Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera made an emotional plea Monday for political pundits to quit using charged rhetoric to talk about the migrant caravan of Central American asylum seekers because it was embarrassing.
“I am ashamed. The tear gas choked me. We treat these people, these economic refugees, as if they’re zombies from ‘The Walking Dead,'” Rivera said Monday during a panel segment on Fox News.
“We are a nation of immigrants. These are desperate people. They walked 2,000 miles. Why? Because they want to rape your daughter or steal your lunch? No! Because they want a job. They want to fill the millions of unfilled jobs we have in the agricultural sector. They want to wash dishes in the restaurants. They want to deliver the pizzas,” he continued. “For goodness sake, we suspend our humanity when it comes to this issue, and I fear that it is because they look different than the mainstream.”
wow — Geraldo Rivera’s commentary tonight on Fox about the treatment and depiction of migrants is pretty powerful. a must-watch for some against-the-grain perspective pic.twitter.com/yrwIfAg11J
— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) November 26, 2018
On Sunday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporarily closed the San Ysidro port of entry after hundreds of migrants rushed the southern border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, Calif. CBP said that multiple U.S. Border Patrol agents were hit by rocks, and in response CBP personnel were “required to deploy crowd dispersing devices, to include pepper ball launching systems, and CS canisters.” The border crossing re-opened later that day.
Rivera, an attorney and longtime broadcaster, has frequently criticized the Trump administration on its immigration policies, condemning in August 2017 President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and demanding the president apologize in January for reportedly describing Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries.”
