Left-wing political activist Cenk Uygur told Newsmax on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is using Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provoke division among Americans, saying the administration's tactics are meant to "rile people up" and spark conflict.
"So when Trump started, he closed down the border," Uygur, founder of the podcast "The Young Turks," told "Rob Schmitt Tonight."
"That was very popular. That is what he was elected to do," he continued.
"On top of that, he went and got some of the criminals that were undocumented. That was also popular," Uygur said.
"And so at that point, he had the American people behind him."
But once the administration shifted to mass deportations, that support eroded, he said.
"[M]ass deportations are unpopular with the American people," Uygur said.
He sharply criticized the use of masked federal agents and the removal of visible identification, calling those tactics unnecessary and inflammatory, especially in the wake of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during recent immigration protests in Minneapolis.
"You're supposed to be helping the average American, not killing them in the streets," Uygur wrote in a post on X after Pretti was killed.
"Trump is sending in ICE to CREATE THIS CONFLICT. This is to divide and distract you."
Uygur echoed that argument on Newsmax.
"But the main thing is he didn't have to put people in masks. He didn't have to take away their badges," he said.
"And when you do it that way, and you go and antagonize, and now you've got dead Americans in the streets, you're doing that in a way to rile people up and to get us to start fighting one another."
Uygur rebutted claims that ICE agents need to conceal their identities out of fear of being doxed.
"There were no masks before. Nonsense," he said.
"Because in America, we have law enforcement with badges and names and we have accountability. And we've had that for hundreds of years."
Uygur acknowledged the dangers faced by police but said those risks have never justified anonymous enforcement.
"Do our cops deal with some vicious gangs? Yes," he said.
"Do they deal with some, you know, very significant crime: murderers, rapists, you name it? Yes," Uygur continued.
"And they do it with badges. They don't do it with masks," he said.
"Once you get into faceless, badgeless, nameless folks, then we're getting into Third World territory, and that is not a good idea."
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