Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss President Trump's handling of illegal immigration.
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00:00I want to talk more about the economy and tariffs in a moment, but the CBP said in March that they
00:05saw the lowest southwest border crossings in history. President Trump ran on, as you said,
00:10securing the border. His deportation policies have been very controversial in these first 100 days.
00:16Do you think the downturn in border crossings, do you think that is a bright spot in this
00:22administration? Well, I think it's important to understand how we got those numbers, and a lot of
00:28it was fear. A lot of it was trying to create a, you know, really tenuous position for anybody in
00:38the country who, for example, our farm workforce, our service industry, where I represent in Southern
00:45California, roughly one in five service workers are undocumented. And I think the fear of threat,
00:53you know, to be deported, intimidation. I think we all support deporting criminals, deporting gang
01:00members, drug dealers, people who are here who are not contributing positively. They should go.
01:08But if you're playing by the rules, if you're paying taxes, if you are trying to make a better life
01:14for your family, just as my grandparents did when they came to the United States,
01:18then in my view, I want you to stay and keep paying taxes and keep working hard on the path to
01:25citizenship. When my grandfather became a U.S. citizen at age 50, it was the proudest day of his
01:31life. He came to the United States when he was a teenager. And I worry that somebody like him might
01:36not even come to the United States today for fear that they would not be treated with dignity and
01:41respect. So look, I'm all for securing the border, but I'm not for treating people with cruelty and a
01:48lack of humanity.