When it comes to polls leading up to this 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump consistently had the edge over Vice President Kamala Harris on which candidate was more trusted to handle immigration. This was also the case when Trump was running against President Joe Biden earlier in the cycle. Two weeks ago, Trump won, and he won to enact his immigration reform agenda. That reminder bears repeating, as CNN's Scott Jennings pointed out while speaking to Jake Tapper on Monday.
Tapper tried to use concerns from "farm industry officials and economists" about how deporting illegal immigrants working in the agriculture sector would make grocery prices go up.
"You know, obviously getting rid of people who have committed crimes beyond coming into the country illegally is one thing," Tapper tried to argue. "But deporting people who are paying taxes, keeping the food and agriculture industries running, doing jobs that Native-born Americans don't want to do or are not willing to do, won't this actually hurt the Americans who are already so frustrated about high prices in grocery stores?"
That's when Jennings issued that important reminder right off the bat that "Donald Trump was elected to do this. He ran on it, made it clear what he wanted to do, the American people voted for it. And so some people are watching this going, 'thank God, a politician whose planning to follow through on their promises.'" He also issued another crucial reminder about who it is that will be prioritized for deportation, pointing out that "there's like 1.3 to 1.6 million illegal immigrants who've already received deportation orders from a court," suggesting, "I think you could start there."
There was still another crucial reminder, which is that there's a focus on getting rid of those who are here illegally and have committed violent crimes. Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have kept in mind such a focus, especially as the Biden-Harris administration has downplayed the issue with the record high amount of illegal immigrants they've let in.
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Beyond issuing such reminders, Jennings also pointed out that it's possible for Congress to actually do their job to come up with a solution. "You could also go there before you ever get to people who are sort of working in industries and maybe during the course of all that time, maybe, just maybe, the Congress and the White House could figure something out about how to balance our illegal immigration crisis with the need for agriculture labor," he offered.
Lastly, Jennings also flashed back to the Obama-Biden administration, pointing out, "I don't remember anybody having these kinds of meltdowns when Barack Obama deported five million people," adding, "it is not uncommon for the executive branch to deport illegal immigrants."
Not only is it the case that "it happens in every administration," Jennings offered, but it's about how people react and, perhaps most importantly, how much worse the crisis is. "Obama deported more than most and I don't remember any of this kind of meltdown and the crisis has only gotten worse so I think Donald Trump's doing the right thing and most Republicans would agree it is a national emergency."
"Who's having a meltdown?" Tapper actually asked, ignoring how Democratic governors and guests on his very network have had said "meltdowns," with governors even refusing to cooperate with the incoming administration's deportation plan, as Townhall has been covering.
Jennings also brought the conversation back to the original topic. "I mean, everybody seems to be on the same sheet of music today that this is going to mess up the agriculture industry and drive the grocery prices high. I've seen numerous pieces on it," he said. "Everybody seems to be out there talking about it. And so it strikes me, Jake, that Democrats, this is their new line of attack, that Donald Trump's got a plan to raise your grocery prices simply by following through on his campaign promises. And I just don't think it's true."
The segment also discussed the preferences of Hispanic voters, who swung heavily to the right compared to previous elections, as another guest, Maria Cardona acknowledged.
While Cardona tried to stress that Hispanic voters who voted for Trump did so based on "his economic promises," arguing that Democrats would focus on how mass deportations could supposedly affect grocery prices. Jennings also raised the point about how Hispanic voters do want Trump to do mass deportations, though, especially since they went through the process themselves to become legal citizens.
"Well, I think number one, there was some polling during the election. I think CBS News conducted it, indicating that a majority of Hispanic-Americans wanted Donald Trump to do mass deportations," he shared. "That they had come here, they had gone through the legal process, they had become citizens, and they didn't like the idea of huge scores of illegal immigrants coming across every day."
We saw examples in this, he pointed out, of how Hispanic-majority counties in Texas flipped from Biden to Trump. "It is a crisis in the Hispanic community, the people who have come here legally, the people here are following all the laws and all the rules, they're living in some of the communities that are the hardest hit. And so I agree that they also believe in Donald Trump's economic message because most Hispanic-Americans are working class Americans and the working class did flow towards Donald Trump.
"They're living in the communities that are the hardest hit by illegal immigration and the societal and governance impacts that it brings. And so I think they want him to do something about both. I don't think the two issues are mutually exclusive," he emphasized to end his point.
The attacks are coming fast and furious on Trump’s deportation plans, but the American people clearly voted for this and believe the situation to be a national emergency. My latest on @cnn.
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) November 18, 2024
🎥 via @CurtisHouck pic.twitter.com/qOzA0RmS8a
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