Sen. Mazie Hirono: Trump 'sowing fear' amid reports of deportation raids beginning ag
Sen. Mazie Hirono: Trump 'sowing fear' amid reports of deportation raids beginning again
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Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, questions Attorney General William Barr as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) ** FILE **
By Bailey Vogt - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 11, 2019
Sen. Mazie Hirono said Thursday President Trump is doing anything he can to portray illegal immigrants as the “other” amid reports that deportation raids would be restarting on Sunday.
“This is again the president sowing fear. He’s terrorizing these communities where immigrants live because these are not going to be targeted arrests. He’s going to spread a wide net sowing fear in multiple cities across the country. So it’s all part of his plan to do everything he can to portray these people as the ‘other’ and that they deserve all of our cruelty and our hatred,” the Hawaii Democrat said on CNN’s “New Day.”
CNN’s Alisyn Camerota mentioned these targets of the raid already have deportation notices, according to The New York Times, and asked whether the senator’s criticism of these raids would display Democrats as being for open borders and against law and order.
“I don’t really think this is a picture of law and order where you go in and terrorize entire neighborhoods and communities with these kinds of raids. So yes, a lot of these people do have supposedly deportation orders, but we also know of cases who had deportation orders and were appealing their deportation orders, so they’re in different positions during the entire process,” Ms. Hirono said.
“The president has no problems doing everything he can to terror undocumented people saying, ‘Well they shouldn’t come because it’s illegal.’ No, it is not illegal to seek asylum,” she said.
Despite being invited by Vice President Mike Pence to join him in a tour of a Texas migrant center, Ms. Hirono said she will not be going because she doesn’t want to participate in “the Trump/Pence show.”
“What do you think they’re going to see. You have a president saying, ‘Everything’s just fine. These detention centers are being run great. Yeah, that’s what they’re going to see,’ but we know from all of these reports that things are not great,” she said.
“I would love to be able to go these facilities unannounced but believe me, when any of us visit, they will make sure we see what they want us to see, and that’s not real,” Ms. Hirono said.
The Times also reported that “collateral” deportations could happen, allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest immigrants who happen to be present at the scene.
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