MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace has said she ‘can’t stop thinking’ about MS-13 suspects who are ‘scared’ after being deported to CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador.
The political analyst spoke about Donald Trump’s immigration policies on The Bulwark with Tim Miller, a prominent Republican critic of the president.
When asked what scares her the most about the current administration during the Tuesday episode of the podcast, she said: ‘Everything.
‘I remember the first day I read about the deportations to El Salvador, of the alleged Tren De Aragua Members for whom no evidence was ever presented that they ever had anything to do with Tren De Aragua.
‘I remember saying, I wish I didn’t feel so gutted, and I wish I could stop thinking about these guys being scared in El Salvador.’
Wallace, 53, also recalled feeling ‘gutted’ when she saw the first Department of Homeland Security adverts about their aggressive immigration policies.
‘I think I’m sometimes scared by how much anguish I feel over how they’re treating human beings,’ she told Miller.
‘But I think that if you abandon the anguish, you carry out horrible things against human beings.’
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace has said she ‘can’t stop thinking’ about MS-13 suspects who are ‘scared’ after being deported to CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador
Wallace, 53, also recalled feeling ‘gutted’ when she saw the first Department of Homeland Security adverts about their aggressive immigration policies, including sending suspected illegal migrant gang members to CECOT prison in El Salvador (pictured)
Pictured: Trump speaks with the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, in 2024
According to the United Nations, more than 142,000 people were deported from the US during the first three months of Trump’s second term in the White House.
‘The fate and whereabouts of at least 245 Venezuelans and some 30 Salvadorans sent to El Salvador remain unclear,’ the UN said in a statement.
‘Many were deported under the US Alien Enemies Act as alleged members of criminal groups and have reportedly been detained at the Centre for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) in the Central American country.
‘Detainees at the maximum-security prison are treated particularly harshly, without access to legal counsel or family members and have no contact with the outside world.’
The Department of Homeland Security has hailed its aggressive deportations as keeping America safe from violent gang members.
‘Tren De Aragua is one of the most violent and ruthless terrorist gangs on planet earth,’ the department’s statement on CECOT removals reads.
‘They rape, maim, and murder for sport. President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow criminal gangs to terrorize American citizens.’
Critics including Wallace say it is impossible to know whether all those deported to the dystopian prison are really in MS-13.
Wallace’s comments about CECOT come after she brought ‘suicide’ into a debate about a boy with cancer who Trump honored during his address to Congress.
DJ Daniels, 13, has been battling cancer since he was diagnosed with the disease in 2018 at just six years old, and he dreamed of becoming a police officer.
In an emotional moment during Trump’s speech in March, the president revealed that DJ would be officially sworn in as an honorary Secret Service agent.
Reacting to this, Wallace admitted she let herself ‘feel joy’ over Daniels’ moment in front of the nation but quickly veered to a dark and disturbing thought.
‘I hope he’s alive for another 95 years and I hope he lives the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop, he knows what he wants to do and maybe when you have childhood cancer that crystallizes for you,’ Wallace began.
Wallace’s comments about CECOT come after she brought ‘suicide’ into a debate about a boy with cancer who Trump honored during his address to Congress.
The anchor then managed a pivot to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
‘I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer, but I hope he never has to defend the United States capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide,’ she said.
She also hopes that he doesn’t have to ‘testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lives to see Donald Trump pardon those people.’
Wallace, a former aide to President George W. Bush, was slammed as ‘despicable’, ‘vile’ and ‘a disgrace’ by viewers for making the tone-deaf comment.
