Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Monday slammed President Donald Trump's administration for implementing what the homeland security secretary referred to as "knock-and-talks" carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers.

Kasich, speaking to Business Insider while promoting his new book, "Two Paths: America Divided or United," described the initiative as un-American.

"It's terrible," he said in describing one of the Trump administration's early actions with which he strongly disagreed.

"There are some things going on that I really don't like at all, like ICE agents yanking people out of their homes," Kasich said.

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15 PHOTOS US Customs & Border Protection See Gallery US Customs & Border Protection A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer's patch is seen as they unveil a new mobile app for international travelers arriving at Miami International Airport on March 4, 2015 in Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade Aviation Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unveiled a new mobile app for expedited passport and customs screening. The app for iOS and Android devices allows U.S. citizens and some Canadian citizens to enter and submit their passport and customs declaration information using their smartphone or tablet and to help avoid the long waits in the exit lanes. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) A phone is passed over a scanner during a demonstration in the use of the new mobile app for expedited passport and customer screening being unveiled for international travelers arriving at Miami International Airport on March 4, 2015 in Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade Aviation Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unveiled a new mobile app for expedited passport and customs screening. The app for iOS and Android devices allows U.S. citizens and some Canadian citizens to enter and submit their passport and customs declaration information using their smartphone or tablet and to help avoid the long waits in the exit lanes. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Entrance of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters is seen as people protest recent Executive Actions and anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the Trump administration in Washington, USA on March 7, 2017. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Some of the more than $1-million in cash, collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Laredo, Texas port of entry in two separate southbound enforcement actions, is seen after being seized in this undated handout photo released by the CBP July 27, 2010. CBP officers on July 22, 2010 seized $506,057 in undeclared cash from a 36-year-old male Mexican citizen from Brookshire, Texas, who was driving south into Mexico. The second money seizure occurred on July 25, 2010 as CBP Field Operations Officers and Border Patrol (BP) agents seized 50 bundles containing $607,629 in undeclared U.S.currency from a 33 year-old Mexican citizen driving south into Mexico from Houston, Texas. The drivers were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents for further investigation. (REUTERS/U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Handout) Young boys sleep in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona June 18, 2014. CBP provided media tours June 18 of two locations in Brownsville, Texas and Nogales that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (REUTERS/Ross D. Franklin/Pool) A cache of weapons seized from a vehicle from an outbound (southbound) examination at Del Rio International Bridge in Texas, is seen in this U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) handout photograph taken February 1, 2011. U.S. customs agents in Texas seized 14 high-powered assault rifles when they searched a car heading into Mexico, and arrested the driver, authorities said on Wednesday. Picture taken February 1. (REUTERS/U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Handout) A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialist holds a bottle with the coleoptera beatle that was found as he inspected flowers for foreign pests or diseases in the LAN Cargo center at Miami International Airport February 10, 2015 in Miami, Florida. As Valentine's Day approaches Miami International Airport sees their daily flower shipments quadruple to 22 million flowers per day. During the rest of the year MIA handles more than 90 percent of all flowers imported to the U.S. Most of the flowers come from South American growers. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Detainees are shown in their holding cells where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona, June 18, 2014. CBP provided media tours Wednesday of two locations in Brownsville, Texas, and Nogales, that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since October 1, 2013. (REUTERS/Ross D. Franklin/Pool) Customs Border Protection (CBP) Supervisor Sam Ko conducts an interview with a passenger arriving from Sierra Leone at O?Hare International Airport's Terminal 5 in Chicago, in this handout picture taken October 16, 2014. Travelers entering the United States whose trips originated in Ebola-stricken Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea must fly into one of five airports that have enhanced screening in place, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday. Picture taken October 16, 2014. (REUTERS/U.S. Customs Border Protection/Melissa Maraj/Handout via Reuters) Christine Rolin passes her iphone over a scanner as she uses the new mobile app for expedited passport and customer screening being unveiled for international travelers arriving at Miami International Airport on March 4, 2015 in Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade Aviation Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unveiled a new mobile app for expedited passport and customs screening. The app for iOS and Android devices allows U.S. citizens and some Canadian citizens to enter and submit their passport and customs declaration information using their smartphone or tablet and to help avoid the long waits in the exit lanes. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) An 'air interdiction agent' prepares to fly a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Blackhawk helicopter to MetLife Stadium on January 28, 2014 in Long Island, New York. Helicopters piloted by agents from the CBP's Office of Air and Marine (OAM), are providing air support for Super Bowl XLVIII this Sunday. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official inspects avocados entering from Mexico at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, U.S., on Monday, March 12, 2012. Mexican exports, which account for about 30 percent of the country's gross domestic product, soared 17 percent last year to $350 billion. (Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg via Getty Images) A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official inspects trucks entering from Mexico at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, U.S., on Monday, March 12, 2012. Mexican exports, which account for about 30 percent of the country's gross domestic product, soared 17 percent last year to $350 billion. (Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg via Getty Images) International air travelers are electronically fingerprinted as they are processed by US Customs and Border Protection agents upon arrival to Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), on December 10, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. December is the busiest time of the year for international travel and the US CBS is trying to educate the public on ways to get through the customs process efficiently. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Two young girls watch a World Cup soccer match on a television from their holding area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona June 18, 2014. CBP provided media tours June 18 of two locations in Brownsville, Texas and Nogales that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (REUTERS/Ross D. Franklin/Pool) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE

The one-time 2016 Republican presidential hopeful pointed to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly's interview Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," a program on which Kasich was also a guest.

In that interview, Kelly described the "knock-and-talks" being carried out by ICE agents.

"The way we're doing our business is that the ICE officials will establish or will go after targeted individuals, develop target packages and then go after them," he said. "Now, if people who are here illegally fall into our hands incidental to those knock-and-talks — as an example, just the other day, I was talking to some ICE agents up in El Paso, and they said, typically, when they go into these homes or these places looking for the person that they targeted, there will oftentimes be five, six, seven other people."

"In the course, by the way they do their jobs, they then ask those people who they are, and if they can't produce some form of proof that they're here legally or that they're U.S. citizens, then they could be taken into custody," he continued. "So, as police officers, they simply can't turn a blind eye to the lawbreakers. In every case, we're targeting people who are here, A, illegally, and, B, have broken other laws."

Kasich expressed astonishment at Kelly's remarks.

"Knock-and-talk in America?" he asked. "So if we knock and we talk to them and we find out they're here illegally, they're criminals? They've got to go? We 'can't turn a blind eye?' Really? Knock-and-talk? Anyway. I don't like knock-and-talk. I'm against knock-and-talk. I will say that clearly."

Kasich was warmer to other aspects of the Trump administration's immigration policy, such as Trump's threats to cut federal funding for so-called "sanctuary cities." Kasich said he was against jurisdictions limiting their cooperation with federal immigration forces.

"I don't believe in the sanctuary cities," he said. "We have laws, you have to abide by the laws. Some people say, 'Well, people will go underground,' and all that. You can't just have people just looking the other way on everything. Now, I say knock-and-talk, you know, I'm not for knock-and-talk. But I'm also not for sanctuary cities."

Kasich's comments came as he listed what he viewed as several favorable aspects of the Trump administration's first 100 days, including the strike on a Syrian government air field and what Kasich described as "less Twitter" from the president.

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