Megyn Kelly says Republicans could solve illegal immigration “overnight” if they wanted to.
On Monday’s episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, the SiriusXM host argued that the key was enforcing E-Verify. She said half the GOP won’t touch it because too many are tied to businesses and farms that hire illegal immigrants.
“If they really wanted these illegals out, they would implement E-Verify, and we would get millions of them out like that overnight,” Kelly told journalist Michael Shellenberger. “But they won’t do it because the Republican Party is still half run by the Chamber of Commerce Republicans who hire all these illegals … they really don’t want to see Trump do that.”
Kelly added that Trump favors visible crackdowns, like sending Border Patrol to Chicago, because “it’s muscular, and it makes him look tough.” She said Republicans on the right “are thrilled to see this happen” while Democrats act like “we’re back in the middle of the Nuremberg trials.”
Congress created E-Verify in 1996 under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. The system lets employers electronically confirm new hires’ work eligibility. States like Alabama and Arizona require it, while California and Illinois have resisted.
According to DHS, more than 2 million illegal immigrants have left the U.S. since Trump returned to office — about 1.6 million self-deportations and over 400,000 deportations. Officials project nearly 600,000 deportations by the end of his first year back in the White House.
Trump has ramped up operations in Democratic-led cities. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said anti-ICE rhetoric has fueled a “more than 1000% increase” in assaults on officers. Some Democrats, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have called ICE a “modern-day Gestapo,” while Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett compared agents to “slave patrols.”
Border czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem have blasted Democrats for undermining enforcement, insisting the crackdown is necessary to restore order.