Greg Murphy Immigration North Carolina

Greg Murphy Said 'Thank God We're Doing What We're Doing.' Then He Called People Arrested by ICE After 35 Years Here 'Collateral Damage.'

On Newsmax, Rep. Greg Murphy said people picked up after living in the U.S. for 35 years are 'collateral damage' in Trump's deportation drive. Fewer than a quarter of people ICE arrested in July had a criminal conviction.

MAGA Report Cards · Oct 08, 2026

Greg Murphy Said 'Thank God We're Doing What We're Doing.' Then He Called People Arrested by ICE After 35 Years Here 'Collateral Damage.' — Photo: Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images, via Latin Times

On Wednesday, October 7, 2026, Greg Murphy went on Newsmax's Wake Up America Early to talk about immigration. The host played a clip of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claiming the Trump administration had arrested 2,220 people it identified as known terrorists. Murphy called that number "terrifying."

Then he got to the people who aren't terrorists. Here is what he said, as Newsmax's own write-up quotes him:

"So thank God we're doing what we're doing."

Then, on the people enforcement has caught up who have lived here for decades:

"You know, every so often there is some collateral damage. And you hear these stories about individuals who've been here for 35 years illegally, and then all of a sudden they get picked up."

"Collateral damage" is a military term. It means the people who get hurt when you're aiming at someone else. Murphy used it for neighbors, coworkers and parents who have lived in this country for three and a half decades.

Latin Times, which reported the segment, says he went further and declared, "Thank God we're getting rid of the garbage that's in our country." That line does not appear in Newsmax's written summary of the interview.

Most of the people ICE arrests are not terrorists

Murphy's defense is that the occasional longtime resident is a price worth paying for catching terrorists. The numbers don't look like that.

In September, Reuters reported that people with criminal convictions made up less than a quarter of the people ICE arrested in July. ICE arrests reached nearly 51,000 in August. The people arrested included people with no deportation order and people with pending asylum claims.

The 2,220 "known terrorists" Mullin cited are a small slice of the nearly 51,000 arrests ICE made in August alone. When most of the people you arrest have no criminal conviction, they aren't the "collateral damage." They're the target.

Who the "collateral damage" is

Latin Times points to who has been swept up:

The Associated Press found that more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members had been detained in Trump's second term, and at least six were deported. One was the mother of a Marine. She had lived in the U.S. since the 1990s, had no known criminal record, and was sent to Mexico within a week.
The Washington Post reported that ICE deported three U.S.-citizen children, ages 2, 4 and 7, to Honduras with their mothers. One of the children had Stage 4 cancer, according to the family's lawyer.

And it isn't only immigrants. ProPublica found more than 500 U.S. citizens held by immigration agents, including at least 70 children.

That is what "every so often" looks like.

In his own state

About 1.09 million people in North Carolina were born in another country — 9.9% of the state — according to the Census Bureau figures Latin Times cites. That count includes naturalized citizens and green-card holders, not just people here illegally.

Murphy has long pushed for harsher enforcement. Latin Times notes he voted against a 2021 bill that would have created a path to legal status, and in 2024 opposed the bipartisan Senate border deal. His campaign site says he supports Trump's border actions.

The real worry: gas prices

In the same interview, Murphy said what he sees as the election's biggest issue. It isn't the families.

"Everything one, two and three is about gas prices, which is absolutely understandable," he said. He called it "hopefully a temporary one," blamed the press — "the mainstream media didn't beat on elevated gas prices every day" under Biden — and admitted Trump's war on Iran is part of the problem: "some of it's unpopular. And some of that translates down into what's going to happen in the election."

So the price at the pump is a political problem worth worrying about out loud. Someone arrested after 35 years in the country is "collateral damage."

This isn't the first time Murphy has shrugged off harm to the people he represents. Asked whether he could guarantee that VA cuts wouldn't affect veterans' benefits and care, he said, "No, I can't guarantee anything."

What the record shows

On national TV, Greg Murphy called people arrested by ICE after living in the U.S. for 35 years "collateral damage" and said "thank God we're doing what we're doing." Fewer than a quarter of people ICE arrested in July had a criminal conviction, and the people swept up have included the mother of a Marine and U.S.-citizen children. In the same interview, Murphy said the election's top issue is gas prices.