During a recent appearance on The Moment Podcast, actor-filmmaker Ben Affleck spoke about immigrants in the United States and criticized the Trump administration for their ongoing deportation efforts.“You’re also capitalizing on providing an easy answer for people, which is to say: Oh, you have problems, you are unhappy? Well, it’s not the system, it’s not me, it’s not this, it’s actually these people’s faults… The only comfort that I take, what we are seeing is that actually the vast majority of people in this country don’t believe that every immigrant is a criminal, a r****t, a bad person,” Affleck, 54, stated.The Good Will Hunting actor used the Spanish phrase “una mentira pero una mentira atractiva,” which translates to “a lie, but an attractive lie.” Ben Affleck continued to say:“In fact, the way that it was enforced, you saw a lot of people recoil in horror and say, 'Hold on, we object to this. Nobody wants criminals or r****ts, but the idea that somehow those people were being ignored previously is totally false. It’s simply a veneer to paper over and give a more polite, presented voice to one of our more base ugly tendencies, which is to get, to hoard, to protect, to seek our own protection at the expense of somebody else.”Affleck explained that if you live in a city like Los Angeles, which has more Mexican immigrants (both documented and undocumented) than Mexico City and houses people whose families have been living there even before the formation of the United States, you understand the saying that “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.”“It’s a much more complicated situation than anyone wants to give credit for. But I think the fundamental… falsehood that seeks to identify any group of people as below or beneath or bad or sub is repellent, a lie, and needs to be objected to loudly,” Ben Affleck added.Exploring what Ben Affleck previously said about ICE raidsEarlier this month, Ben Affleck appeared on the nationally syndicated urban contemporary hip-hop morning radio show, The Big Boy’s Neighborhood, hosted by Kurt “Big Boy” Alexander. Kerry Washington accompanied Affleck to promote their latest crime thriller movie, Animals.During the episode, Ben recalled that the ICE raids began when they were filming and shooting in locations across Los Angeles, including the Home Depot and MacArthur Park.“It made me realize the world is even crazier than our movie… But also felt like we were connecting to something that was going on,” Affleck said as Washington nodded in agreement.The synopsis for Animals follows Ben Affleck’s role as L.A. mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, who, along with his wife Kerry Washington, aka Abigail Kimball, finds himself embroiled in a web of deception. It was released on Netflix on October 9. Affleck not only stars in the film, but is also its co-writer and director.In another podcast, Ben Affleck was discussing his brand-new movie and brought up the topic of ICE raids.“My biggest concern was like, ‘Is anyone gonna believe that a guy who's undocumented still wouldn't call the police because when his kid gets kidnapped?’ Like before the election, 2024, maybe. Then the election happened, and nobody had a problem believing it. You buy it. And I don’t think anyone who sees the movie would say, oh, tragically, that’s not true.”The Gone Girl star claimed it no longer mattered even though the LAPD said they were not involved in immigration and customs enforcement, as the “fear” among people is “real.”“If I were… without documentation, I would just be terrified all the time, and I’d be staying home. You're working at your job at the car wash; they're just sweeping in and gathering people up; it's terrifying,” Affleck stated.In an October interview with Variety, Ben also said that “hypocrisy, corruption, and failure” in politics have left him “averse” and “disillusioned.”