DHS attorney DEMOLISHES '60 Minutes' reporter over 'law-abiding' illegal aliens narrative in full interview

The Department of Homeland Security has released the full video of an interview "60 Minutes" conducted with DHS general counsel James Percival.The "60 Minutes" segment Sunday with reporter Gianna Toboni documented the plight of an illegal alien who had been deported to Ghana and claimed to have been sent to war-torn Mali, where he ended up homeless and hiding out of fear for his safety.'I do really reject your characterization of someone who is in this country illegally and breaking our laws as quote, unquote, law-abiding.'While the report had a few short clips quoting Percival in defense of the deportation process, the full interview video, which the DHS shared on social media Monday night, showed him challenging Toboni's narrative overall."That's why I am going for the clarity here because I hear a lot about the violent offenders, point taken," Toboni said at one point, referring to deportees. "But what I don't hear about is the law-abiding folks, who, in our reporting, is more than half.""You're suggesting that people who are in this country illegally are law-abiding?" Percival replied."Let's say [they] don't have a criminal record outside of an immigration offense, maybe overstaying a tourist visa," Toboni responded."If you are in this country illegally, it is virtually impossible for you to live in this country and not commit additional legal violations — working without authorization, identity theft. There’s a lot of illegality that goes on when you are breaking the law," he replied."But I do really reject your characterization of someone who is in this country illegally and breaking our laws as quote, unquote, law-abiding. I think that's fundamentally inaccurate and unfair," Percival added."OK, fair enough," she accepted.The DHS posted a clip of that interaction to social media, where it quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of views.RELATED: ICE mocks deportation 'sob story' on '60 Minutes' — and dismantles its narrative with one inconvenient detail Percival pointed out in an X post Tuesday that the "60 Minutes" report shared a brief video from his interview where he admitted that he didn't know offhand what percentage of third-country removals involved illegal aliens convicted of violent crimes.In the extended clip, he goes on to explain at length why third-country removals are necessary in difficult cases. "What I can say is, there's a very specific reason why this population is disproportionately criminal. Well, it's really two reasons," Percival said."Number one, when countries refuse to accept their nationals back, they disproportionately do that for violent criminals. People don't really want to take their violent criminals back," he explained."Point two is, people will sometimes get what's called withholding of removal, that type of relief, because they are statutorily ineligible for asylum. And what creates that ineligibility in many cases is significant criminal conduct," he continued.He said that prior to the Trump administration, many of these violent criminals would reoffend because prior administrations were not enforcing immigration laws. "60 Minutes" posted a video of the full interview with Percival on YouTube on Monday.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!