PoliticsGirl's Leigh McGowan LIGHTS UP CNN Panel Over ICE

Who speaks in this episode?

• Lee McGowan (Referenced media figure / panelist)

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Donald Trump, Biden administration, Politics Girl
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Biden administration
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Donald Trump, Lee McGowan, Biden administration
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Long Beach, California, Biden administration, UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge

Notable quotes from "PoliticsGirl's Leigh McGowan LIGHTS UP CNN Panel Over ICE"

• Look, I got to be honest, okay? Lee McGawan, who's the host of Politics Girl, is kind of on a generational run, like two nights in a row. First night she crushes Scott Jennings. Second.

  about Politics Girl · at 0:12

• What was just said there. It seems like there was agreement from both sides that the Biden administration failed miserably on immigration policy. And I do believe it got us to…

  about Biden administration · at 4:04

• No, but you just said you want to get rid of him, but you don't work with Let her make her point so we can understand what she's trying to say.

  about Lee McGowan · at 7:34

• Wrong because some data has come out today and it looks into who the Trump administration is actually targeting and it's not the violent criminals that are here illegally.

  about Donald Trump · at 8:19

• Yes. Okay. So, let's talk about this a little bit. So, first of all, I came across a video out of Long Beach, California last night that I wanted to share with you all because if you're wondering, well, how did the Trump.

  about Long Beach, California · at 9:31

• Terrified. on top of that, the facts don't lie. I want to get to that a little bit. So, there's a new analysis done by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. It was…

  about UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge · at 10:58

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Primary political subject (referenced) · 4 mentions · first at 0:26
  Central figure in the argument about immigration enforcement; discussed as directing/benefiting from ICE tactics and as losing independent/Latino support due to perceived overreach.
• Lee McGowan — Person · Referenced media figure / panelist · 1 mention · first at 7:37
  Presented as a standout debater who challenges pro-Trump arguments about ICE enforcement and demands evidence that enforcement targets 'the worst of the worst.'
• Biden administration — Person · Referenced governing administration (comparative foil) · 4 mentions · first at 2:45
  Invoked as having 'failed' on immigration policy; used as a comparison point for changes in ICE detention patterns and as a target of blame in the panel debate.

Companies & orgs

• UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge — Company · Referenced organization · 1 mention · first at 11:05
  Conducted an analysis on ICE detention data, revealing that noncriminal Latinos have become a central target of enforcement under the Trump administration.

Places & events

• Long Beach, California — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at 9:36
  Location where ICE agents detained two men working as landscapers, highlighting the issue of racial profiling and abuse of power by ICE agents.

Media & podcasts

• Politics Girl — Media · Referenced media · 1 mention · first at 0:14
  A media platform where host Lee McGawan discusses political issues, including the misuse of ICE agents under the Trump administration.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Prove you are getting the worst of the worst. Show us the murderers and the rapists and the killers that you are arresting. Stop yourself. Then tell us you're not rounding with a picture. You can't stop yourself, man.

0:10 Hang on a second. Zip it. Look, I got to be honest, okay? Lee McGawan, um, who's the host of Politics Girl, is kind of on a generational run, like two nights in a row. First night she crushes Scott Jennings. Second night, she crushes another right-winger on the issue of Trump using ICE to basically do what we've been seeing on the streets of Minnesota. Okay, so Jen, your two cents before I uh show you the goods.

0:37 Yeah, I want to see more. Are you crazy? Uh let's go on a crushing spree. And most importantly, guys, uh the tide has turned. So now, not only are they getting crushed all over media, uh, but, um, a lot of the independents are now making fun of the rightwing who are being cucks for Trump. Love it. So, ICE agents, as we all know and we've all seen, um have kind of gotten drunk off the power and um impunity that they've uh been enjoying, especially in Minnesota where local law enforcement are now saying that ICE has been racially profiling their own deputies along with, of course, ordinary members of their community. So, let's uh just get a little refresher on that. in Brooklyn Park. One particular officer that shared her story with me was stopped as she passed ICE going down the roadway.

1:32 When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork, of which she's a US citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork. When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated, she pulled out her phone in an attempt to uh record the incident, the phone was knocked out of her hands. Um prevented her from recording it. The officer had their guns drawn during this interaction and after the officer became so concerned, they were forced to identify themselves as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of slowing the incident and deescalating the incident down. The agents then immediately left after hearing this, making no other comments, no other apologies, just got in their vehicles and left. I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident.

2:18 In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their offduty officers. If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day.

2:32 Now, that was the police chief for Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and the CNN panel uh discussed what's been going down in Minnesota. During that conversation, Republican strategist Kristen Davidson argued that we're in this situation because of the Biden administration. Let's take a look. What can't be denied is that we are in this situation because Democrats sat in the under the Ambid administration sat back and let this happen for 4 years. We've had eight months where not one illegal immigrant has crossed over the border.

3:03 And that's because of the Trump administ. But the problem is, you see, it's not a question of Democrats versus Republicans. is a question of the truth.

3:11 The question of the truth. Neither one of the parties want to tell the truth. So if you two just want to continually be preoccupied with being parasitic on the Democrats, we can talk about the Democrats tell the cows come home. There's no doubt that the Democrats did in fact have were a colossal failure when it come to immigration. That's a fact. But but the other truth is the other truth is this though, let me finish now, brother. Don't just keep your flow coming out of University of Mississippi. Now, if every immigrant disappeared in America tomorrow, which makes it a distraction now to talk about immigrants, we still have poverty. We still have deep conflict, class, racial conflict.

3:47 You'd have a lot less crime. Well, you'd have a lot of lot of Native Americans, a lot of Americans.

3:55 You'd have a lot less crime. It's all a distraction. It's all a distraction. Okay. Uh, I I I want to co-sign on to what was just said there. It seems like there was agreement from both sides that the Biden administration failed miserably on immigration policy. And I do believe it got us to where we are today. I do. Um, and if the Democrats don't take responsibility for that and change course moving forward, then they only have themselves to blame. We can't keep p doing this pendulum swing from not enforcing immigration laws to doing whatever the hell we're seeing on our streets right now, which is victimizing American citizens, by the way. Okay. Um, but Jake, I want to get your thoughts before I get to where it gets real heated.

4:41 Yeah. So, two more sense here. First of all, I totally agree with Cornell West. And uh and part of the reason for that is that this whole right-wing and leftwing thing, even though I just said right-wing uh a minute ago, uh as soon as I said it, it's kind of a misnomer. So, like if you say extreme right loves what ICE is doing, definitely maybe a lot of the uh not maybe uh I'm sure a lot of the right uh loves what ICE is doing, right? But really, it's not about right or left. It's about like cucks for Trump and to be honest, cucks for Democratic leadership, right? Cucks for Biden, etc. And those guys versus the rest of us who are rational, right? And I think that's twothirds of the country.

5:22 And so the cucks for Trump will be like, "Oh, I love what I doing. Shoot more in the face." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Uh whereas a lot of independents who voted for Trump and Yeah. a decent amount of right-wingers who voted for Trump are like, "I wanted you to close the border. Great job. That's why I was very happy in the beginning. I wanted you to uh to take out the undocumented folks who were criminals. Great job. I didn't want you to shoot moms in the face three times. I don't know why that's so unclear. Right.

5:48 And and and finally on on that note, um look, the masks and the lack of badges uh are way more problematic than I think Trump and his team realize. When people see that, they see thugs. They see like almost vigilantes. They don't see police officers cuz police officers have badges and they don't wear masks. So, this is an enormous problem for Trump.

6:15 I mean, look, a lot of independents have turned on Trump. Independents who ended up voting for him uh in the last general election. And I have seen, it's not nearly enough, but I have seen some Trump supporters turn on him as well on the right because what they see is tyrannical government, right? when they see militarized federal agents on the streets like that, uh they're supposedly sensitive to big government, big daddy watch or big brother watching. And that's it's more than just watching. Obviously, uh they're engaging in physical violence against all sorts of people, including American citizens. And as we heard yesterday and today in that video I showed, uh violence against actual sworn deputies, local police. So, with that in mind, as the panel discussed what was going on in Minnesota, uh, things started to really heat up between conservative podcaster Ben Ferguson and McGawan. Let's take a

7:13 look at that. I think that what I'm hearing a lot is the Democrats, the Democrats, the Democrats, Biden, Biden, uh, Dr. West explained that. And I think the thing is it's not political to say that we don't want murderers in our country. We don't want pedophiles in our country. We want those people identified and we want those people. Why are you not working with ICE to get rid of

7:30 Hold on a second. No, but it's a fair question. Hold on a second. Just let her.

7:33 And you can't. No, but you just said you want to get rid of him, but you don't work with

7:37 Let her make her make her point so we can understand what she's trying to say. Go ahead.

7:40 That'd be great. Thanks. Go ahead. Go ahead, Lee. We all want that. Okay. And if Trump Donald Trump wants to get on TV and say, "Our problem is we haven't highlighted our accomplishments enough." I would say, "Great. Highlight your accomplishments. Prove it. Prove you are getting the worst of the worst. Show us the murderers and the rapists and the killers that you are arresting. Stop yourself. Then tell us you're not round with a picture. You can't stop yourself, man.

8:04 Hang on a second. Zip it. No, I I I'm sorry. You're not my mom. And second of all, you don't get to make it up. We've had the posters at the White House. The people that have been showed them to me. We have showed them to you.

8:14 And just a second. Well, she's got a point and Ferguson is wrong because um some data has come out uh today and it looks into uh who the Trump administration is actually targeting and it's not the violent criminals uh that are here illegally. I'm going to get to that in just a moment, but I wanted you to kind of weigh in first. Jen,

8:35 look, you're not my mom line is so annoying. Uh look, people interrupt all the time. I get it. Uh and but let her finish the damn point. If if you don't let the person finish the point, you have no idea what they're about to say. And that happens to me all the time because I'll start with look on the one hand and before I get to the actual point I want to make, which is on the other hand, they'll interrupt me like a it's drives me crazy. So I like that she was girl boss there. I like that she's regulating. And then uh on the main point that she's making, of course, if these are all like so today, ICE, this is the one thing I saw uh arrested a 5-year-old. I just found out uh from my daughter that say arrest somebody in her middle school. So they're t grabbing up kids and all these people uh that that live in our community that are not criminals. So if you say they're all criminals, prove it. But you can't prove

9:29 it because of the numbers Anna's about to give it to you. Yes. Okay. So, uh, let's talk about this a little bit. So, first of all, I came across a video out of Long Beach, California last night that I wanted to share with you all because if you're wondering, well, how did the Trump administration lose so much support on immigration policies when there was such widespread support for Trump's immigration policies in the beginning of a second term? And honestly, I think it's because of uh videos like this. So, I'll I'll explain a little bit. My mic will be up. But this is again in Long Beach, California, where ICE agents were seen taking two men who were working as landscapers.

10:09 So uh you see them being uh detained, walked away. According to the Long Beach post on Instagram, one gardener attempted to scale a nearby wall, but a group of armed agents, uh mostly mass, chased him down. He told agents that he was born at Memorial, meaning he was born here in the United States, a hospital in Long Beach specifically, and that he was a dual citizen. But the agent said that he would investigate that as the man was loaded into the back of an SUV. Now, if you're wondering, well, why would he run if he's a US citizen? I mean, there are plenty of US citizens now, lots of stories of US citizens, uh, who have been detained by ICE. and the the profiling. You don't look like a lily white American. They're going to ask you for your papers. Like, that's been going on. So, people are terrified. Um, on top of that, the facts don't lie. I want to get to that a little bit. So, there's a new analysis

11:05 done by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. It was released yesterday, and here are the details. Using ICE detention data from February 2024 through September 2025, the report shows that noncriminal Latinos have become a central target of enforcement despite claims that policy prioritizes serious offenders. Monthly detentions of Latinos without criminal records increased six-fold compared to the final year of the Biden administration. So if you look at the dates, you can tell, okay, well, this uh also covers some of the Biden administration, right? Which is important. It's important that they do that so you can do a comparative analysis. And so let's take a look at this visual because you're going to get some uh interesting information here.

11:51 All right, so as you can see, this is uh average number of Latinos entering ICE detention per month by criminal status. And uh the noncriminal uh element is highlighted in the solid blue line. And so you can see that number really jump up during the Trump administration. So these are noncriminal uh undocumented immigrants who have been detained by ICE. And if you break it down by country of citizenship, detainees of noncriminal Mexican and Guatemalan descent increased eight-fold. Venezuelans uh their arrests increased four-fold under Trump. Again, we're only talking about noncriminals.

12:35 Uh the study states, "We focus on this group because they are unambiguously not the worst of the worst, but instead are law-abiding and contributing members of society." They also add that these are the types of immigrants that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe are a good thing for this country today and should have a path to citizenship. So, um I've got a few more details if we have time for them, but Jenk, uh jump in.

13:03 Two important points here. Uh good news, bad news. Um so, the bad news is that um I think that Trump is doing this for two reasons. one is to uh appease his hardcore base and the hardcore base does like this. Uh so it's in that sense it's not coming out of nowhere even though the great majority of Americans do not like this right. Uh but the second reason I think he's doing is more important. Uh and the real reason which is um he wants to agitate and he wants to dig into these communities and cause so much havoc until someone does something back. And when they do, uh, that's it. Even time for a bigger police state and a bigger military presence and the insurrection act and make sure that I I get my shock troops on the ground. Why do we need shock troops in America? We our problem was higher prices, not because we didn't have military and thugs and mass in the streets trying to cause trouble. I mean,

14:04 at this point, is ICE com uh preventing more crime or creating more crime? What problem is it trying to fix? No. No. This is just agitate, agitate, so something goes wrong so you'll have an excuse to have a bigger presence, a military presence, because he's authoritarian by nature. It's a giant giant problem, especially if you're among the people who said, "Don't tread on me." Because this is a lot of treading, right? And finally, uh the good news. Look, a couple months ago, I told you guys that's it. He's going to lose the Latino vote in unprecedented fashion for the Republican party. They had him. They had him. They So many Latinos voted for Trump. It was historic rate. But poof, it's all gone. Now Carl Ro on Fox News a couple days ago going, "We might lose Texas. All the Hispanics are gone." Why? Cuz they told him this wasn't about race and that they were just going to get the bad guys. And now

15:07 it turns out it looks like it was partly about race. And you if you're one of the Trump supporters ARE LIKE, "NO WAY. IT'S NOT ABOUT RACE." OKAY, YEAH, THAT'S FINE. BUT go tell Latinos that are getting picked up when they're US citizens that it's not about race and you can tell them until you're blue in the face. They're not going to believe you and they're not going to vote for you.

15:26 Yeah, you're totally right about that. I mean, you literally have offduty police officers in Minnesota getting racially profiled by ICE agents. And I I know this because the police chief in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, held a press conference about it. So, any final words, Jake? And lastly, the disaster is in what the cop in Minnesota was saying earlier in the video, which is now we got supposed federal law enforcement drawing guns on actual cops, the cops that are in your community and supposed to protect you. Now, what are they going to do the first time that there's a shooting between local and federal law enforcement? Because Trump's agitating and agitating and constantly sending these guys in with almost no training.

16:15 uh and and try to cause trouble. One day they're going to cause trouble with an actual cop and then we're going to have a true disaster on our hands. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "PoliticsGirl's Leigh McGowan LIGHTS UP CNN Panel Over ICE"?

Lee McGowan (Referenced media figure / panelist).

What is discussed in "PoliticsGirl's Leigh McGowan LIGHTS UP CNN Panel Over ICE"?

In order: 0:00 Donald Trump, Biden administration, Politics Girl; 3:00 Biden administration; 6:00 Donald Trump, Lee McGowan, Biden administration; 9:00 Long Beach, California, Biden administration, UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge.

What is mentioned in this The Young Turks episode?

6 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Lee McGowan, Biden administration, UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, Long Beach, California, Politics Girl. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "PoliticsGirl's Leigh McGowan LIGHTS UP CNN Panel Over ICE"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 3,030 words in 32 timestamped sections.

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