Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi criticized former President Trump for tanking a bipartisan immigration deal, arguing it led to inadequate detention facilities and resources for ICE.
On CNN, he said the man suspected of killing Laken Riley was released because ICE lacked the capacity to detain him.
Host Kasie Hunt asked, “We heard from the President over the weekend, saying — talking about the fact that he regrets using the term ‘illegal’ at the State of the Union to describe the man that killed Laken Riley. Do you think that was the right move on the President’s part?”
Krishnamoorthi said, “I would have used a different term. But I think that it does go back, again, to the bipartisan deal that Donald Trump tanked, because the guy who murdered Laken Riley was let out because they didn’t — ICE didn’t have the detention facilities to be able to keep him. They didn’t have the resources to keep him detained.”
He added, “And I think it — I campaigned for Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) in New York 3, and that race was super tight, until Donald Trump tanked this bipartisan deal. And then independent voters saw that Trump was, in part, the reason why we’re not getting to a bipartisan resolution of the border. And I think that this is an issue that really hurts the Republicans right now.”
While Biden regretted using the term “illegal” to describe the suspect, Krishnamoorthi said he would have used different language.
However, he maintained the underlying issue was the failed bipartisan deal, as independent voters recognized Trump partially caused the lack of resolution at the border.
Krishnamoorthi believes the immigration policy debate currently hurts Republicans.
He recounted how support increased for Rep. Tom Suozzi’s tight race in New York after Trump sank the bipartisan immigration plan.
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