Univision's continued dependence on unchecked immigration evidently demands that any effort to control our borders be attacked and smeared - even at the expense of the truth. That is precisely what viewers saw on Univision's weekly public affairs program, Al Punto, as anchor Jorge Ramos made blatant material misrepresentations of the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act to Univision's audience.
Here is how Ramos opened the August 6 edition of the program, and with it the discussion of the RAISE Act:
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, AL PUNTO, UNIVISION: Let's get to the point. We begin today with three very important news items. One is the new immigration plan proposed by President Trump, that compels new immigrants to know English.
When Ramos goes on to take up the topic of immigration with Trump senior policy advisor Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, the first thing mentioned is the fact that the bill does not directly deal with those who are already in the country illegally. It is worth pointing out that Ramos says "from my point of view" when addressing the RAISE Act. The fact is that Ramos always reports and interviews from his point of view, but this is the first time I recall him saying so in such a direct manner. Díaz Rosillo responds by basically saying that legislative action on immigration will be done piecemeal, as opposed to one comprehensive bill that everyone will hate.
But then Ramos zeroes in, as he did in the program's opening, on the English-language testing portion of the RAISE Act, and proceeds to suggest, as did Azteca América in recent days, that the bill intends to keep brown people ("Latin Americans, Asians, Africans") out of the country and favor immigrants from England, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. Here Díaz Rosillo slams the door shut on Ramos by saying,
...this means that you think that we Latin Americans are not on par with Europeans - that we lack education and don't have the means with which to contribute to society like the Europeans, which is not true. We can have a Latin American, I believe we are an example of that, that can contribute to this country with a high level of education, and it is not a way to eliminate Latin American immigration but rather there will be many Latin American immigrants who have the training, who speak English, and have a college degree and will be able to contribute to this economy.
Ramos had no choice but to double down on his point after being shut down, as is his habit - and in so doing, came very close to affirming the soft bigotry that Díaz Rosillo - whose patience and skill is to be commended here - denounced just seconds earlier.
Left with nothing after Díaz Rosillo throughly demolished his misinformation on the RAISE Act, Ramos proceeded to go to his "anti-immigrant" card, and his well-worn evocation of his 2015 beef with Donald Trump.
Here is Ramos' response to Díaz-Rosillo's statement that President Donald Trump can't possibly be an anti-immigrant when both the mother of his three eldest children and his current wife, First Lady Melania Trump, are both immigrants.
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, AL PUNTO, UNIVISION: You say the President cannot be anti-immigrant, but nevertheless he strongly criticized Mexican immigrants as being criminals, rapists and drug traffickers, something that is absolutely false. That is being anti-immigrant.
CARLOS DIAZ ROSILLO, ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: But later when, when he said that he later said 'and others are good people' that contribute. They usually don't include that part.
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, AL PUNTO, UNIVISION: But it's not others, it's the great majority that aren't like that.
CARLOS DIAZ ROSILLO, ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I agree.The great majority are not criminals, but there are many that are, and we want to focus on removing that group of illegal immigrants that are criminals.
Jorge Ramos had no response for Díaz Rosillo this time, moving immediately to a discussion of Venezuela's descent into dictatorship.
What we learned both from this segment and the Azteca segment spotlighted earlier is that our national Spanish-language media has collectively decided to cover the RAISE Act as an existential threat; in fact, the RAISE Act's inclusion of testing prospective immigrants' English-language skills has been covered as if it were a North Korean nuclear missile.
For far too long, our Spanish-language media depended on unmitigated immigration as the fuel for its TV businesses. As we see, they will defend their business even at the expense of the truth.
