Gina Swoboda says President Trump has politically lost the argument on immigration enforcement

PHOENIX – Former chairwoman of Arizona’s Republican Party Gina Swoboda believes that President Donald Trump has politically lost the argument on immigration enforcement.

“We can’t have American citizens being killed … so politically, you have lost the argument,” Swoboda told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos on Wednesday. “Law enforcement is in danger. The public is in danger. This can’t happen this way.”

Swoboda is currently seeking the GOP nomination for the state’s 1st Congressional District and, alongside fellow candidate Jay Feely, has been endorsed by Trump in the race.

Her comments come after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, just weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Renee Good a little over a mile away.

The congressional candidate added that Trump needs to revert to where he was when he first made the commitment to do deportations.

“Public polling shows we love ICE, we support ICE … but not the actions,” Swoboda said. “It’s the difference between the officer and the tactics.”

She emphasized that the American people voted for deportations, not what is currently being seen with ICE.

“They didn’t understand that this could occur and it needs to stop, and it needs to stop immediately,” Swoboda said.

Gina Swoboda thinks Trump is de-escalating by putting border czar in charge

Swoboda does believe that by sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, the president is trying to de-escalate things.

“My understanding of the coverage is maybe Mr. Homan and Secretary (Kristi) Noem weren’t sympatico and so her instructions overrode him. He was kind of on the outside and the president’s like, ‘Okay stop, reset,’ and that’s his job,” Swoboda said. “He’s in charge of the executive branch. He can put someone in, he can take them out.”

She added that ICE returning to using warrants signed by a judge instead of administrative ones should start to “restore the balance of the Bill of Rights we love so much.”

“Let’s see if they can get us there because if not … the experiment and this tactic has failed and we have lost lives,” Swoboda said.

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