Tucker Carlson locked horns with Enrique Acevedo over the issue of the migrant caravan, making the Univision host regret his remarks about violence in Mexico.
The Fox News host battled the Univision anchor Tuesday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” over media coverage of the caravan and challenged his argument that the migrants are unable to seek asylum in Mexico due to violence in that country.
“The facts on the ground are undeniable. Can we stop lying and admit what is obviously true?” Carlson asked Acevedo, accusing the media of “lying in-concert” about the group which is made up of a lot of adult men, not just the women and children seeking asylum that the media portrays.
“The caravan is not a monolithic group, Tucker. It’s 8,000 different stories, 8,000 different realities. And according to the government’s own numbers, less than ten percent, without any evidence, but according to those numbers, less than ten percent have any criminal background,” Acevedo countered.
“You are talking about a group of 600, among more than 8,000 people, so 90 percent of them, the majority of them have a legitimate claim to a request asylum, that is according to secretary of DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen,” he added, prompting a rebuttal from Carlson.
“For one thing, I would say if 600 out of 8,000 are ‘known criminals,’ that is a higher percentage than a cross-section of the American population. We are getting way more criminals per capita than we have already in this country,” Carlson said, as the two launched into a heated debate.
“Just because you don’t have a criminal record does not mean you are eligible for asylum,” the Fox News host noted, arguing that true asylum-seekers “ask for it in the first safe country you reach, where you don’t face a mortal threat, and that was Mexico, where they were offered asylum, but they didn’t take it.”
Acevedo’s attempt to counter Carlson’s argument backfired, however.
“Keyword being safe, not a country where thousands of people are being killed every year actually. More than, you know, 500,000 people have been killed in Mexico in the last decade or so. So it’s not a safe country. I wouldn’t characterize Mexico as that,” he said.
“Oh, so that leads to my second question. I knew you were going to say that,” Carlson exclaimed.
“Let me ask you the logical follow-up, which is, if Mexico is so dangerous, that you could not seek asylum there because you are in peril just by being in Mexico, then why isn’t the entire population of Mexico eligible for asylum in the United States?” he asked.
“This is the thing, Tucker. You see the immigrants, these Central American immigrants going across Mexico, they are victims of extortion, rape, they are victims of murder, and sometimes they are recruited by these criminal gangs. That is why, in part, they are now moving across Mexico in a large group because they know they have security, —” Acevedo argued before being interrupted.
“So let me pin you down here, you’ve said they can’t accept the offer of shelter, Mexico said, ‘we will shelter you, we’ll give you asylum,’ they offered that, good for Mexico,” Carlson said, as Acevedo continued to try to speak over him.
“I just want you to answer one question: Why is the entire population of Mexico, since you said it’s too dangerous to live in, why are they not all eligible for asylum in the United States?” he asked.
The Univision anchor admitted it was a “complicated question” as he went on to repeat what a dangerous country Mexico is and dodge Carlson’s question about how many Mexicans would be eligible for asylum.
“When you abuse our generosity [in America] we become less generous,” Carlson concluded.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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