It is no surprise that MSNBC has continued its relentless campaign of praising the Biden administration for anything and everything, even if it’s cringeworthy and unclear like Vice President Kamala Harris’s focus on immigration. On Monday’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid and former Harris aide, Sergio Gonzales discussed Harris’s trip to Guatemala. Ignoring the hiccups and lack of attention to the U.S./Mexico border, Gonzales praised the administration’s commitment to addressing immigration issues simply through the lens of race and gender.
Reid began this segment by asking Gonzales for his opinion on the history of foreign policy in the Northern Triangle Countries. He recognized the ongoing issues in these nations and immediately praised Harris’s efforts, even though it wasn’t for her actual policies:
The fact that Kamala Harris is visiting there as the first woman, female vice president, the first woman of color, to visit that region, herself a child of immigrants, that speaks volumes as well to the people of those countries.
Reid also emphasized the importance of having a mom of color (a stepmother of two, specifically) leading this effort as if these characteristics would somehow lead to better foreign policy and a better understanding of Guatemalan citizens.
She asked Gonzales about whether Americans have the right to judge the decisions made by Guatemalan mothers who send their children to the United States because of fear for their safety and past U.S. foreign policy decisions (with the latter of which being cited as the main cause of the corruption and economic ruin in the region).
He replied: “Absolutely not, and I think the problem that we’ve had with our foreign policy with regards to migration in the southern border is that we considered it a crisis at the southern border when it’s not a crisis at the southern border. It’s a crisis in Central America.”
What about the recent surge of illegal immigrants including sex offenders? Is that not a crisis and threat to both American citizens and vulnerable immigrant children? Neither Reid nor Gonzales addressed these questions whose answers would make the Biden administration look bad. Instead, they focused on praising Harris for visiting Guatemala as a woman of color because for the liberal media diversity and inclusion seem to take precedence over actual policy.
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Below is a transcript of the segment, click "expand" to read:
The ReidOut
06/07/2021
7:44 p.m. EasternJOY REID: And joining me now is Sergio Gonzales, executive director of the Immigration Hub and former senior policy adviser to Senator Kamala Harris. And I want to jump back to what I was talking about earlier, because, you know, whenever we talk about this region, I can’t help, but then go into a deep dive on the history of this sort of this Kissingerian foreign policy that got them where they are. I feel like there are a lot of chickens coming home to roost in the Northern Triangle countries. Is that fair to say in your view? Ooop, you’re muted. You’re muted. I think you’re ---alright--- hold on a second. Unmute.
SERGIO GONZALES: A year into COVID and still don’t know how to work it. Thank you for having me back, but I think that is fair to say. I mean, these challenges in Central America are long, intractable problems, right? And we heard it a long time ago, and I think the fact that this administration has committed itself from the beginning to addressing these issues is really important because these solutions are not going happen overnight. I also think that you’re right and --- and Senator Murphy was right. What we do in this country is watched very closely by our regional partners and allies and that’s especially true for our --- for the Southern Hemisphere, and I also want to say, on that note the fact that Kamala Harris, and I don’t think it has been covered very much, or been covered by the pundits very much. The fact that Kamala Harris is visiting there as the first woman, female vice president, the first woman of color, to visit that region, herself a child of immigrants, that speaks volumes as well to the people of those countries.
REID: It does, but at the same time, as you said, they can see and they can get on the internet. They can see on TV, what we are dealing with in this country is that we have oligarchs that are attempting to take control of our country just like oligarchs like the United Fruit Company took their country basically hostage and turned it into a giant plantation, right, and then they had a civil war. All of these outgrowths of autocracy, they’re still dealing with them and so no wonder they have a lot of corruption, no wonder they have a lot of poverty and climate degradation and so they’re doing the only thing they can think of, a lot of these moms and dads and saying get my kid out of here, right? Are we in a moral position to judge what is the decisions that are being made by a Guatemalan mom when we helped create the mess her kids are stuck in?
GONZALES: Absolutely not, and I think the problem that we’ve had with our foreign policy with regards to migration in the southern border is that we considered it a crisis at the southern border when it’s not a crisis at the southern border. It’s a crisis in Central America, but I actually believe -- and I give a lot of people and the American people a lot more credit with empathizing with the situation in which a mother chooses to separate from her child, self-separate and send her child hundreds of miles north because she fears that her child will go hungry and or is going to be killed by a cartel or she’s going actually have to send her child away with the hopes that her child will have a better life in the United States.
REID: You’re right. And I think it is, as you said, the symbolism of having a mom -- a mom of color up there talking, you know, about these situations. I think it is important. What general impact do you think that Kamala Harris has had, thus far, as vice president both symbolically and practically?
GONZALES: I think that there’s been a lot of progress made in just a few months. This announcement was made back in April. So, we’re not talking about a lot of time. But already, I think there’s been a really multi- faceted approach which recognizes the complexity of the issue. And she’s announced partnerships with businesses and philanthropies and that’s extremely important because you have to start building economic opportunity, allow people to believe that there’s going to be the opportunity to have a job, the opportunity to make a living in order to pay for food because industries like agrarian --- agrarian industry have been wiped out in Central America.
REID: Yeah.
GONZALES: because of two hurricanes.
REID: Yeah.
GONZALES: I also think she’s --- that the administration has done a lot to expand legal pathways for immigration, which is really important, so people can legally come to the United States.
REID: Yeah, absolutely. I think we should also note that Harris announced that the U.S. is going to be providing 500,000 coronavirus vaccines to Guatemala and that is hugely important and a very good thing. Sergio Gonzales, thank you very much. We really appreciate your time.
