Are Democrats taking Trump's bait?

**Brian Tyler Cohen** (0:01)
Today, we're going to discuss the big debate. Are Democrats taking the bait by fighting the illegal deportation of migrants to El Salvador? And I've got four interviews this week. I speak with Gavin Newsom about his lawsuit against the Trump administration, Senator Chris Van Hollen about going to El Salvador to meet with the illegally deported Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, John Favreau about the political impacts of the immigration debate, and Abdul El-Sayed about his campaign for Senate in Michigan. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie.
There was a reporting in Axios that is driving a lot of the news coverage as it relates to Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, the immigrant who was illegally sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. That reporting reads, The second House Democrat who spoke anonymously, a centrist, called the deportation issue a soup du jour, arguing Trump is setting a trap for the Democrats and, like usual, we're falling for it. Quote, rather than talking about the tariff policy and the economy, the thing where his numbers are tanking, we're going to take the bait for one hair dresser, they said, likely referring to Andri Hernandez Romero. Only if Trump tries to deport US citizens, the lawmaker argued, will Democrats need to draw a line in the sand and shut down the House. So let's talk about this, because I understand that there are people who say Democrats' worst issue is immigration. At a moment where Trump is quite literally destroying our economy, which, you know, if 2024 showed us anything, is a major issue to exploit, a potent issue to exploit, we should be focusing on that. Two things here. One, we should focus on that. And we do focus on that. I talk about the economy every single day. I talk about the impacts of Trump's idiotic tariffs on our stock market, on our 401Ks, on the cost of everyday goods. The reality is that Trump is destroying a generation of farmers by sending other countries to Brazil or Australia to get stuff like beef and soybeans, where they used to come to American farmers for those things. Even if the tariffs are removed, we won't recover to where we were pre-tariff levels because they're creating new relationships with other farmers, other countries. Aside from that, our car manufacturers are going to suffer. Our supply chains are the result of decades of close cooperation with Canada and Mexico. And that process is going to grind to a halt because of what Trump is doing, which is basically a death knell for American auto manufacturing. Jerome Powell just this week announced slower growth and high inflation. Inflation was the issue that killed Democrats in the 2024 election. So, I will continue to beat on this drum every single day. But talking about the economy and talking about immigration are not mutually exclusive. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that Trump disappearing legal residents to a foreign prison is something that we should stay silent about just because Trump polls better on immigration. I refuse to believe that moderate Republicans and independents think that allowing a Maryland dad and legal resident charged with no crime rotting in a foreign gulag is acceptable. I refuse to believe that we have lost every shred of our humanity in this country. And look, I'm not saying this from a political perspective at all. I'm saying this as a human being with an ounce of empathy. I am all for the deportation of dangerous criminals. This guy ain't one. He was charged with nothing, afforded no due process. He's got three kids with disabilities. He's a sheet metal worker, a union member. And the fact that he wore a Chicago Bulls hat in 2019 is the justification that ICE pointed to in claiming that he is a gang member of a city that, by the way, he didn't live in. Again, I'm all for the deportation of dangerous criminals. Like, I live in an American city, too. I want my family to be safe, too. I have the same fears that everybody else has. I'm not blind to the realities of life in America in 2025 I mean, hell, I can guarantee you if you've looked at my inbox, based on the amount of threats I receive, which I'm sure are far greater than the average person, that I'm hyper aware of crime. But do it legitimately. Disappearing this guy is not legitimate, nor frankly, is it American. We have a constitution. We have a Fifth Amendment right affording you a trial. If you've got a gang member who is here illegally, we're probably all in agreement that those people should be deported. But we have to know that they are gang members. And the way to do that is by affording someone due process, which Garcia was denied. Again, I am not defending criminals. I am demanding that we know who the criminals are, so that we are not punishing people who are innocent or even upstanding members of society, people who pay taxes and go to work and take care of their kids and enrich our communities. And I want to be clear, because Republicans are trying to own this narrative. With every fiber of their being, what I am saying is not an extreme position. Disappearing innocent people to foreign prisons is the extreme position. Period. Full stop. And if, by the way, the moral imperative to speak out wasn't enough, which it should be, but let's say that you're still numbers driven and you just can't bring yourself to want to discuss immigration because of what all the polls say, then just look at the polls. According to the latest YouGov survey, of all the issues in the political zeitgeist right now, the following question, deporting immigrants without criminal convictions to El Salvador to be imprisoned, without letting them challenge the deportation in court, that question polls dead last among Americans. 46% of Americans strongly oppose it, and 15% of Americans somewhat oppose it. That's nearly 2 thirds of Americans who oppose, in some fashion, what this administration is doing. Not exactly a home run hill to die on. So again, even if the moral argument isn't enough, the polling backs up that position, that disappearing innocent people to a foreign gulag with zero due process is not something that Americans are responding well to. And in the same way that Trump destroyed his lead on the economy, he is doing the same thing with his last vestige of support with immigration. And there's one more reason that I think it's especially important to discuss this, and that's that if we don't speak up now, we embolden Trump to go after everybody else. The reality is that while his administration promised that it was only interested in going after hardened, undocumented criminals, they have already undermined their own promise by going after this guy, this guy who was charged with nothing, he's a legal resident. In fact, just this past week, it was reported that US citizens are now being detained, including a couple up in Boston. This is a pattern by the Trump administration. If you allow them an inch, they will take a mile. If one law firm capitulates, Trump realizes how easy it is and he goes after a dozen more. If one university like Columbia capitulates, Trump goes after more. If one tech billionaire capitulates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, he goes after more. If one media company like ABC News capitulates, he goes after more. If we do not stand up and fight him now on this issue, when he's going after one legal resident who was not charged with a crime, then we don't get to act surprised when he goes after other legal residents, or ultimately, American citizens. We've seen the playbook. He's already broadcasting it. So we have to fight now on this issue while there's still an opportunity to fight.