WATCH: Eye-popping illegal immigration stat prompts senator’s demand to ‘redouble’ deportations

WATCH: Eye-popping illegal immigration stat prompts senator's demand to 'redouble' deportations

Cato scholar David Bier told a House subcommittee that mass deportation would 'destroy neighborhoods' in the wealthy DC suburb

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CATO scholar goes viral after sharing stunning illegal immigration stat

Republicans pounced on a statistic from illegal immigration dove David Bier of the libertarian CATO Institute, as he testified that 1 in 5 Fairfax residents is either illegal or knows or lives with someone who is.

Testimony from a policy analyst at a libertarian think tank was unexpectedly highlighted by immigration hawks after he delivered an opening statement at a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing featuring controversial Fairfax County prosecutor Stephen Descano.

The hearing, chaired by Rep. Thomas McClintock, R-Calif., examined several examples of allegedly lax prosecutions by Descano involving illegal immigrants with prior rap sheets — including a Sierra Leone national accused of murdering a young woman at a bus stop on U.S. 1.

In his opening remarks, Cato Institute immigration expert David Bier testified that the "way to fix Fairfax" is not to continue the "mass deportation" agenda of President Donald Trump.

"The first step would be to give up on the mass deportation fantasy," Bier said.

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Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Stephen Descano, center, listens to testimony during a hearing before a House Judiciary Subcommittee. (Tom Williams/CQ via Getty Images)

"About 1-in-5 Fairfax residents is someone who could be deported or who lives with them — It would destroy neighborhoods, rip Americans away from their spouses, parents, friends, families, customers, employees, employers, nurses, nannies, and teachers."

While Bier later added that he believes noncitizens who harm Americans should be deported, his earlier statement drew the attention of several immigration hawks, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Lee borrowed Bier’s logic to prove immigration hardliners’ point that mass deportation is the right solution:

"On the contrary: 20% of a wealthy DC suburb being illegal immigrants means we should redouble our efforts to deport them all," Lee said.

Bier responded to Lee's comments in a lengthy statement to Fox News Digital, arguing the Utah Republican failed to explain why mass deportation would benefit Americans in Fairfax County.

"What was the senator’s explanation for [his] statement? The senator never says why it would benefit the country to harm Fairfax County and the Americans who live there, so there’s nothing to rebut," Bier said.

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Cato Institute analyst David Bier testifies before Congress. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)

"The senator is wrong to characterize the 20% as all illegal immigrants since half of them are just people who live with illegal immigrants, which is precisely my point."

"Mass deportation would harm those Americans and many others by ripping them away from their spouses, parents, children, friends, family, employees, employers, customers, nurses, nannies, and teachers," the immigration expert added.

Bier said mass deportation becomes more expensive and impractical as the population of illegal immigrants grows, meaning continuing on the current course will harm Americans.

"I would ask the senator: how many Americans would have to be hurt by mass deportation before he would reconsider his views?"

Reached for additional comment, Lee spokesman Billy Gribbin told Fox News Digital that the Utahn "believes in enforcing US law and deporting illegal immigrants — not making excuses for criminals who hurt Americans."

Fox News Digital also asked DHS about the apparent statistical admission, and an agency spokesperson blamed Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s "reckless sanctuary policies" for making Fairfax and the rest of the Old Dominion a "hotbed for illegal alien criminals."

"The stories of the victims and facts speak for themselves. The sanctuary politicians of Fairfax County have blood on their hands," the spokesperson said.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin added separately that half the murders recorded recently in Fairfax were allegedly perpetrated by "illegals who shouldn’t have been in our country to begin with."

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"We have politicians who want to protect the criminals, President Trump is still protecting all of our neighborhoods," Mullin said.

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Bier’s 1-in-5 statistic was also cited in a CATO document footnoted to the K Street firm Migration Policy Institute. MPI’s data showed an estimated 102,000-person "unauthorized" population in Fairfax — which has a census count of about 1.2 million as of 2020.

The top "countries-of-birth" on MPI’s list in that regard were El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Bolivia and Peru, while only 4% combined was recorded from Canada, Europe and Oceania.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

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