CNN’s Jennings: ‘If You Came to This Country Illegally, You’re Already a Criminal, Illegal Immigrant’

Sunday, during an appearance on CNN, network commentator Scott Jennings noted that despite protests from left-wing mouthpieces about the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, those in the country illegally were “criminals” given they were violating U.S. immigration laws.

Partial transcript as follows:

DEAN: Scott, I know you want to jump in there. I do want to ask you, too, while you’re giving us your thoughts, just also to just can they do this? Look, the logistics of what they’re trying to do are difficult. They need a lot of people, a lot of manpower, a lot of money to do this. Is it possible?

JENNINGS: Yes, of course it is. And, you know, it happened under Barack Obama, actually, he deported millions upon millions of people. And I don’t have any recollection of the U.S. economy collapsing and no Republican, and I don’t think most Americans are taking seriously the argument that the U.S. economy is underpinned by violent, criminal, illegal immigrants.

I mean, if our entire economy is underpinned by people who are rapists and murderers and commit other violent acts, then, you know, we’ve got a whole other set of issues going on in the economy.

CARDONA: Of course not. No one is saying that.

JENNINGS: That, you know, we ought to talk about today. I mean, people just aren’t buying that argument. So the population that they are starting with —

CARDONA: No one is saying it.

JENNINGS: — are violent, criminal, illegal aliens, then they also have a million and a half people who have existing, fully adjudicated orders. And beyond that, I would just point out that if you came to this country illegally, you’re already a criminal illegal immigrant. You’ve already broken our laws even if you haven’t been arrested yet or charged with it. If you’re here illegally, if you broke our laws, then you’re going to be targeted.

Now maybe you’re not going to be a top priority today because there’s other more dangerous people here, but we cannot send a message that, well, some illegal immigration is OK. And that’s been the problem of the last four years. Basically, Biden and Harris were like, hey, just get here and it’ll probably work out for you. That is no longer the communication strategy of the U.S. government.

The strategy is don’t try us. Whether you’re the president of Colombia or somebody who just walked across the border illegally, do not try us. It is not going to work out for you, period.

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