WATCH: Asked Who He’d Deport, Dem Candidate Performs Verbal Tightrope Act

Congressional candidate Justin Pearson (D-TN) refused to name even one illegal alien he would deport — even when asked directly — and instead delivered a series of comments attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Pearson began with a general complaint about ICE, claiming that no one in President Donald Trump’s administration could be “trusted” to hold themselves accountable to the people. He argued that both ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in their current forms should be dissolved entirely, and that new organizations with different priorities should be built from the ground up.

WATCH:

WATCH: Two-plus minutes of @ScottJenningsKY trying to get a Dem congressional candidate (Justin Pearson-TN) to say whether or not we should deport illegal aliens (he didn’t) pic.twitter.com/QiZq1Z0UNf

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 21, 2026

“Even after the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, they didn’t want to share information about what was happening,” he said. “Which is why we have to abolish ICE, why we have to abolish the Customs and Border Patrol in the way that they currently exist, and replace them with something that actually does the work that we need for them to do. Which is why we need a Congress that works —”

Republican commentator Scott Jennings interrupted then, asking, “What work is that, by the way?”

“I’ll tell you what the work is not,” Pearson replied. “The work is not killing American citizens.”

“No, you said the work we need them to do. I’m interested in your opinion,” Jennings pressed. “What is the work we need them to do?”

“Absolutely,” Pearson said. “The work is not killing American citizens —”

“But what is the work we need them to do?” Jennings asked again.

“Well, first let’s look at what they don’t need to do,” Pearson said, prompting a chuckle from Jennings. “They don’t need to go into communities like Memphis —”

“Do they need to deport illegal aliens?” Jennings asked directly.

“— they’re currently traumatizing our communities —”

“Do they need to deport illegal aliens?” Jennings repeated the question. “Can you say it?”

Jennings asked the question several times, and while Pearson was ready and willing to say many times what ICE should *not* do, he could not come up with one thing that a newly-formed immigration law enforcement agency *would* do, other than aid in finding a path to citizenship for illegal aliens who were already in the United States.

At no point was Pearson able to provide Jennings with an answer to his question as to what ICE should be doing or whether there were any illegal aliens he believed should be deported — and after several minutes, host Abby Phillip stepped in to change the topic.