Former DHS official: Agents ‘will confess … they don’t know what they’re doing’

A former official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it is “going to take a generation for people to trust the department again,” adding that immigration agents “don’t know what they’re doing.”

“Those agents need to be out there investigating spies, terrorists, pedophile rings,” Miles Taylor, a former DHS chief of staff, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo in a Thursday interview. “The agents themselves will confess to people like me. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

The interview comes after the Democrats secured big wins in the midterm elections, seizing control of both the House and the Senate after flipping GOP-held seats in battleground states including South Carolina, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, among others.

The Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies had been a central topic of conversation and debate ahead of the midterms. Democrats across the country have campaigned against the crackdown, with some even calling to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A day after the election, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a social media post that “ deportations will continue .” In September, the DHS announced ICE was ramping up its presence in “sanctuary cities” across the nation.

“I care about immigration enforcement. I spent most of my career helping to build the Department of Homeland Security,” Taylor, who wrote a New York Times op-ed and later a book under the pseudonym “Anonymous” about how some officials worked to thwart President Trump’s impulses during his first term, said in the “Cuomo” interview. “But at this point, I think the trust is so bad at DHS, you almost have to tear the department down to the studs and rebuild it.”

“It’s going to take a generation for people to trust the department again,” he added.

In a Thursday press release, the DHS announced a list of arrests made by ICE in cities across the country. The department said those arrested were convicted of crimes such as sexual assault, robbery, gang participation and more.

“Yesterday, ICE arrested pedophiles, sexual predators, drug traffickers, and other public safety threats. We will not rest until these threats are removed from our country. Arresting and deporting illegal aliens saves lives,” Mullin said in the release.

In the lead-up to Election Day, the administration also escalated its efforts to stop noncitizens from voting in the midterms, with states like California and Washington coming under federal scrutiny for allegedly having noncitizens on their voter rolls.

Recently, a 23-year-old Colombian asylum-seeker was detained by ICE at San Francisco International Airport while waiting for a flight to Oregon for a vacation, California-based local news station KQED reported .

Taylor mentioned the arrest among other examples during his interview, saying, “This isn’t what they should be doing. They should be focusing on real criminals.”