Last Updated May 23, 2018 2:32 PM EDT
President Trump is expected to rail against MS-13 gang members in a Wednesday roundtable discussion on Long Island, New York, as his administration continues to highlight crimes by people Mr. Trump calls “animals.”
Last week, Mr. Trump, in the context of another immigration roundtable, called members of the gang who enter the country illegally, “animals.” He and the White House have doubled down on that sentiment.
“I called them ‘animals’ the other day and was met by rebuke,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday, referencing his MS-13 comment from last week. “They’re not people. They’re animals.”
Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said Mr. Trump was “kind” with his “animals” comment.
“Animals kill for survival, MS-13 kills for sport,” he said.
The president said members of the gang are “exploiting” loopholes in the immigration system. Some gang members, the president said, entered the country as unaccompanied minors.
“They look so innocent. They’re not innocent,” Mr. Trump said.
But Wednesday’s roundtable had at least one participant the president hasn’t expressed a wealth of confidence in lately — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Mr. Trump has spent the last few days criticizing the FBI and Justice Department on Twitter, alleging the FBI might have embedded a “spy” in his presidential campaign. Asked why he won’t say he has confidence in Rosenstein, Mr. Trump said he wants “total transparency.”
“Well, they’re gonna all be in the room tomorrow,” Mr. Trump told reporters Wednesday on his way to New York. “We’re gonna see what happens. What I want is I want total transparency. Wait. You have to have transparency. Even they probably want transparency because this issue supersedes a party. This supersedes Republicans and Democrats. So what I want from Rod, from the FBI, from everybody – we want transparency.”
But at the roundtable, Mr. Trump called Rosenstein “Rod,” and thanked him for his “nice” remarks.
The president has railed against MS-13 gang crime on Long Island before, visiting in July of last year. At the time, he told a crowd of law enforcement officers he doesn’t mind if police get physical with gang members.
“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in – rough – I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’ Like when you guys put someone in the car and you’re protecting their head [with your hand],..like don’t hit their head, and they’ve just killed somebody….I said, ‘you can take the hand away,'” Mr. Trump said.
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