Scott Jennings Clashes with CNN Panel Over ICE Deporting Tren De Aragua Gang Members from Chicago

JENNINGS: “They were targeting Tren de Aragua. And so, Tren de Aragua is a violent transnational gang. They send illegal immigrants here to the United States. They traffic drugs, they traffic people. They commit violence. They inflict misery everywhere they go. And 37 people were arrested. That was the purpose of the raid, the targeting of Tren de Aragua, some of the most violent people in our hemisphere. And when they come here, nothing good happens.”
PHILLIP: “Okay, so if it was targeting — I don’t think anybody has a problem with targeting. When you clear out an apartment building and you zip tie children, and you arrest and detain everyone — “
LATHAN: “Are children in Tren De Aragua — “
JENNINGS: “If — “
PHILLIP: “Scott. Scott. Hold on, hold on, Scott. You and me, we’re talking here. Okay? If they arrest children, they arrest everyone, citizens and non-citizens, for hours, detain them, deprive them of their liberty, no matter how long. You are fine with that?”
JENNINGS: “They didn’t arrest children.”
PHILLIP: “I didn’t say they arrested them. They put them in zip ties. But if that makes a difference to you, go ahead.”
JENNINGS: “Here’s what makes a difference to me. If the federal government knows that there is a nest of Tren de Aragua in a city like Chicago, they have a responsibility, they have an obligation to go get them. It is unfortunate, to answer your question, that there are children put in harm’s way by these violent gangs, but that is going to be the reality.”
PHILLIP: “Is it unfortunate, or is it a violation of their rights, is the question, because, I mean, in this country we have rights against searches — illegal searches and seizure.”
JENNINGS: “You’re suggesting these children should be effectively shields for Tren de Aragua and I don’t think — “
PHILLIP: “No — “
LATHAN: What I’m asking — hold on, I want to make it clear. I don’t like — I know that Tren de Aragua and gangs and whatever, it’s a catchall to treat people however you want, to go in there and shred the Constitution or whatever else it is that you want to do. When I’m asking you is this: Do you think that children should have been zip tied and pulled out of an apartment complex and traumatized like that? Yes or no?”
JENNINGS: “I don’t think children should be put in harm’s way by transnational gangs.”
LATHAN: “Just answer the question. Yes or no? Do you think that children — “
JENNINGS: “I don’t accept the premise of your question.”
LATHAN: “I’m asking you whether or not — “
JENNINGS: “The government is not putting children in harm’s way. Tren de Aragua — “
LATHAN: “Real calm now. Real calm, like — “
JENNINGS: “They’re the ones putting children in harm’s way.”
LATHAN: “Gentlemen to gentlemen, we have a responsibility for the way we treat people with the power that we have here in America. And we have a standard that we should treat human life with. And I’m asking you very clearly, concisely, should children be treated that way? Does Scott Jennings like that?”
JENNINGS: “I don’t accept the premise of your question.”
LATHAN: “All right, cool. We got it.”
JENNINGS: “I don’t believe — I don’t believe — I don’t believe that the premise of your question is accurate. I would ask you back, should children be allowed to live in an apartment building with Tren de Aragua? Should the entire community of Chicago have to live with Tren de Aragua because they hide behind these children?”
Allison: “But here’s the thing. I think the answer to that is clear. No, they should not be put in harm’s way. But the difference is, in this situation is, I don’t want to be Tren de Aragua. I don’t want my law enforcement to act like Tren de Aragua. That is the distinction.”
JENNINGS: “You don’t want to — you just want to leave it and say, ‘Well, they have kids in there. Let’s just move on.’”
Allison: “No, but can’t law enforcement figure out a way — I don’t think this is the first time children have been in an environment where dangerous people have been around them, and I’m most certain that in most of those circumstances, those children aren’t zip tied and carried out like animals. What I’m wondering is, okay, let’s put this fact pattern on any other placement. Let’s put it on a school, right? What if there was a gang member in a school? And by this calculation, it would seem like the children in the school, in order to get that one gang member or two gang members — “
JENNINGS: “It’s not one gang member. It’s 37 people in an apartment building.”
Allison: “Well, let’s say — “
PHILLIP: “Scott, it’s a large apartment building. That’s part of the fact pattern here. I mean, here’s another one from our reporting: ‘Tenants said it appears everyone in the building was detained by federal officers, including U.S. citizens. ‘It was scary,’ said one, ‘because I had never had a gun in my face.’’ That person lives in the building. ‘They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? I told them, no, I didn’t.’ Fisher, this person says she was handcuffed anyway before being released around 3:00 A.M., and was told anyone with outstanding warrants, even if it was unrelated to immigration, would not be released. So in the — again — “
LATHAN: “Please, like, seriously.”
PHILLIP: “People live in apartment buildings all over this country.”
LATHAN: “I promise that — “
JENNINGS: “If I’m in Tren De Aragua, should I just go to an apartment building and hide?”
LATHAN: “Hold on. Wait a second, wait a second, I’m talking about the way that citizens of this country was treated. By the way, I make — I just want to be clear. I think that everybody that’s created in the image of God should be treated with respect. And I thought that part of the American ideal was that. But that’s gone. I promise you y’all will still be invited to Mar-a-Lago if you say that it is wrong that children were zip tied and that American people, American citizens, were detained without any warrant or suspicion.”
JENNINGS: “Briefly detained in an effort to get 37 Tren De Aragua members.”
LATHAN: “Okay, so tell me — “
JENNINGS: “So what you’re suggesting is that no enforcement can take place.”
Allison: “Would you be okay with being detained so the gang members — would you be okay with your rights being violated and you be held until 3:00 A.M. with your family member not knowing why, is that okay? Because that’s not okay with me.”
JENNINGS: “Everybody here seems to believe that if you’re Tren de Aragua, you can go hide in an apartment building, and because there are other people there, you just get to be left alone. That is not a reasonable enforcement position.”
PHILLIP: “Scott, there’s another option here, and it’s actually an option that’s utilized by law enforcement every single day in this country. When they are looking for violent people, they go look for those violent people. They do not subject the people around those violent people who have nothing to do with them with arrest, with guns in their faces, with being searched, with being zip-tied and handcuffed and detained. Every day in America, law enforcement does their jobs, and they don’t do it like this. So why is suddenly — “
JENNINGS: “Every day in America, you’re not necessarily dealing with the most violent people in the hemisphere.”
PHILLIP: “Actually, yes, we are.”
Allison: “Oh, we’re not?”
PHILLIP: “Scott, Scott, there are violent people who are right here in this country, American citizens. They are in gangs. They were born here. Their parents were born here. Their grandparents were born here.”
JENNINGS: “Oh, we know. Believe me, we know.”
PHILLIP: “Those people are dealt with by law enforcement every day. Again, it’s a real basic question. If you lived in an apartment building and there happened to be somebody who was guilty of a terrible crime in that building, and law enforcement barged in, guns blazing, and put every single person in that apartment building under arrest, you would be fine with that? Including you and your family?”
JENNINGS: “Not everybody is under arrest. They arrested 37 people.”
PHILLIP: “Scott — “
JENNINGS: “They arrested 37. You said everybody. It’s not. It’s 37 people.”
PHILLIP: “Scott, this person was sleeping in their bed and they were detained. They were put in handcuffs and detained.”
JENNINGS: “Neither you nor I were there. Neither you nor I were there. But I know this: Now 37 violent people are now off the street.”
PHILLIP: “I’m just asking, you and your family, Scott. You and your family. You are in an apartment building. You and your family. You would be fine with your liberty being held up, your kids, your wife, your children being detained for any amount of time because somebody in that building was a criminal? You’d be fine with that?”
JENNINGS: “You are vastly oversimplifying what’s happening here. There are scores of illegal immigrants — “
PHILLIP: “I think sometimes we have to simplify things so that we actually understand what we’re talking about, because I do think that this is a problem now for the rest of the country. People are going about their lives, and they are not responsible for the crimes of other people. And yet in this world in which ICE is operating like this, they are being detained for other people’s crimes.”