Elisabeth Hasselbeck challenges 'The View' on border security, sparks heated immigration debate

Elisabeth Hasselbeck challenged "The View" on Wednesday — including the live studio audience — on the importance of border security, sparking a debate with the liberal co-hosts.

Following Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem's hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Hasselbeck read off some statistics about the border that she praised — though acknowledging some mistakes — before posing a question to the audience.

"We need a strong border, especially now with our current global situation," she said. "And I believe that you may say you don't want border control, and you're against ICE, but I actually don't believe you in your daily lives."

"How many people in the audience here had to go through security to get here?" Hasselbeck asked. "Raise your hand, just be honest, otherwise you go to jail, I guess, for legal trespassing, right? This is an authorized audience. They had to go through security to get through the border, to get right here to just hear us talk."

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Co-host Sunny Hostin hit back and said, "They were not at the border when Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered — and death is not a mistake."

The comment was met with cheers from the audience. Hasselbeck agreed and argued that all lives lost mattered, including those murdered by illegal immigrants.

Hostin continued, "Secretary Noem is wholly unqualified for her job. She has zero empathy. No. She is not taking responsibility for what she did."

The liberal co-hosts then argued Noem should be impeached.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

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Co-host Joy Behar jumped in, "I just want to give you this one statistic from the Cato Institute. Only 5% of people detained by ICE have violent convictions. 73% have no convictions. Correct. That's really what the problem is."

Hasselbeck countered that thousands of children were trafficked during the Biden administration. The guest co-host said the "how" mattered when it came to a fix for illegal immigration.

"It was done without a 'how' under the Biden administration and Obama," Hasselbeck said.

Whoopi Goldberg then jumped in to argue that former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden should be taken out of the conversation before cutting to commercial.

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After returning from the commercial break, Goldberg argued that everyone in America wants "tight borders."

"They want people who are not good for the country out of the country, but if you go in, and you say that's what you're going to do, and suddenly you're sweeping up five-year-olds," she said.

Hasselbeck is co-hosting the show this week in place of Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is on maternity leave. Hasselbeck is a former co-host of the show.