“80 percent of them have zero criminal record.” — Trump Defends Stephen Miller’s Immigration Record in Stephen A. Smith Interview

Donald Trump sat down with Stephen A. Smith this week, and when the conversation turned to immigration, Smith did not ask a soft question. He read out, one by one, the hardline measures Stephen Miller pushed through in Trump’s first term — and asked the president to defend them.

The clip, from Townhall’s Straight Shooter News interview in the Oval Office, shows Trump listening as Smith recites the list: the zero-tolerance family separations, the travel restrictions, the cuts to legal immigration. Trump defends Miller’s record throughout, presenting the crackdown as the reason the border is secure and violent criminals are being removed.

It is a timely defence. The administration has spent the week trumpeting its enforcement numbers: 483,200 removals in the fiscal year that ended on 30 September 2026, which the Department of Homeland Security describes as the most in the agency’s 23-year history — about 9 percent above the previous record of 442,640, and roughly 1,300 people a day. Supporters call it the fulfilment of a promise. Critics call it a dragnet.

The thread under the video is a partisan fight, and the comment quoted in this article’s title sits at the centre of it. “80 percent of them have zero criminal record” is a viewer’s claim, not a verified statistic, and it is the claim the other side spends the most time attacking: replies argue that illegal entry is itself a crime, that the figure is invented, and that Miller’s policies targeted violent offenders, including members of Tren de Aragua. The other side answers that most of the people detained have no criminal history beyond an immigration violation, and that the administration’s own numbers do not distinguish between the two.

Other comments take a different angle entirely — “Obama built CAGES don’t get it twisted sir” — pointing out that detention facilities used today were built under previous administrations. It is an old argument, but it still fills the thread every time this topic comes up.

Smith is not a friendly interviewer for Trump, and Miller is one of the most divisive figures in the administration. An Oval Office sit-down in which the president is pressed, on camera, to own the record of his most hardline adviser is unusual — and it comes as the administration is simultaneously celebrating record deportations and facing questions about who, exactly, is being deported. The interview does not settle that question. The comments show it is still the question.

Source video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfqbThStg4B/

Watch the video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfqbThStg4B/

Covers politics and elections for The Union Star.