Former first lady Michelle Obama expressed fear over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, saying they have kept her up at night.
“Now that we have leadership that is sort of indiscriminately determining who belongs and who doesn’t,” the former first lady said Monday during an appearance on the podcast “On Purpose with Jay Shetty,” adding that such deportation decisions “aren’t being made with courts and with due process.”
“I worry for people of color all over this country, and I don’t know that we will have the advocates to protect everybody,” she continued. “And that makes me … that frightens me. It keeps me up at night.”
“And I and I see that when I’m driving around LA. I’m just looking in the faces of folks who could be a victim and I’m wondering, how are you feeling, how do you feel standing on the bus stop,” she said.
“In this current climate, for me it’s what’s happening to immigrants,” Obama said when asked about “recent tests of fear” related to individuals facing discrimination over the color of their skin.
Obama noted that the “fear” does not personally impact her as a former first lady who has police protection.
“It’s not the fear for myself anymore,” she continued. “I drive around in a four-car motorcade with a police escort. I’m Michelle Obama. I do still worry about my daughters in the world, even though they are somewhat recognizable.”
“My fears are for what I know is happening out there in streets all over the city,” she added, referring to her hometown of Chicago.
During a Monday White House briefing to discuss border enforcement during President Donald Trump’s first hundred days border czar Tom Homan said that under Trump, unlawful crossings were “historically low” and that the border was the most secure it has ever been. Homan drew a sharp contrast to the record number of illegal immigrants that entered the United States under the Biden administration.
“Every president I ever worked for took border security seriously because you can’t have national security if you don’t have strong border security,” Homan said. “Even President Obama and President Clinton took some steps to secure the border because they understood national security was important. Joe Biden is the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose. That’s just a fact.”
Homan accused the Biden administration of weaponizing its immigration policies, motivated by the desire that a future Democrat president would give illegal immigrants released into the country amnesty, saying Biden was “selling this country off for future political power.”
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Contrasting Biden and Trump, Homan said that between 11,000-15,000 people were crossing the border illegally per day this time of the year under Biden, while under Trump, just 178 had crossed in the last 24 hours. During the same time, he said there were 1,800 known “gotaways” under Biden, compared to just 38 under Trump. Homan added that from January 20 to April 1, 2024, Biden released 184,000 illegals out of federal custody into the country. The Trump administration has only released nine total, including four so they could testify in criminal cases and four with extreme medical conditions.
In total, Homan said that there have been 139,000 deportations under Trump. He added that the administration was prioritizing the estimated 700,000 illegals who have been charged with crimes.
