Ex-CNN host Don Lemon suggested Black and Brown Americans “of all stripes” should legally arm themselves in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents show up at their doors.
Lemon made the comment Tuesday on “The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali,” clarifying that he was not “condoning or promoting violence” but that he was tired of “the niceties” while ICE agents were “rounding [people] up off the street without due process” and “sending them off to a gulag.”
“If you believe in the Second Amendment, if you believe in the Constitution, Black people, Brown people of all stripes, whether you’re an Indian American or a Mexican American or whoever you are, go out in your place where you live and get a gun legally. Get a license to carry legally,” Lemon said. “Because when you have people knocking on your door and taking you away without due process as a citizen, isn’t that what the Second Amendment was written for?”
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Lemon said he hoped the sentiment could “knock some sense” into people within the Trump administration.
“Nobody is illegal,” Lemon argued. “It is a misdemeanor to cross the border. Now, if you do it a number of times, then it becomes something else. But… there’s nowhere near the level of criminality, we have degrees of criminality in this country, and what Donald Trump did is at the highest level of criminality, except for taking someone’s life, and someone who is crossing the border is nowhere near that.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ali defended Lemon’s comments, saying that Republicans should be open to the idea of more armed citizens.
“I only speak for myself, but Don Lemon has a right to express his views in the United States of America thanks to the First Amendment which is allegedly championed by the Trump administration,” Ali said. “If anything, I’d assume Republicans would agree with him that Americans have the right to legally bear arms thanks to the 2nd Amendment. Unless, of course, they only believe that right exists for [W]hite Trump supporters? If so, they should admit that publicly.”
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Fox News Digital also reached out to Lemon, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
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In August, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reported a 1,000% increase in assaults against ICE agents since they began immigration raids.
