On Wednesday's Cuomo Prime Time on CNN, host Chris Cuomo ended the show with a commentary in which he complained that "there's a lot of bad info about immigration out there," but then he injected his own misinformation by wrongly claiming that "undocumented folks commit less crime than the rest of us."
And the the next morning on New Day, he finally acknowledged the child abuse accusations against a Polish-born doctor that CNN has been preoccupied with who is in danger of deportation. The liberal news network had initially made it sound like his possible deportation was entirely about a couple of non-violent misdemeanors from 1992, as if ICE agents were being unreasonably heavy-handed in targeting him.
At the end of Wednesday night's show, Cuomo began the regular "The Final Fact" segment:
All right, "Final Fact." There's a lot of bad info about immigration out there. The crimes they commit are grossly exaggerated -- undocumented folks commit less crime than the rest of us.
In fact, a recent study found that illegal immigrants in Arizona commit crimes at twice the rate of the general population.
After asserting that "Dreamers" benefit the economy, he then took aim at President Donald Trump's complaints about chain migration:
And then there's chain migration. "A single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives," the President said. That's wrong. Legal immigrants cannot sponsor distant relatives. Cousins, for example, are out of luck.
But the left-leaning Politfact analysis of Trump's statement tacitly admitted that one immigrant -- after becoming a U.S. citizen -- can sponsor parents, siblings and children who themselves -- after becoming citiizens -- can continue the chain even further, meaning that Trump's statement is accurate, although the process takes time.
Cuomo concluded his commentary: "There's a five million-person backlog right now of just near family -- spouses, kids -- because of the vetting. The question: Why lie to paint an ugly portrait of immigrants?"
The next morning, New Day revisited the story of a Polish-born non-citizen, Dr. Lakiscz Niec, who was detained by ICE because of his many recent interactions with law enforcement -- which have included child abuse accusations from last year, as well as about 18 traffic violations from previous years, including a DUI from 2008. He was also put on trial but found not guilty of domestic violence in 2013.
In its original report on January 23, New Day made it sound like Dr. Niec's possible deportation was entirely about two nonviolent misdemeanors from 1992 when he was 17, with the hosts fretting that ICE was being too aggressive.
The next day, the show reported some of his other legal problems, although they were dismissed as "mostly minor traffic violations." And the child abuse accusation from last year was still omitted even though it was one of the key reasons ICE opened a case against him.
On Saturday, CNN Newsroom recycled the story and re-buried most of his criminal history that other CNN shows had reported to again portray him as being targeted over his legal problems from 1992.
Thursday this week was the first time that CNN on television has acknowledged the child abuse accusations which were mentioned three briefs on CNN's Early Start before Cuomo read a brief on New Day. At 6:33 a.m. ET, Cuomo informed viewers that Dr. Niec would be released on a $10,000 bond, and then recalled some of the reasons why he was detained in the first place:
Dr. Niec came under scrutiny because of 18 encounters with police in the past. Now, most of them were traffic violations. There was a child abuse claim against him -- it was investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. His family has launched a legal fight to keep him in the United States.
