Watch: Nun confronts JD Vance on "fear and violence" caused by ICE

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] I want to move on to immigration. Uh,

[0:01] another topic that stirs passionate

[0:03] opinion in this country. Uh, and we have

[0:05] a voter here tonight, Nancy Sylvester.

[0:07] Sister Nancy Sylvester, uh, from Sister

[0:09] Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

[0:12] Congregation in Monroe. She's got a

[0:13] question for you. Sister Nancy,

[0:15] >> right here. Thank you. Mr. Vice

[0:17] President, we have sisters who minister

[0:19] at the southern border in United States

[0:22] as well as here around Detroit, and they

[0:24] are constantly seeing families who are

[0:26] affected by our immigration policies.

[0:28] They see the trauma of children who are

[0:31] separated from their parents sometimes

[0:32] on a moment's notice. They go to school

[0:34] and they come back and they're not there

[0:36] and they have to sort of fend for

[0:38] themselves and so they the sisters see

[0:40] the kind of effect the fear and violence

[0:43] of the ICE behavior. We know the

[0:46] complexity of this issue but what really

[0:49] pains us is how it's being implemented

[0:51] in such ways. And so I'm going to um

[0:54] sort of know that both of us share the

[0:56] same faith. We may not always agree

[0:58] because I understand you don't always

[1:00] even agree with our pope sometimes. And

[1:02] so I want to though wonder what would

[1:05] you say? How would you justify to people

[1:07] of faith, especially those of us who fry

[1:10] to follow the gospel how the behavior of

[1:13] the ICE men and women can constantly be

[1:17] justified to in terms of the kind of

[1:19] values we live want to live by and also

[1:22] what policies would you advocate to try

[1:25] to promote more compassionate and

[1:28] respective behavior toward our immigrant

[1:31] sisters and brothers?

[1:32] >> Sure. Well, Sister Nancy, I uh I

[1:34] appreciate you and uh hopefully I I'll

[1:36] be in your prayers as you'll certainly

[1:37] be in mine. And so so let me say say

[1:41] one,

[1:42] we're trying to strike the right

[1:44] balance. And when you have a country

[1:47] where approximately 25 million illegal

[1:49] aliens have come in over the past 30 or

[1:51] so years, many of them completely

[1:53] unchecked and unvetted. We're trying to

[1:55] strike a balance between how do we do

[1:57] law enforcement, but how do we also do

[1:59] it humanely and how do we not do so

[2:01] little law enforcement that you actually

[2:02] empower some of the worst people in the

[2:04] world. And so,

[2:04] >> are you not striking that balance?

[2:06] >> Well, I I I think that it is constantly

[2:08] a work in progress, Tony, when you're

[2:10] talking about millions and millions of

[2:11] people and hundreds and hundreds of

[2:12] thousands of law enforcement officers.

[2:14] You know, we've even just in the past

[2:15] year or so increased training protocols

[2:18] because I do think the men and women of

[2:19] ICE, by the way, it's it's like the men

[2:21] and women of law enforcement. Most of

[2:23] them are amazing people who are patriots

[2:25] and they want to do a good job

[2:26] protecting their country. Sometimes you

[2:28] have some people who make mistakes.

[2:30] Sometimes you have some people who

[2:31] really screw up and obviously we have a

[2:33] responsibility to prosecute, investigate

[2:35] when people do screw up.

[2:36] >> What are some What are some of those

[2:39] times? I think this is important. She's

[2:41] seen the things that we've all seen

[2:42] online. Uh these incidents that come up

[2:44] a lot of times people talk about them

[2:46] before they're investigated. You just

[2:47] mentioned times where there have been

[2:49] mistakes and there have been

[2:50] investigations, but I actually haven't

[2:52] heard you talk about those. What comes

[2:54] to mind for you as the biggest mistakes

[2:57] ICE policy and roll out?

[2:58] >> Well, there there are a number of of

[3:00] cases where we've investigated it and

[3:02] either provided further training or

[3:04] sometimes even provided disciplinary

[3:06] situations within ICE. We don't always

[3:08] advertise that stuff as you know, Tony,

[3:10] because we believe that people have to

[3:12] be judged in a court of law and through

[3:14] a normal investigatory process. we don't

[3:16] jump in and try to accuse people just

[3:18] again because of what we've seen in a

[3:20] news media article. But I think sister

[3:21] NY's point because I'm sure sister that

[3:24] you're the people working with you I'm

[3:26] sure they're doing amazing ministry work

[3:28] and I'm very grateful for it. What I

[3:30] would say is that what we saw over the

[3:33] last five years before we came in, I

[3:36] mean, is we have to talk about the fact

[3:38] that drug cartels were sex trafficking

[3:41] thousands and thousands of children,

[3:43] thousands of thousands of girls who were

[3:45] sold into sex slavery. Of course, the

[3:46] fentanyl trade which killed a lot of

[3:48] people in Michigan. So, I do think

[3:50] despite what some people say in the

[3:52] press, I promise you that we wake up

[3:54] every day and we try to balance law

[3:56] enforcement with humane law enforcement.

[3:59] And of course, when you're dealing with

[4:01] hundreds of thousands of law enforcement

[4:02] officials, you're never going to get

[4:04] everything perfect. But I think the men

[4:05] and women of ICE, by and large, have

[4:08] done a good job. And where there are

[4:10] people who have screwed up, of course

[4:12] they should suffer consequences.