Dust-up on ‘Fox & Friends’ over ICE sweep, ‘appalled’ Geraldo takes the brunt of it

The apprehension Thursday of hundreds of illegal aliens in Mississippi provoked outrage Friday morning from Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera, a liberal commentator of part Puerto Rican descent who has an extensive history of siding with illegal aliens over the American people.

“I am absolutely appalled by this sweep in Mississippi over the last couple of days in which almost 700 undocumented workers in the poultry processing plants in Mississippi have been arrested,” he bellowed Friday morning on FNC’s “Fox & Friends.”

“Some of them here for decades, almost all of them with citizen children. What in the world is the point of rounding up 700 hard-working, otherwise law-abiding people working in the crappiest job in America, that American citizens just refuse to? I don’t understand it.”

Listen to the full discussion below:


Source: Fox News

“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade replied by pointing out that the raid by ICE authorities was meant as a message to disincentivize other illegal aliens and those who harbor and/or hire them.

So the message is it’s not okay to hire, it’s not OK to come, it’s not OK to stay if you’re going to circumvent the system,” he argued.

His point was based on one, the fact that illegal immigration is a violation of federal law, and two, the belief that tolerating illegal immigration will only lead to even more illegal immigration.

I feel for these people — I truly do — but let me tell you a story to try to explain why we must make an example out…

Posted by Conservative News Feed on Thursday, August 8, 2019

But the point escaped Rivera for some inexplicable reason.

“I think it’s a perfect way for ICE to have the worst reputation of any law enforcement agency in the country,” he said. “If you take these highly trained agents, and you have them apprehending a guy who’s worked there for 15 years, and the American TV viewer — and we saw it last night — see his 11-year-old daughter sobbing, ‘Where’s my daddy? I don’t have any daddy to take care of me.'”

Before he could continue, co-host Pete Hegseth cut him off to reiterate Kilmeade’s point.

“Geraldo, you’re appealing to emotions,” he said. “We have a rule of law in this country. And ultimately, to get past your talking points, all you have to do look at the details. Three of these companies were knowingly and fraudulently using false Social Security numbers and identities of employees, which is breaking the law. When you don’t enfore the rule of law, then it’s open season.”

But Rivera still wasn’t convinced.

“Listen, I absolutely appreciate your sincerity, Pete. I believe that you absolutely, with your heart of hearts, believe everything you just said,” he replied, acting as if Hegseth hadn’t just spoken a hash of irrefutable facts.

“But here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Why arrest 700 hardworking shlubs who’ve been there forever? You want to affect the policy, arrest the boss! Arrest the guy who runs the plant.”

But according to Kilmeade, “They’re in trouble too.”

“They’ve all been charged,” he claimed.

Fact-check: Unverified.

During a press conference Thursday, ICE officials said only that they were investigating the employers.

“If we find that you have violated federal criminal law, we are coming after you,” U.S. Attorney Michael Hurst, the lead prosecutor of the operation, said.

https://youtu.be/0Hdgwx60Tr0

Geraldo noted this on “Fox & Friends.”

“I didn’t hear one, one arrest of one boss in this whole thing,” he said. “All these low level …”

“I talked to the U.S. attorney last night on ‘Tucker,'” Kilmeade said, cutting Rivera off. “They’re all in trouble. They’ve all been charged. So they’ve been rounded up.”

Fact-check: FALSE.

During Hurst’s appearance on FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday evening, he didn’t state that the employers had been charged but instead reiterated what he’d said earlier.

“The investigation continues, but I can tell you I was an assistant United States attorney in this office, and this district prosecutes employers and owners who do this, so we’ve prosecuted individuals from Howard Industries to Sticks Restaurants … So I think you’d expect that if we find there’s a violation of federal criminal law, we’re going to prosecute,” he said.

When pressed by Kilmeade, who was filling in for host Tucker Carlson, about whether there’s any veracity to reports that the employers were aware that their employees had been illegals, Hurst said he didn’t “want to get into the details of the investigation because it’s ongoing.”

Listen:

This isn’t meant to discount Kilmeade’s overall point but rather to just be accurate and note that his particular claim about the employers being charged was incorrect.

As for his key point, it appeared to be simply that illegal immigration must be disincentivized for it to be stopped, especially in the face of actions by congressional Democrats.

“Responding to rewards that incentivize illegal immigration, migrants have flowed into the United States at record rates. In each of the last three months, more than 100,000 migrants have been detained for illegally crossing our borders,” former Congressman Jason Chaffetz noted in an op-ed two months ago.

“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told senators this week that many are renting babies to cross the border. Of the 144,000 apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) during the month of May, 11,507 were unaccompanied minors. And these were just the ones that were caught.”

And this endless illegal immigration — all of it incentivized by the freebies Democrats keep offering illegals, including free healthcare — will continue unstopped until America takes a stand.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles