Last week, CBS This Morning journalists warned not to politicize the story of a drunk illegal alien who killed Indianapolis Colts player Edwin Jackson. That instruction apparently no longer applies as the network on Monday focused on an illegal hiding in a Phoenix church, trying to stay with his pregnant wife and five-year-old son who has cancer. Cancer? Church? Pregnant wife? Talk about story selection.
Reporter Manuel Bojorquez explained, “[Jesus] Berrones is his family's sole breadwinner, and the U.S. is the only country he's ever known. his parents brought him here as a toddler in 1989. Now 30 Berrones doesn't meet the requirements for a so-called DREAMer.”
Bojorquez breezily noted that Berrones was “once caught driving without a license. He's been deported twice, in 2006 and 2010. Each time he came back illegally.” Talking to the reverend of Shadow Rock United Church of Christ, the reporter managed: “Some say you are harboring a criminal.”
What, simply because the man in question has been deported twice and committed an additional crime within the country? Bojorquez continued:
BOJORQUEZ: Sonia Berrones, five months pregnant, now worries about finding a job to make ends meet. Have you thought about what it would be like to have to say good-bye to him?
SONIA BERRONES: It would be hard.
On February 6, This Morning journalist David Begnaud highlighted the Colts player struck by an illegal and warned against “politicizing” this crime.
To read the full February 12 transcript, click “expand” below:
CBS This Morning
2/12/18
7:14:07 to 7:16:43NORAH O’DONNELL: A father facing deportation is taking refuge this morning inside a Phoenix church. Jesus Berrones been ordered to surrender to immigration officials today. His five-year-old son is battling leukemia and his wife is five months pregnant. Manuel Bojorquez is at the Phoenix church that has opened its doors to Berrones. Manuel, good morning.
MANUEL BOJORQUEZ: Good morning. It's not the first time this church has housed an undocumented immigrant. Six other people have reportedly sought shelter here since 2014. Jesus Berrones is the latest. He's asking ICE not to deport him for a third time.
JESUS BERRONES: I will fight to stay here.
BOJORQUEZ: Jesus Berrones’s son Jayden is so scared his father will get deported, he refuses to leave his side at the Shadow Rock United Church of Christ. The five-year-old's leukemia treatments are too toxic for his mother to handle.
JESUS BERRONES: My wife cannot give him the pills because she's pregnant.
BOJORQUEZ: Berrones is his family's sole breadwinner, and the U.S. is the only country he's ever known. his parents brought him here as a toddler in 1989. Now 30 Berrones doesn't meet the requirements for a so-called dreamer. To even apply for a green card, he would have to leave the U.S. For ten years.
JESUS BERRONES: I don't have a DUI. I haven't killed nobody.
BOJORQUEZ: There has to be a price to pay, right?
BERRONES: Yes.
BOJORQUEZ: What would you say with someone who doesn't agree with you staying?
BERRONES: They don't like our people, like Mexicans.
BOJORQUEZ: He said he was once caught driving without a license. He's been deported twice, in 2006 and 2010. Each time he came back illegally, even making the dangerous crossing through the Arizona desert to be with his wife and five children who are all U.S. citizens.
SONIA BERRONES: His kids need him. I need him
BOJORQUEZ: Sonia Berrones, five months pregnant, now worries about finding a job to make ends meet. Have you thought about what it would be like to have to say good-bye to him?
SONIA BERRONES: It would be hard.
BOJORQUEZ: On Thursday Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied his latest attempt to stay. It's still under review. Reverend Ken Heintzelman opened his church doors to him on Friday. Some say you're harboring a criminal.
KEN HEINTZELEMAN: He shouldn't be prosecuted. He should be lifted up, used as an example of what it means to be a father.
BOJORQUEZ: ICE declined to comment to CBS This Morning for this story. ICE agents could legally enter the church with a warrant to seize Berrones, but the agency typically stays away from houses of worship, because it considers them "sensitive" places. John?
