CNN’s Dana Bash appeared stunned as Senator-elect Jim Banks (R-IN) said Republicans will secure the border and carry out a mass deportation operation of illegal aliens, as they promised and the American people voted for.
Banks, who is finishing out his term as a U.S. congressman before moving to the Upper Chamber in January, predicted at the top of the segment on CNN’s Inside Politics that Trump would carry out executive actions on day one to secure the border.
“One of the top issues in your campaign was immigration and the border. What is the first thing that you want the president-elect to do?” Bash asked.
Banks responded:
I have no doubt Donald Trump is going to be inaugurated on January 20. He’s going to hop in a car, drive down Pennsylvania Avenue, swing the door open of the Oval Office, and he’s going to immediately sign executive orders to go back to the effective Trump policies like Remain in Mexico, allow us again to to build the wall at the southern border, and then end catch-and-release. And that’s the perfect Trump formula to begin the process to secure the border.
Banks emphasized that, unlike in his first term, Trump will “have backup in the Congress to support him to do it” and that the GOP-controlled Congress will give Trump funding to complete the border wall and support border patrol agents.
Bash asked Banks about a comment he made Thursday to the Indy Star, detailing what a mass deportation process of some 15 million illegal aliens would look like.
“Do you see all undocumented immigrants as sort of–should they all be kicked out of the country?” she asked Banks.
He responded:
Some conservative estimates say that there are at least 15 million illegals who have came into the country on Joe Biden’s watch. It’s my hope that we depart every single of one them that we can and it starts with deporting violent criminals who are in the United States, who came here illegally, who have committed violent crimes.
Banks added that another priority is to increase penalties for businesses that hire illegal aliens, saying this will disincentivize many illegal aliens to be in the United States if they cannot be employed, which will lead to self-deportations. Banks added that GOP majorities in both the House and Senate will enable Congress to fund this deportation effort.
Bash followed up with essentially the same question, asking if there should be exceptions for some illegal immigrants based on factors like age and marriage status.
“The American people spoke loud and clear on Tuesday. They gave this President and Republicans a mandate to do everything that we can,” Banks firmly repsonded. “The goal should be to deport every illegal in this country that we can find.”
Banks told Bash, “I don’t think this is that complicated,” when she asked how the process could play out in Indiana.
“I spoke with a local sheriff in Indiana earlier today, who’s ready–local law enforcement is ready to go, to do what it takes to help with the mass deportation effort,” he said, again predicting that cracking down on illegal employment will largely disincentivize many illegal aliens to be in the United States, and result in them leaving the country on their own volition.
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