Gun control advocate Don Lemon urges ‘black and brown people’ to arm themselves against ICE

During an appearance last week on “The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali,” Lemon said he was not “condoning or promoting violence,” but claimed ICE agents were "rounding [people] up off the street without due process" and "sending them off to a gulag."

"If you believe in the Second Amendment, if you believe in the Constitution, black people, brown people of all stripes, whether you're an Indian American or a Mexican American or whoever you are, go out in your place where you live and get a gun legally. Get a license to carry legally," Lemon said. "Because when you have people knocking on your door and taking you away without due process as a citizen, isn't that what the Second Amendment was written for?"

"Nobody is illegal," Lemon continued. "It is a misdemeanor to cross the border. Now, if you do it a number of times, then it becomes something else. But… there's nowhere near the level of criminality, we have degrees of criminality in this country, and what Donald Trump did is at the highest level of criminality, except for taking someone's life, and someone who is crossing the border is nowhere near that."

Podcast host Wajahat Ali defended Lemon’s comments in a statement to Fox News, saying, "I only speak for myself, but Don Lemon has a right to express his views in the United States of America thanks to the First Amendment which is allegedly championed by the Trump administration.”

"If anything, I'd assume Republicans would agree with him that Americans have the right to legally bear arms thanks to the 2nd Amendment. Unless, of course, they only believe that right exists for white Trump supporters? If so, they should admit that publicly,” Ali added.

Lemon’s remarks come amid a 1,000 percent increase in assaults against ICE agents during intensified immigration enforcement operations. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemned the comments in a statement to Fox News, calling them “unhinged.”

"Calling for violence against law enforcement is un-American — officers are already facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them, including terrorist attacks, cars being used as weapons, rocks thrown at them and shot at. Words have consequences and this type of rhetoric is going to get one of our officers killed," she said. Lemon has long supported gun control and has criticized the accessibility of firearms in the US.

In 2018, following the Parkland school shooting, he said, "Anyone with any sense knows that this is the one common denominator that America has, the sickness that we have, is having this much access to guns. Especially this much access."