -- a daily quota that's being set by the White House, Stephen Miller?
MULLIN: I've never talked to anybody at the White House about any quota. We do our job every single day using that actively.
BASH: There's no quota.
MULLIN: We never have had any conversation at all with anyone at the White House about any type of quota. We are out there. Our focus is to go after the worst of the worst, but we make contact with an illegal, regardless of how many years you've been here. We are obligated by statute to, at that point, arrest you.
Bash soon repeated numbers cited by Salazar, and got called out for it, big time.
BASH: In July, 50 percent of the 50,000 people detained had no criminal record. You are totally comfortable with that and you'll continue on that.
MULLIN: I'll say that's actually not true. Every one of 'em was criminals because they broke our nation's laws when they came across our borders illegally.
BASH: Beyond that, beyond that!
MULLIN: So what level of criminal activity are you willing to accept? We are tasked with enforcing the nation's laws. I can't repeat this enough.
Mullin had to explain that when DHS arrives with a warrant, on average they find another three people who immigrated illegally. Then she shifted to asylum requests.
BASH: One other important group of people that your department is going after are people who are in the asylum process that are doing what they are supposed to do correctly, and because you have all their information, you're going and getting them and many times taking them.
MULLIN: Actually, that's not accurate.
Mullin explained that the asylum seekers must keep authorities up to date on their latest contact info and job status, like a parolee, or they lose their status. Soon Bash would again be called out for an inaccurate statement.
BASH: In the case of some of these people, they are following the rules and then they go and they say, hi, I'm here, and then they're taken and they're deporting --
MULLIN: And that's not -- that's absolutely not accurate. That's not accurate.
Bash's final question seemed to irk Mullin.
BASH: Can you promise federal agents you oversee at DHS will not be summoned to polling places when there's no legitimate active emergency?
MULLIN: This is so ridiculous. I've been asked this question so many times. I actually disappointed that you even brought this up, because I think you and I have even talked about this already. We're only going to be there if we're required because there's some type of threat.
Bash probably thought the Salazar ad would provide cover for her to throw all the anti-Trump arguments at Mullin. Instead she got clobbered by the facts. This is CNN!
