Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith engaged in an extended discussion about immigration enforcement and the breakdown of cooperation between federal and local authorities after a caller raised questions about how immigration cases were handled under past administrations.

The exchange occurred after a caller identified as Keith referenced what he described as consistent cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local jurisdictions prior to the Trump administration.

“During the prior administrations, the Obama administration, the Bush administration, Clinton administration, you know, there was cooperation, you know, with local jurisdictions to hand ICE over there,” Keith said.

Smith responded by praising the caller for raising an issue he said had gone largely unaddressed in recent discussions about immigration enforcement.

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He focused on the relationship between federal authorities and state and local governments and questioned why that cooperation no longer appears to exist.

“Keith, let me say this to you. I want to applaud you for calling up and bringing up this issue, because you brought up a very poignant issue that I haven't heard one single caller address in weeks about ICE,” Smith said.

“You spoke to the level of cooperation between the administration and the White House, the federal government and local and state law enforcement, there was a level of cooperation.”

Smith framed the issue as a fundamental question about accountability, saying the absence of cooperation since 2016 could point in two very different directions.

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“The question is, why has that cooperation not existed? And my point is, that's a huge, huge question,” Smith said.

“Because if the level of cooperation that no longer exist that lack of cooperation, if we're going to say that it started in 2016 when Trump came into office, and it's continuing now, then that means that either Trump is engaging in a whole bunch of stuff that is considered unconstitutional, or the local and state officials in sanctuary cities specifically, by the way, are being impediments to laws being executed and exercised.”

Smith said determining which of those explanations is accurate would clarify where responsibility should fall.

“And therefore we'll be in a position to really, really point the figure of accountability where it belongs,” he said.

Smith acknowledged that many people currently blame President Donald Trump for the turmoil surrounding immigration enforcement, largely due to how the situation appears publicly.

“Right now we all believe it's Trump, because we see the optics, and it doesn't look good. It looks absolutely, positively awful,” Smith said.

However, he suggested the narrative could change if evidence showed that resistance to immigration enforcement was being driven by political actors opposed to the Trump administration.

“If, however, we're able to discover that this stuff is being instigated by folks on the left, and I'm not talking about moderates and centrists and that kind of stuff,” Smith said.

“I'm talking about the extreme left, and you're talking about sanctuary cities, because if we find out that it's instigated by them, that's a different argument.”

Smith said such a finding would require a deeper examination of what is happening and why.

“And now we're going to have to entertain a lot of conversation and dialog about the specificity, about what's transpiring, what's going on, and why we're going to have to find that out,” he said.

Smith also expressed concern about the authority of local governments to refuse cooperation with federal law enforcement, regardless of who occupies the White House.

“Because see, here's the thing, and this is one of the things Keith, that I'm struggling with, and maybe you can answer it for me,” Smith said.

“I don't like the fact that local and state governments get the right to usurp federal authorities and just ignore the laws that they want to ignore.”

At the same time, Smith said he does not trust President Trump or his administration and remains skeptical of their motives.

“I don't like nor trust Trump and his administration. I don't like them. I don't want to trust their agenda,” Smith said.

Smith referenced past reporting about a proposed border agreement during the Biden administration and questioned the political motivations surrounding that effort.

“When Biden had negotiated what was deemed to be a bipartisan deal about the border, remember, we was reported that the Republicans backed away because Trump needed them to back off so he could use it as a campaign tool while trying to regain the presidency,” Smith said.

He said those developments contributed to his overall skepticism but added that the situation would take on a different meaning if opposition activity was deliberately designed to damage the Trump administration.

“See, I'm suspicious about all of that,” Smith said.

“But if we're finding out, if we were to find out that some a lot of the stuff that's going on is because it was instigated by the left specifically to make it look the way that it's obviously looking, and it was aimed specifically for the Trump administration, as opposed to when Obama was in office, George W was in office, Clinton was in office, et cetera. We've got ourselves a problem.”

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