Fox News host Jesse Watters questioned if ICE was “being too nice” in their ongoing raids of immigrants in California, even asking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if using more force by knocking some heads together was the better course of action.
DeSantis, who has been outspoken about supporting the President Donald Trump and his campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants from the country, joined the Fox News host on Thursday night’s episode of “Jesse Watters Primetime” and shared his thoughts on a standoff that happened earlier in the day in Ventura County, California. Watters show images of the raid at a local farm and the pushback ICE received from the community.
“It seems to be like there’s a lot more intensity now with each one of these raids,” Watters said before asking DeSantis, “How do you see this going forward?”
“If the roles were reversed, the left would be saying it’s an insurrection,” the Florida governor said. “You have federal law enforcement that have clear authority to enforce clear federal law, and if you are illegally employed in this country, that is a violation of federal law.”
He went on to say that in Florida citizens would never get away with such behavior, calling the process lawful.
“I think what’s happened in California is they’ve really developed a sense of entitlement to simply disregard federal laws they don’t like, particularly with regard to immigration, and this has been happening for many years,” DeSantis continued. “So I think the situation has escalated. I think clearly they are in the wrong. But this is likely not going to stop in California anytime soon because I think this has been embedded in the psyche there—that somehow they can disregard laws they don’t want to follow.”
At that, Watters asked if he thought ICE was being aggressive enough. The agency has already received backlash in the form of protestors and local California officials like Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass who have done their best to quell the surprise raids.
“Governor, is ICE being too nice? They are doing, I guess, de-escalation tactics—which probably is the right move—but the more you tangle with these crazy people, the more it gives them confidence,” the Fox News host asked. “If you don’t make arrests and knock some heads together and show them that you may get hurt when you come in and block law enforcement, they’re just going to get more and more angry. Do you think they can step up some of their tactics?”
DeSantis explained that in Florida ICE would be met with more support from local police and sheriffs saying his state would work cooperatively with the federal agency.
“I think there are a lot of police officers individually who want to be helpful, but the political leadership is not allowing that to happen,” DeSantis said. “So I would not necessarily say that it’s ICE that has to take care of all of that, because some of that absolutely needs to be done with state and local assets.”
Watters conceded the point and agreed with the governor saying, “It’s more dangerous when the locals in California don’t provide backup because the ICE agents are outnumbered and it gets a little hairy”
You can watch the full “Jesse Watters Primetime” segment in the video above.
