White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Maria Bartiromo on FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that the DOJ and FBI are closing in on “organized crime rings of leftist agitators” who are leading protests against federal immigration enforcement, which have escalated to the point that federal officers shot and killed two American citizens in Minnesota.

MARIA BARTIROMO: And I heard Tom Homan earlier this week say, look, we’re going to focus on the criminals. We’re not just getting people out as a priority because they broke the law in the first place to get in here, but we’re prioritizing first those people who are committing a crime. So, Karoline, talk to us about what you envision here, because we’re going to talk with Eric Schmitt, the senator from Missouri, in a few moments. And he put a four-point plan out on the Senate floor last week on what to do about the debate over the immigration crackdown. Do you expect new restrictions on Border Patrol, Karoline? What can you tell us in terms of the results here, as a result of the fact that two people are dead, even though the president is trying to weed out criminality in this country and you have seen this resistance? KAROLINE LEAVITT: Well, the White House and the president are open and willing to listen. I know the president said aboard Air Force One last night that those conversations and discussions will continue. Last week, the White House invited moderate Democrat senators to come to the White House and to discuss their concerns, so that we can hear them out and at least see what they are trying to put on the table. Unfortunately, that meeting was blocked by their leadership. So these conversations will continue, Maria, and, ultimately, the president will be the decider on any policy changes. But what I know in talking with the president and seeing what this administration has done over the course of the last year is that President Trump is never going to waver in the commitment that he made to the nearly 80 million Americans who voted for him to deport illegal alien criminals who broke our nation’s laws to get here and then have committed further crimes of violence against American citizens. And that’s why ICE and Border Patrol are true patriots. They need to be respected. The Democrats need to agree to stop demonizing them. We have heard despicable rhetoric from people on the left comparing ICE to the Nazi Gestapo, Donald Trump’s police force. That is egregious language that has led to the increase in violence, threats and attacks against ICE agents, who are brave men and women who put on the uniform to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. So the Trump administration is always going to be on the side of law and order. And we want to remove these illegal alien rapists, murderers, pedophiles, despicable individuals from our country to protect the homeland. And the president has done a phenomenal job at doing that. And that’s why murder rates in this country, newly released data show, are at the lowest in recorded history. These things are not coincidental. Under Joe Biden, murders were up, violent crime was up, we had illegal aliens invading our country from all over this world. All of that has ended. So President Trump knows what works. Democrats, if they were smart, would trust him and listen to him. BARTIROMO: Yes, it’s just very upsetting to see innocent people lose their lives. But I also recognize that you cannot resist Border Patrol and you cannot get in their faces and obstruct what they’re doing in terms of their operations. LEAVITT: That’s right. BARTIROMO: So do you expect any changes in that regard? LEAVITT: Well, look, as you said, Maria, the president, nobody in the Trump administration, nor the White House wants to see Americans losing their lives. What we want is law and order. What we want is for the brave men and women of law enforcement to be able to do their jobs and carry out lawful immigration enforcement operations without being demonized, spit on, without their vehicles being kicked in by agitators, many of whom are paid. And I know the FBI and Department of Justice are looking into these organized crime rings of these leftist agitators who have been attacking our law enforcement in a very sophisticated manner. BARTIROMO: Yes, that’s a very important point that you make there.

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