Key facts
- Miles Taylor, a former DHS chief of staff, said agents 'will confess' they do not know what they are doing.
- Taylor said it will take a generation for people to trust DHS again.
- Taylor said DHS trust is so bad the department should be torn down and rebuilt.
- DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a social media post that deportations will continue.
- DHS said in a Thursday release that ICE arrests included people convicted of sexual assault and robbery.
Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a Thursday interview with NewsNation's Chris Cuomo that immigration agents do not know what they are doing and that it will take a generation for people to trust the department again.
Taylor said the agents should be investigating spies, terrorists and pedophile rings, and that the agents themselves would admit to people like him that they do not know what they are doing. He said trust in DHS is so bad that the department almost has to be torn down to the studs and rebuilt.
The interview followed Democratic wins in the midterm elections, in which the party took control of both the House and the Senate after flipping GOP-held seats in battleground states including South Carolina, Kansas, Ohio and Texas. Immigration enforcement was a central issue in the campaign, and some Democrats called for abolishing ICE.
A day after the election, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a social media post that deportations will continue. In September, DHS and ICE said they were increasing their presence in sanctuary cities.
In a Thursday press release, DHS listed ICE arrests in cities across the country, saying those arrested had been convicted of crimes including sexual assault, robbery and gang participation. Mullin said in the release that ICE arrested pedophiles, sexual predators and drug traffickers and that arresting and deporting illegal aliens saves lives.
Taylor also cited the detention of a 23-year-old Colombian asylum seeker by ICE at San Francisco International Airport before a flight to Oregon, which California-based station KQED reported, and said agents should focus on real criminals.