Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration is doing exactly what it said it would with regard to the nationwide U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting migrants who have committed crimes.
Vance told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday the White House has an “ambitious” goal of getting criminal migrants off the street at a rate of nearly 2,000 per day.
“If you think [about it], we’ve got 20 plus million illegal aliens in this country. We have got to get these people out of our country and regain control of our own border,” he said in a sit-down interview from the nation’s capital on “Hannity.”
ICE and DEA migrant raids NYC (Drug Enforcement Administration New York)
The number of migrants arriving at the southern border since Trump took office last week has dropped dramatically by more than 60%.
Data obtained by Fox News Digital shows there were roughly 7,200 migrant encounters in Trump’s first seven days in office, compared to more than 20,000 in former President Biden’s final seven days.
“I guarantee we’re going to cut it even further,” Vance said of the more than 60% decrease. “Policy matters. Elections have consequences and President Trump ran explicitly on regaining control of the border and redelivering American prosperity. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives prior to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump at the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th President of the United States. (Melina Mara – Pool/Getty Images)
Migrants are being repatriated to their home countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala and Ecuador.
“The take-home message here is, ‘Not today. Not today, not tomorrow, not next week. Do not come to the United States and enter illegally,’” said U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Hamid Nikseresht after more than 80 illegal migrants were loaded onto a C-17 military plane and deported from El Paso, Texas, back to Ecuador.
Vance took aim at the hysteria from the left over the mass deportation efforts, pointing to Trump’s win in November and his “mandate” from the American people.
“Now he’s doing it,” the former Ohio senator said about Trump’s immigration crackdown. “That’s how democratic politics in this country works and thank God for that.”
The vice president made a shocking admission about the arrests of criminal migrants, telling Hannity the United States government, in some cases, knew their names and addresses.
“We just needed to send somebody to go to their house and get them the hell out of the country,” Vance said.
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“We’ve known at least that they had violent criminal backgrounds. And we haven’t done anything until about eight days ago when Donald Trump became the President of the United States again. It really should shock the conscience of the American people.”