On Saturday's CNN Newsroom, substitute anchor Ryan Nobles debated the guest instead of interviewed her. During a discussion of Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatening to sue ICE for rounding up illegal immigrants in his state, Nobles essentially claimed that there is no evidence that arresting criminals reduces crime as he debated former Republican New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey.
At 1:41 p.m. Eastern, after McCaughey defended rounding up illegal immigrants as part of an effort to find MS-13 gang members, Nobles worried about some non-criminals getting arrested, and then suggested that the whole exercise may not reduce crime:
But, Lieutenant Governor, respectfully, there's not necessarily evidence that rounding up these individuals leads to fewer crimes committed by illegal -- illegal immigrants or illegal immigrants in general. In fact, non-criminal immigrant arrests last year are up last year alone --more than 37,000 people without criminal records were arrested.
So there are a lot of people who are arrested in these sweeps who -- their only crime is coming to this country without the proper documentation -- which I agree is illegal -- but isn't there the chance that families and people that are connected and have roots here in the United States are going to be ripped out of their homes and taken away from their families? Does that concern you at all?
McCaughey shot back:
You could make the same preposterous argument against law enforcement involving American citizens. Of course, on occasion, people who were innocent are arrested, then they go through the process and they're released. But we can't stop attempting to enforce the law and apprehend people who are guilty or wanted for serious crimes because some people may be swept up in that. Once they're swept in that and they're shown to be innocent, they're released.
Nobles then further pressed:
There's certainly a concern about, you know, reining in those who have committed serious crimes, but you talk about American citizens that are under arrest. There's at least some suspicion of them committing a crime -- in many cases, these people are being arrested simply because they potentially were brought into this country illegally. That doesn't concern you at all?
The New York Republican then countered that about 80 percent of illegal immigrants who had been rounded up were either wanted for serious crimes or already had a conviction record for serious crimes.
