On Sunday night, weekend CNN Newsroom anchor Ana Cabrera signed off with a commentary dubbed "An Open Letter to the President" as she argued in favor of President Donald Trump making a deal that would continue something similar to current immigration policy.
But at one point, the CNN host inadvertently helped make a case in favor of more merit-based immigration that would likely increase immigration from European countries and East Asia as she credited "immigrants" generally with 33 of the last 85 Nobel Prizes won by the United States.
What she did not mention was that immigrants who won those 33 prizes were almost all either from European countries, former European colonies, Japan or Israel. Specifically, 19 were born in Europe, while there were two from Canada; two from South Africa; one each from Australia and New Zealand; four from Japan; two from Israel; and one each from China and Turkey.
In fact, scientists from these nations -- combined with the United States -- account for the overwhelming majority of Nobel Prize award recipients.
And there's no reason to believe that Trump's proposed immigration changes would hurt recruitment from any of these high-skilled nations.
Shortly before 9:00 p.m. ET, after recalling statistics about the economic contributions immigrants make to United States, Cabrera recalled her own Mexican ancestry and immigrant family members before moving to the issue of Nobel Prize winners born in other countries:
I know firsthand how immigrants are contributing to this country, making America great. Since 2000, 33 of the 85 Americans to win the Nobel Prize have been immigrants.
The CNN host concluded:
So, Mr. President, on Tuesday evening, please take the lead in striking a deal that continues America's great winning tradition when it comes to being a land open to all that are ready to work hard for a better life. Not for the immigrants, but in the interests of putting America's economy first and keeping America great.
