Trump's border chief insists Americans support ICE – and is shut down by host: 'Come on!'

Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino was shut down Friday during an appearance on NewsNation after suggesting that federal immigration officials enjoyed widespread support among Americans, despite new polling demonstrating the polar opposite.

As of this week, support for President Donald Trump’s immigration policy is sitting at minus 8 points, a staggering drop of 26 points since last January. Nevertheless, when pressed on this fact, Bovino strongly suggested that Americans opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations were actually a small minority.

“There has been a marked change in public opinion – now, we can discuss why, but the change in public opinion is real,” said NewsNation reporter Leland Vittert. “How do you explain that?”

Rather than admit that Trump’s mass deportations have become wildly unpopular, Bovino instead insisted that mass ICE raids actually enjoyed strong support among the residents of affected cities.

“Public opinion is something that we’re well aware of. We’ve been in several cities now – Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, Minneapolis – and one of the things that I’ve noticed that’s been steady in every single one of those areas is what we’re seeing on the ground with the public,” Bovino said.

“Most especially with those inner-city residents, what we’re seeing is fantastic public support. Here in Minneapolis, a lot of thumbs ups and a lot of ‘good jobs.’ Now, a lot of it is under their breath because they are afraid of the 5% or 10% of agitators and rioters.”

Visibly taken aback, Vittert immediately interjected to challenge Bovino’s suggestion.

“Come on, commander!” Vittert said. “You know as well as I do, there’s a lot of fair-minded Americans who don’t like seeing how the sausage is made.”

Instead of addressing Vittert’s comments directly, Bovino moved to criticize the media, while giving grace to NewsNation and Fox News.

“You’re talking about sausage being made: that sausage is not being made by a vast majority of the news media,” Bovino said. “You guys do a great job, Fox and some of the others, but the vast majority do not, so when we’re talking about sausage being made, it’s not being made!”