Fox News host Jesse Watters defended U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday for detaining a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota, praising their “very big hearts” and “amazing” detention centers for offering what he called “concierge health care services.”
Watters argued as much on “The Five” after co-host Jessica Tarlov cited numerous law enforcement agencies and officials who have said ICE is racially profiling U.S. citizens, violating their civil rights and holding children in detention centers under horrid conditions.
“These detention centers are amazing!” Watters exclaimed on Friday. “You get dental care, you get free health care. Have you ever seen the kind of concierge healthc are services they have at these detention facilities?”
Tarlov countered, “I saw Alligator Alcatraz” — the Florida detention facility that was hurriedly constructed last year on an isolated airstrip surrounded by wetlands. It’s come under scrutiny for its poor conditions and allegations that detainees have been denied the right to meet with their attorneys.
The “Five” discussion began with the case of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained by ICE agents on Tuesday after returning home from school with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who authorities said ran off before being apprehended.
“And then in Maine, an ICE agent was talking to a woman who’s a legal observer and she says, ‘Why are you taking pictures?’” Tarlov said Friday. “And he says, ‘Because we have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.’”
Tarlov, the show’s liberal voice, said “ICE is out of control,” urging viewers who “don’t want to believe” as much to listen to the multitude of law enforcement officials who themselves “are saying that ICE is not operating properly.”
“Well, first of all, of course,” Watters interrupted, prompting Tarlov to ask: “Of course, what?”
“Of course they detained this kid,” he said. “What are they supposed to do, Jessica, shove him into an orphanage? Of course, we all agree we don’t do family separation, we keep families together so when an illegal is apprehended, you deport the entire family together.”
Watters then argued the undocumented father “was given an opportunity” to leave the U.S. and return to Ecuador. He and his son, who reportedly has an active immigration case currently halting his deportation, were taken to a detention center in Dilley, Texas.
Watters went on to further praise to the immigration agents who detained Ramos and his father.
“And these ICE agents took this kid to lunch!” he said. “They spent a lot of time with him.”
“They’re very experienced, because so many of these illegals came across with children, they’re dealing with a lot of these illegal alien families and a lot of these ICE agents have families themselves,” Watters continued. “And they all have very big hearts.”
