Fox News host Laura Ingraham repeatedly told Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) to “take a breath” on Tuesday during a clash over President Donald Trump’s deportation of undocumented immigrants.
During an argument over the deportation of illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the numerous trips made by Democratic lawmakers to El Salvador in protest, Ingraham questioned:
I am very interested in Democrats caring about due process for illegal aliens. What process do you think is still due an individual who two courts found had reasonable belief to believe he had an affiliation with MS-13? Whose wife initially said had scratched her and caused bruising on her body? What process would make you feel like the Constitution and our framers’ understanding of it would be fulfilled?
Ansari replied, “Laura, you and I can disagree on, you know, this individual in particular. I’m not here to really advocate for one person. That needs to happen in court.”
“You went to El Salvador, what are you talking about? You went to El Salvador!” shot back Ingraham. “Now you are saying it’s not about him? Of course it’s about him. You went to El Salvador for a political stunt and now you are saying it’s not about him.”
“To advocate for due process,” Ansari insisted. “Laura, it is about a rule of law. This is a bipartisan issue. It transcends partisan politics. That’s why a conservative-leaning Supreme Court has said that Trump must facilitate the return of this individual. This is very dangerous. We are turning into an authoritarian country and there are Americans from all across the political spectrum who are deeply concerned about this. Again, my office has not received more calls about any other issue since I have been a congresswoman than this one.”
After Ingraham asked Ansari whether she cared about the recent news of an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was charged with the murder of a woman in Maryland, the congresswoman replied that the question was “a distraction from the main issue.”
“Distraction?” snapped Ingraham. “I know you don’t mean that American citizens are distractions. Victims are distractions?”
Ansari protested, “You are changing the subject. Today, we are here to talk about the lack of due process for an individual who was illegally deported from this country.”
The two then continued to talk over each other for several minutes, until Ingraham shouted, “Just wait. Take a breath!”
“What you care about is an illegal immigrant’s rights to be here ad infinitum,” Ingraham concluded. “We got it. You will never support the deportation of this individual. That is the truth.”
