Michelle Obama has claimed that Donald Trump’s immigration policy ‘keeps her up at night’ on a new podcast.
The former first lady, 61, made an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast Monday alongside her brother, Craig Robinson.
However, her comments have been met with ridicule on social media, where many are pointing out husband Barack deported more than three million over the course of his presidency from 2009 to 2017.
While discussing race and fear, Michelle confessed that she is no longer worried about herself, but is afraid for migrants under the Trump Administration.
‘In this current climate, for me it’s what’s happening to immigrants. It’s not the fear for myself anymore,’ she said.
‘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.’
In his first hundred days in office, Trump cracked down on illegal immigration with dozens of executive orders and mass deportations.
Without explicitly mentioning the president, Michelle echoed Democrats’ critiques of his immigration policy.
‘There’s so much bias and so much racism and so much ignorance that fuels those kind of choices. I worry for people of color all over this country, and I don’t know that we will have the advocates to protect everybody. That frightens me, it keeps me up at night,’ she said.
Michelle Obama shared her fears about Donald Trump ‘s immigration policy, claiming it ‘keeps her up at night’
In his first hundred days in office, Trump cracked down on illegal immigration with dozens of executive orders and mass deportations
‘My fears are for what I know is happening out there in the streets all over the city and now that we have leadership that is, sort of, indiscriminately determining who belongs and who doesn’t and we know that those decisions aren’t being made with courts and with due process.
‘I’m just looking in the faces of folks who could be victims and I’m wondering, how do you how do you feel comfortable going to work, going to school, when you know that there could be people out here judging you and who could upend your life in a second — that’s who I worry for right now.’
Trump has moved to strip legal immigration status from hundreds of thousands of people, increasing the pool of those who can potentially be deported.
While arrests of immigrants in the United States illegally have spiked, deportations remain below last year’s levels under Biden when there were more people illegally crossing the border who could be quickly returned.
Deportations were down in Trump’s first three months in office from 195,000 last year to 130,000 this year, Reuters reported last week.
Border Czar Tom Homan defended the figures and said it was not fair to compare them to Biden-era tallies.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities have been over capacity, with some 48,000 in custody as of early April, beyond the funded level of 41,500.
The former first lady, 61, made an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast Monday alongside her brother, Craig Robinson
Signs were put up outside the White House on Monday featuring 100 criminal illegal immigrants who have been deported in his first 100 days
Homan said that Texas military base Fort Bliss could be ready ‘in the very near future’ to hold migrant detainees. The Trump administration has already been using the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
On Monday, signs were posted on the White House lawn featuring 100 illegal migrants charged or convicted of serious crimes, including murder, rape and fentanyl distribution who have been deported.
Numerous studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
Trump has criticized cities and states that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, labeling them ‘sanctuaries’ and blaming them for releasing criminal offenders instead of coordinating their transfer to ICE.
