Bill Maher makes blunt Trump–Obama illegal immigration comparison: ‘Everything goes too far’

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Bill Maher bluntly compared President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama on illegal immigration during the November 24 episode of Maher’s 'Club Random' podcast.

During the episode, Maher was joined by Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, as his guest, where he called out the president's approach to undocumented immigrants.

Bill Maher clashes with Lara Trump over harsh ICE raids

Bill Maher told Lara Trump during the podcast, "That’s one of the reasons the natives are restless on your side, even your people. Because they voted for, ‘Let’s get the criminals out of the country.’ And what they got was, ‘Um, no, let’s find people who’ve been working here for 10 years and go to Home Depot and get them.’ We don’t like that."

Lara responded, "I hear it. And there’s nothing that feels good about seeing people who had good intentions, generally speaking, leaving our country in this manner. However, we either have rules or we don’t. We either have laws, or we don’t."

She added, "They are targeting the worst of the worst. They are targeting the gang members, the criminals, the human traffickers. …Whenever they’re doing these raids, and they’re getting the bad guys, sometimes, yes, there are other people who are collateral damage." Lara also said, "I’m not saying they’re bad people. But they did break the law to come here, and unfortunately, we either have rules or we don’t."

Maher paused before telling Lara, "Yeah, that’s not the way to handle it," referring to the ongoing ICE raids across the US.

Lara insisted, "Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast, though," claiming that former President Joe Biden let "tens of millions of people come over the border illegally” and that “somebody has to be the bad guy and get them out."

Maher responded, "No one is defending that. But once it happened, once it was a fait accompli, especially people who have been here a long time… And again, even people on your side don’t love this. This tackling people at their workplaces."

He continued, "But you know what? Obama deported a lot of people, too. He just didn’t do it by being an a****le. By being a thug. By being masked. By tackling people. By being cruel, sending them to other countries to like, basically consign them to this kind of hell of the worst kind of prisons in the world."

"Yes, maybe you shouldn’t be in this country if you don’t belong in this country legally. But you also shouldn’t get that as the punishment. It’s like everything goes too far," Maher concluded.  

Trump cites INA law to defend ‘permanent pause’ on immigration

President Trump announced a "permanent pause" on immigration from "Third World countries" last Friday and defended his stance on Saturday, November 29, by citing the Immigration and Nationality Act as the legal basis for the sweeping policy.

Trump’s decision follows the recent shooting incident near the White House, which left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition.

His justification for proposing a permanent pause on migration from all Third World countries is rooted in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

He quoted the section in a Truth Social post that read, "Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 212(f): 'Whenever the president finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.'"

It should also be noted that this section authorizes the president to suspend the entry of "any aliens or of any class of aliens" if their admission is deemed detrimental to US national interests.