Former fitness influencer turned podcast host Jillian Michaels battled with CNN host Abby Phillip –– and the entire "Table for Five" panel, for that matter –– on Saturday morning as she defended Donald Trump's controversial immigrant round-ups.
She began with, "The key word, though, is a legal pathway to citizenship. I believe that people don't want to see illegal immigration because it doesn't behoove anyone, including the people that come in illegally."
"They have no upward mobility, they have no job protections. they are not able to start businesses and the list goes on and on," she continued before adding, "It creates resentment amongst citizens that are here –– obviously born here –– and people that did it legally. It doesn't behoove anyone, but I absolutely believe that both parties should stop the finger-pointing and work towards radical immigration reform. I think most people feel that way."
Co-panelist Boomani Jones offered, "The problem is that calling it radical immigration reform is far too broad, because what I see on TV looks pretty damn radical, right? Like, I think people are saying it's an application of radical reform that is a little bit terrifying on one level. I think the other part of it is when you're talking about these deportations or rounding people up, in theory, those aren't actual people. We see all these stories that come out, they're like, hey, man, you just, we love that woman, she waits our tables at this diner. She's our favorite person and you just rounded her up."
Host Phillip then moved the conversation to the so-called controversial "Alligator Alcatraz" established under Trump which led Michaels to try and point the finger at President Barack Obama.
"I want to give you the other side here," she attempted. "First of all, obviously Alligator Alley (sic) and what's going on there is disturbing, but here's the counterargument. You're pointing fingers and where was everybody pointing fingers with Obama's cages, but let's go a step further ––."
"I will say people did complain about Obama. I remember --," Phillip interjected with Michaels continuing, "... and not really knowing about this because no one talked about it."
"People did complain, especially immigration advocates. I mean, with Obama," Phillip parried.
"Okay, let's say that's true," the CNN guest replied dismissively. "I remember Obama being a hero of the left, he was a hero of mine. I didn't know about these cages until we saw Trump put people in them."
"Now, now with that said, let's look at what just happened: the glass farm, a glass-house marijuana farm," she continued. "Here's what people don't want to see on the other side. They don't want to see people throwing rocks into the cars of federal agents. They don't want to hear that someone supposedly opened fire on them. They also don't want to learn that there are a bunch of kids there that are undocumented or unaccompanied, and they think this is crazy talk, and we should be focusing on that. And I, for one thing, how did those kids get there?"
"I just want to add one thing," The CNN host replied. "We do have to go, but the UFW, the United Farm Workers put out a statement about this. They said, the UFW can confirm, farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, California. Others, including U.S. citizens, remain totally unaccounted for. Many workers, including U.S. citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for eight hours or more. U.S. citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones. They also added that farmwork work is exempted from child labor laws."
"You're telling me undocumented?" Michaels exclaimed.
"I'm not saying undocumented. I'm not talking ––," the CNN host attempted which led Michaels to interrupt again with, "They work at a marijuana farm?"
"I'm not talking about the undocumented part but, according to this statement, in this country, not just at farm, not at marijuana farms at all," Phillip stated as Michaels snapped at her with, "Don't use semantics! Look at the reality of what we're talking about. How did an unaccompanied, undocumented 14-year-old ––."
"Hey, Jillian, Jillian, I believe that, and many people might believe children should be subject to child labor laws, but it's true in this country that when it comes to agricultural work, they're not," Phillip patiently explained.
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