After Monday’s Supreme Court ruling vacating a lower court ruling that had allowed Texas to place razor wire along the U.S.-Mexico border without inference from the Biden Border Patrol, the flagship morning and evening newscasts on ABC and NBC had moved on from the border showdown, even as tensions rose with Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) remaining resolute in having Texas Department of Public Safety and National Guard defend the porous border.
The CBS Evening News and CBS Mornings, however, have stayed on the case and the border issue writ large, with a combined four minutes and 38 seconds between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Starting with the former, anchor Norah O’Donnell actually had two short segments and a news brief. O’Donnell began with the razor wire showdown:
Now to the standoff between the federal government and the state of Texas at the southern border. The Biden administration is demanding that Texas allow Border Patrol agents full access to a crossing point in the border town of Eagle Pass and is currently being blocked by the Texas National Guard.
CBS correspondent Omar Villafranca then appeared from Shelby Park in Eagle Pass alongside lines of razor wire propped up by spikes lining the border, noting the area “didn’t always look like this” until Texas installed it and had put “armed Texas National Guard on standby.”
This, the Biden regime had argued, meant “[f]ederal Border Patrol agents can’t even get full access to the park, which they say is a problem if they’re trying to reach migrants in distress” and, despite the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, “CBS cameras...caught Texas National Guardsmen laying out more wire” this week.
“Texas officials say they will hold the line. Federal officials say Texas should allow them full access to this park by Friday,” he concluded.
O’Donnell then went to the other short report on how Boston has resorted to sheltering illegal immigrants inside its Logan International Airport. Not surprisingly, this hasn’t received any attention on the major network newscasts (click “expand”):
O’DONNELL: The repercussions of what’s happening at the border are being felt across the country, as Texas continues to bus migrants to major cities in the north, many of which are now completely out of space to house them. Our CBS Boston station captured this video, dozens of migrant families now allowed into the terminal at Logan Airport overnight because there is no room left at shelters. And, in Chicago, people are sleeping in buses while they wait for a place to stay. A big part of the problem is the ever-growing backlog of asylum cases. Right now, more than three million migrants are waiting for their cases to be heard in immigration court. Just last year, the backlog of cases was at two million. CBS’s Manuel Bojorquez is in Miami, which has the largest backlog in the country.
MANUEL BOJORQUEZ: Well, Norah, this is Miami’s immigration court. And you can tell by the markers on the ground this is where people are told to line up. And on most days, you will find a line of dozens of people trying to get inside to see a judge and learn more about their fate. About 275,000 cases of migrants placed in removal proceedings are pending in the Miami immigration court. That is the largest docket in the country. The average caseload nationally is now 4,500 per judge and, Norah, just for context, the amount of cases pending before just the Miami court now is roughly the same as there was nationwide a decade ago, Norah.
O’DONNELL: Good context. Manny, thank you.
O’Donnell then finished with a news brief on bipartisan Senate negotiations on a border deal in exchange for aid for Ukraine.
Fast-forward to CBS Mornings and fill-in co-host Dana Jacobson falsely claimed that, at “the southern border,” Abbott has “refuse[d] to give in to federal law” and stop getting in the way of Border Patrol agents.
As Villafranca would share moments later, the Supreme Court’s decision wasn’t the end of the line in this border dispute and “[b]oth parties will be in court next month.”
Villafranca surfaced live and restated most of his report from Wednesday night, which largely painted the White House-preferred line that Texas was prohibiting the Biden Border Patrol — and not the other way around — from securing the border (click “expand”):
We are here at Shelby Park right on the Rio Grande and the park is surrounded by this razor wire as far as the eye can see. Also within my line of sight, Texas National Guard armed and on standby. Now the feds say the state put up miles of the razor wire by the river, which can prevent them from getting to migrants in distress. Now, earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents could cut and remove that wire, but after the ruling, our cameras saw Texas Guardsmen uncoiling and preparing more wire to lay out.
Another issue is park access. Border Patrol says it doesn’t have full access to the park where many migrants illegally cross. State Troopers and Texas Guardsmen have it closed to federal agents. Now the Border Patrol says it needs full access to do its job. The Biden administration has ordered the state to allow Border Patrol agents into this area by Friday, but Governor Greg Abbott, he is in fact firing back at the Biden administration is saying the Biden administration is not enforcing immigration laws that are already on the books, and he says if the federal government won’t do it, Texas will secure its border. Of course, this is far from over. Both parties will be in court next month[.]
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King had a hilariously misinformed response, telling Villafranca this wasn’t just “far from over,” but it’s “very complicated.”
It is not, in fact, complicated. Three words: Secure the border. And three more: Stop the flow.
How about we start there?
To see the relevant CBS transcripts, click here (for January 24’s CBS Evening News) and here (for January 25’s CBS Mornings).
