Lemon LIVE at 5 | The Trump Administration is Shoving the Cruelty in Your Face! - January 27th, 2025
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Why does Don Lemon say 'the cruelty is the point' of the administration's mass deportations?
Good evening, friends. Welcome to Lemon Live at 5. This is the Don Lemon Show, our live version that we do every day at 5 p.m. Eastern, a big show. So let's get right to it, okay? The Cruelty. Is the point. That's what the point of all this is. That was a title of perhaps the greatest single essay written about the first Trump administration. That was by the Atlantic's Adam Serwer. President Donald Trump and his supporters, Serwer argued this in that column. They find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear. It's hard to take issue with that claim, especially if you're thinking about, let's think about the reality of this. If you are watching how Trump is demanding that ICE agents create a made-for-TV moment or made-for-TV moments during their immigration raids, this mass roundup of immigrants around the country, taking reporters with them.
He wants them, the ICE agents, to dress the part for the cameras. He wants videos of people crying and screaming to put out there. He wants families torn apart. He wants people dragged out of schools and churches. And most of all, he wants you to watch. Reportedly. All of that. Powerless. Yes, the cruelty is the point. Let's take you through the day and get you caught up before we speak to our Lemon Legends. Our Lemon Legends are on the screen. There they are. A group of folks who are at the highest tier of our memberships. We're so glad that you are there. They're going to have the opportunity to be on the show. We're going to hear from them. We're going to get feedback on the day. the week before and everything in the news that they want to talk about and that you want to talk about as well and the folks who are just watching and in the comments.
This is a roundup of the day to get you started. This is from our friends over at MSNBC.
Watch.
ICE walked in like it was their empire's own conquered land. They were heavily armed. There was no prior announcement. They were blocking off entrances and exits. They were scrambling up delivery ramps. They were banging down bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside. They did all of this without being unable to produce a single name or a single warrant.
According to the mayor, a number of undocumented individuals were detained, as well as a US citizen, a veteran of the military who was pressed about his military documents.
In the past 24 hours, as of yesterday, they arrested over 500 migrants. By comparison, For September, the average number of migrants arrested by ICE in a day in September was 282. So they've almost doubled that, at least from their average. They also were using military planes to start to deport migrants. That is new. The very image of seeing migrants walk into those planes, that is something that's part of this shock and awe strategy. And then the workplace rates. That's not new to Trump. Of course, there were workplace raids under the Trump administration, many under the George W. Bush administration, but they did not have them during the Biden administration. The Biden administration focused instead on employers that were hiring undocumented immigrants and had a pattern of that rather than on the migrants themselves.
They're also doing a lot of collateral arrests. So if they find people in the middle of their operations who are not considered criminals, but they are undocumented immigrants, they are arresting them as well.
So it's not just folks that are criminals. They're arresting them as well, which sounds to me like a way to give themselves an out for just rounding up everybody.
How were ICE's weekend raids described and what made them 'made‑for‑TV' moments?
They can just say, oh, they were caught up in it. We found out that they were undocumented. So we arrested them as well. Kim Page is here. She's a member of our Lemon Legends. So is Maureen Marfell. So is Natasha Williams. So is May Money. in the building and Warren A joins us as well. And we'll be joined by maybe another lemon legend. I just want to ask Kim, since we have you here and you're at the top left here, as you are watching this, the day go by, is the cruelty the point you believe?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why does Don Lemon say 'the cruelty is the point' of the administration's mass deportations?
0:18–4:04
2
How were ICE's weekend raids described and what made them 'made‑for‑TV' moments?
4:04–16:07
3
Are these immigration sweeps targeting only criminals or are collateral arrests happening too?
16:07–32:16
4
What evidence did Fox News and embedded footage present about targets and arrests?
32:16–1:02:17
5
Why was Dr. Phil embedded with ICE and what ethical questions did that raise?
1:02:17–1:02:44