Between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, as a number of MSNBC shows pounced on an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security finding that the agency was not prepared for the extra load when it began implementing the "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal border crossings, there were several MSNBC personalities who declared that the Trump administration "forced" some immigrants to cross into the U.S. illegally by making asylum seekers wait in line outside legal ports of entry.
On Monday afternoon, as correspondent Pete Williams appeared on Velshi and Ruhle, he was the first to claim that DHS "forced" immigrants to cross illegally because more immigrants showed up at ports than there was space to accommodate them immediately.
No one bothered to point out that, if many immigrants traveled thousands of miles from Central America through Mexico to reach the U.S., it is hardly unreasonable to wait in line a few days rather than illegally walk across a desert.
Tuesday night, All In host Chris Hayes asserted that immigrants were "forced" to enter illegally, and, on Wednesday morning, correspondent Julia Ainsley twice stated that they were "forced" as she appeared on MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle and again on MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin.
On Morning Joe, correspondent Jacob Soboroff appeared as a guest and blamed DHS for causing some immigrants to enter illegally, although he did not use the more over the top claim of them being "forced" to do so.
Additionally, the MSNBC reporting failed to put into perspective that, even during the Obama administration, the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers from Central American countries were not deemed to have valid claims and were rejected.
