Appearing on MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle Monday morning, Princeton University professor and regular left-wing commentator for the cable channel Eddie Glaude slammed Trump administration plans to increase deportations of illegal immigrants as an “immoral” policy which revealed that “America traffics in cruelty.”
During a panel discussion about stepped-up ICE efforts to deport those in the country illegally, Glaude proclaimed: “I just think the policy is cruel. I think it’s point is cruelty....I think the policy at its heart is immoral.” He continued his rant by claiming that such law enforcement showed how “cruel” the nation was: “The whole idea is fear, and it’s cruel. And it seems to me that it runs counter to the best of who we take ourselves to be. And instead it becomes in some ways a billboard for who we actually are, America traffics in cruelty.”
Glaude also made sure to argue that President Trump’s immigration policies were racist:
And, you know, I’m tired of giving the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. When we think about their immigration policy, it is rooted in a deep insecurity about the demographic shifts in this country and they’re acting on it at a level that should be alarming to anybody who’s committed to the ideal of who Americans take themselves to be.
Minutes later, Republican pollster and WPA Intelligence CEO Chris Wilson pointed out that the ICE raids were meant to send the message “that if you want to come to the United States, you need to do it legally, you can’t do it just by finding some kid that you can traffic across the border...”
Anchor Stephanie Ruhle, who didn’t question any of Glaude’s extreme rhetoric, scolded Wilson: “Chris, that’s an overstatement....It is simply not just find some kid and cross the border with them. Come on, now.” Wilson pushed back with numbers: “Fifty percent, that’s an overstatement? Half of the single men coming across the border have a child with them...”
Glaude then chimed in to lecture Wilson:
It’s a false attribution of causality. You’re trying to say that the reason why they’re migrating is because they’re just taking kids to use that as an excuse to enter the country....That’s the problem. If you look at it that way your heart doesn’t open....If you look at it in another way, if you look at it in another way, that there’s a crisis, then you begin to respond to it.
When Wilson pressed Glaude on solutions to the immigration crisis, the liberal pundit could only offer platitudes:
WILSON: There is a crisis, there’s 144,000 people a month. That would be over two million in a year that would be apprehended. Where in the world are they gonna –
GLAUDE: But they’re human beings though. They’re human beings.
WILSON: They are. Okay, and what do you do with them?
GLAUDE: What do you do with them? You open your heart.
After dodging the question, Glaude declared: “But instead you put them in detention centers where they scabies, chicken pox, where they get the flu, they die.” Wilson asked him again: “So what’s the solution?” Ruhle jumped in before Glaude provided an answer.
Back in June, Glaude appeared on MSNBC to decry deportations as a “terroristic gesture.”
Here is a transcript of the July 8 panel discussion:
9:23 AM ET
(...)
STEPHANIE RUHLE: You wanna respond, Eddie?
EDDIE GLAUDE: No, I just think the policy is cruel. I think it’s point is cruelty. When we talk about deterrence, you know, if you don’t like it, stay where you are. I think the policy at its heart is immoral. It seems to me, when you combine that – let me say this – when you combine that Stephanie, with an announcement of ICE raids and what that means for folk who live in communities, children whose fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles are undocumented and what that sends through that community, right? The whole idea is fear, and it’s cruel. And it seems to me that it runs counter to the best of who we take ourselves to be. And instead it becomes in some ways a billboard for who we actually are, America traffics in cruelty.
And, you know, I’m tired of giving the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. When we think about their immigration policy, it is rooted in a deep insecurity about the demographic shifts in this country and they’re acting on it at a level that should be alarming to anybody who’s committed to the ideal of who Americans take themselves to be.
(...)
9:25 AM ET
GEORGE WILL: The President may be ginning up his base, but no one, and I mean no one, ever won the presidency with his base alone. So the question is what would the ancillary effects of say a massive enforcement measure of a million people rounded up? I don’t think the American people have any idea what the film and the video on the newscasts would look like for police measures necessary to extract one out of eleven – that’s what we’re talking about for a million people – only one out of eleven of the illegal immigrants in this country. I think it would add to what I think is a pervasive feeling of national embarrassment as it already is.
RUHLE: Chris, who do these raids work for? Is it for President Trump’s voters who are saying there are too many people here who are using our resources and going our schools? Because last I checked, we’ve got six million open jobs in this country specifically for low or no-skilled workers, where if you talk to small and large businesses, they’re saying we’re dying for workers. It helps our economy to have them.
CHRIS WILSON [WPA INTELLIGENCE CEO]: Well, I think to your original question about what is causing the mass immigration and –
RUHLE: That’s not what I asked. I said why would the President go – who do the raids – who does this serve? Who is saying to the President, yes this is the right thing to do for our country besides just the “make America great again, put us first”? Like let’s go technically, who do these raids serve?
WILSON: If you have a billion people, like Ken Cuccinelli talked about, who have gone through the process of applying for asylum and have been denied that asylum.
RUHLE: I’m not talking about them.
WILSON: But that’s who it works for. The purpose is to remove them from the country because they have not come through the system legally. And that is what the message is being sent, is that if you want to come to the United States, you need to do it legally, you can’t do it just by finding some kid that you can traffic across the border and be able to leave them there –
RUHLE: Chris, that’s an overstatement.
WILSON: It’s not an overstatement –
RUHLE: It is simply not just find some kid and cross the border with them. Come on, now.
WILSON: Fifty percent, that’s an overstatement? Half of the single men coming across the border have a child with them, you’re telling me –
GLAUDE: It’s a false attribution of causality. You’re trying to say that the reason why they’re migrating is because they’re just taking kids to use that as an excuse to enter the country.
WILSON: No, they’re using them to get across. They’re trying to get across that way.
GLAUDE: It could very well be the case that the crisis in the Northern Triangle is generating it. So the way in which you’re putting it is to create a kind of causal line between let me take advantage of this kid in order to get in the country. That’s the problem. If you look at it that way your heart doesn’t open.
WILSON: No, my heart is open.
GLAUDE: If you look at it in another way, if you look at it in another way, that there’s a crisis, then you begin to respond to it.
WILSON: There is a crisis, there’s 144,000 people a month. That would be over two million in a year that would be apprehended. Where in the world are they gonna –
GLAUDE: But they’re human beings though. They’re human beings.
WILSON: They are. Okay, and what do you do with them?
GLAUDE: What do you do with them? You open your heart.
WILSON: Yeah, okay. Well, that’s what I just suggested. We should be able to do something about it and we’re not allowed to do that by Congress. And that’s a very simple change that can be made.
GLAUDE: But instead you put them in detention centers where they scabies, chicken pox, where they get the flu, they die. What does that mean? That’s not – that’s who we are?
WILSON: So what’s the solution?
(...)
