“Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy offered viewers a firsthand look inside ICE’s Delaney Hall – the Newark, New Jersey facility stormed by Democrats last week.
“They have nothing to be ashamed of. This facility is so clean. It has all kinds of recreation facilities – outdoor soccer fields, weight equipment, domino tables. It also has telephones everywhere with signs next to them of the phone numbers to reach their consulates,” Campos-Duffy said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
“It also has legal facilities, computers, webcams. Their doors… on the places where they sleep aren’t even locked. The facility actually looks like a high school, actually looks better than a lot of high schools, and a lot [of] our own prisons for American citizens could take a lesson from this facility,” she added.
Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons led the Fox News host around the facility, telling her that more than 75% of the people held there were “felons” – either convicted of a crime or pending charges.
Campos-Duffy explained the crimes vary, ranging from rape to murder to burglary and others. She also said immigrants held in the facility have enough autonomy to self-deport should they choose to do so.
“Everywhere you go, in Spanish and English, there are signs up that say, ‘do you want to go home?’ And it gives you a phone number that you can call to self-deport, or you can also just tell somebody in the facility, ‘Hey, I’m ready to be done with this. I just want to go home to my country.’ If you do that, the American government through ICE will arrange within 48 hours a free flight and $1,000 so you can get out,” she explained.
“So the idea that they are here with no agency, that they’re being detained with no choices, that’s not true. They have a choice to self-deport, and they make it really easy.”
‘BOGUS CLAIMS’: BLUE CITY MAYOR UNDER FIRE FOR TRYING TO HALT REOPENING OF ICE FACILITY
Members of Congress bust into ICE detention facility in New Jersey (X / @RepBonnie)
Campos-Duffy’s visit comes just days after Democratic lawmakers stormed the facility’s gate, demanding they be allowed to conduct an “oversight visit.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a top Democratic gubernatorial candidate, was arrested at the scene for trespassing, before being released hours later.
Video of the scene showed terse exchanges between lawmakers and ICE agents.
Lawmakers claim the agents escalated the situation.
‘BOGUS CLAIMS’: BLUE CITY MAYOR UNDER FIRE FOR TRYING TO HALT REOPENING OF ICE FACILITY
DHS points to this video they say shows at least one state representative, LaMonica McIver, shoving her way past a DHS agent. The agency says she body slammed the officer, but McIver rejects the accusation.
“There’s no video that supports me body slamming anyone. We were simply there to do our job, therefore oversight visit.”
The lawmakers were eventually able to tour the ICE facility after the confrontation.
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Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss called on DHS to “release all the footage” to let the public decide while speaking to “Fox & Friends First” on Monday.
A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year found that a majority of Americans support deporting illegal immigrants, though their reasons for that support vary.
32% of U.S. adults said all illegal immigrants should be deported from the country, while 16% say none should be deported.
About half of U.S. adults, however, said at least some immigrants living in the country illegally should be deported, although they couldn’t reach a consensus on what factor should be grounds for deportation.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano, Stephen Sorace and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
