DAMAGE CONTROL

Trump Goon Cornered on Secret Order to ICE Agents

He exploded after he was asked about ICE shooting into a man’s car while his 5-year-old son was inside.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin erupted at a reporter who asked him about claims that ICE agents had been instructed to increase daily immigration arrests.

During a Friday press conference in Washington, D.C., Mullin sought to defend ICE’s actions after an agent shot and wounded 28-year-old Oscar Belgal in New York City on Thursday while a 5-year-old boy was in his car.

ICE leadership told agents on Tuesday to increase arrests by 1,000 more daily—a total goal of 3,000 daily arrests nationwide, according to a CNN report.

The reported push comes ahead of the midterms, as the Trump administration presses on with its immigration crackdown despite criticism from some Republicans over the arrests of immigrants without criminal records, CNN reported. ICE also recently sought bids from contractors to add temporary detention facilities at its offices, citing “exceptionally high operational tempo with increased arrests.”

“As you ramp up the pace of deportations, ...” the reporter began his question of Mullin at Friday’s press conference.

“Why do you say ramp up the pace? We do our job every day,” a flustered Mullin interrupted. “That’s a narrative that you guys have said that we’re ‘ramping up’ up to the midterm elections. We’re not ramping up anything.”

“Where’d that come from? Was there an email you guys read? There wasn’t,” the former Oklahoma senator continued sarcastically.

CNN’s reporting cited two sources familiar with a verbal directive—not an email—issued by ICE leadership.

The reporter then reworded his question to satisfy Mullin, asking, “As deportations continue, are you going to continue using the planes that were purchased during the prior DHS administration and are you…?”

Mullin cut him off again, saying he has “no idea” what the question had to do with the topic of “the worst of the worst,” which is what Mullin wanted to discuss.

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“What all you’re doing here is you’re trying to take this thing someplace else because you know that we arrested the worst of the worst last night, and you’re trying to bring up something else that’s controversial,” Mullin complained. “This is what I hate about fake news… When we’re doing a press conference on something, you guys want to completely steer away when you realize that this isn’t someone that you should be defending and you bring up something as ridiculous as that.”

While addressing questions about New York and California, he admitted ICE agents ramp up enforcement in “sanctuary cities and states” that DHS flags as having a “high-level threat” that could “bleed into” surrounding areas.

“When we do a surge, and we’re trying to arrest the worst of the worst… When we see that start happening, then we’re going in and do an enforcement to get the worst of the worst off the streets,” Mullin said, referring to Operation Rotten Apple.

Mullin confirmed the ICE agent in Thursday’s shooting is on administrative leave while a joint investigation by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations is conducted. He could not confirm whether the agent had been interviewed yet.

Mullin repeatedly called the man wounded in Thursday’s shooting a “thug” during the press conference, saying he’d been transported to a “more secure place” outside New York but that he won’t release the exact location of the “true threat to society,” who he said has a “history of evading police.”

The DHS and NYPD allege that Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican immigrant, has a prior grand larceny conviction, a pending drug case, and ties to the Trinitarios gang.

Police commissioner Jessica Tisch said surveillance showed plainclothes officers approaching his car, one with a gun drawn, before he drove out of camera view, and that the cameras did not capture the shooting itself.

An ICE agent fired seven rounds at his car in a Manhattan neighborhood Thursday. Federal officials allege he drove into agents’ vehicles before they opened fire, striking him in the neck while a 5-year-old boy—believed to be his son—sat in the back seat.

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