Less than a week after a chyron on Fox News’ Fox & Friends referred to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as “3 Mexican countries,” the network has found another way to disparage Central Americans. On the same show, the hosts analyzed Julián Castro’s immigration platform, which aims to decriminalize crossing the border without documentation, so Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade decided it was time to fear-monger.
“My question to you is what’s more important: social programs for Americans, public schools for Americans or illegals who come here and need English as a second language,” he said. “Need to be given public school. Need to be given tutoring help. Maybe need social programs to prop them up.”
Then, the network played a clip from Laura Ingraham’s show, which featured Casey Diaz, a former MS-13 gang member, saying that based on personal experience, he claims the Central American caravans will include “a lot of” gang members attempt to get into the country. (The US Customs and Border Patrol reported that in fiscal year 2018, gang members accounted for less than 0.3 percent of those entering the country by crossing the border.) Kilmeade then continued to speak out against undocumented students, who he said are spreading out across the country.
“They dump these illegals in areas, and President [Barack] Obama did it with those unaccompanied minors, in working-class areas without telling mayors or governors,” he said. “Next thing you know, you’re sitting there, and your kids come home from school, and there’s 10 extra kids in the school, and they don’t speak English.”
It’s an overall bad take meant to incite fear and nothing else. It doesn’t look at the reasons these immigrants are traveling to the United States (hint: the United States played a big role in it) and why we need to do better by them.